What Does Weight Loss Therapy Look Like?
There are many factors that contribute to excess weight, which means there is no one size fits all model for weight loss therapy. Essentially, if you significantly reduce your calories consistently, you’re likely to lose weight. Whether this is healthy for you is another question. The weight loss market is huge, everywhere you look there is another product designed to give you the figure you always dreamed of. We all feel confused; should you fill up on vegetables, leaving little room for carbohydrates? Should you follow the weight watchers or slimming world model? Does your friend live by keto or paleo? Or is it simply a case of everything in moderation?
I don’t have the answer to that problem, but I can direct you to the people that do. I can also pass on to you some of the knowledge I have gained in my years of working with people struggling to lose weight. Below are examples of three situations you might find, and how therapy for weight loss can help each one.
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Binge Eating
When you eat excessive amounts of food in a short time, it’s binge eating. You eat 1000-2000 calories in an hour and you probably do it at least once a week. You’ll mostly plan your binges, so the planning and buying becomes part of the binge process. Although sometimes you don’t plan to binge, you buy some foods to share with friends or family and eat it all before you get home.
Most people who binge eat connect it to emotions, so in your hypnotherapy sessions, we’ll explore how you feel when you plan your binge. What is your trigger? If you binge spontaneously, what happened just before you started? In that moment, why do you feel food will change the emotions? You might binge to feel relaxed, sometimes the process of ploughing through all the food helps you zone out and switch off from your current thoughts and emotions. If your binge includes sweet foods, you might experience a wave of dopamine, giving you a short-term feel-good feeling. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last, and before you know it, you feel shame and guilt.
In weight loss therapy for binge eating, we’ll focus on working through the emotions that trigger the binges. As you start to feel comfortable with your feelings, we can work more forwardly, using hypnosis and suggestions to change your shopping habits. For example, altering the way you walk around the supermarket and choosing different aisles to buy from. Aversion therapy will switch your cravings, so you opt for nutritious foods that your body needs, rather than the destructive ones. We’ll also work on lifestyle changes. Rather than bingeing alone in front of the television, together we can find different things for you to spend time on. Things that bring wholesome pleasure.
Overeating
At what point in life do we switch from praising the child for eating all their food to the opposite? It’s an interesting observation. When you see a toddler finish their plateful, it’s likely that an adult nearby will offer praise and congratulations. Some even giving the parents a pat on the back for raising a “good eater”. Then take yourself to an adult dinner party and see how people treat the adult that dives in for seconds and thirds. You might hear, “cor, you’re hungry” heckled across the table. It’s no wonder many of us feel a bit confused. Not to mention the increase in plate sizes due to trend, and the availability of food. Overeating is an easy mistake.
When you choose to have some hypnosis sessions for overeating, your hypnotherapist will help you listen to your body and stop when you feel full. By learning mindfulness practices, you will become accustomed to eating mindfully, so you consider each forkful, rather than switching off and only ‘coming to’ when you finish the plate of food.
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Unwholesome Eating
When you eat to fill the hole without considering the nourishment, you might need to reconsider your food choices. Research shows that you’re born with nutritional wisdom. When left to your own devices, without manipulation, you’d naturally choose the foods which contain the micronutrients your body needs. However, you’re up against the food manufacturers who use flavourings in their produce to create bliss points, which cause your brain to create a dopamine surge. You’re less able to make rational decisions, and it feels good. You go back for more! When you change the way you eat, opting for the naturally nutritious foods your body needs to function optimally, you break the cycle created by food manufacturers. Hypnotic techniques used in your hypnotherapy session will help you move through this lifestyle change.
There are many reasons why people hold onto excess weight. The above three give you some examples. In a personal hypnotherapy session, you will explore your own reasons to ensure the treatment is specific to you.