Medical science research at Tufts-New England Medical Center has
provided irrefutable evidence that all popular diets work when
dieters can stick to them. Atkins - low carb; The Zone - low
glycemic index; Ornish - low fat; Weight Watchers - low calorie.
But researchers have provided convincing evidence that almost no
one can stick to any diet because of his or her appetite. So to
be successful with a diet, hypnosis for appetite control can be
very effective.
The Dictionary defines "Appetite" as: "The desire for
gratification of some need, want, craving, or passion." So
"appetite" is eating and drinking for relaxation and pleasure.
It's a mistake to confuse hunger with appetite. Hunger is
defined as "The body's call for nourishment." In other words,
when the body needs sustenance, that's when you feel bona fide
hunger. By that designation, it is almost impossible to "be
hungry" if you are overweight.
However, it is possible for you to have feelings that you
interpret as "hunger." And the stomach contracting in
expectation of being fed causes those feelings.
When you were an infant and you became upset, your mother would
put a bottle into your mouth to pacify you. You would get
distracted, become mellower and often fall asleep. That sequence
was repeated thousands of times so that your unconscious mind
was programmed: When something goes into your mouth, you get
relaxation and pleasure from it.
Now that you are all grown up, if you feel anxious or tense, you
crave something in your mouth for relaxation and pleasure - food!
People Also Get Cravings and Urges Because Of Conditioning.
When you link eating food with any other behavior, the other
action will trigger cravings for food and a feeling of urgency
to eat. This is called a conditioned response. For example: If
you eat when you drive your car, you will automatically get an
urge to eat each time you drive your car.
What About Compulsive Overeaters Who Eat Because Of Emotional
Reasons?
A compulsion is defined as an "irresistible impulse." One of the
presuppositions of NLP is: There is a positive intention behind
all behaviors. In other words, our subconscious mind will only
motivate us into behaviors that benefit or protect us in some
way. So in NLP terms, being fat is a behavior when it provides a
positive outcome for us.
You may be wondering what the possible positive outcomes of
being fat are. The list of possibilities is as long as the list
of people who are fat. But I'll give you a classic example: A
person gets their heart broken in a relationship. So to protect
the self from getting the heart broken again, the unconscious
motivates the self to gain weight to keep the self out of
relationships and prevent another broken heart.
A big secret to getting rid of your appetite is called
reframing. With an NLP six-step reframe, we respect the fact
that the subconscious mind is motivating us to consume extra
food for relaxation and pleasure. And if we are eating
compulsively because being fat is protecting us, we respect that
also.
In a neuro-linguistic programming reframe we bargain with our
subconscious mind. In the case of eating for relaxation and
pleasure, we ask our subconscious mind to assume the
responsibility for making us substitute alternate behaviors. The
new behaviors must be as effective and available at providing
the same relaxation and pleasure. But they must also be more
consciously acceptable to us. When the unconscious is motivating
us into alternate behaviors that provide the relaxation and
pleasure that we require - we lose our appetite on this score.
If you are a compulsive eater we do an additional reframe. We
ask your unconscious to assume the responsibility for finding
and substituting new behaviors in place of being fat. These new
behaviors must be as effective and available at providing the
same protections and benefits. But they must be behaviors that
are more consciously acceptable to you and your unique
personality. When your subconscious is motivating you into
alternate behaviors that provide the same protections that you
require, you lose the strong urge to overeat.
As far as feeling cravings because of conditioning (conditioned
responses), we utilize various hypnotic and NLP techniques that
"extinguish" those conditioned responses. That breaks the
connection between the behaviors, and dissolves the compulsions.
Once your appetite has been eliminated and all of your
compulsions to overeat have been dealt with, you can stick to
any diet of your choosing indefinitely so that it becomes a
permanent lifestyle change.
Appetite control and compulsive eating can be a very complex
topic. I can only scratch the surface of it in this article. But
you can read several additional articles on this topic on my
website.
About the Author:
Alan B. Densky, CH specializes in Hypnosis & NLP CD's for
weight loss,
and Video weight loss
hypnosis. Visit Neuro-Vision.us for his FREE
hypnosis article library and newsletters, or to download his
FREE MP3s.
