Weight Management

Hi, my name's Caroline, and this is the second in a series of video clips that I've been putting together to talk to people about an alternative way to overcoming problems that they may have in their lives. In the first video clip, I spoke about how the mind works, or how I see it working. 2 parts of the mind, the conscious and the subconscious mind, and I see that very much as like the 2 elements of a computer. You've got the software, which is like the conscious mind, works very hard, turns on and off. But then you've got the powerhouse, the operating system, that's always running in the background and very much the powerhouse of the computer. And if something goes wrong at the coding at that level, often even the software doesn't work very well. So what I'm going to do in this video clip is to apply that analogy and give you some thoughts, some ideas about how you can use your subconscious mind to manage your weight. Now, I make a very clear distinction between weight management and weight loss. What I aim to do is to help people manage their weight, to get down to a weight that's comfortable and stay there, which I think is very, very different to the constant yo-yo dieting that very many people experience throughout a large part of their lives. I'm sure you don't need me to start talking about all the reasons to avoid being overweight. Diabetes, heart conditions, very dominant in the media at the moment. Also things like skin conditions can be related to obesity, and even psychological issues. There's now evidence that shows that when people lose weight, psychological problems they had also reduce. So it starts to build in the argument, is it actually the psychological problems that create the weight gain, or is it the weight gain that creates the psychological problems? So an interesting chicken and egg theory on that one. So let's go straight back to using this computer analogy to how you can use your own mind to manage your weight. Now, conscious mind works very hard, and it's what most people use when they're dieting. Now you're probably very familiar if you have dieted. It's what we term willpower. I'm not going to have that biscuit, or I'm not going to dive into that chocolate box. It's quite hard work, a bit like trying to row a boat upstream when the current's going the other way. You can do it for a period of time, but what tends to happen is if you had a bad day, if you're tired, then the oars come in the boat and you end up sailing right the way back down to the place that you become. A different way would be to actually use the subconscious. Is make sure that you're in the boat going in the way that you want to go, going with the flow of the river. And that's very much down to then using the subconscious mind as the way to manage your weight. Now the subconscious is incredible. It runs our body. And it actually controls many of our behaviours. that we don't need to think about. If you remember when you learnt to drive, you probably had to think about it quite, quite deeply, but soon it became a subconscious process. And I'm sure you, like me, quite often have got to your destination without actually having remembered half the journey, because driving, anything you practice on a regular basis, becomes a subconscious process. So our subconscious also controls a lot of our choices over food. You pick up the same things in the supermarket. You tend to eat certain things at a certain time of day. It's all what we also term as a habit. And this is because at that subconscious level, a program's been written, coding has been developed, that when you realize you're hungry or you want something to eat, or you may even be feeling a certain emotion, the subconscious runs off to find the bit of code that's appropriate for that behavior, and off it goes. So let's start to think about how is this coding, how is this programming created? Well, it really starts at day one as a tiny little baby. If you imagine babies, if they're hungry, they're uncomfortable, they cry, and a lovely adult comes along with some nice warm milk and that nasty feeling in their tummy gets resolved. Resolved by sucking on something, putting on Putting something in their mouth and swallowing. So straight away from a very early stage, there's a link that's being built up between discomfort and food creating comfort. And that may even be where the term comfort eating comes from, I don't know. On top of that as well, if you imagine when a baby is being fed, they're also being cuddled. That lovely feeling of warmth and security. That also gets then, at a very infantile subconscious level, gets linked into, when I'm feeding, I'm comfortable, I'm cosy, I'm being looked after, I'm loved. In quite a lot of— hopefully in many of our cases as children. Move it forward a little bit into childhood. As a child, it's one of the first things that children can learn they have control over. The parent cannot, or shouldn't in most cases, put that piece of food in their mouth. So they start to develop that they have control over food. They can choose what they do and don't eat. We also, as a culture I believe, tend to use food very much as a treat. Birthdays, and I certainly remember as a kid, you know, falling over, having a grazed knee. When the plaster's put on, it's, you know, there's This biscuit or this sweetie will take the pain away. And funny old thing, it does, because that's what you're told and that's what you believe. We can also very much get programmed through things that we hear regularly. Again, in my childhood, I often heard, eat everything up on your plate, we don't waste things, or eating makes you grow fit and strong, strong and healthy. And so anything that you hear on a very regular basis becomes part of that underlying program that becomes part of your subconscious and reflects itself right the way through the rest of your life. So perhaps you can think about the things that you may have heard as a child that you may be still acting upon now but never even realized it. And perhaps if you're a parent yourself, do think about the messages that you're giving your children. Since I've done my training, I've made a real effort now to change some of those sayings that I was reflecting back to my children. So now, rather than saying, eat everything on your plate, I'll say to them, if you, if you're full, that's great, stop eating. However, if you are full, there's no room for pudding either because you're full. That gives a very different message. It tells them that it's okay to stop eating when you're full. Same principle, but at a programming level, very, very different message. We then move on to adolescence, which is a particularly vulnerable time for girls when their body's changing, the curves are starting to emerge, and for some girls, if they're not prepared for this, it can be a very scary period of time. And they tend to go off in one of two directions, either to stop Stop eating as a way of trying to avoid that development occurring, and we sadly are seeing a much greater increase in the likes of anorexia and bulimia, which are a reaction to that source of fear. Or the other direction, to overeat, to hide the curves behind layers of fat. And again, that can carry on very much as a pattern into later life. So then we get to adulthood. And if you've managed to get through all those earlier layers and have a good eating habit, which many of us and many people do, there are still a few things that can catch you out. Back to the baby and the comfort issue. If an adult feels uncomfortable, perhaps inferior, or even worthless, the insecurity that sets in, back to that, I can get comfort from food. Something I also see in some of the people I work with who have perhaps deep insecurities or feelings of self-worth, they use food almost as a means of self-abuse. I'm worthless, therefore I've no need to look after myself. And so again, food can then have a big role, but it's driven from very much a subconscious and emotional issue rather than a lack of knowledge on what's right Or not right to eat. And in adulthood, often alcohol comes into part of that consumption pattern as well. Not just the effect of alcohol, but from a weight perspective, the calories that are in alcohol. It can be used— alcohol being used as a way of escaping some of those feelings, repressing feelings perhaps, gaining some temporary comfort or escape. from those emotions that you don't want. And if we look to language, we can often find phrases such as swallow your pride, using food again, swallow something, a physical action to repress a feeling that isn't perhaps appropriate to that time or not perceived to be appropriate. So many, many layers as to how this coding, this deep subconscious programming can be developed. So, obvious question now is, can you change those programs? Can you change the code? And categorically, the answer is yes. What I do with the clients that come to work with me to help them learn to manage their weight is a process using hypnosis to rewrite that code. Now, a lot of people straight away, when you say hypnosis, Start floundering and running, running a mile, because most people's experience of hypnosis is on the stage shows, TV shows, where people are made to do strange things. Now, all I can ask you to do is trust me and say that the difference between the stage shows and hypnotherapy are like two ends of the spectrum. Those people that get on the stage are choosing To get up there. They're not made to do it, they're choosing because they're extroverts. They love being the center of attention, and they're more than happy to do the things that are being asked of them. So the perception that the hypnotherapist or the hypnotist has control over them is totally unfounded. When you're under hypnosis, you have complete control. And those people clucking like a chicken or doing whatever they're being asked to do— I'm very much choosing to do that. However, the hypnotherapy, it's very much just a state of very deep relaxation. It sends the conscious mind, it shuts off that distracting software bit, to get down to that fundamental code that's running the program. So all that I do when I work with people is help them to relax very deeply so we together can can then understand where that program is not working effectively for them and rewrite it. And it sounds very easy, and actually it really is. I've done a lot of work with many people, and there are some quotes, some case studies on my website if you'd like to have a look at them. It's great that people have been willing to give some evidence of what it— how they've experienced it rather than just me. Blabbering on. But to give you one example that always sticks in my mind, I worked with a lady quite recently who was a 3-4-a-day chocolate bar eater. She would have something on the way to work, she'd have something at lunchtime, she'd probably snack— stop on the way home at a petrol station, buy another couple of bars, and finish those by the time she'd get home. After our reprogramming session with her, she came in the next week with a big grin on her face. And very proudly told me that she'd been carrying a KitKat around in her handbag all week and hadn't touched it. But the big difference is, it wasn't that she hadn't touched it because she was denying herself. She hadn't wanted it. It hadn't had that same appeal to her that it did before we did our work together. And that is the fundamental difference between hypnotherapy and dieting. By reprogramming, by taking away that code that's making you want to eat those things that are not healthy, it means you don't want to do that behaviour anymore. As opposed to the dieting, the using the conscious, the willpower, which is that much weaker, and denying yourself. Now, I love chocolate. There's a big bar of chocolate in my fridge most of the time. But I can break off a couple of squares and put the rest back. So I'm not talking about denying yourself anything that you like. It's about knowing when to stop. It's about saying, yes, I don't— I'll have a chocolate biscuit. I quite like that with my cup of tea. But I don't have the packet, and I certainly don't have one every day. I love having a piece of cake at a celebratory birthday. I don't eat cake every day because I just don't feel the need for it. Now, in the work that I do with people, once we've done the reprogramming, we also learn some other skills. Things like visualization, which is an incredibly powerful technique. And what visualization helps to do is embed some of that reprogramming, some of that relearning, but also it gives people a much brighter future. They can see how they're going to change. They can see where they want to be, and it gives them a much greater control. control over their feelings. So it's not just the benefit of being able to start managing your food intake, managing your weight, but also applying that to other areas of your life. So again, unlike dieting, which is very focused on what you're putting in your mouth, some of the benefits of hypnotherapy spread very much wider. And so, next question I guess that may be on your mind, Is how much is all this going to cost me? And now I believe very much in being open and honest about the investment that people would make with me if they choose to use hypnotherapy for weight management. Most people that come to me for this invest in 4 to 6 sessions, and a session is £50 each. But I do want to Also talk about the same lady, the chocolate lady actually, who came to me and said, what I've realised is that through these changes in eating behaviour that I've made, I'm also now saving a lot of money. She wasn't drinking a bottle of wine every day. She was just having a glass or two at the weekends. She wasn't eating so many takeaways. She wasn't buying all the chocolate. And she thought that the investment she'd made in the work that we did together had been repaid within 2 months of her shopping bill. And it's not just that 2 months, obviously that saving was going to continue for hopefully the rest of her life. So it isn't a short-term fix, it's something that continues for a long term, gaining the benefits not only in the way you look, the way you feel, but also in your purse. Now, the first session that I do with all clients is called the introductory session. It's very much about getting to know each other, building the trust, understanding where perhaps some of your programming is going wrong, just through discussing your eating habits and perhaps going back to some of the things that you learnt as a child, and also having an experience of hypnosis so that you can decide— you've got all the information then— if you think Hypnotherapy is the right course of treatment for you to gain the goal and the control that you wish to have. That first session, like all the others, are £50. But I am so convinced, and I want everyone to be very much like me, be able to be in control of their food and stay the size that they want to eat— to be without constantly denying themselves, constantly being on a diet. And so, as a A way of encouraging people, and hopefully convincing you, that this system really, really works, is I'm going to make an offer of having that first introductory session at half price, for £25. I'm also going to make a commitment that I will give you a personalized CD that you can then have at home, to learn to relax yourself deeply and gain all those benefits of hypnosis, which will be personalized, specifically to you. Those CDs are normally sold for £15, but again, that will be free. So for a £25 investment, you're getting a service and a package worth £65, plus it will give you what you need to know to decide whether hypnosis, hypnotherapy, is the right thing for you to do, and to allow you to then commit to coming for future sessions Where you'll learn and gain those skills that you need to manage your weight. So if that's an offer you want to take up, fantastic! You can either message me on Facebook or send me an email, which is caroline@addingzest.com, or phone number— very traditional— 01980 862725. Get in touch in whichever way you want. We can have a chat on the phone before we take things any further. Now, as I said, this is a series of clips. The third one, and the next one I'm going to be doing, is on insomnia, another thing that can really disrupt people's lives and have a big impact on the quality of life. So if your sleeping patterns are not as good as they could be, you're not getting a good 6-7 hours sleep consistently every night, then I'll be posting another video clip Up on Facebook and on the website on that very soon. So thank you for listening. I hope some of the stuff that I've said today has perhaps rung some bells, perhaps given you an insight into why your relationship with food is the way it is. But more importantly, hopefully you now know it can change. And thanks for listening, and I hope to speak to you again. Bye-bye. Bye-bye.