The Secret to a Healthy Weight

According to a recent article in Remedy Magazine, being a little overweight is not okay. After  a ten-year study of more than 527,000 Americans between the ages of 50 and 71 scientists from the National Cancer Institute concluded that that overweight people (defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 25 to 29) at age 50 can increase a person’s mortality rate by 20 to 40 percent. An obese person (defined as having a BMI over 30 percent) boosted that risk between 200 and 300 percent!

The article went on to cite another study from Korea that looked at 1.2 million people between the ages of 30 and 91. In a twelve-year period overweight non-smokers were between 10 to 50 percent more likely to die from heart disease or cancer than normal weight non-smokers.

What these and other studies show is that when you are overweight you increase your risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and other illnesses. Achieving your desired weight through a healthy life style reduces your risk. So how do you achieve your healthy weight? The answer, as we all know is to eat less calories than you burn, but this answer is much too simplistic. It’s too simplistic because dieting doesn’t work. Diets tell us to eliminate foods from what we eat regularly, for example fats. The problem with low fat diets is that our bodies require fat. Fat stores fat soluble vitamins A, D, E and K. Fat also helps the body produce testosterone, which is the hormone that contributes to muscle growth and the burning of body fat. In fact studies have shown that men with higher levels of testosterone were 75 percent less likely to be obese than men with lower levels. This is primarily due to the body’s tendency to store fat when it has low levels of testosterone. Some diets tell us to eliminate animal protein. While eating fatty cuts of red meat definitely is not good for you, eating lean cuts of animal protein actually helps your body burn more calories than eating protein from soy products. Other diets tell us to restrict carbohydrates. There while there are many studies that have shown lowering our carbohydrate intake can help us control our weight, eliminating them is absolutely suicidal. Carbohydrates are essential to good health. Fruits, vegetables, whole grains and beans help protect us against cancer and other diseases. So, as you can see, dieting doesn’t work. Dieting in general doesn’t work because it revolves around restricting what we eat. Weight management is a long-term project. Most people who lose weight quickly by crash dieting or by some other extreme measure usually gain back all or more - of the pounds they lost. Why?  Because in order to permanently lose weight and keep it off a person has to change their eating and exercise habits. You see, the best weight management strategies are those that you can maintain for a lifetime. So a better question is how can you change your habits? We have all tried to lose weight through willpower, cutting down on the calories and/or increasing the exercise. Some of us lose weight by eating almost nothing while working out like crazy. Others lose weight using “crash” diets. The problem is these methods never work and can also be dangerous.

Now why doesn’t this work?  It’s because our subconscious image overcomes our conscious goals. Since our subconscious sees us as an overweight person as we begin to “lose weight” our subconscious starts the process of bringing us back to our “correct” image, undermining our conscious efforts.

To really change we first have to change our mindset about “losing weight.” Nobody likes to think of themselves as a loser. To gain a healthy weight you need to stop trying to lose weight and focus on a goal that is positive rather than negative. That goal is to be healthier, look better, and have more self esteem and confidence. In other words you want to have a better image of yourself. How can you create this better image? A great method is through visualization, reprogramming your mind’s image of your body. One of the best ways to use visualization is through hypnosis, either self-hypnosis, or using a professional hypnotist. How does hypnosis help? In a study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology, 109 people were divided into two groups for a nine-week study. The first group was offered changes in their diet and more exercises without the addition of hypnosis. The second group was given the same diet and exercise program and also given hypnosis for reinforcement. After nine weeks both groups lost weight. But an interesting phenomenon happened between the eight month and two year follow ups. The group that didn't have the aid of hypnosis did not lose any more weight, and in most cases actually gained most of their original weight back. The hypnosis group continued to lose weight during both intervals and many actually met their long-term weight goals.

As mentioned before your body image is controlled by your subconscious. The key to helping you become healthier is to align your subconscious image with your conscious goals. That is how hypnosis can help because it goes directly to the subconscious and modifies it, aligning it with your positive conscious goals and making them possible.

Hypnosis teaches your subconscious the skills you need to help you control your appetite, while substituting your old diet for healthier foods and drinking water. It also motivates you to exercise. By visualizing your ideal body image you can anchor your eating and exercise habits toward achieving your imaged goal.

So that’s the secret. It isn’t magic, only good healthy habits adapted for a long healthy lifetime. Healthy eating habits coupled with a moderate exercise program anchored in your subconscious. So why not try hypnosis to change to a new, better image of yourself? It works!