This is the fourth most searched “how to” on Google (after“how to kiss” and before “how to make money”)!
There are a million ways to lose weight, but how do you do it without extreme diets and super willpower – and then stay at a healthy weight for life?
With hypnosis. And it’s not hard.
I’ve been hypnotising people for weight problems for 18 years. I never intended to focus so much on weight but the rooms where I began my practice happened to be in an obesity clinic and I quickly found out what worked. I’ll always remember my first binge eater who used to buy $100 worth of cake then just sit and eat all of it. She couldn’t move for a few days and then she’d do it again. We worked out a process together to neutralise her “tsunami of desire” into just a ripple. She completely stopped binging, lost the weight and started living.
First, you need to know what’s driving you to override your body’s inbuilt wisdom and eat more than your body needs. In women this is predominantly emotional. This is also the case for some men. There are also biochemical drivers that can cause specific cravings. And of course there’s that “see one want one” greed, while some people are strongly hooked to stimulation of the taste sense, real “foodies”.
With hypnosis, it’s easy to take away the desire for snacks, junk food, or other non-nutritious eats; but before I do that I take people through a simple process to uncover and neutralise the subconscious drives that sabotage one’s conscious efforts to lose weight.
It’s amazing what ancient programs come up after 20, 30, 40, 50 years!
In this first post on weight I’ll share with you the kind of causes in childhood that I’ve found over and over. Memories from childhood very often arise that are directly linked to one’s current eating behaviour.
The family are over-eaters
People remember mealtimes where they were made to eat everything on their plate.
Often the family of origin had one or both parents habitually eating junk food, binge-eating, or emotional eating. It can be that the response to every sad, difficult, anxious time is to eat. “Poor me, poor you, poor us, let’s eat!” Lots of us are taught to use food to soothe and reward.
This can even become a family identity: “We’re all sweet tooth’s’, “We’re all big people”, “I take after mum, dad”. For many families overeating was their bond. Keeping that togetherness required them to stay overweight.
The family are restrictors
With this it’s usually, but not always, Mum who is trying to keep the family healthy by controlling what everyone eats. So many times I have heard, “We weren’t allowed to have sweets,” and as soon as they had opportunity, pocket money, went to the grandparents or the local shop – it was on! Not only the allure of the treats but the freedom from control beckoned. That wonderful feeling of autonomy associated with sweets sticks for years, or forever. And many who were restricted began the habit of sneaking food and hiding it. Even with their partner in adult life the need to have a secret stash remains.
There are even whole groups of people with similar food issues. Years ago I saw quite a few binging teenagers (with thin, well-dressed mothers) from the same year at a girl’s school.
What they were hearing
Lurking in the back of most over-eaters’ minds is something someone said in their early years that cut deep and stayed. I’ve had so many people remember being teased (or bullied) “you’re fat”, “you’re a pig”, “you’re chunky just like your father”, “don’t eat that, you’re chubby already,” etc. and much worse. When someone, especially a child, is in a trance of humiliation these words are received as commands.
The lost and lonely kids
Another theme that comes up over and over is the child/children who came home to an empty house after school or during weekends or holidays. Without anchor or connection they quickly turned to food for comfort and continue to do so whenever that lonely feeling re-emerges.
Trauma
There are many awful stories of childhood trauma and abuse associated with the need to soothe with food.
The good news is that it’s all workable. Even if something has been running you for fifty years it can be healed, and if it’s gone you’re free! Once that’s done it’s easy to change the habits with hypnosis.
In the next post about weight I’ll talk about the thoughts, emotions, and self-hatred that drive some people to overeat and how to heal them.