Weight loss hypnosis is all about giving you control.
I always have my clients spend a week watching themselves and keeping a diary of what they do, what they eat, and when. I would recommend that you do the same. In particular I ask then to note every time that they open the refrigerator or kitchen door, or stop their car to buy a snack. I also have them keep their grocery store receipts and note what they buy.
Many are surprised by their own eating and shopping habits. This is good news as this sort of behavior where eating and buying decisions are almost on automatic, are the easiest to change with hypnosis.
Hypnosis can create new habits and make the changes that will break the old patterns of behavior.
For some people there are also underlying emotional problems. For some reason they have accepted eating as a positive way to help with these problems. Hypnotherapy is exceptionally useful in recognizing and overcoming these.
Weight loss hypnosis will also help you to take the positive action outlined in the weight loss program. It can change your attitudes about healthy food and exercise in your unconscious mind so that these changes can occur relatively easily.
Weight Loss Hypnosis Techniques
The following list outlines some of the principle techniques that you might find in a weight loss hypnosis session.
- 1. Emotional
Emotional problems and emotional traumas are common in more severe cases of obesity. For a few working with a live hypnotherapist may be the only solution, though for most people it is so near the surface that a brief counseling session or conversation can get to the root cause.
You need to identify the time that your weight control difficulties first began and identify what was happening at that time or just prior to that. The causes can be totally unexpected and may not appear to be especially traumatic or emotionally upsetting in retrospect.
However, the mind, especially at a young age, is very easily influenced and you are probably a wiser and more capable human being now. You may be surprised at the possible emotional triggers that set off eating as an emotional response.
- 2. Your body image
An important technique is to create dissatisfaction with your current body size and shape.
You really cannot allow your weight problem to continue. If you do not change, what will it prevent you doing in the future? What will happen if you go on like this? How will the future be different if you don't make a change now?
See that unpleasant future and allow yourself to imagine it, just this once, for the last time. This is not what you want. It is not what you deserve. It can change so easily with a decision. A decision that you make without a muscle moving, in just a fraction of a second. Your mind changes in a moment and the whole world has changed forever.
- 3. Health
See your ideal self carrying all that extra weight, all that fatty tissue. It pulls down on all of your muscles and strains your joints. You heart has to pump so hard to carry all of the extra fatty tissue.
You know how many pounds or kilos overweight you are. Find something about that weight and get a feel for how heavy that is. Imagine carrying that around all day and night. You can hold your heart in your hand. It is a tiny pump beating tens of thousands of times a day trying to provide oxygen and food to all of the trillions of cells in your body.
Pushing blood through such small arteries and veins. Now it has had to do that for all of that weight you carry around, pumping blood through arteries that are getting narrower and narrower every year. Would you trust your plumber if he said 'It will be fine', the pump will hold out, none of the pipes will burst?
- 4. Unhealthy Food
Create a dislike of unhealthy food. Associate tempting looking desserts, cakes, and pastries with what they become; the congealed fatty cholesterol deposits that coat your arteries and veins and clog your heart; the poisonous acids that circulate in your blood, killing cells, dissolving soft tissue and eating away artery walls. Don't eat deep fried, burnt or roasted, old, dead food, your body has to work hard to get nutrients from it and then dispose of the waste.
- 5. Healthy Food
Create a liking for healthy, fresh, nutritious food. Associate the food with sunlight and energy building. The strongest, longest lived creatures on this planet, like elephants, gorillas and rhinos all live on fresh green plants and leaves.
Fresh vegetables are full of important amino acids, enzymes, minerals, and vitamins put together in simple structures by plants that are easy for our bodies to digest and use. You know what healthy food is. We all do. Learn to love it. You can learn anything. If people can learn to smoke and live through wars then you can re-educate your taste buds.
- 6. Ideal body
Imagine your ideal body. Make a bright, close-up, vivid mental image of it. If you can't get a picture then get a feeling. Imagine the way you would stand and move. See yourself in social situations, exercising, eating healthily and enjoying life. Bring this image up as often as you can, every day. Give your subconscious a target to aim for.
- 7. Visualize Changes
Imagine a movie in your mind. See your body changing and becoming fitter and healthier. Perhaps start walking through a park as you are now and gradually pick up speed. As you run faster see the excess weight dissolve away until you are sprinting at your ideal weight. Make it a bright sunny day and get a feel for the movement, the air rushing by. Run this movie from start to finish as often as you think of it.
- 8. Body awareness.
Become aware of your whole body, your blood circulating all through it carrying nutrients and oxygen to the billions of cells, the lymph carrying away used nutrients and waste to remove it from your body. See your body as a complex organism, building and growing and nurturing you.
You want to provide it with healthy foods and plenty of water and plenty of fresh air so that it works smoothly and beautifully, all the cells in harmony, vibrating with the electricity that flows through your body. All working together with one great purpose, supporting each other, building, repairing, growing communicating easily and confidently.
- 9. Anchoring
Every time you pick up a knife, a fork or a spoon and feel the handle in your hand, you will feel good about eating healthy food, feel good about drinking plenty of water, feel good about exercising, and feel good about avoiding unnecessary snacks.
- 10. Confidence, Self Esteem and Ego Building
These are whole sessions in their own right, but they should be part of any weight loss hypnosis program.
- 11. The Future
You have changed. You have made a decision. Your whole life will be different now. You will be looking at parts of your life in a whole new way. You will be saying different things to yourself inside your head. You will be feeling like different person.
Be prepared for the changes as they happen. Plan for the future. You may need new clothes that will fit. You will need to shop for these. You are so committed to your new way of life that you will probably give away or throw away any outsize clothing. You will not need it anymore. You will be getting to know the people at the fresh food and grocery counters in shops. Focus on the future. Whatever you hold in your mind, your subconscious will endeavor to make it reality.
- 12 Post Hypnotic Suggestions
Every time you sit down at a table, your commitment to eat healthy food will be reinforced. It will remind you of your ideal self, your future plans and your past successes.
For a few people there are some inherent health problems to overcome. This is obviously an area where you will be consulting your medical practitioner. If you intend to supplement this treatment with any form of hypnotherapy then you will need their consent.