There are two different factors to getting down to — and maintaining — your ideal weight.
One of those factors is physical (what we eat, how often we eat, whether or how much we exercise, and even whether we’re getting enough sleep).
The other factor is mental and emotional. And, ranging from willpower to your stress level, and self-image, these have an enormous influence on how you feel and the actions you take — including what you eat, and whether or not you can say no to cravings.
Lifestyle Factors in losing weight
Before we look at how hypnosis can help you lose weight, let’s take a look at the physical aspect and, especially, at a couple of practical things you can do today to improve your chance of getting the body you want.
If you’ve tried different diets, lost weight, and then put it back on again when you went off these diets, don’t despair. And don’t feel stressed. Many diets are designed to help you lose weight in the short term, and they might not be right long-term, especially if the diet is really boring, feels restrictive, lacks nutrition, or if it leaves you feeling hungry all the time.
Many diets often require eating a lot of prepackaged “healthy” food. And even higher-quality packaged foods can contain cheap fillers (soy, lactose, or sunflower oil instead of extra virgin olive oil, for example) that might work against your goals.
Worse, packaged food is often questionably advertised. A packet of cookies might be labeled on the front as “sugar-free” but — while it might not contain cane sugar — it might have another type of sugar in it that’s going to throw you off your weight loss goals.
But there are other factors that can affect your weight and sabotage your weight-loss regime. These include snacking, stress (especially long-term stress), and insufficient sleep.
Long-term stress causes the body’s cortisol and insulin levels to rise. According to WebMD, this causes us to crave sugary treats or snacks. You’ve probably experienced cravings for sugary foods and sugary coffee. Or you might have found yourself getting up and going to the fridge several times in the evening, looking for something to snack on. And, if you have, you’ll know that the reason was most likely stress, agitation, or boredom, not hunger.
Surprisingly, not getting enough sleep (at least 7.5 hours a night) is associated with weight gain. So, to lose weight, it’s important to address stress and sleep issues. This is a perfect area for hypnosis, which will help you let go of your stress and will help you to actually experience a state of deep relaxation. That’s good for you and good for weight loss.
Hypnosis Studies: Lose More Weight & Keep It Off
Different studies have shown that hypnosis helps weight loss. One study of a hundred people on a behavioral weight-management program, published in the Journal of Consulting And Clinical Psychology, showed that those who experienced hypnosis were more likely to achieve and maintain “their personal weight goals.” And while those only on the behavioral program and those on the behavioral program and experiencing hypnosis both lost weight, as noted in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, “at the 8-month and 2-year follow-ups, the hypnosis clients showed significant additional weight loss.”
Hypnosis: A Lifestyle Approach To Weight-Loss
As we’ve seen, there are different factors to successful weight loss and to maintaining your ideal weight. In your hypnosis session, we will address the various factors that have negatively impacted your weight.
Here are some of the things we can work on to give you the advantage you need to hit your weight loss goals:
Stress, Sleep, and Other Lifestyle Factors.
We’ll explore what lifestyle factors could be preventing or slowing down your weight loss. Then we’ll look at what practical steps you can take to improve the quality of your life and facilitate your weight-loss goals. We will also work on these while you are in hypnosis.
Willpower: Of course, we need a certain mental power to resist sugary temptations, snacks, and junk food meals that are easy and quick to prepare but that might be bad for our body, and that will probably leave us feeling hungry an hour or so later.
Hypnosis works to increase your willpower, enabling you to resist temptations and stick to a healthier diet.
Self-image. Perhaps, having given up on different diets, you’ve convinced yourself that you can’t lose weight. Perhaps you blame yourself or are upset because you can’t fit into your old jeans right now. Or, perhaps, your parents told you never to waste food, and now you feel guilty leaving anything on your plate.
You’re not to blame. You can lose weight. Through hypnosis, we’ll bring your self-image back into line with your goals, your passion, and your image of your healthy, ideal self. Aligning your self-image to your goals makes achieving them much easier.
Confidence. Through hypnosis, you’ll gain the confidence that you can — and will — reach your weight loss goals, giving you the mental advantage to move forward.
Plus, I’ll teach you some simple self-hypnosis techniques that you can use every day to boost the results of the session, keeping you on track to your ideal weight.
What To Expect In Your Session
Sessions are approximately 90 minutes, and conducted virtually on Saturdays and Sundays for your convenience.
In your session, we’ll spend time discussing your weight-loss goal and we’ll look at any challenges to achieving your ideal weight that you’ve faced or are currently facing (whether these are lifestyle, emotional, stress-related, etc.).
Together, we’ll get clear about what simple, practical steps you can take towards losing weight — and keeping it off.
Then, when you’re ready, I will guide you into a state of hypnosis. (Most people find this deeply relaxing and actually enjoyable.) During hypnosis, I will use specific guided visualizations and suggestions to help you overcome the obstacles that have held you back and to set you on your path to weight-loss success.
Results may vary from person to person.