Aug 18

Written by: Narina Riskowitz
18/08/2010 07:38 

Channel 4 brought to our attention this week Britain’s so called obesity problem, with a hypnotherapist on the one hand and a personal trainer on the other, each following their own approaches. The personal trainer only looked at exercise and the hypnotherapist only looked at the mind. No wonder the results were poor. An approach involving both the mind and body is essential and that is what holistic therapy is all about. Both the personal trainer and the hypnotherapist had to resort to drastic measures to show any form of results by the end of the six week period and how much of that will be sustained?

Apart from the embarrassing getting on the scales and being scolded for not losing enough weight, the most disturbing aspect of the programme, was the language patterns of the therapist and the personal trainer who were clearly not NLP trained. Whilst promoting positive self-talk, their own language patterns placed the emphasis on the very thing you don’t want. Implying that weight loss is going to take effort and hard work is not going to coerce the unconscious mind. Negative statements such as: 'don’t lose focus' and 'you shouldn’t be embarrassed' is going to have just the opposite effect. No wonder there were tears instead of results.

So, what makes the difference when we put NLP, hypnotherapy and a healthy lifestyle together? We:
- Make positive changes in our emotions, beliefs, values and habits
- Involve the unconscious mind, which is the level at which we make lasting change in motivation and desire
- Get really specific on what we want to achieve and set goals in such a way that they will be achieved
- Start listening to the body, whilst enjoying a healthy lifestyle
- Take a holistic approach that involves mind and body

Our key tips for achieving your ideal size and shape:
• Have more low Glycemic Index Foods, because they burn slower. Generally these are protein and slow release carbohydrates, including fruit and vegetables
• Drink lots of water, (8 glasses of still water). This will boost your energy, metabolism and is key to achieving your weight management goal
• Exercise every day for at least 30 minutes. Focus on strength and endurance rather than cardio-vascular. This will increase lean muscle tissue in the body
• More often unresolved emotional issues are the cause of weight imbalance and comfort eating. Emotional health is key to physical health and this is what holistic therapies such as hypnotherapy enables you to achieve.