Lose Weight with Self-Hypnosis

From quitting smoking to gaining self-confidence and losing weight, self-hypnosis products promise results by pushing you to make the meaningful effort. Subliminal tapes, books, guided hypnosis and even DVDs make the claim that you can convince yourself to be healthier and happier. Is self-hypnosis a big sham or is it perhaps the most overlooked self-improvement tool?

Like most teenage girls, weight was an issue for me. Unlike most of my friends, who really should have been eating fries with that, I did need to lose a few pounds. I went on the cabbage soup diet. I tried the “eat one meal a day” diet. Once, I even starved myself for several days, eating just a bite of something here and there. Of course, when I crashed and burned, I really crashed and burned.

Then, my mother was loaned a cassette tape (dating myself, I know). This tape (I can’t recall the title) promised that if you listened to it while you slept or while doing any activity, you would experience weight loss. As an impressionable teen with her head in the clouds, I jumped on it.

All I could hear were waves crashing and seagull calls. It was relaxing.

I listened to that tape while I was studying, writing, doing household chores, and sleeping. Something happened over the course of two days.

I experienced a reduction in appetite and an increased desire to eat healthier foods! Though I had to return the tape after a week or so of using it, the effect lasted for a couple more weeks. I lost six pounds.

Now, either the promised masked dialogue did what it said it would do, or I had convinced myself it would work – and so it did. What is that called? Self-hypnosis. Either reason demands the involvement of the subconscious mind.

Fast forward several years...

I had lost the weight when my children were young. I confess that I did not use self-hypnosis or use subliminal products, but perhaps that is one reason the journey was so excruciating. I don’t know.  Twelve years went by and I put weight back on.

Read more about my weight loss here

Just as I was beginning a new lifestyle change, I stumbled across a hub that claimed you could get rid of body fat by reading. “Read Away Body Fat” was written by a woman who had gone to hypnotherapy for weight loss and found that it not only worked, it inspired her to go through the training and become a licensed hypnotherapist.

I told her I was going to read it and review it. I was actually concerned that it would not work and I would be writing a bad review.

I bought the book. I read it. In fact, I re-read it. I’m still re-reading it. Why? Well, while I was reading it, I experienced the same type of reaction I had experienced using that tape. I found myself pushing away from the table – not because “oh-my-gosh-this-is-so-hard-but-I-must”... , but because I had eaten a decent portion and did not feel the need to eat the last two bites on my plate. At all.

I wasn’t forcing myself to walk a mile or two anymore. I was simply doing it. BUT, when I put the book away, lo and behold, a few days went by and I started to fall back into my old habits. Dieting was difficult again and exercise? Ugh. Of course, when I forced myself to work out or walk, I did enjoy it, but the inner motivating talk was gone. It was so much harder.

So I re-read it and continue to go back and re-read portions of it at time at least one or two days a week.

When I first started reading the book, I think I was expecting the same kind of self-help talk and instruction you’d find in typical weight loss books. Honestly, I was a little irritated. It seemed like she was talking to children – not to me. It was repetitive and she kept saying things like “You can do that, can’t you? “. The book was strange for me – until it hit me that it wasn’t written to entertain and it wasn’t about challenging my intellect. She talks directly to the inner child and makes it easy for the subconscious mind to absorb and believe.

I’ve been using it in conjunction with a low carb eating plan and it makes going without the sugar so much easier! What is more, I am not tempted to over-indulge in non-carb foods, either.

I wish I’d have used a similar method for quitting smoking. Bet it would have been MUCH easier.