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weight control

Weight Loss – Feeling Out of Control?

Did you know that you were being manipulated?

Being overweight is undoubtedly a problem for most people who experience it. It’s a problem, in part, because society as a whole finds fatness easy to laugh at and simultaneously unacceptable. For instance, when did you last see an overweight leading lady in a film, or an overweight model on an advertising hoarding. People don’t want to see overweight women in bikinis or overweight men in shorts on the cinema, or on tv (unless of course it’s a programme where the overweight person is being humiliated or laughed at).

You can argue the rights and wrongs of this all you want – but as members of a society we are programmed with a particular view of ‘attractive’ and that view tends towards slimness. So we can’t do much about those particular preferences, but as long as we are aware that it is just programming we don’t need to buy into it too seriously. This is really important. If you are reading this because you are overweight and are looking for accessible solutions (rather than the faux-solutions the diet industry parades out for you), you really need to understand that any sense of unacceptability that you have for you because of your weight – is simply unacceptable.

By that I mean that if you disapprove of you because of your weight, your disapproval isn’t yours, it belongs to Society. Because it belongs to Society, it isn’t about you particularly, and so it isn’t in any way personal. So let yourself off the hook.

Another problem with our society is the hypnotic power of the images and words that we see around us. I notice the effects on myself of advertising and how names that we see frequently somehow become benevolent institutions within our own minds and thoughts.

Perhaps the hypnotic nature of this influence is a major reason you should consider using hypnosis to counter it – because hypnosis is working at the same level within your mind as the media.

Advertisers know how this works and know that you don’t need to be in any kind of a trance in order to be influenced by these images, sounds, and words. The snack industry, for instance, has as one of its goals, the creation of instant craveability – that mixture of tastes and textures that instantly creates that ‘more-ish’ feeling. It does this by mixing fats, sugars and salts in ‘entertaining’ ways. These are the key ingredients – usually with a carbohydrate base to carry them.

I remember once I was eating a packet of Walker’s prawn cocktail crisps and they tasted different from the way I remembered last time I’d eaten them (I’m not a frequent eater of crisps). They tasted sweet. This puzzled me. Thinly sliced and fried potatoes should never taste sweet. So I checked on the ingredients and sugar was now in the list. Why on earth there is any need to add sugar to what I thought was a savoury snack I’ve no idea, but it was the last time I bought any.

This subtle manipulation of our foods, adding sugar to crisps to make them that little more appealing, spending millions of dollars researching ways to mix fat, sugar, and salt in ways that taste good, has only one aim – to control you and to control what you eat. Sorry, there are two aims. The second one is to create wealth for the snack manufacturers, by selling you something you don’t want and don’t need, but are being manipulated into believing that you do.

And then there’s the soft drink industry. 7% of calories consumed in the US are consumed as soft drinks. I remember, years ago, I’d just finished sixth-form college and was waiting for my A-level results and my Dad got me a job in Jacob’s (the biscuit factory where he worked). I met another student there who was a year older than me and he told me that the previous summer he had worked for Coca Cola. He said that when he was taken on the factory tour he was shown this huge vat which was more than half full of sugar. He was then shown a glass tube full of dark syrup. This tiny tube was the flavour of Coca Cola for this huge vat. He tipped it in, the vat was topped up with water and that was pretty much it. I had no idea that that drink was almost pure sugar. Coca Cola instantly became something that I only drink when there is nothing else available – which is almost never.

You see how easy it is really. I found out some information about the truth about a product. I instantly decided to leave it alone and there is no difficulty about that. I’m not secretly craving a can of coke or some sweet crisps. I decided that what the manufacturers were doing was unacceptable to me and that was the end of it. No effort. No withdrawal. No battle. But I like me, and I do my best to feed my body in ways that are not only enjoyable but also nutritious.

A key aspect of my Diet-Free Weight Loss program is that the very first step that you must take is to accept yourself just the way you are. You see, as the Borg say in Star Trek Next Generation “Resistance is futile”. Or to put it another way that you may have come across if you are into other forms of self-help – What you resist persists.

Resistance is a state of mind that holds in place whatever it is you are resisting. It does this because in order to resist you need to be aware of whatever it is you are resisting. Whatever you are aware of is in your mind (otherwise you would not be aware of it), and whatever is in your mind is what your subconscious seeks to create. Your subconscious works with images and there is no image for not or no. So the thought, or the awareness, of not wanting to be overweight translates into the subconscious as be overweight. And that’s exactly what you get while you resist what you already are.

On another level, invoking the more real-world practicality of physics, if you push against something like a wall – it pushes back at you with equal force. It has to. If it didn’t it would fall over. So if you push against overweight it pushes right back at you, and like with the wall, you stay exactly where you are – stuck.

The instant you accept that, right now, and just for now, you are the way you are, then you free up all the space you need for change to take place easily and effortlessly.

So think about that for a while. Think about the ways you don’t accept you, or the ways that you kid yourself you do accept you. Then think about how easy it would be to decide that, just for now, maybe even just for this minute as you read this, that you are ok. Just decide that you are a good-hearted, warm, loving, caring individual and that’s fine. If you manage that and you want to stretch a little further – look to see if you can see the beauty that lies within you. This can be a little more difficult, but generally all it takes for you to succeed at this is for you to widen your definition of beauty a little. Move beauty beyond mere physical appearance. That, after all is literally only skin deep. See the beauty in the way you move; in your interests; in your compassion; in your gentleness; in the way you parent your children; in your desire to take control of your life; in your thoughts; in your humour; in your willingness to lend a hand; in whatever it is about you that makes you uniquely You.

You are special – you just need to see it. And as you see that more and more clearly so you will begin to reshape your body.

I will write again on this subject and guide you gently and safely through the minefield of developing a healthy relationship with food. But in the meantime if you want more, I’ve prepared some free videos with what I hope are some interesting slides and a narrative. The first one is called Do You Know the Secret to Permanent Weight Loss. Check it out. I hope you enjoy it. Let me know.

Enjoy your food.

Michael Hadfield

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Uncategorized

Seven Reasons Why Diets Don’t Work

Diets don’t work because they are based on a false premise.

The false premise is that body weight is purely a consequence of the calories you eat and expend. If you eat more than you use the excess is stored as fat. If you eat less than you use, the body burns excess fat to make up the shortfall.This is a mistaken idea.

We have all seen really skinny people who eat like horses and don’t seem any more active than we are. We have all seen overweight people who say they don’t eat very much (we tend not to believe those people). We also tend to believe what we are told. Nothing we are told by the media helps us to lose weight by severely cutting down on calories. Here is why…

The 7 reasons diets don’t work

  1. They are too much effort.
  2. They cause ‘famine’ mode.
  3. They affect mood – and not in a good way.
  4. Thoughts of food predominate.
  5. Diets lose weight not fat.
  6. Exercise is not included.
  7. Unreasonable expectations

1. Too much effort.

21% of people give up on their diet within two months. 45% of people don’t last the year. All that calorie, or syn or point, counting just gets to be too much work and it’s so much easier just to eat what you like.

2.’Famine’ mode.

The body is an intelligent system. It’s intelligence is primarily geared toward survival. When food is scarce it thinks ‘famine’ and lays down supplies of fat; slows down metabolism to conserve energy; and burns lean muscle for its energy needs, because, when resting, lean muscle tissues burn calories. To the body’s intelligence, a diet looks just like a famine.

3. Mood.

The majority of so-called experts regard excess weight as a calorie problem. It isn’t. But it is an emotional problem. Eating is often an attempt to improve mood. Dieting itself can cause social isolation – hence the popularity of slimming clubs. This can lead to low moods, rebellion against the diet, or even depression.

4. Diets keep you thinking about food.

Meals are no longer spontaneous. They have to be meticulously planned. Recipes have to be followed. Specific items need to be purchased – sometimes even specific product brands. Life is no longer about fun and enjoyment. Life is about food.

5. Diets lose weight, not fat.

Weight loss in diets is almost entirely down to muscle loss. This makes it more and more difficult to lose weight each time you diet because bodies are reluctant to release fat – especially quickly, which is the way most people want it. The only way to release fat instead of muscle is to do it slowly.

6. Exercise.

Exercise is essential. Exercise builds muscle. Muscle burns calories – even while resting. Exercise boosts metabolism. Exercise increases fitness, vitality and lifts mood.

7. Unreasonable Expectations

People have surprising expectations of the amount of weight that can sensibly be reduced. If you are 16 stone (224lbs) an initial weight loss goal of 14 stone (196lbs) would be good to aim for. A 2 stone (28lb) success is easily achievable and when maintained for a while will be the place to decide to shift a little more.

Diets just don’t work.
If you want to discover how to lose weight without the rigid discipline of a diet and still be allowed to eat what you want then check out my website here.

Author: Michael J. Hadfield

Source: Hypnosisiseasy

Categories
hypnosis weight control

Weight Loss, Diets, And Fat

The trouble is fat. Bodies just make the stuff. If fat had never been invented, we could all eat what we like, stay beautiful, and never have to diet or lose weight. Unfortunately some fat is essential to good health. It is a handy insulator that helps regulate internal body temperature, and it really does come in handy when we have flu and don’t have the energy, or the desire, to eat.

“I’m allergic to food.  Every time I eat it breaks out into fat.”
~Jennifer Greene Duncan

However, fat really is necessary and needs to be a part of a healthy diet. The trick is to have just the right amount.

Far too many people consider that whether or not you accumulate fat is down to simple maths. If you eat more calories than you use then you get fat. If you use more calories than you eat then you lose weight. This is the basis of all the calorie reduced diets for weight loss.

For people with an active life, this isn’t too bad. If you spend your work day sitting on a chair and your evenings and weekends sitting on a couch, then calories in have to be reduced to almost zero to make you lose weight.

Yo-Yo diets

But thousands of people use this simple maths to create the Hell of yo-yo diets; the Hell of being unable to eat what they want when they want; the Hell of social isolation because they don’t have enough will power to eat lettuce when all their friends have huge plates filled with steak, fries, onions, mushrooms… and desserts filled with cream.

And thousands of people use this simple maths to watch the pounds fall off for a week or two, then slow down, then accumulate, then fall off again and they fight a constant battle with themselves and their diet. They can even end up hating who they are because their bodies won’t do what they think their minds are telling them to.

Diet clubs

I visit a coffee bar that has a meeting room where Weight Watchers and Slimming World diet clubs hold meetings. I feel a little sad when I see women arriving for their weigh in and nipping into the toilet to relieve themselves of those few desperate ounces so they might just tip the balance and clock up a loss rather than a gain. Because, of course, the public humiliation of having gained a pound, never mind two, is more than can be tolerated. I feel sad because there is a much better, much easier way to lose weight without public weighing or a gimmicky diet.

This is no way to live.

This is not happiness.

I know how to lose weight without dieting.

And this is all down to that simple maths…

…simple maths that is just plain WRONG.

Dieting fights the body’s own intelligence

You see bodies are intelligent. Your body is an intelligent system. I bet that when you were a child you cut yourself. And I bet that within a few days there was almost no trace of a wound. This is the intelligence I am talking about. You did not have to tell the body to start vasoconstriction to reduce blood loss. You did not have to send the message to rush platelets to the damaged blood vessels to start to shore up the hole. Nor did yo have to tell the body to form fibrin to hold the platelets in place and eventually form the protective clot. And I bet you didn’t have anything to do with then rushing white blood cells to gobble up any invading micro-organisms to prevent infection.

And then there’s the whole process of making an invisible, or almost invisible, mend that follows on from this initial reaction to bleeding.

Supply & Demand

Fat is survival. When food is in short supply, fat is deposited. Now you would think that fat would be laid down when food is plentiful. So consider this: from the days when our body systems evolved. Plentiful food would have been frequent small meals (fruits & berries eaten while they were gathered). Eating would stop once the stomach was full – because there was plenty more where that came from. In these circumstances there is no need for fat deposits.

But infrequent meals and very large meals when eating is continued after the stomach is full (a successful hunt after several days without game), is a very strong message to the body that food supply is uncertain so fat deposition would be helpful.

Most people who are overweight eat past fullness. This tells your body food shortage.

Most people who are overweight get little exercise. This tells your body that there is no food to find, so conserve energy.

Most people who are overweight go on diets. This tells your body that food is in short supply.

And what your body does when food is in short supply is to LAY DOWN FAT and conserve energy.

Energy conservation

Now I mentioned the simple maths that is the basis for the calorie reduction diet plans designed to help you lose weight. Because your body is intelligent, when food is in short supply and it needs energy (Calories) it does something quite brilliant. It burns up lean muscle rather than burning up fat. The reason it does this is that lean muscle tissue uses up calories by simply being there. Take two people in the same room sitting watching tv, one very fat, the other very fit. The fit one is burning up many times more calories than the fat one. This is because lean muscle tissue burns calories just by existing. A fit individual will use up 500-700 Calories a day just lying in bed. So the intelligence of the body says – we need to get rid of lean muscle because food is in short supply and we will stand a better chance of survival if we save our fat calories for real emergencies.

The consequence of this of course is that, as you diet, your muscle/fat ratio slowly shifts in the direction of more fat. The effect of this is that your body’s metabolic rate is lowered (your intelligent body’s energy conservation planning). Making it ever harder to lose weight the next time you start a diet. So next time you start a diet you will give up sooner because each time you repeat the cycle – it gets harder to lose weight.

If you diet regularly all you are doing is accumulating more and more fat, making it harder and harder to lose weight – because the weight loss is largely from muscle loss and you have less muscle to lose.

You cannot fight this.

You cannot effectively lose weight, long-term, like this.

Lose weight without dieting

If you want to lose weight, you have to work with your body’s intelligence, not against it.

You may not appreciate that you don’t have to diet to lose weight. You just have to eat differently. But you can still eat what you want. It sounds too good to be true. And it gets better. It can be fairly effortless. No more fighting. No more will power battles.

More details are available on my website.

Author: Michael J. Hadfield

Source: Hypnosisiseasy