Am I Too Fat To Be Loved?

September 1st, 2010 Posted in Weight Loss
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Thanks to skimpy clothing styles and anorexic magazine models being touted as the way that people are supposed to look, in our culture, being overweight can be the kiss of death to singles trying to find a mate, as well as to couples who are trying to put the spark back into their love lives. Everyone is trying to diet so that they can be slim, sexy, desirable, and find love.

In their search for love, singles often post profiles on Internet dating sites. As part of their profile, they routinely post 10+ year old pictures of when they were much thinner. And it is also common for them to miss-state their weight by 30 or more pounds. But none of this is much help at convincing someone to instantly fall in love with them. That’s because when they eventually meet for dinner, a drink, or a cup of coffee, the truth is revealed.

Being on a diet is neither a pleasant nor natural way of life. Even though scientists tell us that all of the popular diets work and will make you lose weight, no one seems to be able to stick to them, for many complex psychological reasons. What many people don’t understand is that our unconscious mind compels us into behaviors that will benefit and protect us. And being overweight can be one of those behaviors. When I tell that to clients, most of them respond with a look of “you ain’t playing with a full deck, you must be crazy, not me!” on their faces. Then they try to lecture me that I must be wrong, because being overweight is not a behavior, it is just the result or outcome of overeating.

Unfortunately they are wrong. Often being overweight is the result of emotional eating. Emotional eating takes place when a person is motivated to make him or herself fat, because by being fat they will protect themselves in some way. For example, if a person got their heart broken in a relationship, their unconscious might motivate them into a behavior that would prevent them from getting their heart broken again. In this example they are motivated to get fat to keep them out of another relationship, because that will eliminate the possibility of another broken heart.

The reverse can also be true. Someone involved in an unhappy marriage might unconsciously motivate himself or herself to become fat to keep them in the marriage for the sake of the children, or because they are afraid of being alone. As a matter of fact, there are as many different possible benefits that one can obtain from being fat as there are overweight people.

There are also two other unconscious programs that cause the average person’s appetite and cravings for food and an urges to eat to get out of control:

A. When you pair eating with any other behavior, the two behaviors become associated together at the unconscious level of mind. Thereafter, other behavior will trigger cravings for food and a compulsion to eat. This is called a conditioned response. For example, if you eat when you watch TV, you will automatically feel an urge to eat each time you sit down to watch TV.

B. When you feel tense, you feel compelled to put something into your mouth for relaxation and pleasure. This is the result of programming that you received as an infant. When you got cranky, your mom put a bottle in your mouth. You got distracted, relaxed, and probably fell asleep. Now when you get cranky (anxious or tense), you feel compelled to put something into your mouth for relaxation and pleasure.

Okay, okay, some of this psychobabble sounds pretty complicated, so what can you do to fix this situation? We discussed emotional eating, which makes the person overweight. And the “behavior” of being overweight then provides some sort of emotional protection. Being a hypnotherapist and Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner, I use a technique called an NLP Six-Step Reframe. The reframe actually negotiates with the unconscious mind and gets it to assume the responsibility for making the client automatically substitute some other more acceptable behavior in place of being overweight. Since the new behavior will provide the same emotional protection (get the same outcome), the client loses the compulsion to eat to become overweight for emotional protection.

Hypnotherapy is a great tool for extinguishing the unconscious associations that cause the conditioned response type of cravings described in paragraph “A” above. And since the very essence of hypnosis is relaxation, hypnosis provides a powerful tool for triggering an overall feeling of peace and well-being, which eliminates the tension that causes the compulsion to put something into the mouth for relaxation and pleasure.

Self-hypnosis for weight loss can be a very effective method. I can only uncover the tip of the iceberg in this short article.

About The Author:
Alan B. Densky, CH has specialized in weight loss since 1978. His Neuro-VISION Video Weight Loss Hypnosis has been used in hundreds of professional offices. He offers a wide range of hypnotherapy CD’s for losing weight including low cost hypnosis weight loss & NLP MP3 Downloads‘s.

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The Atkins High Protein Diet And How It Works

August 12th, 2010 Posted in Weight Loss
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The Atkins Diet is a very popular “low carbohydrate” weight reduction system, but it is often greatly misunderstood! Popular, yet slightly exaggerated depictions of the plan portray dieters wolfing down nothing but vast amounts of meat and fat. Although the program is not quite that simple, many dieters have used it to successfully lose weight and improve their health.

On this plan, dieters follow a very specific regimen based on restricted carbohydrate intake. Emphasis is placed on the nutritional aspects of the diet over exercise and other factors, although getting physical activity is also important to weight loss. There are four stages in the Atkins diet:

Induction: During this two-week stage at the start of the diet program, dieters can only consume up to 20 grams of carbs per day. Dieters can ingest high protein foods such as meat and eggs, fats such as oils and butter, and other foods with little to no carbs. Many foods containing carbs are not permitted at all during this stage, including alcoholic beverages.

This early phase is supposed to help the body go from burning carbs for energy, as it normally does, into burning stored up fat (the state called ketosis). Most dieters start to lose weight during this stage.

Ongoing Weight Loss: During this stage, dieters gradually increase their carbohydrate intake by adding 5 grams of carbs into their diet every week. Dieters adjust their diet, losing weight to put themselves within 5-10 pounds of their target weight, before transitioning into the Pre-maintenance period.

Pre-maintenance: Dieters use the Pre-maintenance phase to find out the maximum amount of carbs they can consume without gaining weight. During this stage, dieters increase carbohydrate intake by 10 grams a week. Once dieters reach their target weight and can maintain it for one month, they move into the Lifetime Maintenance stage.

Lifetime Maintenance: For lasting results, the Atkins program is designed to be maintained throughout the dieter’s lifetime. Using the techniques that helped the dieter reach their target weight, the dieter develops an eating and exercise program to stay at their goal weight. Individuals can revert to previous stages if their weight begins to rise again.

Dieters who can stay on the Atkins diet are typically successful in losing weight; unfortunately, many people cannot keep up with the program and end up quitting early on in the induction stage. In general, most diet plans fail simply because dieters cannot stay on the plan.

Many people struggle with dieting because they experience strong food cravings, have problems with compulsive overeating, can’t regulate their appetites, or simply don’t feel the motivation to lose weight. Overcoming these mental obstacles is the most challenging aspect of losing weight.

One reason why many people cannot seem to manage their eating is because they are emotional eaters. Such individuals eat in response to their feelings, such as when they are bored or upset. However, this habit programs a “conditioned response” into the unconscious mind. This means that when individuals experience the same feelings that made them overeat initially, they will feel compelled to overeat once again.

Hypnotherapy works by helping our unconscious minds disassociate our emotions from our eating habits. To extinguish the conditioned response to overeat, a hypnotherapy weight loss program is used to break the link in the unconscious mind between overeating and specific “trigger” behaviors.

For instance, if you tend to binge eat when you get bored, hypnosis can disassociate boredom from eating in your unconscious mind. Hypnotherapy techniques can then be used to replace the compulsion to overeat with another activity, such as exercising. This way, the next time you become bored, instead of overeating, you will feel motivated to exercise.

Hypnosis is a powerful tool for stress relief as well, helping us deal with our stressful emotions and relieve tension without eating. As a relaxation tool, it calms the mind, helps you develop strategies to cope with stress, and boosts your self-confidence to motivate you to lose weight.

Self hypnosis can also be used to eliminate the emotional stressors that keep you from losing weight. Many overweight people hide behind their weight for emotional protection. For instance, after a painful end to a relationship, people often find themselves becoming overweight so they can avoid new relationships and avoid having to endure emotional pain again. Through hypnosis, we can think more positively and focus on having better health instead of becoming overwhelmed by our emotions.

Not only is hypnosis an ideal motivational tool, it relieves stress, eliminates the conditioned responses that trigger overeating, and can be used to overcome the mental obstacles that prevent weight loss. Hypnotherapy for weight loss is extremely effective at helping people stay on a diet plan, such as the Atkins program, and naturally lose weight.

Alan B. Densky, CH has spent over 30 years specializing in weight loss. He offers several ways to lose weight, including dieting CD and hypnosis for weight loss DVD. Visit his self improvement CD website for Free hypnosis videos, newsletters, and downloads.

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