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Weight Loss – Feeling Out of Control?

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.

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

By Michael

I have been a hypnotherapist for around 12 years. My specific interests are in stress and physical healing. My fascination is with how the mind 'creates' the world. I am a fan of Esther & Jerry Hicks.

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