How To Lose WeightSecrets of Success

byMichel McGuinness

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www.mayohypnosis.ie

Copyright 2015. Michael McGuinness

Author

Michael McGuinness DHP B.Ed MNCH MCHPA MICHP

Michael is one of Ireland's most experienced hypnotherapists.He has performed over 25,000 inductions and innovated manylife-changing subconscious strategies. He is a graduate of theInstitute of Clinical Hypnotherapy and Psychotherapy, whichwas the first college of hypnotherapy in Ireland. Michael was amember of the first group of graduates from that college.Subsequently, he set up a private practice in Maynooth in 1995.

Weight management was of special interest to him and he wasalso was perplexed as to why so many people failed withtraditional slimming methods. This led him to studying theeffect of nutrition and psychological factors on successful

weight management. He also did extensive research to discoverwhat were the factors common to overweight people whosuccessfully maintained their weightloss long-term, so that thiscould be replicted in a weightloss programme. This all resultedin a unique coaching programme, called The HypnoSlimProgramme. It has transformed the lives of so many peopledown the years.

After a long number of years in practice in Maynooth, hereturned to my native Mayo in 2007 where he founded theMayo Hypnosis Clinic, Castlebar.

Introduction

It is time for a fresh start.

Forget about everything you have ever been told about weightloss. Start right now with an open mind and the followingknowledge and strategies can help you achieve remarkableresults.

You may have the DESIRE to be successful but you also haveneeds that are in conflict with that desire when it comes to yourrelationship with food: reward yourself, relieve negativeemotions and so on - this book can help you solve that.

You have a conscious EXPECTATION that you can succeedbut deep down you believe that you will fail – that is what hashappened in the past and subconsciously you expect that tohappen again. Your past does not have to be your future – thise-book can help you transform your expectation.

You are now embarking on a journey that can change your life.

Disclaimer

All content presented is for educational purposes only, it cannotbe considered as a substitute for the advice of a medicalpractitioner or any other such health professional.

This e-book is downloaded on the strict understanding that theauthor cannot accept any responsibility for any loss or injuryarising from the use or improper use of the download or anycontent contained therein.

While every effort is made to provide accurate information,statistics shown cannot be guaranteed to be up to date oraccurate. The author is not responsible for errors or omissions.

Table of ContentsAuthor........................................................................................3Introduction................................................................................5

Overview...............................................................................8Diet...........................................................................................13

Chapter 1.............................................................................14How to create a healthy diet ..........................................14

Chapter 2.............................................................................27Implementing your Plan.................................................27

Mindset....................................................................................40Chapter 3.............................................................................41

Undoing the Brainwashing............................................41Chapter 4.............................................................................46

New perceptions.............................................................46Chapter 5.............................................................................62

Emotional Eating............................................................62Subconscious ...........................................................................66

Chapter 6.............................................................................67Subconscious Transformation........................................67

Overview

Only a small percentage of overweight people who dietactually reach their target weight and maintain the weight losslong-term. What do they do that is different? This e-bookaddress the three pillars of their success:

1. DIET:

You have developed eating habits over time that cause you tocrave junk food, crave sugar and feel false hunger. Learn thediet habits of naturally slim people, work in hornomy with theinstinctive nutritional needs of your body and feel satisfied andfull with natural, healthy foods.

Going on a “diet” is usually the first step for those people whoare unsuccessful in their attempt to lose weight and maintainthe weight loss. It is the one thing you shouldn't do. If “dieting”means eating fewer calories than you need to MAINTAINyour healthy weight, then you will cause problems with yourmetabolism and set yourself up for a serious problem withbinge eating, obsessing about food and yo-yo dieting. If“dieting” means eating or drinking anything other than naturalunprocessed food and drinks, then you will end up in failure.Forget about fad diets, pills and liquid diets (which are forbabies). In this section about diet you will discover how toapproach eating so that you have the best chance of success.

2. MINDSET:

Since you were just a child you started to develop certainthinking about food. Those early patterns of behaviour havebecome automatic and have developed into ingrained habits inadulthood This e-book can help you to discover how to relateto food in a responsible, mature way.

When overweight people embark on a weight-loss programme,the focus in on following some “imposed diet” and findingsome source of motivation – be it from a group, buddy or other.Also, they use one of those sources to keep them accountable.However, unless you develop self-responsibility, self-motivation and self-accountability you will not maintain theweight you lose. One thing that never changes for those peopleis the thinking structure that is an intrinsic part of the way theyrelate to food. Our thinking drives our feelings, which in turndrives our behaviour. People who successfully manage theirweight change their deepest held perceptions about food. Thissection can help you to create a new mindset and liberate youfrom the destructive thinking that has developed over time,much of which is now automatic thinking.

3. SUBCONSCIOUS CHANGE:

When you have repeatedly carried out certain eating habitsover time, they now have become ingrained subconsciously -you need subconscious change to break these old patterns ofbehaviour.

This FREE e-book covers the first two pillars of successfulweight management. Subconscious change involvescommunication with your subconscious mind. The hypnosisprogramme covers the third pillar. Details are available at theend of the e-book.

N.B.

It is very important that you integrate the three pillars fromthe beginning. It is crucial that you have your subconsciousworking with you as get to work at implementing the newapproach to diet and your new attitude to food.

Before you start:

It is important to know that certain medical conditions canaffect your success. The first consideration in unexplainedweight gain is the fact that some medical condition could bethe culprit. If someone is gaining weight without any change ineating habits, then it is important that consideration should begiven to the possibility that some condition is the actual causeof the problem.

Biological Factors:

Numerous genetic variables are associated with obesity andvarious medical conditions. Body weight is also affected byhormones and biological pathways within the body. Peoplewho are obese can find it harder to lose weight as thesehormones and pathways tend to be dysfunctional in thosepeople.

Examples:

Underactive thyroid: This is where the production of thyroid hormones slows downor stops. This causes the metabolism to slow down and causesmore fat to be stored.

Leptin. Science has now discovered that virtually everything to do withweight loss for both men and women is controlled by onemaster hormone. This hormone that controls 100% of yourbody’s ability to burn fat is Leptin. Being resistant to thehormone leptin is a major cause of obesity. Leptin is involvedin giving a signal regarding the required level of fat that needsto be stored. When the leptin isn’t managing to deliver its

signal, the brain thinks that you are starving. It can be almostimpossible to overcome cravings in the face of the leptin-driven signal.

Just as the insulin production mechanism can malfunction inthe case of diabetes, the leptin mechanism can also malfunction(leptin resistance). The main causes of leptin resistance are:

1.Calorie deficiency - shortage in the amount of caloriesconsumed relative to the amount of calories required. (One ofthe big side-effects of restrictive dieting is that it affects leptin.This can be one of the reasons why after a period of this typeof dieting, the person is overcome with an irresistible cravingfor food). 2. Excessive calorie intake – the opposite to the first reason.Eating junk food that is high in calories and low in nutrients isthe main culprit for this. 3. Excessive sugar consumption – the over-consumption ofsugary junk foods.4. Lack of exercise.5. Stress - Stress can lead to emotional eating BUT it alsoaffects fat storage in the body. Stress increases cortisol, astress hormone, as well as insulin. Both of those hormonesspeed up fat storage. When you are in a constant state of stress,“fight or flight,” your metabolism slows down.

If you eat when under physiological stress (even when eatingthe healthiest foods in the world) you fail to digest, assimilateand burn calories. Stress causes blood to flow to arms, legs andaway from the digestive system. It gets you ready for “flight orfight”, preparing your body for a physical contest and speedingup your thinking. If you are under ongoing emotional stress(financial worries, relationship conflict, family stress, workstress and so on), you fail to burn calories and you also are not

building muscle.

If you have physical stress in addition to emotional stress(smoking, drinking, processed food, restricted calories and soon), you are compounding your overall stress level. Whileanybody's stress level goes up and down as they meet stressfulevents, it is the ongoing high base level stress that is theproblem.

Medications :

Many medications can prevent weight loss or cause you to gainweight. Steroids can cause weight gain. Talk with your doctorand ask him or her to suggest alternatives to your currentsteroid medications. Birth control pills and HRT can cause anunhealthy build up of estrogen in the body and can cause fat toaccumulate on hips, thighs and rear. Some psychotropic andanti-seizure drugs can also affect your weight.

Behaviour is driven by biochemistry and physiology and notjust a matter of decision or motivation. It is important thatyou rule out such factors as the underlying cause of obesity.

DietManagement

Chapter 1

How to create a healthy diet

Hunger is what drives you to eat, so before we look at what andhow you should eat it is important that you understand hunger.There are three types of hunger: physical hunger, emotionalhunger and fake hunger.

1. Physical hunger.Physical hunger is a gradual build up of the followingsymptoms:

Feeling empty in the stomach.Rumbling in the stomach.Dizziness or light-headedness.Headache.Irritability.Difficulty in concentrating.NauseaDieting can result in your inability to recognise hunger signalsand an inability to recognise fullness. It is normal for hunger tooccur 3 to 5 hours after eating. It is helpful to think of a scaleof 1 - 10.0 = Starving, headache.3 = Hunger pangs.5 = Feeling comfortable.6 = Satisfied and content.8 = Overfull.10 = Nauseated, feeling guilty that you have eaten so much.You might want to start eating at number 3 on the scale andfinish eating when you have reached number 6. Do not allow

yourself to be starving before you eat, or become overfull whenyou stop.

Managing physical hunger.

What causes hunger in the first place? Our body needs energyand nutrients and we have a built-in mechanism to tell us whatthe body needs. Hunger is the signalling system to drive us toconsume the nutrients we need.

Processed food prevents the built-in mechanisn fromfunctioning properly, so we end up craving junk food instead ofcraving the healthy food. The good news is that when we starteating healthy food over a period on time, this mechanismstarts working properly again.

Junk food contains a lot of empty calories, it is high in caloriesand low in nutrients. We could eat a lot of processed and stillfeel empty due to the low nutrient content. Natural food is highin nutrients but low in calories, so eating this food makes usfeel satisfied. The food we eat is either used up, excreted orstored as fat. Calorie rich food gets stored as fat.

People don’t need to work harder at food management, theyneed to work smarter. Working smarter means working inharmony with the nutritional needs of the body. So what isnecessary to control hunger? The simple answer is having adiet of wholesome, natural food.

Fibre fills us up and we feel satisfied. Generally, processedfood is low in fibre. Even though we are eating a lot ofsubstance when eating junk food, the body is not obtaining alot of nutrients so, we keep eating more and more of the food

as it is nutrient poor. You could be eating processed food allday long and still be hungry, due to the fact that your body isnot getting the required nutrients. When we are eating the foodthat nature intended us to eat, the body regulates the amount offood we crave.

2. Emotional hunger.

Emotional hunger is a sudden development of an emptyfeeling. This feeling has to do with the surfacing of someuncomfortable emotion inside. That emotion can be stress,loneliness, boredom, sadness, anxiety or other emotions.Sometimes it can be the result of some buried emotion fromprevious experiences with which you might not be in touch.You have learned to respond to this feeling with food. Thefood temporarily masks the feeling with its sensory andphysiological comfort. When you get in touch properly withyour body and emotions, you can easily recognise differentsensations.

3. Fake hunger.

This is is where you experience a “sugar crash” in your body,this results from a “spiking” of sugar in your body from havingpreviously eaten something with a high concentration of simplesugars (chocolate, sweet cake etc). When you will have stoppedeating this junk food, this type of hunger will be no longer aproblem

Understanding the food you eat.

What NOT To EatSweets

Fast foodBiscuitsChips and other similar snack foods.Cakes and other pastries.

Besides all the above-mentioned items, there are other types offoods that should also be avoided, greatly limited, or consumedsparingly.

They are:Foods containing any trans fat (they enhance the texture,flavour and shelf-life of many processed foods - from biscuitsto pizza)Foods high in saturated fat (those are solid at roomtemperature).Foods high in sodium.Foods high in sugar.Convenience is the one thing the above foods have in common.There is a variety of health risks associated with diets high inthese types of foods. These foods are unhealthy to beconsuming.

What TO Eat Your plan should consist of significant amounts of the threeessential nutrients: protein, fat and carbs. Your body needs asignificant amount of all three.

Protein

MINIMUM protein intake should be about 50 grams per 100lbs you weigh. Protein impacts on our level of hunger. You willbe hungry again soon after your meal if the meal does not havea protein source. Maintaining the essential amount of proteinduring the day will ensure that will not feel hungry. Choose

non-meat protein products whenever possible.

Good Sources Of Protein

Chicken, turkey, fish, eggs, beans, nuts.You can find out the content of protein in your food bychecking the label on the packaging or online for non-packagedfoods.

Protein sources to avoid or limit:Luncheon meatsBacon, pork chops Certain cheeses (avoid highly processed cheese)

Other facts about Protein:1 gram of protein has 4 calories.Protein is necessary to build muscle. We should have sufficientintake of protein each day. The more muscle we have, thebetter we burn off fat. We tend to lose muscle as we grow olderand find it more difficult to burn fat. You could eat the exactsame food at fifty as you did at twenty but you can carry a fewstone extra fat on your body.

Protein stimulates the hormone glucagon. Glucagon is thedigestive hormone that encourages us to burn and metabolisefat. Having protein in our diet signals to our bodies to feel fulland satisfied.

FatMaximum of 30% of your total daily calorie intake shouldcome from fat.

Good Sources Of Fat

Fish (mackerel, salmon and sardines, etc.)Fish OilNuts & seedsOlive OilCanola Oil

Other Facts About Fat1 gram of fat has 9 calories (Pound Of Fat = 3500 Calories )Diets that are high in trans / saturated fats can be causedifferent health problems, including heart disease. These fatsare often termed "bad fats". Polyunsaturated / monounsaturatedfats can help prevent the same health problems from occurring.These fats are called "good fats".

An important point about low-fat and non-fat dairy products.Avoid processed dairy products. People buy low-fat dairyproducts in the belief that they are better, the opposite is thecase. (Fat does not make you fat, the excessive consumptionof calories (mainly from sugar) makes you fat). S ee thesection on sugar later on. The fat contained in high qualitydairy products helps us to digest the dairy product, helps us tofeel full and turn off the hunger mechanism. Buy REAL milkand REAL butter – the spreads are not better for you. If everyou are in doubt about the best food to eat, just think of whatyour granny used to eat when she was growing up. The latestresearch shows that the food past generations have eaten isclearly the best. Stay away from processed foods with a longlist of ingredients, they are slowly poisoning you – you aremuch more likely to die from cancer and other illnesses if youcontinue eating this type of food. Those foods can also behighly addictive due to added ingredients.

Carbs

50% of your total daily calorie intake should come from carbs.

Complex carbohydrates

Complex carbohydrates are broken down in the liver to formsugar. The energy of complex carbohydrates takes longer tobreak down than the simple sugar in sugary junk foods, theyare released more slowly and you do not get the famousdamaging “sugar spikes “from this sugar. Many people areafraid to eat carbohydrates due to the popularity of low-carbohydrates diets. People are not aware of the differentcarbohydrates, how some are good, and some are bad. Goodcarbohydrates stabilise blood sugar, balance energy and givewell-being feelings long after eating has finished.

Some examples of healthy foods containing complexcarbohydrates:

Whole Barley, grapefruit, apples, prunes, lettuce, pears, plums,oat bran cereal, oatmeal, asparagus, spinach, oranges, cabbage,carrots, wholemeal bread, onions, brussels sprouts etc.

Simple carbohydrates.

Simple carbohydrates cause swings in your blood sugar levels,change your mood, lead to compulsive eating and lead toweight gain. Additionally, they cause withdrawal symptomswhen you stop consuming them.

We find these sugars in abundance on shelves in shops and inthe average western diet. The sugar energy from fizzy drinks,biscuits, cakes, chocolate and desserts, flood your bloodstreamwith glucose almost immediately.

Switching from the refined sugars in sugary foods to naturalsugars in fruit can be for most people, the most decisivefactor in long-term weight management.

When you consume simple sugars you will get a short “sugarhigh”, then you feel your energy drain, your mood drops andyou feel hungry again. Those sugars do not solve the loss ofenergy, emotional drainage or hunger, they create the oppositeof what you want. How you feel for a few moments while youeat those foods is not what is important, it is how you feel forthe 16 hours a day while you are awake.

Eating sugary foods means that you SACRIFICE the goodfeelings of sixteen hours a day for the few moments you get ahigh from sugary junk foods. You also sacrifice the goodfeeling of being slim and looking good for those sixteen hours.You still get your sugar requirements into your bloodstreamfrom natural foods but will not cause the mood swings, createcravings, lowered energy level or cause compulsive eating.

Remember you can develop an addiction to simple sugar in thesame way as someone gets addicted to other drugs. You haveto quit the high concentration intake of sugar. You will alwayshave a low intake of simple sugars in many foods, but it’s thehigh concentration of sugar in food that does the “spiking”damage.

Some examples of foods containing simple carbohydrates:Table sugar, bread made with white flour, all baked goodsmade with white flour, fruit juice, most packaged cereals, pastamade with white flour, fizzy drinks, biscuits, cakes, chocolateand desserts, etc.

Simple carbohydrates are refined. They tend to be more

fattening and are usually found in foods with the leastnutrients.

The TRUTH about sugar.

The guidelines introduced in the late seventies recommendedreducing overall dietary fat consumption to 30% of total energyintake and saturated fat to 10%. Fat was seen as bad and theroot cause of growing obesity. When you remove fat fromfood, it becomes tasteless, sugar was used to replace the fat.Low-fat products became the rage.

Some low-fat products can have as much as ten times the sugarcontent of the full-fat product, the low-fat products can causeyou to become MORE obese. It is important that you read thelabels for the sugar content. 50% of the sugar we consumetoday is from items that people expect to be sugar-free such astomato sauce, fat-free salad dressings, commercially preparedsmoothies, barbecue sauce, multi-grain crackers and cereals,hamburger meat and all types of processed food.

If you are consuming sugar on an ongoing basis, you have ahigh level of insulin corresponding to that consumption.Insulin is the hormone that causes an increased level of fat toget stored in your fat cells.

Ghrelin is the hormone that signals hunger to the brain. Thebody increases ghrelin if a person is undereating and decreasesit if he or she is overeating. However, it doesn't respond tosugar – it doesn't register it as food. This is why you feelhungry despite eating food with a high sugar content. All youget from such “food” is a sugar hit in the brain.

Rule of thumb for shopping:

Make sure to read the labels. If the label lists sucrose, corn syrup, sugar, fructose, white flour, etc, they contain simple carbohydrates.Purchase foods that are not refined or highly processed. You should choose fruit instead of fruit juice, which is very high in simple sugars.Factory produced versus nature.Simple carbohydrates are created in a factory while complexcarbohydrates are designed by nature. Many similar foods canhave remarkably different levels of sugar. For instance, someyogurts are sugar- free while others can be as high as 20%.It is an excellent idea to make a shopping list of your regularfoods an compare the brands. Purchase the ones with the lowestsugar and calorie content. You would be amazed at thedifference this can make to your weight in one year.

Be careful not to consume calories in liquid form. Energydrinks are in vogue but the sugar content is extremely high insuch drinks. These drinks are not particularly filling. You arejust creating hunger by drinking them.

Drinks To Avoid

Energy drinks and fruit Juices - yes, fruit is healthy but fruitjuices you purchase are full of sugar. The name "fruit juice"confuses people, they assume that it must be healthy. Water isthe best drink. Just add a slice of lemon if you do not like thetaste of unflavoured water.

IMPORTANT fact about Cooking

Cooking is another important factor when talking about yourdiet. When you cook at a heat above 248 degrees F (120degrees C), new chemicals are created. Acrylamide is one of

those chemicals, this chemical is indexed as a probable humancarcinogen. Cooking at high temperatures can pose a risk ofseveral types of cancer. Boiling, steaming, and baking are yourbest options. So, limit the use of the frying-pan, the deep-fatfryer and other methods that cause food to become charred. Itis a matter of concern that a lot of what many youngsters noweat is food that is cooked in a deep-fat fryer, it doesn't augerwell for their long-term health.

The “FAT” Problem

Being overweight means you have a “fat” problem – your dietand exercise habits are causing you to have excessive fat storedon your body. People get confused between “fat loss” and“weight loss”. If you stand on the weighing scales and you are5lbs lighter and it is “fat loss”, then that is good news. If mostof the loss is muscle tissue loss, then that is bad news. Youneed MORE muscle tissue not less, as the more muscle youhave the better you burn fat. It is the padding of fat that makesyou look fat. For instance, you can have two people weighingthe same where one is solid muscle and the other with littlemuscle and a lot of fat. The one with the fat can look a fewstone heavier than the other. Therefore, the weighing scales innot a good indicator of your fat percentage. The look in themirror or a tape measurement or the belly fat pinch test is abetter indicator of how much fat you are carrying.Unfortunately, when people lose weight on weight lossprogrammes, much of that loss CAN be muscle loss.

The Weighing Scales

While the weighing scales in not a good indicator of fat loss, ithas an important role to play in weight management. How towe know that we are making progress in anything we do? Wemust have a means of measuring progress. What gets measured

is more likely to get done. When I coach people who are quiteobese, it is not unusual to hear them say that they don’t weighthemselves, they don’t like to know how heavy they actuallyare. It is important to know where you are right now if youwant to set targets.

When it comes to your weight, if you don’t consistentlymeasure your progress on a weighing scales, one day you willstep on the scales and become horrified at your weight. If youmeasure your progress on a regular basis it is easier to stay ontrack. It is better to see the scales as a means to measuring“your progress in achieving your goal of maintaining ahealthy eating pattern on a consistent basis”.

Your weight on the scales can be influenced by many factors.One such factor is your level of water retention which can varyaccording to how much water you drink ( the more your drink,the less you retain). your menstrual cycle, if you haveconsumed alcohol, etc. Your level of water retention can varyfrom 3 to 5 lbs per week. So, your weight can fluctuateindependently of how you eat. It is better to see the TRENDon the scales from month to month.

A Final Note

Many weight loss programmes promote supplements ( proteinbars, drinks, etc) as part of their programmes. Thesesupplements are no addition to weight management, this isjust another revenue source for the company. (Very strange thatany programme that should be promoting healthy eating ispromoting processed food).

Nothing other than wholesome natural foods should be a part

of your diet. About 40% of adults are at their healthy bodyweight – you should be modelling what they do.

Processed food has a long shelf-life because the microbes won'teat it due to the additives. If the microbes won't eat it in thepacket, they don't wan't to eat it in your stomach.

This is why this type of “food” gives you no energy, you stillfeel hungry and it can cause digestive problems. More recentresearch shows that processed food is more closely linked tocancer than previously believed.

Chapter 2

Implementing your Plan

Lifestyle Habits of Slim People

Slim people do not dietThat is because dieting makes you miserable, fat and obsessive.Dieting sends your body into famine mode. This will causeweight gain when you start eating additional food.

Slim people eat junkYes, most slim people eat the occasional hamburger, dessert orchocolate. They know the occasional piece of junk food is notgoing to cause any problem. No food is BANNED.

Slim people do not bingeSlim people tend to stop eating when they feel SATISFIED.They know they can always have more food later when theyare hungry. People tend to feel hunger every three to fivehours.

Slim people are not obsessedThey tend to think about their choice of food if they gethungry. They decide what to have, eat it, and then forget aboutit. Thinking about food creates the urge to eat it.

Slim people do not abuse foodYou abuse food when you eat for emotional reasons as opposedto hunger reasons.

Slim people exercise.

This can be the decision to take the stairs instead of the lift, towalk instead of taking the car. It is good to think of exercise asany movement that speeds up the heart rate. You do not have tojog or go to the gym to get exercise.

Slim people see healthy eating and exercise as a lifestyle.If a slim person starts putting on some weight, he/she willreadjust to a better lifestyle habit, they do not “start a diet”.

Conscious Eating

The greatest satisfaction we get from food is from the tastebuds in the mouth. This is where we get real pleasure fromfood. The quantity of food is not what matters, it is the lengthof time we hold each mouthful of food. Slim people can getmore satisfaction from eating than overweight people, eventhough they eat much less food. Slim people tend to takesmaller mouthfuls of food and savour each mouthful beforereleasing it down into the stomach. Will you get the same tastefrom a small bite of a biscuit as from the whole biscuit? Thereis no difference in taste level, there is just more bulk with thefull biscuit. Now you can see how this awareness can decreasethe quantity of food you eat.

Calories should be not wasted, do not waste the taste. Whenyou are eating, you should pay conscious attention to eating.

You should be aware of the taste, texture and temperature ofeach bite, savour each second of having food in your mouth.You can see why eating while focused on your favourite soapor engrossed in a telephone conversation is not a good idea.

Dieting

Restrictive dieting results in losing touch with innate hungersignals. If you continue to do this, your innate defencemechanism will kick in and will overpower you to eat morethan you require. You will start eating excessively and pilingthe weight back on again. Plan your eating each day inaccordance with the natural rhythm of hunger This will resultin slimness and you will never be starving.

Restrictive dieting leads to the classical yo-yo dieting to whichmost overweight people succumb. They blame themselves fornot being able to continue with the diet but it is not their fault,nature is more powerful than willpower.

Additionally, when you deprive yourself of the required intakeof food, your metabolism slows as the body thinks there isstarvation. When you take in excessive food in your overeatingcycle, the body now stores the additional food as fat due to aslower metabolism. Your body is now preparing for the nextfamine.

Research has shown that reducing people’s required foodintake by 30% or more produces symptoms of irritability, lossof endurance and obsessive behaviour around food. Theobsessive behaviour continues long after the person startseating properly again. The diets of many popular weightmanagement programmes available today suggest an excessivereduction in calorie intake.

You have become overweight due to taking in more caloriesthan your calorie requirement per day. Planning to lose weightby taking in way fewer calories than is required for yourhealthy weight is a foolish one. I have seen weight lossprogrammes suggesting calorie intake of 800 calories per day,where the required calories to maintain a healthy weight is

1,800 calories. This is disastrous for your long-term fat storage.Restricted calories affect your fat burning and muscle buildinghormones, causing you to lose muscle and make your bodymore prone to storing fat.

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The GOLDEN RULE of successful weight loss:

Eat the required calories as if you were ALREADY yourhealthy weight (eating what you would need to MAINTAINyour healthy weight). The way you lose it is the way you keepit off. This rules out crash diets, fad diets and every diet underthe sun that is not designed to continue as your lifestylediet for the rest of your life.

N.B. Healthy, wholesome food is high in nutrients and low incalories, junk food is high in calories and low in nutrients. Junkfood quickly puts you over your calorie threshold and you canstill be starving throughout the day. You can eat a substantialquantity of healthy food and still stay within your calorie limit.

___________________________________________________

This strategy will gradually bring your weight down as you arenot eating sufficient calories to MAINTAIN your excessiveweight. If you work off the excessive fat by additionalexpending of energy through exercise, weight loss will happenfaster. Losing weight like this is not instant, but you must thinkof the long-term. You might be inspired by spectacular weightloss stories such as, “I lost six stone in six months”, weight losstestimonials. This is a foolish way to lose weight. You neversee the three years later testimonial where they have put theweight back on, plus additional weight. Unfortunately, many

weight loss programmes suggest the opposite to what is in yourinterest: to start to lose weight quickly. This is to convince youthat you are successful on the programme and get youbelieving in their strategy.

My aim is to keep this guide concise. I will not delve into theevaluation of calorie intake, calculation of BMR (calories youburn with no exercise at all), etc. This information is readilyavailable online. Search for a BMR calculator, this will giveyou the required intake of calories for you. You can also getonline calorie counters to give you the precise number ofcalories in different foods. This will give you a clear guide.You might be quite surprised by the number of calories youfind in various foods. You can also find calorie burningcalculators, which will show how many calories you presentlyburn and how different activities burn calories specific to yoursituation.

This will guide you to what you should be eating every day.The slim person is not counting calories but he/she knows whatfood, and in what quantity they should be eating to maintaintheir healthy weight.

However, as your body has been trained not to be in tune withreal hunger, retraining it with the required intake of calories foryour healthy weight is essential. The fantastic news is that byeating REAL FOOD (non-processed, natural food) over aperiod of time, hunger regulates itself beautifully.

You can use the online calculators or / and packaging labels todiscover the calories in the foods you want to eat. Rememberyou should eat enough calories as if you were already yourcorrect weight. You might be surprised by your calorierequirements if you are not particularly active.

Use BMR calculator to discover the required calories foryour correct weight and then use a multiplier.

Sedentary (little or no exercise) BMR x 1.2Lightly active (light exercise 1-3 days per week) BMR x 1.375Moderately active (moderate exercise 3-5 days per week BMRx 1.55Very active (hard exercise 6-7 days a week) BMR x1.725Extra active (very hard exercise 6-7 days a week) BMR x 1.9(The Harris Benedict Formula Calculator will do thisonline).

The above section is the technical approach for estimating yourfood requirements – it is necessary to provide this information.

The EASY way to discover what you should be eating tomaintain your healthy weight is to set out a healthy food planand then use the scales to see if there is a downward TRENDon the scales. If necessary, you can keep adjusting your plan sothat the downward TREND continues until you reach targetweight.

This is simple and straight-forward and a far cry from thecalculations that must be done with conventional weightlossprogrammes that make your meal planning complicated, Thisapproach is in line with the approach to meal planning ofnaturally slim people.

If you lost just 1lb of weight per week on average for 52weeks, you lose 52 lbs per year – 3st,10lbs. If you follow mygolden rule (eat what you should be eating as if you were

ALREADY your correct weight) the initial weight loss isgreater due to the difference in the level of calorieconsumption, this tapers off to settle in at 1-2 lbs per week.

IMPORTANT. There are times when you will consumeadditional calories: going on holidays, weddings, weekendsaway (weekends!!!) etc - you will go up on the scales. That isO.K. Resume your plan again and get your downward TRENDgoing on the scales.

There can be setbacks in life that can affect your healthy eatingplan, bereavement, illness, separation, financial problems, etc.Those events can thow you off-track, that is to be expected.Setbacks in life and setbacks with your eating plan areINEVITABLE.

Every successful story, every successful person has metsetbacks along the way. Successful people expect setbacks(without setbacks, you will never be truly successful with anymajor goal). Successful people see setbacks as feedback, theylearn from the experience and that learning is crucial for theireventual success. Unsuccessful people see setbacks in adifferent light, they see themselves as a failure, they blamethemselves, they blame others, they blame the programme –they find every EXCUSE possible. ATTITUDE is thedifference between success and failure (your attitude isingrained subconsciously – this is another reason forutilising the power of hypnosis). If your WHY to succeed isbig enough, NOTHING is going to stop you achieving yourgoal – no matter what setbacks you experience.

If a setback happens, PROMPTLY get yourself back oncourse. It is so common for people to let themselves drift,regain weight and then they have to claw it all back again to

where they were before the setback.

My goal is to help you take responsibility for the managementof your diet – not to be spoonfed by a company. I want you tobe proactive and take charge and become self-motivated. Thisempowers you and gives you a sense of being in control of theway you relate to food.

There is a lot of information on the internet about mealplanning - meals for breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks andyou are given the exact calorie count per meal.

Plan your eating

Plan you eating times for each day. Leave no more than 4 hoursbetween meals. Planning what you will eat each time will helpdrive you to eat according to the plan. It has been proven thatmost people enjoy knowing when their next meal is and areless likely to search for other food when they know theirschedule. Therefore, it is important to set a meal time and stickto it. If you feel like eating when you follow a planned day, it isnot hunger, it is emotion dressed up as hunger. We can confuse“feeling uncomfortable” and “feel like eating”. We canmislabel emotions. Always wait for your next scheduled mealor snack time.

The most successful plan is one of three main meals and thena small filler between meals. This goes with the naturalrhythm of hunger.

The filler snack should contain a healthy protein source and /or fruit. Keep yourself hydrated with water / flavoured waterthroughout the day.

You should include a protein source in ALL three mainmeals. You have learned already that no matter how manycalories you eat in a meal, you can start to feel hunger if themeal does not a have a protein source.

Eating protein speeds up your metabolism. Protein takes a lotof work for the body to digest. When you eat 100 calories ofprotein, you will use up 25 of those calories just to digest it.

Once again. I will mention processed SUGAR. Foodscontaining sugar in high concentration will cause withdrawalsymptoms. It will cause you to feel empty, drained of energy,restless, hungry and cause mood swings. You may havebelieved in the past that eating more of it solved the problem. Itdid for a little while, then you were back shortly with the samesymptoms again. Sugar does not solve the problem, IT KEEPSIT GOING. Replace refined sugars with the natural sugars infruit. Soon you will feel better, feel less hungry and on yourway to a slimmer, healthier you.

If you are highly obese, do not cut your calorie intake bymore than 25%. As your weight falls, keep cutting back onthe calorie intake. You will finally reach the point where youconsume the necessary calories to maintain your correctweight.

Start every day with a substantial, healthy breakfast.

If you are going on a long journey by car, you will first fill upthe tank. Think of your body in terms of the car. People whostart the day with a proper breakfast are 50% less likely to beoverweight. Fill your tank every morning and ensure it stays ongreen ALL DAY by eating on a regular basis - remember youeat three main meals and a snack between main meals. This is

crucial to keep the sugar levels from falling to red on the dial.If the level falls, you body takes over and will drive you to eata junk food that rises the sugar level quickly. You are then offon a spiking - crashing pattern for the rest of the day.

IMPORTANT.

We are born to be a certain height, weight and programmedto need a certain level of calories and eat certain foods - likeevery other species on the face of the planet. If we don’t givethe body the food it requires, no matter how much junk foodwe eat, the body will create a hunger for the food andnutrients it needs. Working in harmony with the nutritionalneeds of the body is crucial for success.

Practical Tips

Healthy home policy.Many families are now choosing this policy. It means that onlyhealthy natural food is bought to eat at home for adults andchildren alike. “Treats” can be eaten when one is out for theday, etc. You are not being “nice” or “loving” towards kids oradults by giving them junk food. Don’t train children inwanting unhealthy food. Sugary food makes them hyperactive,it affects their learning and emotional state and sets them up forlong-term sugar addiction and life-long obesity - that is notloving tender care, is it? When unhealthy food is in the house,it gets eaten. Even people who would never want to eat it, endup eating it when it is in the house after visitors coming or anyother such reason.

Hunger and thirst.We can be confused between physical hunger and thirst. Take adrink and if that does not solve the craving, it must be hunger.

Research has shown that 37 % of people actually confusesthirst and hunger signals. PROVEN tip about water. Drinking a pint of water before meals can lead to a 75 caloriereduction in the calories consumed. Water makes your stomachfeel full, so you are less inclined to clear your plate. While 75calories may not seem like a lot, if you do this before breakfast,lunch and dinner every day, it mounts up to losing over 20lbsin one year.

If you increase your daily intake of water, your body will beginto shed its excess fat, including the fat stored as cellulite. Thewater will also help strengthen the collagen in your skin,helping to reduce the lumpy look.

Eating on the go.Don’t do it, it is a very bad habit, you are breaking one of themost important rules about eating in the process: slow, mindfuleating.

Make a shopping list Make a shopping list for the items you NEED at eachshopping. Unless you do this, you will be influenced by thepresentation of items, the choices made by other shoppers, etc.Make sure that you are not shopping on an empty stomach.

Prepacked lunchIf you are driving a long journey, going for lunch during workor even when shopping in town, have a healthy optionavailable. When people don't have a prepacked lunch, there isthe tendency to choose convenience food that is full of calories.Always have a bottle of water in the car.

Choose real food

Choose Mother nature’s food which is natural, non-processedand good for you. Just think of it, you feel good as you eat it,you physically feel good after eating it when you are physicallyhungry and you feel good for making a good choice. Those arethree pluses for naturally healthy food. When you eat junkfood, you feel good while eating it, you feel physically badshortly after eating it and guilty for eating it. that is one plusand two minuses. Healthy eating is an OVERALL morepleasurable experience.

Mental food diaryResearch shows that when you keep a written track on whatyou do, it tends to influence behaviour. However, writing adiary is a chore and it isn’t something that would continue.Practice making a mental food diary instead.

Non-food weight target rewardsCreate non-food rewards that you can control that willencourage you to attain healthy eating and exercise goals,especially those that have been difficult to reach. An effectivereward is something that is desirable, timely, and contingenton meeting your goal. Have a list of non-food rewards. Keep inmind that numerous small rewards, delivered for meetingsmaller goals are more effective than bigger rewards, requiringa long, difficult effort.

General rewards.Get away from the idea of using food as a reward. Rewardyourself for work well done in life with activities that bringyou pleasure, instead of eating food. You put in a hard day atthe office - have a soothing bath, listen to a relaxing audio, etc.Those type of activities are pleasurable, they don’t add to yourweight and you won’t feel guilty afterwards.

Important points from this section.Recognise the different kinds of hunger.Mindful eating - eat slowly and enjoy each mouthful.Switch from refined sugars to natural sugars.Eat three main meals and filler snacks, no more than four hoursbetween eating times.Eat lean protein with each meal.Eat a substantial breakfast EACH morning.Make a shopping list and switch to brands with lower calories,fat and sugar content.Drink sufficient water - are you confusing hunger with thirst?Eat the calories you need if you were ALREADY your healthyweight.Use non-food rewards.Make a mental food diary.Plan your eating.Give your body the food it instinctively needs.Healthy home policy - have choices between healthy foods.

MindsetFor Success

Chapter 3

Undoing the Brainwashing

One function of this e-book is to undo the food brainwashing towhich you have been subjected since you were born. I knowthat you may blame yourself for being overweight, not beingable to say no to junk food, unable to stop reaching for foodwhen you feel emotional discomfort, etc. The truth is that youcan stop blaming yourself right now. You are where you aredue to all the conditioning that you have been subjected to allyour life.

No matter how hard you try, your conscious willpower willnever be a match for the powerful conditioning in yoursubconscious mind. Your eating patterns have been reinforcedagain and again over time, they have become a formidableforce inside you. Why do you think 95% of all diet plans fail?It is helpful to think of you conscious mind and subconsciousas two separate individuals.

The conscious mind is a small, rational and logical person andthe subconscious mind is a powerful, primitive, emotionalperson. No matter how hard you try to influence this powerful,primitive, emotional person you just can not get through to thisperson. This powerful person does not respond to rationalargument.

The good thing about this powerful individual is that it learnsin a visual, feeling way and is influenced by imagery andindirect language communication. We can use its way oflearning to communicate with it and transform the way it

behaves. The hypnosis programme can help you tocommunicate with the mind at a deeper level and bring aboutprofound changes in the behavioural patterns.

Thinking matters.

Slim people with a healthy eating pattern are committed tobeing slim and have no inner conflicts in their mind about food.The slim person can enjoy the occasional unhealthy eatingepisode, but these episodes are in the plan. They might have aSunday dessert, have a treat on special occasions, do a littleunhealthy tasting here and there but all this is highly conscious,controlled and to plan.

On the contrary, overweight people are not eating to plan -feelings, fleeting thoughts, sensory stimuli, etc, drive theireating patterns. Beliefs, attitudes and conflicting wants have ahuge part to play in the way we ultimately behave.

The word “conviction” is a highly significant one when itcomes to making a profound change in our lives. Conviction isthe final judgement where we decide this is it, no matter whatthe discomfort or the sacrifice of what we give up, the desiredoutcome far outweighs any negatives along the way.

The slim person would have the conviction that the pleasure ofongoing feelings of: balanced energy, better mood, healthyeating, their living in a healthy body, better health into thefuture, a longer life, being able to wear different fashion styles,being admired for their figure, the wonderful feelings slim andenjoyment of their slimness for the 16 waking hours each dayis better than the occasional pleasurable moments of

unnecessary eating. The overweight person has decided thetotal opposite to this.

An analogy is useful here.

We develop an emotional attachment to a substance/behaviourin a similar way as we develop a relationship with a person.

Example. A woman is in an abusive relationship with a man.She knows that she is better off without the man but she staysin the relationship - maybe breaking up and going back again.She may still have emotions for the man, maybe she hasconcerns about being alone, financial difficulties, etc. She willstay like this until the moment comes when she is prepared tosacrifice the benefits she is getting from the relationship. Whenthat moment comes, she is free from the destructiveness of therelationship but has to adjust to a new and challenging spacewhere she has to find new solutions to her different needs.

Similarly, the overweight person has to make the decision toenter that space where food is no longer providing emotionalbenefits and now has to find new solutions to met the needsthat food previously met in his/her life.

When we examine this closely, we can see how the beliefs heldby the overweight person sabotage their success. Are any ofthose thoughts familiar: this once will not matter, now that Ibroken my daily plan I will keep going, I will start tomorrow,I deserve a treat, I do not smoke or drink, it is my time out, itsmells delicious, it helps me when I am bored. Theoverweight person is using all these excuses to deprivethemselves of all the benefits the slim person experiencesfrom their healthy, controlled eating. Your present weight isthe result of the sum of your individual decisions, every

decision matters. Each decision you make takes you towardsslimness or obesity.

The moment of conviction is our moment of transformation.There can be a gradual build-up of convincing beliefs or justone overwhelming moment in time. The moment of convictionis the moment that the heroin addict begins the journey ofbecoming clean forever, that the smoker decides to quit forgood, that momentous change happens in a person’s life. Theperson has now made a final decision where there is no goingback, no matter what the sacrifice of positives or what risk isinvolved. This is a moment that can potentially turn a person’slife right around. The overweight person has not yet reachedthat moment of conviction.

Presently, it is the temporary pleasure of junk food you arechoosing. When you choose the benefits, your life will betransformed. People who gorge on junk food think that they aredeprived if they have a healthy diet. Would their lives be worsewithout it? Is the life of a person who stopped the pleasure ofsmoking worse off without cigarettes? Is the person who hasabused alcohol worse off having stopped drinking? Is theperson who has quit taking illegal drugs worse off without thepleasure of the drugs? Of course, they would never dream ofgoing back there again. Why do people addicted to eating junkfood believe that their lives would be worse off without it? Theanswer to this is the effect of society’s brainwashing. Do youwant to be the victim of brainwashing or do you want thebenefits of being free from junk food and over-eating that bringmisery into your life?

The moment of conviction will occur when you haveconsidered the pros and cons for healthy & unhealthy eatingand you decide on the healthy option. Take time with your

decision. Remember, you can’t have both, you decide whetheryou want all the benefits of slimness or not.

The idea of not being in control of your eating is an illusion.The marvellous thing is that we are IN COMPLETECONTROL. We execute the CONCLUSIONS we havereached. When I use the word “control”, I do not mean rationalcontrol, I mean subconscious control. Your subconsciousguides you away from pain towards pleasure, as it sees it. Thesubconscious can perceive emotional discomfort as morepainful than living with obesity. It can decide that altering youremotional state at any given moment of time by eating junkfood, is more beneficial than tolerating obesity.

Chapter 4

New perceptions

It is helpful to think of the structure of behaviour in terms ofthe growing plant – roots(thoughts), stem(feelings) andflowers(behaviour). Our thoughts drive our feelings, which inturn drive our behaviour. Many overweight people try tochange their behaviour but find that they fail repeatedly. If youcut a weed at ground level, what happens to the weed? It growsback again because the roots are still in place. If we try andchange our feelings and behaviour without changing ourthought structure, we are drawn back to the same old feelingsand behaviour again.

If you think of a tree growing, some of the roots may be visibleabove the ground, but the vast majority are below ground level.In a similar fashion, we are aware of some of the thinking thatholds our feelings and behaviour in place but most of it issubconscious. The aim of this chapter is to help you look moreclosely at how your thinking is driving your destructive eatingpatterns.

The Ultimate decisionThe length of time that the average overweight spends each dayeating unhealthy foods is less than fifteen minutes per day. Arethose fifteen minutes worth the loss of all the benefits accruingfrom making healthy choices? You can even eat somethinghealthy for those fifteen minutes that would give satisfactionwithout causing all the destruction. Remember, the aftermath ofunhealthy eating is guilt, worse mood, physical discomfort anddecreased energy in addition to obesity, problems with health,

longevity, etc.

If a doctor said to you that he would give you “a treat pill” thatgave you a high for a few minutes but the made you feelphysically worse afterwards, made you feel guilty, lowered youenergy level and, of course, contained hundreds of calories,would you take it? Yet, this is what you do when you eat junkfood. See how brainwashing distorts our thinking.

The power of NOWThis is the space between a feeling and your reaction to thefeeling. It is the space for creativity and rational choice - it iswhere we are MINDFUL. So, start today being mindful and seethe broad picture before you react. Such questions as, “howwill I feel ten minutes after making the choice, is the differencein the feeling worth the bad choice, etc. Mindfulness puts youin control - you disengage from automatic reactions. Over-eaters often get carried away by the urge to eat and make a baddecision, and then afterwards feel guilty about the decision.While healthy eaters feel bad about bad eating decisions beforethey eat, and so make a good eating decision.

Your old automatic sequence: Uncomfortable feeling – thoughts of the pleasure of eating –then eat the food.

The hypnosis programme can help you create a newautomatic sequence.

Parts in harmonyPart I. The part of your that wants to be slim.Part 2. The part that wants pleasure from food.The question is how to decide on your eating plan each weekso that both parts are catered for and both are in agreement

that the plan is fair to both. The problem with overweightpeople who engage in “dieting” is that is there is no harmonybetween both parts. When a person goes on a diet, the “want tobe slim” part takes over to the exclusion of the other part andthe “weight loss” begins. The “want pleasure from food part ”is neglected and gets real angry and with a powerful force takesover from the “want to be slim” part, the overeating REALLYbegins and the weight starts piling back on again. This is thetypical yo-yo dieting. If you can GET AGREEMENT betweenboth parts, the goal of successful weight management getsmore easy. Now make this practical by doing the followingbelow:

With your knowledge from the “what to eat section” and “Thesuccess scale” shown, later on, work out an eating plan foreach day / week. Continue this ongoing planning into thefuture. If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.

Planning is crucial for success. People plan for every aspectof their lives except for eating. They plan for their work,activities, finances, family, etc. If people lived their lives withspontaneity, just “going with the flow of their feelings”, theirlives would be in chaos.

The power of oneEvery decision matters. Each time you make a decision abouteating, it takes you further towards slimness or obesity.Keeping stacking decisions towards slimness. Now you knowwhy such comments as, “this one time won’t make a differenceor I will start tomorrow” when you decide an unhealthy choice,is not the right thinking policy. When you repeat suchcomments over a year, it adds up to considerable weight gain.

Finding the right solution.

Most overeating is emotional eating. The person is stressed,angry, bored, lonely and this is the trigger for automatic eating- the opposite to mindful eating. The sequence:There is a life problem → causing a feeling → reactive eating→ temporary numbing of feeling → guilt feeling forovereating → the original problem is STILL there + theoriginal negative emotional is probably still there. If hungerin not the problem food is NOT the solution ever.

Are you using food as the SOLUTION for problems? Whatare the other possible solutions to deal with the feeling asopposed to eating?

Positive and negative motivationTo help you find alternative solutions to food, its is necessaryto look at two types of motivation: negative and positivemotivation.

Positive motivation: All the good reasons you have forchanging your behaviour - look slimmer, more energy, etc.

Negative motivation: All the reasons you have to continuewith the behaviour. This is what locks unwanted (consciously)behaviour in place. It tends to be more powerful than positivemotivation and it must be transformed to bring about lastingchange in behaviour. The behaviour is fulfilling someemotional need in the person. You either have to transform theemotions that are driving the behaviour and /or find a new wayof meeting an emotional need. ( I deal with the emotional sidein the next part of this section).

It is helpful to think of this process as a balance scales. Thereare needs on both sides of the scale and the side with the

greater needs tilts the scale to behave in one way or the other.The greater the emotions linked into the reasons to behave in acertain way, the more it exerts pressure on the scales.

An example of temporary change in thinking with theemotional charge: A girl who is overweight with bad eatinghabits is getting married in six months time. She has a greatdesire to look slim in her wedding dress, so she goes on a diet.The emotion involved exerts pressure on the positivemotivation side, so it tilts the scale to good eating habits andshe loses weight for the wedding day. Her mind was preparedto temporarily suspend the benefits from overeating due tooverpowering need to be slim for the wedding day. However,now that the need to be slim for the wedding day is over, theneed to use food to deal for everyday negative emotions comesinto play again and tilts the scale to bad habits again.

The girl didn’t just want to lose weight for her wedding butEXPECTED that she could do it due to the importance of theday - so she succeeded. This now brings us to an importantlaw of the mind: the law of expectation.

WHY slimming programmes have an INITIAL success

People attending weight loss programmes have the belief thatthe programme will help them to lose weight. They are given adiet and are inspired to be successful. Their craving for junkfood “disappears” and they follow the diet slavishly and maylose considerable weight. Where did the cravings go? They“disappeared” because they believed that this what wouldhappen. The Law of Expectation (what the mind believes, themind achieves). In the same way that a smoker who smokes acigarette every half-hour and goes on a ten-hour plane flightwithout any craving for a cigarette, where did the craving go?

Again, the law of expectation.

Of course, there are additional forces involved in weight lossprogrammes: you might be competitive and want to succeed,fear the embarrassment of being the one not losing weight, etc.You go along each week to the programme and you don't wantthe embarrassment of not losing weight. So, you lose someweight, you get applauded, you are ready for next week, youmight even be the biggest loser. This has nothing to do withweight management - this is playing weight loss games.

Conventional weight loss programmes can help to temporarilyboost your willpower. Sooner or later after pushing yourwillpower to its limits (sometimes after losing a lot of weight),you begin to be one of the worst performers, you begin to loseinterest in the game. You also see others caving into thechallenge, you have lost your drive and you drop out and startdoing what REALLY makes you happy - you start overeatingagain and the weight starts piling on again. Sounds familiar?

What was happening was in conflict with your subconsciousprogramming and sooner or later you would revert back tothe relationship with food that was “normal” for you.

WILLPOWER: Willpower is the conscious effort to achieve agoal that is in conflict with a more powerful deeper goal. It islike a game of tug-o-war, you will inevitably lose the battle.You have to control the forces that are controlling you – youneed skill power, not willpower.

About 5-10% of people are highly suggestible, those are thepeople who would be chosen to take part in hypnosis stageshows. Those people would tend to easily drift in and out oftrance states in everyday interactions. Assuming that the same

percentage of attendees at weight loss programmes are highlysuggestible, it would count for the percentage of attendees whomaintain the weight loss over an extended period. They simplyhave become subconsciously influenced by the dynamics ofgroup meetings. Wouldn't it have made more sense if that 5-10% had consulted for a hypnosis consultation instead – itwould have been faster, cheaper and have cut out all thenonsense. The vast majority of the remaining 90-95% wouldalso achieve subconscious change had they decided to do thesame.

Many different dynamics are behind the “success” ofconventional weight loss programmes. One example is theteacher-pupil scenario: attending class each week and having tohave weight shed (the homework done). Another istransference (which is very powerful) - this is where the personis developing feelings for the advisor and wanting to please bylosing weight. Ongoing one-to-one weight loss programmes isan example of this: the overweight guy with the glamorousadvisor. He is developing an attraction for the lady (may notaware of it consciously) and is chuffed by her happiness at hissuccess. While the guy is on the programme, he will probablykeep losing the weight. However, as soon as he leaves theprogramme his motivation is gone and he is back to the oldeating habits again. Such weight loss programmes are aware ofthose dynamics and will try to keep the client on theprogramme for as long as possible. Hence, they may offermaintenance programmes and the like. You will also notice thattheir success statistics are based on the clients still on thoseprogrammes.

People blindly buy into very strange activities of weight lossprogrammes, For instance, some programmes get their clientsto stick achievement stickers into a booklet, this is an

appropriate activity for toddlers in a playgroup, it is not anappropriate activity for profound mindset transformation forsomeone with a food addiction, is it now?

Traditional weight loss programmes are a great business model- their success is based on your FAILURES. Losing weight,then regaining it and going back to the programme is the modelfor their business success. The profits are made from repeatbusiness. Their marketing strategy is usually to get new clientsand hold onto existing ones, its easier to hold onto an existingclient than get a new one – this is not good news for the clients.It is time you get wise to the way traditional weight lossprogrammes operate and take control by reaching to methodsthat help to give YOU back control of your eating habits.Long-term, traditional weight loss programmes help clientslose euros NOT lbs.

The weight management industry has succeeded in creating theimpression that weight loss problems can only be resolved byattending weight loss programmes, this disempowersoverweight people. When you consider that 95% of attendeesthen fail in their attempt to maintain weight loss, this sense ofbeing disempowered is further reinforced to a degree thatoverweight people develop a “learned helplessness”. When thishappens it becomes almost impossible to succeed. Overweightpeople will tend to go from one weight loss programme toanother and then to the latest programme that really works,believing that this could be the one. Of course, it all ends up intears again. Conventional weight loss programmes, whetherthey are one-to-one or groups are just a VARIATION of amethod that is doomed to fail for 95% of participants.

It is empowering to take responsibility – only YOU can do it,you just need the strategies for success of SUCCESSFUL

slimmers. When you depend on an outside source for ongoingsupport, you are admitting that you don't have the innerresources to self-determination when it comes to your weight.There is a total disbelief subconsciously that you are the masterof your own destiny. YOU have got to be the captain of theship, the master of your fate.

Don't just follow what OTHERS are doing that – we tendfollow the flock. With a failure rate of 95%, that is not verysmart. This approach is HARD, with failure almost inevitable.We should work smarter not harder. Wouldn't it make moresense to follow the strategies of the 5% of overweight peoplewho SUCCEED?

N.BAnother aspect of expectation has to do with the way werespond to feelings. This has to do with whether or not webelieve we are empowered. When we feel empowered, we cando things purposely as opposed as “going wth the feeling” Forinstance, the mother who “feels like” staying in the cosiness ofher bed when the alarm goes off to get the kids up for school,has no problem in doing the oppposite of going with thefeeling, gets up and acts purposely. It is of enough importanceto do this – she has a big enough WHY. Yet, when this samelady “feels like” having a biscuit, she goes to the cupboard,gets one and eats one. Which urge is the strongest? PeopleBELIEVE that they can't overcome the urge to eat junk foodwhen they are not physically hungry – how wrong this belief is.No matter what the feeling is, you can create a space betweenyourself and your feelings and act purposely.

Unravelling your automatic thinking

The problem with the mind is that decision making has now

become automatic. Since the moment you were born you werehaving negative and positive experiences about food and allthat learning have now become condensed into automaticthinking responses.

The purpose of the following work that I will ask you to do isunravel some of the automatic thinking and create new andbetter responses to your feelings and life experiences.

List how junk food or overeating is of benefit to you. Whatfeelings are triggering the thought of food that creates the urgeto eat it. Many people cannot label feelings, they just “feellike” eating, they think of a food and then there is a compulsionto eat it.

If there is just a sense of emptiness no matter how much foodyou eat, this may be an emptiness from what was robbed fromyou in the past: innocence, a loved one, emotional nurture, etc.Overeating in this case may be used by your subconscious topush down any rising emotions that may be too painful tosurface. If this is the situation, getting professional help toaddress this may be in your best interest.

Obesity may serve the function of protection: smallness mayfeel like vulnerability, this would comes from the pain of beingsmall and vulnerable as a child. It may help you to avoidgetting into a relationship, this would be the case if yousuffered in relationships in the past. It may be guilt and youwant to punish yourself for things you feel bad about from thepast. It may be repressed anger that you have turned inwards.

As you can see, these issues are not usually dealt with inweight loss programmes, so you may have been in the wrongprogramme when you sign up for a weight loss programme.

You may be able to label emotions: stress, anxiety, anger,loneliness, boredom etc. If you can recognise the emotions thattrigger emotional eating, then make a list each emotion andwhat non-food solutions you can create for the differentemotions.

Sometimes it can be a case of feeling the emotion,acknowledging the emotion and allowing it to pass, while youallow you mind to drift off to some pleasant memories thatcan help shift your emotional state.

Concentrated attention.Be careful what keeps coming into your mind. What we keepfocusing on, we tend to create it, whether we want it to be ornot to be. The deeper mind does not understand negatives. Ifyou get up in the morning and start thinking all day about thechocolate that you should not be eating, the urge to eat it keepsincreasing. The secret is to focus on what you “want” notwhat you “don’t want.”

What is your “driver”? Are you the “I want to” group orthe “ I have to” group?This is an important question. If you are in the “I have to”group, you want to have a healthy diet due to the unwantedconsequence of being overweight. What you are doing isagainst your will. There is conflict in your mind. The “have to”group is a difficult group to be in. This is the group in whichyou have people who suffer from addictions but manage to stayfree from the substance: the alcoholic for example. People inthis group keep slipping in and out of the group. They aredoing well or else relapse in doing whatever is the addiction.

The “want to” group is doing well due to their decision about

the lifestyle they wish to have. For instance, the person whodoesn’t drink alcohol, not because he is afraid he might becomean alcoholic, he just thinks life is better being free from the useof alcohol. It is very easy for him to stay in this group.

Healthy eaters in the “want to” group are not eating healthy incase they become overweight, they eat well as a lifestyledecision - they want to put healthy food into their bodies. It iseasy for them to stay in this group.

The success scale: 0 – 10

Overweight people are either “on” a diet or “off” a diet, “good”or “bad”, “in control” or “out of control” The real question isthe level of your control. Nobody is starving all day long oreating all day long. So, the terms they use are not helpful.

If you think of five on the scale for the day, you are neithereating to lose of gain weight. Think of each number below orabove the number 5, if maintained for the week equals twopounds. Your goal would be to keep the number at six for eachday, at six as an average for the week. The good thing about thescale is that there is a sense of always having control. If youhave a bad start to the day that would bring the average for theday to four, you can then make a good eating choice later on,maybe go for a walk - so that you bring the number to sixbefore you go to bed. If you have plans for the weekend thatcould bring the number to four for a day or two, try to get anumber seven for two days during the week to get an averageof six for the week. I am using the number six all the time as itrepresents a release of two pounds of fat per week, this is theaverage type of success you would be expecting if you starteating as though you were ALREADY your correct weight.Obviously, anyone who is quite obese might be aiming at seven

or eight on the scale for the week.

Overall eating experience

Let's look at what is really going on when somebody decidesabout eating. Let's break this down into components: thefeelings while you eat, the physical feelings ten minutes aftereating and the way you feel ten minutes after eating, when wecompare junk food with you favourite healthy food.

In general for junk food, people would say that they give tenmarks to the junk food and seven marks for healthy food whileeating it. Three marks for junk food and eight marks forhealthy ten minutes after eating it. One mark for junk food andnine marks for healthy food for emotional feelings tenminutes after eating it (guilt feelings comes for junk food here).Fourteen marks for junk food and twenty-four marks forhealthy food - the total marks. The overall experience is betterfor the healthy food than junk food. The person has deprivedthemselves of a better overall enjoyable experience by eatingjunk food. What marks would you give to the different aspectsof your eating experience?

The “Weight Loss” Mindset

Your excess weight is not the PROBLEM, it is a symptom ofthe problem – which is your bad relationship with food andyour attitude to being physically active. When your focus is on“losing weight”, your focus is in the wrong place. If your focusis on losing weight, you will probably spend the rest of yourlife “trying to lose weight”. If you get your focus onestablishing healthy eating habits - eating the way natureintended you to do and creating a new attitude to activity,your weight will look after itself.

Getting away from the obsession about losing weight is crucial,all it does is create tension between your desire to be thin andyour desire to treat yourself with food. This is another hugeproblem with weight loss programmes, the focus is on losingweight, how much weight is lost and stepping on weighingscales. If the REASON to stay from junk food and not over-eatis to lose weight, you are in the wrong space.

The definition of success of the weight loss programmes is“weight lost”. The biggest loser wins the national prize for theprogramme, even though that person may be eight stone lighterdue to starving themselves to “win the competition”, havinglost as much muscle as fat. The person who lost one stone buthas changed their mindset about food is just the forgotten one.Fortunately, an increasing number of people are moving awayfrom the concept behind the programmes and many of theprogrammes are hiring leading experts in marketing to winback customers. Seemingly, the tide is going out forconventional dieting programmes and that is not a bad thing.

The “Exercise” Mindset.If the word "exercise" inspires you to creative avoidance, thenavoid it. Start having your “activity thrills” whenever you can.When you reframe a word you change the way you feel aboutit.

Walking is a super-easy way to keep fit. (On a practicalmatter, you don't burn fat for the first 25 minutes of walking,you burn sugar. So, an hour's walk three times a week isbetter than 30 minutes six times a week) Park your car a little further away from the entrance to shop,office, etc.Get off the bus a few stops earlier.

Do more window shopping.Take the stairs every chance you get.Sign up for charity walks.Dance to a workout video just for a few minutes.

Find as many activities as possible that you enjoy, every stepor move makes a difference.

Don't wait for the spirit to move you - move the spirit.Thinking about being active is the hardest part. Movementcomes before energy, the reason you have no energy to move isthat you are not moving. JUST DO IT, put one foot in front ofthe other and think how good it feels when you get into theswing of activity.

Emotions and ExerciseExercise can lift your mood and improve your emotions. Whenyou exercise, your brain releases endorphins, adrenaline,serotonin and dopamine. These chemicals can improve yourmood. In addition, after exercising your muscles will relaxdeeper because of the workout – easing tension and strain.

Exercise Equipment

The secret to continued use of exercise machines is that youcombine them with engaging visual and aural stimulation. Itmight be watching your favourite soap on TV or whatever youcan do that interests you. It is important you combine theexercise with some stimulation. If you exercise and watch thefour walls, its only a matter of time before the machine ends upin the garage.

The reason that walking is the most used form of exercise isthat there is a constant changing visual and aural stimuli. You

are putting one foot in front of the other without even noticingit. Having others engage in exercise with you is beneficial, timepasses more quickly, the exercise is more enjoyable and peopletend to motivate each other.

Research proves that a moderate level of regular exercise canbe as beneficial as medication for depression. The way exerciseaffects mood can not be underestimated. It is amazing howmany people who love exercising hate to exercise. The reasonfor this is that exercise is associated with “trying to loseweight”. It has a negative connotation. We should exercise forthe good feelings it creates. Weight loss and all the other healthbenefits are an additional spin-off from exercising. Weight lossshould not be “the reason” for exercising.

REMEMBER: The way you lose weight is the way you keepit off. If you lose and maintain your weight lose with excessiveexercise, you must maintain that level of exercise indefinitely.(Of course, this is also the case with your approach to food).

Chapter 5

Emotional Eating

The “past” does influence your emotional eating. There is nosuch thing as the “past” in the deeper mind, everything is the“present”. You are a body here and now with a collection ofimages, language patterns, conditional responses that you havedeveloped since you were born. Every learning experience youhave had since you were born does influence the way youthink, feel and behave. “The child is father to the man”,(Wordsworth). Many of the emotional and behaviouralpatterns you have today were learned before you were sevenyears of age. In many respects, you are looking out through theeyes of a child in an adult body.

Significant adults, in their effort to be compassionate andloving to you, could have significantly influenced your weightproblem of today. The link between uncomfortable emotionsand junk food could have been created back in those earlyyears or later on in your life.

Example: the child is upset for some reason, the parent feelssorry for the child and offers a chocolate to the child. The childnow feels better. The chocolate has changed an unpleasantemotional state to a pleasant emotional state. Thereinforcement is repeated again and again over time until anunpleasant feeling will automatically drive the child to eatsomething “nice”.

The “past” is the filter through which we evaluate events,create different emotional responses, develop attitudes and

create different behavioural patterns.

Often a healthy attitude towards food is created by responsibleadults in a child’s life but circumstances in later life can find acomforting release through eating, alcohol and other suchbehaviours and through repetition, this develops into apowerful habit that becomes deeply engrained in thesubconscious. The “past” does not mean childhood years butall experiences since you were born leading up to the hereand now.

The emotions that drive us to eat can be locked-in emotionfrom experiences that traumatised us in the past or fromongoing everyday stress, anxiety, anger, etc. If emotion iscreating a lot of difficulty in your life, you need professionalhelp to deal with it. If you have tried different diets or weightloss programmes in the past and have unresolved emotionalissues, you were just fighting a losing battle. You wereattending the WRONG programme.

IMPORTANT

We are wired to be tribal. There are three drives at the core ofhuman motivations: safety, belonging and mattering. It’sneurological… it’s primal… there is nothing you can do tooverride or change this subterranean subconsciousprogramming as much as you may try.

Many people find themselves alone, isolated from the tribe andthis is not good. Many mothers (and some fathers too) findthemselves alone at home each day as the children are away atschool. Many people go home from work each evening andspend the evening alone. There are people living in a lovelessrelationship where they feel alone and empty even in company.

It is important that we address the emotional emptiness createdby isolation. This emptiness is a major factor that drivesemotional eating. There are ample opportunities for people toget involved and be part of a community. Many mothers gettogether for coffee (and fruit) mornings, do valuablecommunity work, etc. Anybody who spends a lot of time ontheir own should find opportunities to get involved with otherhuman beings, doing something that is of interest and also beof help to others (mattering).

Unfortunately, some parents use the alone time to attendslimming programmes – using the time to focus on theirweight problem!!! Find something better to do, somethingenjoyable that will make you feel good. On the matter ofslimming groups, you probably know by now that I am not alover of the concept.

We should model success, not get into a group with people whohave a similar problem. We should instead get involved withpeople who don't have the problem, we then can model andbe inspired by the success of others and achieve theconfidence to succeed.

It is important that I explain to you at this stage WHY youreally crave junk food when alone or have negative emotionstarting to rise within you. Also, it is important that I give youthe sequence of how it happens. When emotion starts to rise,subconsciously you want to get instant relief from the emotion(instinctively you want to move from pain to pleasure). Yourmind qucikly searches for a solution that worked in the pastand then quickly flashes the solution into your mind andcreates the urge to carry out the behaviour. All this happensvery quickly subconsciously. That is the sequence of whathappens subconsciously. This is why hypnosis is SO

EFFECTIVE for unscrambling the sequence so that it nolonger can run. Now let's look at WHY the subconsciouschooses that behaviour.

In addition to the effect of the chemicals on the brain (and.ofcourse, the pleasure of the taste), there is another importantelement to the drive to eat when it is an emotional need,rather than when the need is physiological.

One part of an experience tends to trigger off associated linksof the experience. You would not be consciously aware of allof this as it happens subconsciously. For instance, when you eata piece of cake, you are not just experiencing the physiologicaleffect of the substance you are consuming – you are triggeringoff the associated emotion from past experiences when youwere eating cake. You are remembering the joy of the birthdayparty, being comforted by a loving adult, being protected andcared for, etc. This is a very powerful element of the drive toeat when the need is emotional. You will also notice that it isusually childhood junk food – biscuits, sweets, bars, cake,crisps that you crave when it is an emotional state that drivesyou to eat.

This insight is probably new to readers, it may be the insightthat will radically change your approach to weightmanagement. When people eat emotionally, they think that it isthe substance contained in the food that they crave – it isn't, itis the emotional state that is triggered off by eating. The act ofeating becomes the release valve to temporarily release thebuild up of emotional tension. When the eating has finished,the conscious awareness takes over and possibly the personfeels guilty for having eaten the food and have a sense of beingout of control.

Subconscious Change

Chapter 6

Subconscious Transformation

The problem with any feeling or behaviour that has becomeautomatic is that it is very difficult to change it. You can tryhard (willpower), but it is as though there is a power inside youforcing you to do the opposite. Through willpower, we cantemporarily act in opposition to ingrained patterns of behaviourbut eventually we are drawn back by force. Unless we changethose automatic responses, we will stay stuck in the unwantedfeeling or behaviour.

When we learn something that has become automatic, we tendto develop a "closed mind" about the feeling or behaviour, wefind it very difficult to "open up to change". The mind tends toprotect automatic behaviour and emotions from change This iswhere direct communication with the subconscious mind isimportant. The state of hypnotic trance is a state of mindwhere we become "open to change". Communicating withthe mind in this focussed is the fastest and most powerful waypossible to create desirable behaviour, and transform limitingemotional responses.

The big drawback of conventional help methods for weightloss is that they are limited in how they can transform oldestablished patterns of emotional responses and behaviours. Nomatter how dysfunctional the emotional response or habit is,there is a positive intent behind it - it serves some importantemotional need in the person. Unless this need is changed ormet in some other constructive way, the person will revert backto the dysfunctional emotional response or behaviour.

The benefit of hypnosis is that you can access and transformthe unhelpful subconscious patterns. You are then free to createnew emotional responses and behaviours without havingconflict in your mind between conscious wants andsubconscious beliefs.

The subconscious pillar is the most important pillar of thethree pillars of success. You can discover the successfulapproach to diet and create new thinking about food BUT ifyou don't create new subconscious patterns, all you have isknowledge – you don't develop this knowledge intoautomatic eating habits.

The HypnoSlim Programme

SUBCONSCIOUS CHANGE:

While we can consciously develop new thinking about ourrelationship with food, developing this into a skill thatautomatically drives our behaviour is the REAL problem. Wehave old habits developed, we have emotional needs thatpreviously have been met by food and we have a whole rangeof deep-rooted responses that are deeply ingrained and willoverpower any new thinking about food. When you haverepeatedly carried out certain eating habits over time, they nowhave become ingrained subconsciously - you NEEDsubconscious change to break these old patterns of behaviour.Hypnosis is the KEY to create this deep change QUICKLY.

This programme can change the way the subconscious mindlooks at food. At a deep-down level, the cravingsstart to disappear. You'll start to find that you're eating less andenjoying it more automatically. Far from depriving yourself,you will feel that you are taking care of yourself more with less

food. Soon it will become a joy to see and feel a healthier,happier, thinner you!

You can consciously motivate yourself for a period of time toover-ride the deepest desires, but they will eventuallyoverpower the conscious effort and you end up back at squareone again. and possibly even worse. This is why many weightloss programmes can fail. This programme is a fast and a veryeffective therapy to bring about lasting changes in therelationship with food.

The programme can help you:

* Overcome the craving for food. * Maintain a balanced eating pattern.* Begin to feel good about yourself. * Overcome the destructive thinking about food.* Develop motivation to lose weight.* Acquire triggers for instant positive feelings.* Become more active physically and enjoy it.

Understanding Hypnosis

Hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness, which feels likesomething between sleeping and waking and has qualities ofboth these states. You experience a similar feeling to the oneyou experience as you are drifting to sleep at night.

Because hypnosis is an altered state of consciousness, orawareness, at no time will you be asleep or unaware of what isgoing on. You will, however, be likely to feel more relaxedthan ever before. A feeling of peace, serenity and wellbeinggenerally accompany this relaxation. Most people experience avery pleasant energy increase after the session.

The HypnoSlim Programme

FREE Assessment Consultation (15-30minutes).Your consultation is on a private one-to-one basis.

Firstly, I assess your problem with weight and makerecommendations about the best course of action. I will explainhow the process and hypnosis works and answer any questionsyou may have. If you think that it is for you and you decide toproceed, we can continue with your initial session. There is noobligation to proceed with the programme if you think it isn'tfor you or should you wish to reflect further.

Coaching Sessions

ONE initial session is required and a follow-up. Each sessionis of ONE HOUR duration. Most of the coaching timeinvolves trance work.

In addition to subconscious transformation work, I will alsoassist you if necessary with the first two pillars of success: dietand mindset.

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Testimonials

"I used to eat when I was sad, bored, stressed, even when I washappy. Every emotion seemed to trigger a desire to eat. Thathas now changed thanks to HypnoSlim. I have managed tobreak the link between emotions and food." Nuala Rodgers.

"There was no struggle involved as change happened at asubconscious level. The only way that worked for me". Gerry Rodgers

" I tried so hard to lose weight all my adult life withoutsuccess. I was doing it all wrong, I was trying to follow dietsthat were not natural for me to follow. so naturally they allfailed and the weight went back on. The programmetransformed my thoughts and feelings about food, as well ascreating new habits".Martina O'Shea.

"The programme changed my life. It was like flicking a switchin my mind, where my desire for junk food was switched to a

desire to be slim. It is amazing how easily and how quicklychange can happen". Amanda Kelly___________________________________________________

CALL NOW for your FREE Assessment Consultation orif you have any queries about the programme.

Tel: 094 9060226 or 086 161 2301.

info@hypno-slim.ie

LOCATION: 54 Lakeview, Rathbawn Road, Castlebar.