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Manage Your Weight

Keywords: Losing weight - weight loss - diet
 
Without help, many people have found it difficult to muster the motivation required to attain a balance of good nutrition, healthy eating habits and adequate exercise.
 
Weight control depends on taking responsibility for our own health. It requires inner strength and the understanding that we have a choice about what and how much we eat and when we eat it. Long term weight loss requires a lifestyle change for permanent success. This lifestyle change must be based upon sensible eating and exercise.
 
The therapy I provide can help you:
  • Overcome compulsive eating
  • Learn to manage stress and stop emotional eating
  • Learn to make sensible food choices
  • Create an intelligent relationship with food
  • Boost your motivation to exercise
And much more!

Joy's experience:

Needing to lose weight for health reasons (incipient arthritis in one knee) but failing miserably due to comfort eating, compulsive eating and occasional binge eating, I realised that I needed help to solve my problem.  I decided to try hypnotherapy and arranged a consultation with Ches at the end of July.
[...]
I turned to food (especially the “wrong” sort) in times of stress and anxiety and my diet was restricted by my inability to keep certain foods in the house because I “had” to eat them whether I needed them or even really enjoyed them.  What I saw as a lack of self control was undermining my sense of self esteem and I was in danger of sinking into a depression.   

I found that Ches had a very sensitive understanding of my problems and that talking with him clarified things in my  mind and made me understand my  attitudes to food.  Ches taught me relaxation and self-hypnosis techniques which he advised me to practise at home to reinforce what had been done during the session.  
[...]
I left this first session feeling very positive and strong-willed and found at once that I had the will-power and self control to adhere strictly to the sensible, healthy eating regime on which I knew I would lose weight.  I was able to have in the house and resist them certain foods which had been a major problem to me before.  I started to lose weight immediately.
Although I sensed that a radical change had come about in my attitude to food after this first session, I decided that I would like to continue to see Ches at monthly intervals until I attained my target weight.  Ches himself made no suggestion of repeated appointments.

Now, just before Christmas, I am only a few pounds away from my goal, having lost weight steadily and sensibly since the end of July.  I feel that my attitude to food has altered – I know that to eat well and maintain a healthy weight I do not need to deprive myself of anything that is important to me.  I know that by reverting to my old eating habits I would simply be adding to any problems I might have and destroying my self-respect.  I have a very nice sense of achievement and satisfaction in that I feel I am in control of myself.  I think that my approach to my eating regime is very sensible and level-headed – I am in no way obsessive or fanatical and am prepared to allow myself “treats” occasionally if I really want them (and not simply because they are there or are offered).  What has changed is that I often decide that I just do not want them!

The results of my decision to consult Ches have been almost miraculous – and mysterious.  I do not really understand how talking with Ches and practising the self-hypnosis and relaxation techniques  he has taught me have brought about such changes in my attitudes to food, but I have been amazed and delighted at the way things have worked out.  

I would have no hesitation in advising anyone with problems similar to my own to seek Ches’s help and advice.

Help Yourself: Learn the Naturally Slender Eating Strategy

People who are naturally slender think about food and eating in particular ways.
 
If you wish to develop the ability to make better food choices for yourself, you can learn to do this using mental rehearsal.
 
Rehearsing what works for people who are naturally slender can enable you to become naturally slender, too.
 
If you repeatedly go through the following steps thoroughly and carefully, you will eventually find yourself responding to food the way other naturally slender people do.
  1. Find a time and place where you can relax comfortably without interruption for about twenty minutes.
  2. Think of how you know it's time to consider eating. Is it when you see food? Do you hear someone say "It's time to eat"? Do you look at the clock and notice it's lunch time? Do you feel hungry? You might imagine that you are sitting down for lunch and see food on the table, or that you are looking through your refrigerator, or looking at a menu.
  3. Now notice the feeling in your stomach. Notice the quality of the feeling you have right now. It's not just being full or hungry that you are checking for, but the way your stomach feels overall. Your stomach will feel different depending on what you last ate, whether you've been tense or relaxed, etc.
  4. Ask yourself "What would feel good in my stomach now?" You don't need to say this out loud; just hear this question inside your head.
  5. Now think of one available food item, one possibility that you could eat You might imagine a turkey sandwich, some chocolate, a bowl of vegetable soup, a dinner salad, etc.
  6. Next imagine eating a portion of the food you thought of. If you thought of the turkey sandwich, you'll get a quick taste of turkey sandwich, and then notice what it feels like as it slides into your stomach. You can get a sense of how the sandwich will feel in your stomach, and how your entire body will feel throughout the next few hours if you eat it.
  7. Now compare this feeling with the feeling you had in your stomach before you imagined eating anything. Which feeling do you like better? Will you feel better over time if you eat the turkey sandwich than if you eat nothing? If the answer is a "Yes," keep the turkey sandwich in mind as one alternative you may want to select If the answer is "No," discard this possibility. Notice that you are deciding based on what will give you greater pleasure over a period of time. There is no point in eating something that would make you feel worse for the rest of the day.
  8. Now visualize another possible food item. Perhaps you consider eating some chocolate.
  9. Now you're going to find out if you really want to eat the chocolate or not. Imagine eating the chocolate, and feel it going into your stomach. Notice the feeling of having the chocolate in your stomach through the next few hours. How does this make you feel?
  10. Compare your feeling from Step 9 to your best feeling so far (Step 7). How does the feeling compare to how you would feel if you ate the turkey sandwich? Notice which feeling is more pleasurable to you. Which choice makes you feel better? Keep in mind the item that gives you the best feeling over time.
  11. Do this same process (Steps 8,9, and 10) with several more food possibilities. Each time, keep in mind the food item that makes you feel the best over a period of time.
  12. When you are satisfied that you have considered enough possible foods in this way for this process to begin to seem natural to you, notice which food item made you feel the best. Now imagine that you go ahead and eat that food item, and feel the satisfaction of eating what makes you feel good over time.

Source: Heart of Mind by Connirae Andreas PhD, Steve Andreas MA

Alternatively...

You might like to try some of the following:

  • Resolve to be really honest, and as objective as possible, with yourself about your weight, your size, your lifestyle and your eating habits
  • Decide what weight and size you would like to achieve
  • Proceed steadily and aim to lose a small amount (no more than three pounds) each week using diet and exercise
  • Expect the occasional 'relapse'
  • Weigh and measure yourself frequently and regularly
  • Be critical of the items in your shopping basket
  • Eat at the kitchen or dining room table
  • When you eat, focus on the food - turn off, or remove, the tv, books, radio, phone, computer etc.
  • Put small portions on your plate
  • Use small forks and spoons
  • Chew well
  • Put your knives, forks and spoons down while there is still food in your mouth
  • Eat three sitting down meals-a-day and avoid snacks
  • Eat a high protein, low carbohydrate breakfast within one hour of waking up
  • Avoid eating for the three hours before going to bed
  • Make a mental or physical note of each time you successfully resist temptation and give yourself a pat on the back or some other non-food reward