The battle to stop gaining weight is a tough one to fight. While the struggle to lose weight begins on the treadmill, stopping ourselves from gaining those extra kilograms is another grind altogether. Whether to stay in shape for summer, to take that healthier lifestyle to the next level, or for that upcoming wedding, still months away, the fight to keep those unwanted centimetres from increasing often feels like an endless one.
So what is the secret to the “why?” behind weight gain? Well, that complicated answer is multiple and varied, and each individual is likely to have more than a single reason. Some people struggle to gain weight. Others live their entire adult lives without gaining or losing more than a few kilograms. But for many, gaining significant weight as they age or face new challenges is a frustrating reality.
We explore the “why” behind how to stop gaining weight and how hypnotherapy for preventing weight gain can help us to slow, stop or even reverse it.
Important to remember…
Before we get started, it’s important to understand that reaching a good weight always begins with maintaining a healthy diet and getting regular, sufficient exercise. Of course, this is easier said than done for many people. Some of us deal with overwhelming habits, conditions and stresses that drive an almost insatiable urge to eat. Others find that their bodies just can’t deal with the strain of regular exercise.
Unfortunately, willpower and self-determination alone are not enough for effective weight gain management – especially since most of us are faced with increasing levels of stress and anxiety, leaving not much energy for ourselves. Thankfully, we have discovered many useful and effective techniques for keeping these challenges at bay. Hypnotherapy for bad eating habits and hypnosis to help you find the right levels of motivation to get out and exercise are just two methods to help you get started.
Losing weight vs combatting weight gain
There is an often-overlooked difference between losing weight and the battle for how to stop gaining weight. Let’s break it down:
- Losing weight – is the process of decreasing your body’s fat content and overall mass. Losing weight always comes after gaining it and is the challenge most people face daily. For more on how hypnotherapy can help you to manage and lose weight, click here.
- Combatting weight gain – is less common than among people battling weight issues. Preventing weight gain means that you’re either looking to maintain your current weight or have lost weight but are looking for ways to keep it off. Combatting weight gain is a long-term challenge since it happens over a far longer period than weight loss.
While both weight gain management activities seek to reach and stay at a healthy body weight, how to go about achieving those goals differs significantly. This article will focus on the ways and means to use hypnotherapy for preventing weight gain and stopping us from becoming overweight or obese in the first place.
After all, “Prevention is better than the cure”, isn’t it?
Why this obsession over our weight?
A fraction under two-thirds of all adult Australians are overweight or obese. Considering that of this group, more people are considered obese rather than simply overweight, the numbers don’t look good.
Weight control is today the focus of most people’s push for health. Individuals gain weight over a period of time, usually aware it is happening but unaware of its extent and often ignoring the long-term implications. Luckily, more and more people are becoming aware of the risks of becoming overweight before they do, and are thus looking for ways to keep in shape.
Where weight change begins
When is that “special moment” one realises they’re starting to gain weight? Outside influences are often the catalyst for change. An unflattering photo, a social media comment from an acquaintance or insensitive family member, or even suddenly struggling with an undemanding physical task are all typical triggers to take action. Sometimes, it’s your partner or doctor who will point out increasing weight gain, and let’s not forget – the bathroom scale never lies.
Whatever the catalyst, it’s never too late to start watching your weight. But to fully appreciate how to do weight gain management right, we need to understand where weight gain begins – not in the belly, on the hips or around those buns – in the mind.
Examining the “why” behind weight gain – From the perspective of a hypnotist
Hypnosis focuses on the mind. Nothing else. The ancient techniques and methods employed widely by hypnotherapists are all geared around addressing the thoughts, feelings, emotions, experiences and ideas of the mind.
This means that hypnotherapists possess a level of unique expertise that many traditional care providers don’t. And, armed with an understanding of the triggers, factors and thought patterns that drive our choices, therapists are able to get to the root cause of most (though not everyone’s) weight gain issues before using hypnotherapy for preventing weight gain.
Weight gain triggers
Generally, Hypnotherapists find that embedded anxiety problems, self-esteem issues, and self-doubt are the biggest contributors to and form the basis of most people’s habitual eating problems. Many of us acknowledge this, yet we’re unable or unwilling to do anything about it.
Confronting comfort food
Comfort food is everywhere. For many these favourite eats are enemy number one for how to stop gaining weight. Fast food, snacks, deliveries and sweets – it’s never been easier to get our hands on the sugars and calories most responsible for weight gain. The urge to cover that nervous tightness in your stomach with comfort food is among one of the most powerful urges to overcome when combatting weight gain.
That stressful lifestyle
If you’ve been anxious and stressed out for a long period, you’ll likely know that our bodies react accordingly. Metabolisms don’t discriminate, and digestive systems don’t care that storing more fat and sugar in our cells only adds to stress and fear.
Hypnotherapy as a tool to prime us for combatting weight gain issues
The causes of these negative influences and elements are always case-specific. But the beauty of hypnotherapy is that simply by guiding you to a deeply relaxed state of hypnosis, these negative emotions can be reduced and even made to vanish altogether, with each client developing their own relationship with their mind in the ultra-relaxed state induced through hypnotherapy.
A new weight gain-free lifestyle that begins in the mind
Once the need to change is identified, hypnotherapy for preventing weight gain will help us recognise the behaviour responsible for the weight gain and then give us the motivation and ability to begin modifying it. Hypnotherapists are adept at working with habits like binge eating, overeating, and sweet or fatty food addictions.
Some people eat for comfort; some even eat as their parents did and just don’t know a healthier way. Whatever the cause, hypnotherapy will replace the negative patterns with positive and healthy ones. The change can be subtle at first. But soon, clients will begin to notice small but crucial changes in how they view the food they eat, the habits driving weight gain behaviours and how to stand up to them.
They may suddenly realise they didn’t impulsively purchase their “weakness item”. Calorie counting becomes a fun activity. Triggers evolve into choices. And they might also find that simple exercise becomes as natural a part of the day as getting up and going to work.
Lifestyle change vs. preventing weight gain
It’s important to distinguish between changing lifestyle and changing how you combat weight gain. Changing your lifestyle will deliver positive health, and more effective weight gain management will naturally follow. However, this must be sustained. Dieting, for example, will deliver weight loss, but when the previous lifestyle is resumed, the same habits and patterns return and pretty soon, so does the weight.
Hypnotherapy helps you to achieve your weight gain management goal of better health, but it’s not a cure-all. In the long term, belief and positivity are of little use without knowledge of what constitutes a healthy lifestyle. Fortunately, this information is at our fingertips – both in the conscious and subconscious minds. Those who use the positive benefits of hypnotherapy with good nutritional advice can look forward to a wonderful and permanent result.
How hypnotherapy can help you to a happier, healthier life
At Hypnocare, hypnotherapy for preventing weight gain is but one of the many therapies our excellent team of therapists are able to provide to our growing list of current and new clients. Whether you’re looking for a way to discover your inner success, lift your confidence, combat chronic pain or break those bad habits, hypnotherapy is an effective way to reach those goals and discover how to stop gaining weight.
