New Year's Resolutions (Overweight)

Question
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. 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. 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. 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
It's that time again -- New Year's Resolutions which are made to be broken. Why? Because they are made at a conscious level, which handles only short-term motivation. If you really want to quit a habit, then I feel that it's important to go to the subconscious mind in which the real urges, long-term habits, and long-term motivation lie. Below are some of the questions I've received that deal with two of the most frequently made "resolutions" and the role of hypnosis -- Weight Control and Smoking Cessation. (Next month I'll discuss the value and disvalue of large groups conducted for smoking cessation and weight management.) Hypnotherapy can help with eating habits like choices of food, eating past being full, not exercising, willpower and self-control, and being able to keep the weight off once you drop it. It can also help with reasons for those habits. It can help with emotional eating, eating for comfort and nurture, and eating to protect oneself (layering). It can even help with medical problems related to weight issues. Hypnosis and awareness training is a very helpful combination for weight control. But, hypnosis is not a "magic wand." You have to want to change. You have to be willing to deal with whatever benefits you get from having the weight on you. You have to be willing to let go of the layers of protection you may have been collecting. You have to 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. The exciting thing, for me, is that you can make such changes without feeling deprived--a major reason for going off diets. 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 any underlying reasons.