Do your struggle to lose weight & keep it off?
Weight management – should be straightforward, shouldn’t it? Just burn off more calories than you consume.
If only it was that simple! There is so much more to weight management than first appears. For most, it is about reducing weight but for others it is about gaining a little.
The mind is as important as the food you eat
Being able to reach and maintain a healthy weight is as much about what’s going on inside your brain as it is about what’s going in your stomach. Your ability to lose weight is related to how anxious or stressed you are. When you’re stressed your body releases stress hormones, such as adrenaline and cortisol, as part of your “fight or flight” response. To meet this need your body may crave sugary foods to get that instant burst of energy, which in the long term is not good for weight management. Then there is a little blighter of a hormone that keeps making you eat when your not hungry and is reluctant to flick the “I’m full” switch on.
If you’re having feelings of low confidence or self-esteem, especially as you’ve “been down this road before”, this could lead you to self-sabotage your good intentions before or shortly after you begin trying. Your emotions and habits are stored in your subconscious mind and you may have unhelpful beliefs or habits around food like: needing to eat everything on your plate or snacking whilst preparing meals. These habits are a natural primitive brain response to when we were never quite sure when the next meal would come along. When food was scarce, a full stomach meant contentment and happiness and has the same meaning in our modern world. So you may eat to feel happier, until your intellectual brain processes what you’ve done, and then you may feel guilty.
Sleep also plays a part in healthy weight management and sleeping less than 7-8 hours per night is linked to higher body fat. Research suggests that people who average 6 hours each night are 27% more likely to be overweight and those who average 5 hours per night are 73% more likely to be overweight. There is a good article to read on the Sleep Foundation website.
Get your mind in the right frame to manage your weight
As the industrialist Henry Ford said: “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t – you’re probably right”. Many people wrongly believe it is very difficult or impossible for them to reach and maintain their desired weight. To give yourself the best chance of success you need your brain and heart to be committed. “Change comes from within” meaning that you need to be motivated to achieve your goal but also to believe you can. If you’ve tried previously to reach a healthy weight but your achievement rebounded, consider something else from Henry Ford: “If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get what you’ve always got.”
How I can help you manage your weight
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help you find the motivation for making the changes you need to reach and maintain your healthy weight.
For some, it may not be easy but neither I, nor anyone else, has any magic and instant remedy. Using Solution Focused Hypnotherapy, I can help you:
- have a new positive relationship with food and exercise
- reduce your stress levels
- boost your confidence and self-belief
- improve the quality of your sleep
- lose weight for good
Hypnotherapy can help give you the determination to break the habits and associations between food and emotions. This can be a powerful tool in weight management and give you the best possible chance of achieving your goal.