It’s Only Food!

It’s Only Food!

Are you overweight? It’s not your fault! The human body is designed to overeat! The stomach has been known to expand 10 times it’s normal size to accommodate extra food. In ancient times it was survival of the fattest, not the fittest. Humans had to overeat so they could pack on the pounds to live through the winter, when food was scarce. If you were skinny, you died. The impulse to overeat is natural and normal.
The reason that 60% of adult Americans are overweight is because we live in an age of abundance. There’s a fast-food restaurant on almost every corner. It’s fast, and it’s cheap. Even poor people can eat at such places. Most of us eat like royalty; high fat and high protein, and at almost every meal. No wonder we’re overweight!
This is probably the first time in the history of the planet that we have to ration what we feed our bodies in order to be healthy. The irony is that this is also the first time in the history of the planet that we value being slender!
So what do we do in order to be healthy, in order to achieve and maintain our ideal weight in this age of fast, cheap food? We must learn how to think about food in a different way, a way that empowers us and not the food. How do we do this? By changing the way the unconscious mind thinks about food, not the conscious mind. By changing the way the unconscious mind thinks about food, the conscious mind automatically changes.
The conscious mind is wonderful and necessary, but the conscious mind is not where lasting change occurs. We all know, intellectually, the reasons why it’s important not to overeat or eat inappropriate foods. So what? Having that knowledge intellectually doesn’t change us. It’s the unconscious mind where true, lasting change occurs. It’s the unconscious mind where the positive connections between eating and feeling good were made in the first place. That’s why it’s important to work on the unconscious level, in hypnosis, to achieve positive, lasting change.
When we learn to control the impulse to overeat at the unconscious level, it becomes natural and easy! Natural and easy! Yes, and it also becomes automatic. When a shift occurs at the unconscious level, the conscious mind doesn’t have to think about it! Imagine! Automatically choosing healthy, appropriate foods and healthy, appropriate portion sizes! It is not only possible, it can be easy and automatic!
When we struggle with food, food wins. What we resist, persists. If we tell ourselves not to think about a hot-fudge sundae, what’s the first thing that pops into our mind? The hot-fudge sundae, of course! Will power only lasts a nano-second, as you know. If will power and imagination had a fight, imagination would win every time. That’s why we use imagination in hypnosis to change the way we “think” about food, so that we become mindful, we become aware, we get our power back within us, where it belongs.
Studies have shown that happy people have the ability to control their impulses. I don’t know about you, but I’ve certainly had the experience of eating something I didn’t really want to eat, and eating the whole thing! Afterwards I’ve thought, why did I eat that? I didn’t even want it? Sound familiar? It’s because we are humans and humans are designed to overeat.
Happiness and empowerment occur when we consciously choose what we put in our bodies! When we choose what we eat, we are empowered and happy with ourselves. When food chooses us, we are it’s slave. We have no power. We are not happy.
Want to get your power back? Want to be food’s master and not it’s slave? Here’s an NLP (neurolinguistic programming – “The Science of Success”) technique that I teach most of my clients who want to achieve and maintain their ideal weight: Imagine the happiest, most positive state you can possibly imagine. It can be any state that makes you feel absolutely fabulous: Bliss, tranquility, calmness, peace, oneness with the Divine, you name it! Now cultivate that feeling until it’s as strong as you can make it. When it’s as strong as you can make it, take a deep breath.
That deep breath becomes in NLP terms an “anchor.” From that point on, whenever you take a deep breath, you automatically access the positive state. When you access the positive state, that’s using your power to choose how you feel. When you have the ability to choose how you feel, you’re not likely to use food to feel good, or to dull your senses. You don’t need to dull your senses because you are developing the ability to feel good simply by taking a deep breath!
Of course, this is many times more effective when done in hypnosis, so that the unconscious mind gets the message! Imagine! You can develop the ability to say YES to health and to say NO to what is not appropriate for you. You don’t have to fight the impulse to overeat! You have the ability to get your power back within you, where it belongs. That hot-fudge sundae has no power over you. You have the choice to determine what goes into your body. You are no longer a slave to food.
That’s just the first step, of course. Overeating is a lifestyle for many of us, and there are other techniques to use on an unconscious level to make permanent lifestyle changes.
Imagine being happy, calm, content, peaceful and at ease. These are your natural states! Being upset, agitated, angry, nervous, or worried are unnatural, negative states. When you learn how to choose being positive, the food battle ends.
What do you choose?
Learn to control your impulses and choose happiness.

About Diane:

Diane teaches weight loss to groups and individuals. Her next 6-week course begins Jan. 12 at the Winter Park Public Library. She is a certified hypnotist and Master Practitioner of NLP. For more information please visit http://www.dianeross.com.