Hypnosis has remained a well-kept weight loss secret.

This mind-over-body approach will help you get a handle on your eating habits. 

I want to share some of the invaluable lessons that hypnotists and coaches, like me, will use to help you with your weight.

You can start on your own right here...

 
1. The answer is WITHIN you. Hypnotists (and nurses) alike believe you have everything you need to succeed. You don't really need another crash diet or the latest appetite suppressant to lose weight. It is about trusting your innate abilities, as you do when you ride a bicycle.

Now the first time you hopped on a bike you may have been scared and even set it aside for a while, but you kept practicing until you could ride – automatically - without thought or effort. Losing this weight may seem similarly beyond you, but it's just a matter of finding your balance.

2. See it to believe it. Most people say, “I’ll believe it when I see it”. However, we need to turn this phrase on its head. People achieve what they think they can achieve. That even applies to hypnosis. Let me suggest that you expect your weight loss plan to work.

3. Focus on the positive. Negative thought patterns, or aversions- suggestions such as “those carbs will make you sick," work for a while, but if you want lasting change, you'll want to think positive. Creating positive suggestions that work for you, will work when they mean something to you.

This process may be guided by me at first- then you become a master of creating your own, part of self-hypnosis I teach.

4. If you imagine it, you create it. Like athletes preparing for competition, a interviewee prepping for an interview, or a dancer rehearsing steps in the mind; visualizing victory readies you for a victorious reality.

Imagining a day of healthy eating helps you envision the necessary steps to becoming that healthy eater. Too tough to picture? This is where working with me can help… you will visualize the you that you desire at the desired weight. It's a beautiful vision!

5. Send poor habits away. I routinely harness the power of symbolic imagery, inviting you to (for example) put food cravings on fluffy white clouds or in hot air balloons and send them up, up, and away. It sounds weird here, but it works effortlessly and easily in hypnosis.

If a Starbucks sign have the power to steer you off your diet, hypnotists like me understand that a counter-symbol can steer you back. Creatively we invite your mind to flip through its file folders of images until one emerges as a symbol for casting out cravings. Bye bye.

6. Two strategies are better than one. When it comes to losing weight and keeping it off, a winning combination is hypnosis and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), which helps revamp counterproductive thoughts and behaviors.

Good news- You've already tried CBT if you've ever kept a food diary, calorie log, or tracked intake! Using both CBT and hypnosis together, raises awareness in you- a key baby step toward lasting success.

7. Modify then master. One of my favorite hypnotists, Milton Erickson, MD, emphasized the importance of using existing patterns. He would see the lose-regain, lose-regain patterns, and suggested you first gain weight before losing it—um, no thank you!

Easier to swallow: Modify your highest- calorie craving. Instead of a pint of ice cream, how about a cup of frozen yogurt? Perhaps :)

8. Survival of the fattest. No suggestion is powerful enough to override the survival instinct. Much as we like to think it's survival of the fittest, we're still programmed, in case of famine, for survival of the fattest.

We have to undue this belief. Enough said.

9. Practice makes perfect. One HIIT class does not produce washboard abs, and one hypnosis session cannot shape up your diet. But silently repeating a positive suggestion 15 to 20 times daily can transform eating behaviors, especially when combined with slow, natural breaths, the cornerstone of any behavioral-change program. OOH, now I am giving away too many secret hypnosis techniques.  

10. Congrats—it's a relapse. When my clients find themselves, against their healthiest intentions, overindulging, I congratulate them. We need to view a relapse as an opportunity, not a travesty.

You can learn from a real or imagined relapse— why it happened, how to handle it differently—and you'll be better prepared for life's inevitable temptations. More hypno-magic.

You are on your way already! Some need to just made a decision, some need more support. The journey can be completely customized!