Struggling With Weight Loss? You May Be Getting in Your Way

Just about everybody wants to lose weight, look better, feel better and be healthier.  The problem is, losing weight and getting healthier is a struggle for most people.  If it wasn’t, the weight loss industry wouldn’t be a multi-billion dollar industry, obesity related illnesses wouldn’t be in the news everyday, and health care wouldn’t be the hotly debated issue it is.

As a fitness professional and natural health advocate, I do my part every day to provide my clients and followers with the best information possible to help them lose weight and improve their health.

I can provide you with the best nutritional information to help you lose weight and feel great.  I can tell you about the best workout programs out there designed for your fitness goals. I have the top experts in the health and fitness industry on my FitTalk Show giving top notch advice and information to my listeners.  It’s not like the best information void of hype and myth on how to safely and effectively lose weight and be healthier isn’t available to the public.

Everyone knows they need to exercise in order to lose weight and improve their overall health.  Despite this knowledge, the majority of the population makes excuses as to why they can’t exercise.  If you do “force” yourself to exercise, you’re hating every second of it, or probably not working out as intensely as you should, or avoid getting sweaty simply because “I don’t like to sweat”.

Everyone knows that eating junk food, drinking soda, consuming sugary snacks, etc., isn’t going to help them lose weight and improve their health, yet continue to consume these foods anyway.  Many of us give into the temptations of certain food aromas.  The smell of fresh baked goods, the smell of pizza, nacho’s etc.; it just calls out your name.

In the gym with my clients, I do everything I can to motivate them through their workouts and do my best to give them the best advice to overcome nutritional pitfalls.  I’ve had the experience that despite my best efforts, some people plain and simply hate to exercise regardless of what you do to try to make it fun and challenging; or, they enjoy their sessions with me, are working hard, but really struggle with their diets and overcoming temptations.

I know how frustrating weight loss can be and how frustrating it can be for a fitness or health professional to do all you can to help someone.  So why aren’t you reaching your goals, simply because – when it comes to your weight loss efforts, YOU are getting in your own way.  Well, actually, it’s your subconscious mind that’s getting in your way.

A conversation with a friend

I’m fortunate to have the friends and colleagues I have, and sometimes forget the role some of them play in the field of health, and leading Clinical Hypnotherapist, Steve G. Jones is one of them.

I recently had a conversation with Steve about this topic when he stops me mid-sentence and says to me, “Shari, sometimes to succeed, you need to get out of your own way, and in most cases, it’s the subconscious mind that gets in people’s way.”  Ah yes, the subconscious mind.  It’s what drives our behavior.  Well, if anyone would know about that, Steve is certainly an expert in this area.

In some cases, weight loss failure can stem from a fear of success that you’re not even aware of.  For those who come up with every excuse under the sun as to why you can’t or won’t exercise, according to Steve, it’s the subconscious mind that’s stopping you.  It’s what’s steering the ship so to speak.

Although there are many issues which contribute to struggles with diet, many dieting struggles are due to the subconscious mind which cause people to give in and eat foods they consciously know are bad for them, and end up feeling guilty, frustrated and angry with themselves for having given in and thus repeat the cycle.

Getting out your way with self hypnosis

Steve has been a guest on my FitTalk show, and explained to me how hypnosis works.  Hypnosis talks to the subconscious mind.  It is the subconscious mind that creates all kinds of resistance, self sabotage and negative inner conversations that prevent you from attracting what you want or achieving your goals.

We can hypnotize ourselves all day, every day.   When we talk to ourselves in a certain way, we hypnotize our selves.  Affirmations are vital.  If you have people around you saying “you can do it”, that’s an affirmation.  If you tell yourself “you can do it”, that’s an affirmation and that’s hypnosis.

A lot of hypnosis that happens to us, whether you believe in it or not, happens from ourselves, and our good friends believing in us or doubting our possibilities.  We need to be very aware of what programs us, even though we’re wide awake.

According to Steve, being under our own control can be a lot worse than being under the control of a hypnotherapist’s control.  We have thoughts in our minds that tell us we can’t do this or we don’t deserve this.

Hypnosis is a very easy state to achieve.  All you have to do is relax yourself.  Close your eyes and relax yourself and tell yourself positive affirmations.

Formal hypnotherapy can be more elaborate with induction, a deepening, a script – the affirmations/positive programming – however, with a hypnotherapy session, you’re dealing with the subconscious mind, and the affirmations take effect within a shorter period of time.  Then there is the “amnesia technique” which is designed for you to forget everything that’s in your mind.  The reason for the amnesia technique is that people will second guess themselves.  For example, their mind will tell them, “I know the hypnotherapist told me I’m great, but so and so said I wasn’t so I think the hypnotherapist may be wrong”.  The amnesia technique bypasses that critical factor that undoes everything.

The end of the hypnotherapy session is called Transtermination where the hypnotherapist brings you out of hypnosis.

For someone who make excuses as to why they can’t exercise, i.e., I don’t have enough time, I can’t afford to, or forces him/her self to exercise, hating every second of it, or probably not working out as intensely as they should, or avoid getting sweaty simply because “I don’t like to sweat”, Steve suggests his self hypnosis recording, “I love to exercise Self Hypnosis”.  Basically, what this recording does is tell your subconscious mind that you like to exercise.  By doing this, you’ll want to make time to exercise rather than keep telling yourself that you don’t have the time.  If you truly hate to exercise, you will be programming your self conscious mind that you do love to exercise and eventually, you will stop dreading your workouts, they won’t seem like a chore, you’ll enjoy them and really put yourself into your workouts achieving all the benefits exercise can do to keep you healthy, fit and slim.

How can hypnosis help you with weight loss?  A lot of the struggles people have with weight loss is mental.  There are addictions, cravings, emotional eating, self-sabotage and peer pressure sabotage associated with weight loss.  There is also the mental aspect of feeling like you’re depriving yourself of foods and dieting is like punishment for having been “bad” for allowing yourself to become overweight.  There are many negative thoughts and emotions that weight loss can bring which is within the subconscious mind. Although consciously you do want to lose weight, the subconscious mind will be telling you that you’ll never be thin, you don’t deserve this, why even bother with this, you’ll fail anyway.  Hypnosis can help you if you want a healthy relationship with food, with an end to constant dieting, overeating, and binge eating. Hypnosis can help you reach your natural weight without feeling deprived or hungry and suggests his Lose Weight Hypnosis recording to reprogram the subconscious mind so that you can lose weight safely, effectively and naturally.

Getting out of your own way by being mindful

You can start reprogramming yourself by being more mindful of your actions. If you struggle with weight loss whether your struggles are food or exercise related, the first step is to become more aware of your struggles.  If you gave into a temptation, write down the temptation, what triggered it, where you were or if you were with anyone.  Think about what you could’ve eaten instead of the choice you made, write it down and then next time you find yourself in that situation, you’ll be more aware of it and will make a better choice.  If you’ve been telling yourself that you should exercise, you’ll do it tomorrow and don’t, write down why you put it off.  You’ll become more aware of the excuses you make and how you can best manage your time to fit exercise into your life. 

To learn more about Steve G. Jones and how his self-hypnosis recordings can benefit you, visit his site http://budurl.com/BetterLivingHypnosis

(note: the links posted on this page are sponsored links, however, I do stand by my recommendations.)

Exercise and Smoking Studies

For all you smokers out there, new study shows that Exercise Makes Cigarettes Less Attractive To Smokers.

Research from the University of Exeter reveals for the first time, that changes in brain activity, triggered by physical exercise, may help reduce cigarette cravings. Published in the journal Psychopharmacology, the study shows how exercise changes the way the brain processes information among smokers, thereby reducing their cravings for nicotine.

The study adds weight to a growing body of evidence that exercise can help manage addiction to nicotine and other substances. It backs up previous studies, which have shown that just one short burst of moderate exercise can significantly reduce smokers' nicotine cravings.

Studies have also shown that a single session of light to moderate intensity exercise, for example 5 -15 minutes of brisk walking, can reduce cravings and responses to smoking cues. It is not clear if longer or more vigorous bouts of exercise have a bigger effect. This study adds to the growing evidence that exercise can be a great help for people trying to give up smoking.

For those of you who are smokers and are working out, a study has shown that smokers’ muscles tire much more quickly than those of non-smokers, irrespective of how many cigarettes they smoke per day or how long they have smoked. Smoking has an immediate effect on muscles, possibly as a result of the reduced oxygen suppply and oxygen deficiency in the muscle due to substances in cigarette smoke.

Quitting the habit
It’s no secret that cigarettes are very damaging to your health and is an expensive habit. Many people who look to quit this unhealthy, addicting habit turn to products on the market to help people quit smoking, which deliver nicotene to the body. Although you aren't inhaling nicotene, you're still putting a chemical into the body that doesn't belong there in the first place. Surprisingly, to my knowledge, no studies have been done regarding any possible health issues from using Nicorette for long periods of time.

Even though the nicotine levels in the stop-smoking product is lower than in cigarettes, there could be an addictive component to its use in some individuals. Some people experience withdrawal symptoms when they toss out their nicotine gum. Some are choosing to use the gum for months or years because of their fear of slipping back into cigarette use. The price tag for using Nicorette gum is about the same as a pack-and-a-half-a-day smoking habit which is just as expensive as the smoking habit.

As a natural health advocate, my philosophy is to heal the body naturally without adding more toxins/chemicals into the body. If you or someone you know is a smoker and wants to quit without chemicals, the best way to do that is via self-hypnosis. Hypnosis has proven to be a safe, successful method towards helping hundreds of thousands of people stop smoking, and is more cost effective than turning towards Niocrette. There are many resources out there, however, the best resource I have found for self hypnonis is from Clinical Hypnotherapist, Steve G. Jones and highly recommend his site: http://budurl.com/StopSmokingHypnosis

Exercise Improves Body Image for Fit and Unfit

A recent University of Florida study finds that Exercise Improves Body Image For Fit And Unfit Alike. According to the study, the simple act of exercise, and not fitness itself can convince you that you look better.

People who don't achieve workout milestones such as losing fat, gaining strength or boosting cardiovascular fitness feel just as good about their bodies as their more athletic counterparts, said Heather Hausenblas, a UF exercise psychologist. Her study is published in the September issue of the Journal of Health Psychology.

"You would think that if you become more fit that you would experience greater improvements in terms of body image, but that's not what we found," she said. "It may be that the requirements to receive the psychological benefits of exercise, including those relating to body image, differ substantially from the physical benefits."

Negative body image has grown in the past 20 years, with as many as 60% of adults saying they don't like the way their bodies look. Body dissatisfaction is a huge problem in our society & unfortunately, people look to the quick fix to improve body size & shape.

While the frequency of exercise mattered for boosting body perceptions, there were no differences for the duration, intensity, length or type of exercise, the study found.

Bottom line, if you’re one of the 60% of adults who is dissatisfied with their body image, it’s a no brainer. Exercise makes you feel good and improves your body image. If you’re one of many people who dislikes exercise and comes up with excuses why you can’t exercise, dig deep down inside yourself and ask why. If you’re really struggling with getting yourself to exercise, I highly recommend self hypnosis to help you. Try “I Love To Exercise” self hypnosis.

Source: University of Florida (2009, October 9). Exercise Improves Body Image For Fit And Unfit Alike. ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 1, 2009, from http://www.sciencedaily.com­ /releases/2009/10/091008123235.htm