Have you ever made a new year resolution to lose weight?
Have you struggled or failed to keep it?
A new year gives us an extra opportunity to turn over a new leaf and make changes in our lives and one of the most popular new year resolutions is to lose weight. However, how often do you hear about friends or family making a new year resolution only to be told that they didn’t stick to it, for whatever reason.
A big reason why people don’t stick to a weight loss plan in particular, is that they are making changes that go against the messages they have previously given their subconscious mind without communicating their new desires beyond their conscious mind, which are to lead a healthier lifestyle and eat more suitably.
What exactly do I mean by this?
If you have previously conditioned yourself to believe that foods that are bad for you are a source of comfort then when you suddenly decide to change this way of behaving, you need to change the old messages with the subconscious part of your mind or it will have conflicting information from the conscious mind (i.e. the part of your mind where your current thoughts or inner voice are, that are saying you should lose weight or stop eating junk food) and the subconscious will win every time. It is almost like a computer where you need to remove the old program that you no longer want and install the new one which you do want.
Of course, people also sometimes fail as they have not dealt with the root cause for their overeating which has contributed to their weight gain. This means that no matter how good their intentions, without dealing with the reason on a subconscious level then the current messages the subconscious has had from you in the past will win out since this part of our minds has such strength over our conscious mind.
There are many reasons people overeat and it can be a self-protection mechanism that they may or may not be aware of.
Here are a few examples:
- A person fearful of being attractive to the opposite sex due to a fear of intimacy may overeat as a way of being less attractive thus avoiding intimacy.
- Perhaps a person has a high level of stress in their lives and turns to comfort eating the wrong foods as a way of feeling better.
- A person may use food, such as junk food, to reward themselves for any manner of things such as achieving a daily goal or making themselves feel better after a tough day/week
As we can see, weight loss can be a complicated topic and this is what makes hypnotherapy such a great option for many people. It gives you the opportunity to communicate your new messages to your subconscious mind and get rid of the old and unwanted messages maintaining excess weight. You can examine your eating habits with your therapist and identify problem areas in your life which have been maintaining your unhelpful habits and once and for all deal with excess weight. All of these things, and more, combined make weight loss hypnotherapy one of the most popular reasons for seeking hypnotherapy.
Get in touch with any questions about how hypnotherapy can help you to make this resolution for the last time!
