Recently I happened to mention to a group of people that I was a hypnotherapist.
What immediately ensued was a barrage of 'can you make me run around like a chicken' kind of comments.
It doesn't upset me, as an undergraduate I spent my time being asked if I could read minds, as I was studying psychology; you develop a special smile and a teflon coating;).
But I realised that although what I do is to help people, that there is a misconception and perhaps an element of mistrust about what hypnotherapy is.
Hypnotherapy is used to reset your thoughts.
If you are overweight then your thoughts about food and about your body are likely skewed.
Your thoughts about portion sizes may be skewed and you may be heading into a bit of a downwards spiral.
Hypnotherapy gently resets your ideas and thoughts, supports you in your new thinking patterns and enables you to build new habits.
So, how is this helpful - if you want to lose weight shouldn't you just eat less and exercise more? It is true that in order to burn more calories than you take in.
However, for many people, who have been overweight for a long time, there is more to their weight and their eating than simply refuelling.
For many their weight is part of their identity and their eating is part of their coping mechanism.
Hypnotherapy can address both of these issues, reset your thoughts about who you are, help you to eat less, help you to want to exercise more and give you better coping mechanisms in times of stress.
But how can you lose weight without going on a diet? There is no magic.
But the reasons that people either don't succeed on diets or who put weight on again after dieting is because the food restriction alone doesn't address the reasons you put on weight in the first place.
Nutritionally, there are many diets that are sound (although I wouldn't include the maple syrup diet on that list:) ) but the idea of 'going on a diet' is temporary.
It's as though by putting yourself through the pain of a diet in the short-term means that you can go back to all the (bad) habits afterwards.
This is why people are looking for the quick fix, the 'easy button' to weight loss and the fastest results in the shortest time.
Hypnotherapy is a permanent solution.
It resets your ideas about the food you want to eat and it takes hold over time.
The weight may come off quickly or it may slow down a little but as you are permanently changing your ideas and attitude towards food you can't 'fall off' the wagon.
I'd love to talk to you more about how I can help or how weight loss hypnotherapy could work for you.
You can comment below or book a no obligation initial weight loss hypnotherapy consultation to chat through how I might help.