Weight Issues are Complex

Hypnosis for Weight Loss and Eating Issues

by Kelley Woods, Certified Clinical Hypnotherapist

Nearly a third of Americans are obese and many more are overweight.

Weight problems have become epidemic in modern nations and the costs to health care, job productivity, and personal life experiences is overwhelming.

Excess body weight attributes to disease, limits physical and cognitive abilities and damages a person’s self-worth. A myriad of quick-fix diets, pills and surgeries promise solutions, but the truth is that lifestyle choices need to be corrected for permanent results.

Weight issues are complex, with influences coming from a multitude of directions:
• an abundance of nutrient-lacking, highly palatable foods which are addictive in nature
• over-sized portions
• sedentary lifestyles
• lifelong unhealthy eating habits
• emotional factors which drive people to use food and drink in unhealthy ways

Hypnotherapy can help address all of these points within a series of customized sessions. A major goal is to change the client’s relationship with food.
Typically, a client’s taste preferences can be adjusted to be turned off of sweetened, processed and refined foods and turned on to healthier, nutritious and delicious foods. Imagine finding the taste of fresh vegetables more enticing than a donut! When the body is provided with proper fuel, cravings for unhealthy foods subside. Watch this video to understand why.

Lack of portion control is a major reason for overweight. One meal at a typical restaurant offers enough food for two or more diners…let’s not even talk about those all-you-can-eat buffets! Packaged foods and beverages can contain more than one serving and labels are often confusing and misleading. Learning how to eat mindfully and becoming satisfied with less is just one of the tools gained through hypnosis for weight loss.
Hypnosis is ideal for creating motivation toward increased physical activity. Whether a client is limited to just being able to engage in some gentle stretching or can walk and even do more active exercise, it’s vital to move the body. Strategies are utilized which engage the subconscious mind in the positive feelings related to physical activity, reframing the bothersome idea of exercise to a delightful one of taking a recess! A blueprint is designed in the mind, leading the client to a natural conclusion of following through with the activity.

People learn to eat in certain ways, largely when they are growing up. For instance, if they were admonished to finish all of the food on their plate, this becomes part of their eating program and is maintained in the subconscious thought processes. Years later, despite conscious efforts to change this, people may still find themselves polishing off everything in sight. Hypnosis can re-program this type of eating behavior, bringing the subconscious habits into alignment with what a client consciously desires.

Many people use food to find relief for emotional issues such as stress, frustration, loneliness or boredom. This is also a common occurrence for people who struggle with chronic pain. Hypnotherapy can help a client raise awareness of the emotional triggers to their inappropriate eating and find better solutions for them. In some cases, the excess weight serves an emotional benefit for a person and that factor is addressed and resolved, freeing the client to release the weight and step into a happier and healthier life.

Excess stress is a common factor in weight problems; living in a chronic stressed state elevates cortisol levels, which contribute to weight gain. Additionally, stress often disrupts sleep, a lack of which results in chronic stress states! Two of the major side effects of hypnosis are stress relief AND sleep enhancement, both of which will enhance the ability to release unwanted weight.
Whether you want to lose a small amount of weight or need to make major changes in your life, hypnosis can help. A qualified, certified hypnotist will customize a program that is suitable and affordable for you.