If you are someone who is trying to lose weight and you've tried everything, keep reading. In the next part of this article, I'm going to share some secrets that I've discovered in the 25+ years that I have been helping people lose weight...
Regrettably, I don’t have much of a green thumb. Although I absolutely love plants and flowers and all kinds of trees, I have never had any luck bringing new vegetation to fruition.
I am blessed to have a lush, jungle-like yard, but that’s because most of the thriving plants have been there for decades (long before I bought my house).
When my husband and I first purchased our home, we immediately had a trellis built at the entranceway to our front door eagerly anticipating the beauty and warmth that would be added to our home by the lush green plants growing on the wood support structure.
We imagined that soon the wood would be completely covered by the lovely, fragrant vines we had recently planted.
Every day we stood outside and gazed with disappointment at the exposed wood.
Why wasn’t the jasmine growing up the vine as we had been promised it would?
We waited “patiently” for several weeks, and then in sheer disgust we decided that the jasmine just wasn’t meeting our expectations. We proceeded to pull out the uncooperative plants and replace them with another variety that we were certain would do the job.
Though we had been so looking forward to the fragrant blossoms of jasmine filling the air around our home – we decided to compromise with a different species of plant so that we could finally have the lush, green arch we had been envisioning.
with any behavior, often patterns develop
As you know with any behavior, often patterns develop. We proceeded to repeat this futile process several times over the years when we didn’t see the results we wanted with our trellis.
I am a little embarrassed to report that after 9 years of pulling out the plants every few months and replanting, the trellis outside our front door still remained bare.
Finally, in the tenth year, we decided to just leave the plants in the ground and take our chances. Today, though only one of the four plants at the base of the 4 wood posts grew, it covers the entire top of the trellis, with the beauty, warmth, and fragrance we had initially dreamed of.
Why am I sharing this with you?
Chances are most of you are way too intelligent to indulge in the gardening mistakes that my husband and I have made.
When you plant something, you probably tend to it with loving care, have some idea of what is realistic in terms of its growth time, and wait patiently – no matter how long it takes – for your plant to really take root and blossom.
Most likely you would not pull it out after weeks or months because it wasn’t at its full potential yet, and start back at square one.
If you are a person who gardens, then this would be logical for you and you probably wouldn’t question such rational, intelligent methodology.
When I think about my gardening fiasco, I am reminded of how it saddens me when I see people making these same types of huge errors in judgment when it comes to their own bodies, eating habits, and lifestyle.
We often don’t take into account that it’s taken us years to get into the “mess” we are in, so
why should you expect that losing Weight will happen instantly?
I recently had a client come to see me privately for hypnosis and Lose Weight.
I’ll call her Sue. As Sue sat in my office, she lamented, “I ate horrible diet food for a whole week – food out of boxes that tasted terrible, and at the end, I only lost 4 ounces.
Four ounces!” She exclaimed in horror. “That is as much as a padded bra weighs.”
I cringed as Rebecca told me what she did next.
She abandoned all logical and healthy eating habits and instead, “went crazy and ate for days with wild abandon.” Hence her visit to see me.
So there Rebecca sat, dejected and upset with herself.
Naturally, I can relate to the disappointment and frustration Rebecca felt.
Her sad story really illustrated for me what can go amiss when our expectations are completely unrealistic.
Here are two major “mistakes” in her thinking that were apparent to me.
1
To Lose Weight you should eat miserable, diet food that tastes horrible, out of cardboard boxes.
Why on earth do that?
Even if there was any weight to be lost by using this self-defeating, painful method, any gambling person would bet that the weight would easily be put right back on when the “diet” was over.
Food should taste wonderful and every bite should be eaten consciously and with total enjoyment.
A much better option may have been selecting balanced meals such as a small amount of whole grain pasta, with olive oil and fresh sautéed garlic and broccoli with some fresh salmon.
Mmmm, doesn’t that sound delicious?
And if you keep your portions small and have a good level of activity, eating lots of green salads with your food, you can absolutely lose weight eating such fabulous tasting food.
Best of all, there is no deprivation.
So if you lost only four ounces using this method, it wouldn’t be so discouraging. You’d at least know that you are heading in the right direction (and you were enjoying yourself, too).
2
The Scale is a reliable measure of your weight loss.
It’s not!
For those of you who have scales, you have probably already realized that they are not always honest with you or at the very least they change their mind a lot.
There could be as much as a five-pound difference between what you weigh in the morning and in the evening – and that can not be a measurement of your body fat!
Remember that it takes 3,500 calories to gain or lose a pound. That’s a lot of calories!
What’s the bottom line?
By consistently (that means over time – perhaps as much time as it takes for a jasmine plant to grow up a trellis), eating smaller portions of healthier foods, and maintaining moderate levels of activity regularly, you are destined to not only achieve but also to maintain your ideal weight.
Just as it’s easier to assess our errors in hindsight, watching other people’s choices and seeing their results can be a wonderful learning experience if we pay attention. The only way to lose weight permanently is over time.
there is no secret potion, pill, diet, or device that will magically make your weight disappear
Though they are advertised everywhere, there is no secret potion, pill, diet, or device that will magically help you to Lose Weight.
In the 25+ years that I have been helping people to lose weight in hospitals all over the country, I have seen many people lose Weight and keep off anywhere from 5 to 140 lbs.
The one thing they all tell me is that the weight came off consistently when they repeatedly used a simple re-programming method.
To achieve success, we need to change our attitude and our relationship with food.
Food is here to feed us and sustain our lives.
Though we always want to enjoy every bite that we eat, our tastes need to change so that we love the foods that nourish us (and are turned off to the foods that are harmful to us).
If we consistently want foods and beverages that are poisonous to our system – then no willpower will stop us from accessing them and perpetuating our desire for them.
How do you change your thinking to Lose Weight?
By reprogramming the subconscious mind.
It’s the only way to have long-term success. For some people, this re-programming happens naturally.
Perhaps you were facing death and all of a sudden you felt repulsed by chemically-laden food, feeling the preciousness of your life and the vulnerability of your body.
However, if you are not fortunate enough to have experienced spontaneous re-programming, the great news is that
Self-hypnosis is an amazing tool that works at the subconscious level to change your preference towards food and exercise. The key is to use it consistently.
For a long time, my impatience had prevented me from experiencing the lavish, fragrance-filled, green archway to my home, that I had longed for. By pulling out the struggling plants each time I felt disappointed in their lack of progress, I was assuring the fact that no growth spurt would ever happen.
Practice self-hypnosis to Lose Weight
Each time you stop your self-hypnosis practice and lay aside the tools of transformation that are available to you, you short-circuit your own success. Re-programming does work.
Subconscious imprinting using imagery and affirmations with belief and emotion takes root in your deeper mind and changes you and that is a fact.
The key to lose weight or achieve your goals is staying on track even when your inner voice tells you it’s hopeless.
The only thing that can sabotage your success is forgetting the simple fact that if you don’t pull them out, and you water and tend to them, the seeds you plant will always grow.
So how about planting this seed today:
An image of yourself healthy, happy, confident, and peaceful, at your ideal weight, comfortable, enjoying water-rich foods and protein when you are physically hungry, relishing the sensation of the movement of your body, and smiling to yourself in gratitude.
