Summary: Motivation Articles

Natural Weight Loss. Healthy ideas to lose those excess pounds FOR GOOD. FREE exercise advice you don’t have to go to the gym! Top diets reviewed how healthy are they and do they REALLY work?

How To Stop Overeating

I think you'll agree we get fat because we eat too much (mainly of the wrong things) and exercise too little. But have you ever wondered WHY we overeat?

In my experience as a Hypnotherapist, I have discovered two main reasons that cause people to overeat:

Poor Eating Choices / Ignorance / Habit

Some people just don't know how to eat healthily, either because they've never been taught to eat sensibly (basically, if your parents eat processed junk food, then so will you) or they overeat because it's become a habit. Both these types of people just need some dietary and exercise advice, and a little help with motivation.

Emotional Overeating

This is when food is used to distract from feelings that we don’t like, or which upset us. Remember your Mum giving you a Jelly Baby to comfort you when you fell down and hurt your knees? The comfort it gave left a great impression on your unconscious mind which it’s never forgotten!
If someone comes to see me (as a Hypnotherapist) the first thing I'll do is take a history of their weight over their lifetime. If I find they have been consistently 30-40 lbs over their ideal weight, I'll start to think that their eating is a little more than a bad habit. Often these people eat to distract themselves from internal feelings that make them feel bad.

It works something like this. There is a feeling inside them that they don't like. It could be fear. Or boredom, or guilt, or loneliness, sadness, inadequacy. Maybe it’s anger simmering away there. It’s bad, and it makes them feel bad. Now, at some time in their life when they’ve felt like this – say, bored or inadequate – they’ve had something to eat. And for a short time they’ve felt better, because let’s face it; eating IS pleasurable for the vast majority of us. It’s meant to be – keeps us alive! So “our” person eats, feels better – and Bingo! Their mind makes the link “Eat Nice Food – Feel Good” They’ve successfully distracted themselves from the bad feelings.

And the connection is made. So the very next time they feel bad – what do they do? That’s right – reach for the cookie jar (or whatever. Unfortunately, distraction food does not tend to be good food like say, carrots. Sad, but true).

But of course the good feeling does not last. Soon the bad feeling comes back – because the reason for it hasn’t been dealt with. And unfortunately, no food they eat is going to solve their problem. It’s just going to make them put weight on. Which ultimately is going to make them feel even worse, and a vicious cycle has been created.

The only way to break this cycle is to deal with the underlying cause of the bad feeling. Once the bad feeling has been dealt with, we are just left with a bad habit which can be easily eliminated. So how do we deal with this type of weight-loss problem?

If you were to come and see me as a Hypnotherapist, I would help you identify the feeling and then we would begin to neutralise it. A very straightforward procedure for an experienced Hypnotherapist.

But before you start googling Hypnotherapists in your area, let me tell you that you CAN have a go at this yourself – and there’s every possibility that it will work for you!

So what do you do?

Start by learning to pause before you eat anything. As soon as you go to put food in your mouth I want you to STOP. Put the cookie down and step away! Now, count to ten and then ask yourself this question: “Am I hungry?”

If you are genuinely hungry, go ahead and eat it. Better still, eat something healthy! But if you can truthfully say you AREN’T hungry, scan your mind and body and try and identify how you are feeling. Are you feeling bored? angry? guilty..

Once you’ve identified the feeling, start thinking up a plan to deal with it without resorting to food. If the feeling is boredom, do something – go out for a walk, read a book,do a crossword. You get the idea. Bear in mind that exercise is a great distractor and very effective with dealing with anger and symptoms of PMS, among others.
But make sure you don’t substitute one bad habit for another. No good throwing the cookie jar in the river if you turn to alcohol instead!

But sometimes it can be difficult to identify the bad feeling on your own, and even if you can identify it, neutralising it can be a challenge. If that's the case, you need to consider contacting a Hypnotherapist trained to deal with this type of problem.

If you decide to see a Hypnotherapist make sure he / she is qualified by a reputable training body like the National Guild Of Hypnotists and ensure they are fully insured.

Never lose hope. It is always possible to lose weight steadily and safely, without having to give up all your “comfort blankets”. It’s just a matter of degree and finding the method that’s right for you.

Committed to your success,

Robert E Bartram
(Hypnotherapist & Pilates Instructor)

How To Stop Overeating

Date Published: Apr 12, 2008 - 3:22 pm

The Best Way To Lose Weight - Use Your Mind

As a hypnotherapist, one of the first things I was taught is that your mind is your servant. Your mind is designed to help you reach any goal you desire. It's like a heat-seeking missile - and if given proper instructions will easily hit any target you care to set.

Now, let me guess what you are thinking. You’re probably thinking right now “OK, if my tiny mind is as powerful as you say, why, why, why do I still have this weight problem?” (Or any other problem for that matter).

The reason is that very few people, unless they’ve been trained to do it, can set, aim and fire this mind-missile properly. So I’ve written this article to start teaching you how YOU can use this most powerful tool to give you whatever you want – in this case, weight loss.

The deeper level of our brain is known as the “unconscious mind”. This is the part of the mind that stores our long-term memories, emotions and habits. Our unconscious mind communicates with us (and us with it) in symbols, feelings and by use of our imagination. It does not really understand words – whether spoken or written. But if we want something enough (the target) and can learn how to make our unconscious mind work for us (the missile) – well, Kaboom! What we need to learn to do is change the way we communicate with it.

So how do we do that?

Decide if the goal (in this case weight loss) is one that you really, truly want.
Imagine – or pretend - you have already reached your desired weight.

Find a safe place, take a deep breath in and as you slowly let out your breath close your eyes and relax.

I want you to imagine it's two years from now and you've made it! Yes, you've reached your ideal weight. Where are you? What are you doing? Who are you with?
What are you wearing? How different do you look compared to now? Most importantly of all – How do you feel? Good, huh?!(If you don't feel good then maybe you didn't want it after all!) Spend some time and make the image as real and as detailed as you can. Don’t worry if you have trouble imagining the detail – just pretend.

This phase is very important, as it sets up the target for your heat-seeking missile to aim for, so don't skimp this bit, no matter how pointless you think it is! Spend some time every day (1 min will do although 5 mins is better) to really fix in your mind all the good things that being this weight will give you.

Now DO SOMETHING to move towards your goal.

Your mind isn't stupid and it's not going to waste any time or energy moving towards a goal that you either a) don't really want or b) is impossible to reach. Your mind will conveniently remember all the other times you've said you were going to do something and then gave up, disheartened. Having learned this bitter lesson from past “failures”, your mind will sit on the fence until you prove that this time you really mean it. How do you do that? You set a specific goal (say, that you will lose 1lb a week). Now you have your target – point the missile towards it by making a change in your life that will help get you towards it. For weight loss, you need to take some action that will help you lose weight. It could be taking some exercise, eating more healthily or any of the other proven ways to help you lose weight safely.

That's about it. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? So what do we have?

We have our heat seeking missile (Your mind)
We have a target for our missile to hit (Your goal - Weight Loss)
We have fuel for our missile (Your intent shown by effort - moving towards your goal)

The magical thing about this system is that what you do to move towards your goal doesn't really matter! Once you have proved to yourself that you mean it, your mind will find ways to help you. If you pick the wrong exercise or weight loss system no matter. Your missile will automatically correct itself! It knows where you want to go and will bust a gut finding you a safe and effective system you can use that will be effective. The only thing you need to do is put in enough effort and commitment into weight loss so that you never run out of fuel.

You may be thinking, “Well you talk a good game, Bob - but it can't be that easy, can it?”

Well yes and no! If you put in the time and effort, trust me - it WILL work and it works very well. I'm not talking about starving yourself and doing 2 hours worth of exercise a day, either. Just a moderate effort (20 mins exercise a day) and a sensible eating plan and that’s it.

So please, don't just read this article and move on. Think about what I've written and then apply it. Take some action – you’ve nothing to lose but weight!

All the best,

Robert E Bartram
(Hypnotherapist & Pilates Instructor)

The Best Way To Lose Weight - Use Your Mind

Date Published: Apr 10, 2008 - 1:26 pm

Weight Loss Motivation Introduction

My name is Robert E Bartram, and as well as being a Pilates Instructor I'm also a qualified Hypnotherapist. Over the years I have helped hundreds of clients lose weight by using a combination of hypnosis, sensible goal-setting, advice on healthy eating and exercise and the help of my wife, Carol, who is a Personal Trainer, Pilates Instructor and Massage Therapist.

If there is one secret to losing weight that most people don't realise exists, it’s this; Where The Mind Goes, The Body Will Follow. In other words, if your mind-set is wrong it doesn't matter what you try to do. In the end you will fail.

Sure, you may get some short-term success - but if your goal is long term fat loss, then if your mind isn't “framed” right, it won’t work for you.

This has been proved many times over - how many people do you know that have lost large amounts of weight and then a short time later have put the weight back on? And maybe a bit more too? That’s Yo Yo dieting. Distressing and eventually harmful to your system, and sadly, very, very widespread.

I’m going to show you how NOT to be like that. The motivation articles on these pages will show you clearly and simply what you need to do to successfully and safely shed your excess pounds and – more importantly – keep them off.

Please read every article and bookmark it. I know you’re probably foaming at the mouth to get to the dieting section of the website (and there’s a lot of valuable, useful information out there), but do your motivation a favour and spend a bit of time on these articles. Time spent here will pay you back with interest.

Let’s get to it!

All the best,

Robert E Bartram
(Hypnotherapist & Pilates Instructor)

Weight Loss Motivation

Date Published: Apr 10, 2008 - 12:33 pm

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Summary: Motivation Articles