Learn How to Lose Weight and Keep it Off for Good: Step 3 of a 5 Step Program

Step 3 of this weight loss program is to work toward Releasing Emotional Weight.  I can't say enough how important this step is- often,
above all others.  Many of us hold extra weight because we are holding onto certain emotions.  We often gain weight as a suit of armor- to protect us from a person, a memory, an emotion...

Louise Hay, an incredible pioneer in the mind/body wellness field is famous for discovering/popularizing the notion that our thoughts and mental well being are directly tied to our physical well being.  Hay says that excess weight is only an, "outer effect of a deep inner problem.  It is always fear and a need for protection.  When we feel frightened or insecure or "not good enough", many of us will put on extra weight for protection."  Her belief is that many people are overweight because they don't love themselves enough...they have tried for years and years to release weight with no avail and when they finally begin to love themselves and get to the heart of the true issue, the weight falls off with almost no effort.  Now, this might be a concept that is somewhat difficult to believe but I have to say that I have seen the results over and over again with my clients.  Once the emotional weight is released, the physical weight naturally drops.

The first thing I am going to ask you to do is to journal about this idea.

Consider these questions:
Do you feel as though there is a deeply rooted issue/s that plays a role in your excess weight?
Is there perhaps something you are trying to protect yourself from?
Can you remember the point in your life when you began gaining excess weight?
What was happening in your life?
What kinds of emotions does food feed for you?
What are these emotions related to?
Do you believe you are not good enough?  How so?
Do you love yourself?  Perhaps try looking in the mirror and saying, "I love you." to yourself.  How does this feel?
Do you take care of yourself?  In what ways is your care lacking?
What are your negative beliefs surrounding your perception of yourself?
What have you not forgiven yourself for?
What have you not forgiven someone else for?

Your job this week is to explore these questions fully and get a wholistic sense of your emotions and feelings about yourself.  Trying to answer them all at once might be a bit overwhelming.  I recommend focusing on one or two questions/day and really going into depth.  Journaling works great because you can let your thoughts flow and often times the subconscious mind will bring something to the surface.

A meditation: You feel your excess weight as a suite of armor.  Imagine you are encased in this suit of armor and begin to focus on each part of the armor.  Focus on the legs/feet, the hips, the stomach, the arms, the chest, and the head- one piece of armor at a time.  Sit with each piece of armor and feel the heaviness fully.  How does it feel?  What emotions come up as you focus on this piece of armor?  What thoughts arise as you focus on this piece of armor?  This will help bring important information to the surface of your mind.  Write it all down.

This week is to merely recognize and become familiar with our underlying thoughts, emotions, feelings, and perceptions of ourselves.  Next week we will work on releasing this armor.  Releasing the fears, thoughts, feelings and perceptions that no longer serve us in our lives.

If you need some assistance with this process, please feel free to contact me: Melissa McNulty, hypnotherapytaos.com - 575-921-8234 .  This is something that may be a bit overwhelming to do yourself and a whole lot easier to do with assistance.  Mentioning this blog will give you 50% off of regularly priced sessions.  Here's to your health!!!

Learn How to Lose Weight and Keep it Off for GOOD!!! Step 2 of a 5 Step Program.

Step 2: Pinpoint When, Where, and Why you Eat.  This exercise will help you analyze your eating pattern so that you can identify when you are most likely to eat, where you eat, and why you eat.  Write a yes or no next to each item in the list below.

When: I eat when I am       Hungry ____________ Nervous ____________ Bored ____________                                 Stressed___________ Hyperactive ____________ Happy ___________ Sad____________
Lonely____________ Frustrated ______________ Anxious __________ Afraid ___________ Other _____________________________________________________________________


Where: I eat too much or snack   While watching TV ___________ In groups ____________ While Reading __________ During Coffee Breaks ____________ Between Office/Home ____________
At Sports Events____________ At Business Lunches _____________ At Social Events ________
In Bed ____________ Other ______________________________________________________


Why: I treat myself to a snack or meal whenever I need   Love ___________ Reward _________
Companionship__________ Something to do ____________ A change in my activity _________
To compensate for something unpleasant _____________ To Relax _____________ To feel more important __________ To feel secure ____________ Sexual Attention ______________
Other ___________


Now, look at all of your yeses that pinpoint why, when, and where you eat.  Write down a statement for each one and then write new options for the behavior.  Below are some examples to help you get started:
Example: (Bored)  Old Habit: I eat when I am bored.  New Options: When I am bored, I read a newspaper, magazine, or a book.  I call a friend, go for a bike ride, go to a movie.
(Nervous) Old Habit: I eat when I am nervous.  New Options: When I am nervous I take five minutes to close my eyes and relax.  I jog in place, participate in some other form of physical exercise, or work on my current favorite project or hobby.
(Bed) Old Habit: I eat in bed.  New Habit: When I am in bed I will review my accomplishments and good qualities before going to sleep.  I will read, or make a schedule for the next day.
(Change in Activity) Old Habit: I treat myself to a snack or meal whenever I need a change in activity. New Habit: If I am engaged in sedentary activity such as sitting at my desk, I change to one that is mobile, such as doing sit-ups.  If I am engaged in activity which is mobile, I change to one which is sedentary, such as reading.

Once you have come up with alternatives for these behaviors, make a commitment to create change.  You can commit to working on one habit/pattern at a time or you can decide to make all or some of the changes at once.  Whatever you decide, be gentle with yourself and celebrate your accomplishments!  You can do this!!!!

If you need any extra coaching support or hypnotherapy, I would be happy to help.  My phone number is 575-921-8234- Ask for Melissa.  You can visit my website at hypnotherapytaos.com and email me at hypnotherapytaos@gmail.com.  Hypnotherapy can be extremely helpful for changing these patterns subconsciously so that an automatic shift can happen.  This can make the process of change far easier, with a much larger rate of success.  Mentioning this blog will give you 40% off of any hypnotherapy/coaching session related to this topic.  Here's to your health!!!!

Learn How to Lose Weight and Keep it Off for Good! Step 1 of a 5 Step Program.

For the next 5 weeks we will be going through each of the 5 steps toward reaching your weight loss goals.  This program has been incredibly successful for my personal clients and I am now sharing it with you- for free.

Step 1:

The first necessary step to embarking on a weight release journey is to have confidence in your success.  Many people have tried to lose weight and have either failed altogether or have lost the weight only to gain it back with a couple of extra pounds for good measure.

Maybe you feel like you have tried every diet under the sun?  Or you feel as though you can't lose the weight no matter how hard you try?  Well, I am here to tell you that 95%-99% of the time permanent weight loss is possible, although not necessarily through diets or even exercise.  It often takes a more wholistic approach to lose weight and keep it off for good.

During the next few weeks we will pinpoint where, when, and why you eat- we will discover your emotions surrounding your eating and work to release your armor- we will work on various ways to incorporate more physical activity in your life without necessarily needing to go to the gym- We will learn how to eliminate the excess food from your life and create a healthy relationship with food.  You will learn that losing weight is not about dieting- It is about making a lasting change in your emotional, mental and physical state so that the pounds fall off and stay off for good.  It is a commitment to a new you.

My clients have lost an average of 40 pounds and many of them did not think weight loss was even a possibility for them.  If you are ready to make the necessary changes in your whole person, the program this next few weeks is for you.  You can check in every week for a new blog entry that will take you on a journey toward permanent weight loss.  I am not saying that it will all be easy, but I am telling you that if you follow the program completely that you will experience desired results.

So, as I mentioned at the beginning, the first step is to have confidence in your success.  It is absolutely essential that you believe that you can release your excess weight and keep it off for good, becoming a whole new person.  I generally take my clients through a coaching and hypnotherapy session to help them accomplish this first task toward creating a new version of themselves.  For you, I will provide you with a series of coaching questions as well as a meditation you can guide yourself through to bring yourself to a place where you already feel successful and have the utmost confidence in your forward movement.

Please take a few moments to journal about the following questions:

How do you feel when you think about the process of losing weight?

Do you feel discouraged, afraid, hesitant, a lack of confidence, resistant in any way?

Can you imagine yourself as a thin person- healthy and happy?  What is this person like?  How does this person feel?  What does this person think?  Include as many details as you can.

Now, remember a time where you experienced great success.  Remember how it felt.  Remember how happy and confident you were.  Journal about this experience and bring yourself there.  What do you feel and where do you feel it in your body?

Ok.. now that you've done all of that journal work, it is time to learn to visualize yourself as a success.  Begin by getting comfortable and relaxed and begin breathing deeply and rhythmically, paying attention to your breath.  Allow any thoughts you have to flow through your mind without attaching to them.  Once you feel as though you are relaxed and your mind is empty, remember the success you journaled about earlier.  Focus on the visual, emotional, physical and mental aspects of this success.  Remember how confident and happy you were.  Once you are there, locate this success in your body and feel it fully.  You will use this memory of success any time you have doubt in the future so make sure you truly feel it and experience it.

Once you are fully engrossed in your success memory and where it is located in your body, move it to the part of your body that used to feel any of the negativity that has held you back from being totally confident in your weight loss success.  Move your feeling of success to the part/s of the body where you used to feel fear, hesitation, lack of confidence, resistance or any other feeling that blocked you from success in your past weight loss attempts.  Move the feeling of success to these areas of the body and feel the negativity disperse- feel it sizzle into nothingness.  Then, feel the confidence, success, relaxation, and contentment grow and fill those spaces, knowing that all of the negativity is gone.

Next, imagine yourself in the future where you have released your excess weight.  You are confident.  Notice how beautiful and thin you are.  Notice the shape of your body and how it feels to release all of the excess weight that made you feel so heavy.  You feel capable.  You feel self-assured, confident, relaxed and successful.  You have released your excess weight and you KNOW you will keep it off for good.

Once you have completed this meditation, you can use this tactic on a moment to moment basis.  If you find yourself in any kind of doubt or negativity, you will remember your past success and feel it fully as well as remembering your future success where you are confident, thin, happy, and healthy.

With practice you will get to a point where you can create this shift instantaneously until you are no longer doubting your success at all and are totally confident in your abilities to release your excess weight and keep it off for good.

Ok, that's it for this week.  If you need help with this meditation and would like to do a guided meditation with hypnotic suggestion, please feel free to contact me.  I can do this over the phone or in person.  This week, (7/14-7/21) I will be offering these guided meditations/hypnotherapy sessions for $35.00- an incredible deal.  Simply call me at 575-921-8234 and let me know you read this blog and would like the discount for this meditation.  We take all major credit cards, cash, and check.

Have a great week!  Next week we will pinpoint where, when, and why you eat and will make the shifts necessary to fill those voids with other activities that fulfill you and support your weight release goals.  Here's to your health!

Sincerely,
Melissa McNulty
HypnoTherapeutics of Taos, LLC
hypnotherapytaos.com
575-921-8234