Shed Negative Emotions To Shed Weight

Written by: Debbie

A woman recently came to see me for her weight. She told me right up front that she is very active (plays an active sport daily) and eats healthy during the day. It is at night time that she has a problem. She believed that she just needed to be more disciplined after dinner and she would be fine. It was just that those snacks were her reward.

So, she wanted me to help her become stricter with herself. I asked her if she was to become stricter, what else would be different about her. She said she would be more at peace, love herself more and feel more accepted by others. This led me to asking her who doesn’t accept her. Tears flowed as she told me how she never felt loved by one of her parents.

We worked on that inner child who needed love.

After the session, she told me she had considered cancelling, that she thought she just needed to try harder. Now she was so grateful she had come, she realized her approach had been a repeat of the harsh way that parent had treated her.

Another client had been successful with me in the past. She changed jobs and schedules. The scale began to creep back up and she was concerned. She called me to say this job was causing her to gain weight and she needed a refresher. Although she liked her new job, she resented the change in schedule. She also had a new room mate who she felt could be intrusive. Topped off with the loss of a beloved pet, she had returned to food for comfort. Therefore, we worked on ways to feel the same comfort without the food. In trance she realized that writing letters to God would help her. So the letters began and she is now happily watching the scale go back down.

A gentleman I worked with had watched the scale creep up and up, until he was at a dangerous level. He had grown up in farm country, so he loved beef, vegetables and fresh bread. Changing those habits should be easy enough, except he was hiding some secrets. He grew up very poor. There wasn’t always enough food for him and his sister. As the older brother, he would give the food to her. Now that he could supply his own food, he felt the need to insure there was always enough. Furthermore he had been abused as a young boy. If he didn’t do what was asked of him, there was no food allowed. This extra weight, according to his subconscious mind would keep him safe from abusers. By reassuring that inner child, empowering his adult self and learning to feel safe, he began his journey to a healthy weight.

These are just a few examples of how we create unhealthy habits for good reasons. All three of these individual knew how to eat healthy, what they needed to learn was how to shed the negative emotions in order to shed weight.

Spring Into Weight Loss

Written by: Debbie

weight loss move If you are like many people I encounter, your intentions for making a change in your weight since the first of the year have fallen by the wayside. We start out with New Year’s Resolutions and great intentions. Then life gets messy (or busy) and we slip back into old habits. The days slipped by and now it is spring and you are still carrying that excess weight around. Before you know it, summer will be her
e and that means wearing less layers of clothing, but what about the layers of excess fat?

Not only is fat uncomfortable to lug around, it is hard on your body. Everyone knows that excessive weight aggravates, and even causes, many unhealthy medical conditions. The list includes bone and joint disorders, cardiovascular disease, pulmonary problems, cancer, dementia and diabetes. Being fat is being inflamed.

Spring has sprung and it is a time of new beginnings. Babies in the animal kingdom are arriving every day. Flowers are blooming and we think of spring as a time of renewal. So, why not renew your commitment to your body? The days are longer and you want to have more energy to enjoy them, right?

The first thing you want to consider is spring cleaning your pantry. I recently had a client tell me that she would do well all day long and then at the end of the day, the cookies would call to her from her kitchen. She lives alone, so the cookies needed to go, along with the “emergency candies”, breakfast pastries and several other items that were keeping her from achieving her medically needed weight loss. It is time to fill your kitchen with colorful fresh foods.

Just like those lovely May flowers that need April showers, we need lots and lots of hydration. I encourage my clients to cut lemons or cucumbers or strawberries, whatever flavor they enjoy up and put it into a pitcher of water, infused water at the ready all day long. Drinking water and lots of it is important in any weight loss program. I can’t emphasize enough the value of drinking water when working on weight loss, in fact here is another article I wrote about the connection between water and weight.

Now that the sun is up early and longer, it is a great time to get out and move your body. I have two dogs who keep me moving. We walk often, we walk briskly and we cover distance. It is good for all of us. If walking isn’t your thing, find something that is. Weight lifting, yoga, bike riding, whatever you do, just move!

If you need help getting motivated, try hypnosis for weight loss. With the woman who had to clean out her kitchen, we did a session of visualizing the produce department at her favorite food store. She later reported that she found herself craving veggies and fruits. With clients who need to move more, we may find ourselves lost in their favorite sport or activity. Want to increase your water consumption? We may link water to a color or other visual that reminds you it is time to hydrate. The sessions are geared to your needs, the results are powerful.

If you want some quick easy tips on how to get started, I found this article to be interesting and I love their website!

How To Lose Weight Fast: 5 Evidence Based Steps Anyone Can Follow

Hypnosis Helps Create A Desire For Healthy Foods

Written by: Debbie

So you want to improve your eating, start making better choices in the foods you eat. Still you crave junk food and fast food. Well, guess what? Your brain is hardwired against you!

When you eat fatty or sugary foods the pleasure center in your brain lights up. Just the mention of the word crispy lights up the same area of the brain, so actually eating crispy chips is addictive.

This causes you to desire more of the same, lessening your willpower. It started as a way of keeping us alive. Early man needed fatty fuels to burn and crisp meant fresh. Our food storage and preparation has changed and the brain hasn’t yet caught up.

However, there is hope. The answer lies within. You have everything you need to succeed. It isn’t the latest diet or appetite suppressant. It is finding balance and learning to listen to your body’s signals. Hypnosis can help you create a desire for healthy foods.

The subconscious mind wants to keep you safe and healthy. The cravings you experience for junk food is simply a misinterpretation of the mind. It believes you need those foods for survival. In hypnosis we can change that understanding and create a wonderful desire for lean, healthy foods.

A wonderful suggestion was created by a father-son hypnotherapy team, Herbert Spiegel and David Spiegel. It is “For my body, too much food is damaging. I need my body to live. I owe my body respect and protection.” You can create your own mantra. One 50-year-old client who shed 50-plus pounds repeats daily: “Unnecessary food is a burden on my body. I’m going to shed what I don’t need.”

Visualization is a powerful tool used in hypnosis. Like athletes preparing for competition, visualizing victory readies you for a victorious outcome. Imagining a day of healthy eating helps you envision the necessary steps to becoming that healthy eater.

Furthermore, picturing and imagining the foods that cause you to stumble as being sent down the river on a raft or flying off in a hot air balloon may sound silly, but it works. The language of the mind is imagery and it loves symbols and metaphors.

In hypnosis we have a saying, “there is no failure, only feedback”. If you fall off the wagon, it is an opportunity to learn something more about yourself. Looking at what triggered the relapse can give you insight into what is going on in your life that is out of balance and find a way to bring yourself back to balance.

Think long-term. If you stumble along the journey, it’s OK. Healthy eating habits are hard to establish, and change takes time. Stay positive. Keep your focus on healthy eating.

Water, The Perfect Accessory

Written by: Debbie

Incredible as it may seem, water is quite possibly the single most important catalyst in shedding weight and keeping it off. Although most of us take it for granted, water may be the only true “magic potion” for permanent weight loss. (Oh, I hate that word loss, but here it is valid.)

Water helps to suppress appetite naturally and helps the body to metabolize stored fat. Studies have shown that a decrease in water intake will cause fat deposits to increase, while an increase of water can actually reduce fat deposits.

Here is why: The kidneys can’t function properly without enough water. When they don’t work to full capacity, some of their load is dumped onto the liver. One of the liver’s primary functions is to metabolize stored fat into usable energy for the body. But, if the liver has to do some of the kidney’s work , it can’t operate full throttle. As a result, it metabolizes less fat, remains stored in the body and shedding weight stops.

Drinking enough water is the best treatment for fluid retention. When the body gets less water, it perceives this as a threat to a survival and begins to hold on to every drop. Water is stored in extra cellular spaces (outside cells). This shows up as swollen feet, legs and hands.

Diuretics offer a temporary solution at best. They force stored water along with some essential nutrients. Again, the body perceives a threat and will replace the lost water at the first opportunity. Thus, the condition quickly returns. The best way to overcome the problem is to give your body what it needs-plenty of water. Only then will the stored water be released.

The overweight person needs more water than the thin one. Larger people have larger metabolic loads. Since we know that water is the key to fat metabolism, it follows that the overweight person needs more water.

Water helps to maintain proper muscle tone by giving muscles their natural ability to contract and by preventing dehydration. It also helps prevent the sagging skin that usually follows dropping weight – shrinking cells are buoyed by water, which plumps the skin and leaves it clear, healthy and resilient. Water helps rid the body waste. During weight loss, the body has a lot more waste to get rid of – all that metabolized fat must be shed. Again, adequate water helps flush out the waste. Water can help relieve constipation. When the body gets too little water, it siphons what it needs from internal sources. The colon is one primary source. Result? Constipation. But, when a person drinks enough water, normal bowel function usually returns.

So far, we’ve discovered some remarkable truths about water and weight management:

The body will not function properly without enough water and can’t metabolize stored fat efficiently.
Retained water shows up as excess water.
To get rid of excess water, you must drink more water.
Drinking water is essential to managing weight.

How much water is enough? On the average, a person should drink eight 8-ounce glasses every day. That is about 2 quarts. However, the overweight person needs one additional glass to every 25 pounds of excess weight. The amount you drink should also be increased if you exercise briskly or if the day is hot and dry.

Water should be preferable cold – it’s absorbed into the system more quickly than warm water. Some evidence suggests that drinking cold water can actually help burn calories.

When the body gets the water it needs to function optimally, its fluids are perfectly balanced. When this happens, you have reached the “breakthrough point”. What does this mean?

Endocrine gland function improves
Fluid retention is alleviated as stored water is lost
More fat is used as fuel because the liver is free to metabolize stored fat
Natural thirst returns
There is a loss of hunger almost overnight

If you stop drinking enough water, your body fluids will be thrown out of balance again, you may experience fluid retention, unexplained weight gain and loss of thirst. To remedy the situation you’ll have to go back and force another “breakthrough point”.

this article is not my original work, I found it years ago and have given it out to my clients. If you are (or know) the author, please let me know so that I can site it properly.

Another article on water and weight is here: The Best Way To Lose Weight

Weight Loss Begins Between The Ears

Written by: Debbie

Recently a new client came to see me, wanting me to help her shed the excess weight she has been carrying. This woman is intelligent and educated and very introspective. She knows all she “should” do to be healthier; she even has times where her weight becomes her central focus. She said that she will get to a certain level of fitness and then people start to notice. That scares her and she retreats back into a shell of overeating and sluggishness. She is an all or nothing type personality mixed in with a bit of self-loathing. Because this woman was introspective, she had already begun to understand that her weight gain and weight loss was all between her ears.

I asked her what diets and programs she has used in the past, like so many people I see, her response was, “what haven’t I tried is probably easier to answer”. We found a plan that fit with her current life style and she decided to use it. We talked about movement; she hasn’t much interest in moving. She hates the gym. So, I asked her what she can add into her life that might seem more like fun and less like “working out”. She does take a short walk daily; that is a good start. She has taken tai chi in the past, knows the movements and positions. As she has a great deal of stress in her life, that one seems like a no brainer. Because she is an all or nothing personality, we decided to add little changes into her life, a few at a time.

She has understood now that hypnosis is not necessarily about the “shoulds”, but instead about the “wants”. She wants to be healthy, she wants to feel good and she really, really wants to love herself. Our trance work was focused on her loving herself more, but also on recognizing her emotions. We tend to judge emotions as good or bad, when in actuality, they are simply gauges to help us. If we smell sour milk, that sense tells us not to drink the milk. If we smell fresh cooked vegetables, that sense tells us we can safely eat it. If we feel depressed, then we want to address that feeling. How are we feeling ineffective? It is time to make a plan of action and put it into place (take action). Eating won’t do that and usually ends up in adding to our negative feelings because of guilt, bloating or lethargy. gauging weight loss

I made the comparison to a car. There are many different gauges and lights on a car, not all mean it is time to refuel. The brake warning lights might mean I need new brake pads or that the pressure is off. The oil light is a reminder to have my oil checked, I might need to have it changed or it might be low. Neither of those gauges signifies it is time to refuel, especially if my gas tank is full! All of our senses are important, just as all of our emotions. Perhaps it is just time to listen and respond to the signals as they are sent instead of trying to feed everything.

Weight Loss – One Pound At A Time

Written by: Debbie

This morning I had a client who has been working for 6 weeks on her weight loss goals. In that time, she has made some tremendous changes in her habits. I love working with her and she has had some good results. She has dropped a little over 15 pounds, yet still she was concerned she wasn’t doing enough. I know how it is, we all want those quick dramatic results, like we see on those reality television shows. The problem is, that isn’t always the best way to go. When there has been any kind of follow up done, a good number of the contestants have regained their weight and more. I see this frequently with dieters. Furthermore, not all of the methods they use are realistic or even safe.

When we reviewed her changes, she was suddenly very pleased. She used to drink several sodas a day. She has stopped that and quipped how she can drive past a Circle K store that advertises a deal on soda and not automatically pull into the parking lot. As a result, her inflammation has reduced and she is experiencing less pain. She no longer stops at the drive-thru’s to get a quick meal or snack. Her digestion has improved, no more constant heart burn or other digestive disorders. She has eliminated over indulgence in pasta and bread. Her moods have improved. Suddenly 15 pounds seemed like a ton!

My client still has progress to make. She wants to shed about 45 pounds more. She will do just that, one pound at a time. She is learning new habits including more movement into her daily routine and new ways of thinking about herself as well. She has begun to deal with the reasons she gained the weight in the first place. As a result, she is beginning to like herself more. She is also asserting herself in healthy new ways.

So, if you are on the journey of shedding excess weight, remember that it is a one pound at a time effort. Set smaller goals along the way to your ultimate goal. Mark those achievements and reward yourself with something that brings you pleasure that isn’t food related. Most important, be kind to yourself. It is your journey towards improved health. Begin to look within for the love you deserve, be your own best friend. Food is not your friend, it is simply fuel. If friends and loved ones attempt to sabotage you, call upon a professional to help keep you on track. Be your own champion, because the reward at the end is all yours!