Why Do I Keep Eating When I Want to Lose Weight?

The typical diet story begins with setting a date, having a target weight in mind, and a strategy for success, which usually includes some kind of diet and exercise. As the date approaches, you make sure to eat all those unhealthy foods now, because who knows when you will ever taste them again? When the day finally arrives (and if there is no excuse found not to begin) you start your new healthy way of life. Except you can't get the craving for potato chips out of your head. You do the best you can to push those thoughts aside, to focus on what a great a substitute the rice cakes are, but those potato chip thoughts just won't leave you alone. Why?!!! Why does this always happen?

Part of it is the fact that, yes, potato chips taste good, but another part lurks within your subconscious mind. We often comfort ourselves with food. It feels good to eat things that taste good. It feels relaxing to be full. There are intense feelings when you eat something pleasurable. This is how the signals begin in your mind. Your subconscious mind gets wired to equate food with comfort, relaxation, and even love. This is why hypnosis is so effective in un-doing the damage of years of bad eating habits.

Your subconscious mind holds every thought and memory you have ever had, so when you had that piece of chocolate cake on that cruise you took three years ago, your subconscious mind remembers the way you felt, happy, relaxed, and satisfied. So when you feel stressed out, frustrated, or just in an overall bad mood, your subconscious tries to re-capture the feelings of that wonderful cruise moment and make you "feel better” with food. Most of us have been trained to do this since we were children. Think back to when you were a child. If you had to get shots at the doctor's office, you got ice cream. If you were good at the mall, you got a “Happy Meal”.

If you have phenomenal willpower, that is great for you. You will probably never need hypnosis to lose weight, but for the rest of us, weight is an issue we struggle with our whole lives because willpower alone isn't enough. Willpower is manifested in the conscious mind, and therefore is subject to the regular ups and downs of everyday life. Good days are easy, and bad days are spent with white knuckles trying to avoid bakeries and the snack aisle at the supermarket.

The hypnotic state relaxes your body as well as your conscious mind and causes your conscious mind to recede, making your subconscious primary. Once your subconscious is primary, the hypnotherapist speaks to it in a special way to explain that you would like to eat healthy, slower, and less. The subconscious mind accepts suggestions it deems are for the “greater good” of the body. It generally takes more than a single session because unlike other bad habits, people can't live a normal life without food. But wth the only side effect of hypnosis being relaxation, hypnosis is a wonderful way to begin a successful weight loss program.

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