New Year's Resolution #1: Weight Control

Question

          1.  I am curious about using hypnotherapy as a tool to control my weight and increase motivation and  will-power in this area. I have been a yo-yo my whole life and would like to lead a consistent and healthy lifestyle instead! Is it effective, how does it work, and what does the treatment involve? I would appreciate any guidance/help you could offer.

          2.  I am obese and have tried many diets and they all work for a while. I gain all my weight back. I want to continue to eat even though I am full. I do not like to exercise. I eat between meals. I was hoping that hypnosis would enhance my willpower so I could eat normally.  

         3.  I am very interested in weight loss and self-confidence.  There is a great potential for diabetes in my family and for me.  I am very scared for my life cause of this.  I have tried everything.  I can't stick to one or I get so bored I am no longer motivated.

            4.  I have a weight problem.  I am starting to consider "gastric bypass" surgery, as no diets are working and other health problems are starting to happen to me.  I have never been hypnotized before, so I am a little skeptical, I suppose this is normal. I would appreciate any advice you could offer.

Answer

            Hypnosis can seek out and release the reasons for one’s overweight.  It can counteract the reasons for poor habits.  It can help with emotional eating: eating for comfort and nurture, eating when stressed, eating to reward oneself, and eating to protect oneself (layering).   It can even help with medical problems related to weight issues.  Whether the weight is caused by an accumulation of bad habits, or by underlying, emotional problems, hypnosis and awareness training is a very helpful combination for weight control.

           Hypnotherapy helps with changing eating habits like poor choices of food, eating beyond being full and not exercising. It sustains one’s willpower and self-control. And it helps a person keep the weight off once it is dropped, because the method helps a person make life-long changes. The difference between consciously trying to change a habit and using hypnosis to help change a habit is that the change is made much more easily, and without feeling deprived.  

           When people use traditional “diet” plans, they are motivated at the conscious level only.  For many people, this lasts only for a brief time, because the “rebel” within us says, “I don’t want to do this for the rest of my life!”  Therefore, the suggestions for change must be made at the deeper levels, that is, at the unconscious or subconscious areas of the mind. 

             But, hypnosis is not a “magic wand.”  You have to want to change.  You may have to deal with whatever benefits you get from having the weight on you.  You may need to be willing to let go of the layers of protection you may have been adding to your body.  You must be willing to change habits that are unhelpful and unhealthy. What hypnosis can do VERY well is to release or change the “needs” underlying the weight, and to make those changes more easily.

            Sometimes there can be a conscious desire to change but an UNconscious desire NOT to change.  For this reason, the best kind of hypnotherapist is the one who can help get at the cause of the weight need and habits, and who knows how to release or change those imprints.  Once that is done, then a sort of “re-programming” can happen through positive suggestions about habit changes, and handling any underlying reasons for the weight.