One lifestyle change that affects and reduces a number of risk factors our health and has a positive effect on our feelings about ourselves and our bodies is to eat healthy and weight loss or gain. It sounds so easy doesn’t it, but it’s not. You start off optimistic, motivated and raring to go but then the reality of everyday life kicks in. Healthy eating and body confidence helps you to feel good and have energy to face the world.
Initially I lost weight drastically after my heart attack and cancer. I was feeling depressed, had little energy and had no appetite so when I was told I couldn’t eat cake I was not best pleased! It didn’t help that I also had my leg in plaster. I wasn’t allowed to use crutches and I had to stay in a wheelchair so making a healthy nourishing meal just wasn’t easy. As I progressed through my healing journey I started to gain weight and without any exercise (ruptured Achilles tendon, wheelchair and later when I was fit enough crutches) I was soon overweight. I was determined never to have another heart attack so I had to get my head in the right place.
How does healthy eating affect your health?
Because these are risk factors for coronary heart disease, your diet can have a big impact on your long-term health. Even if you don’t have any of these conditions, it’s important to keep to a healthy weight so you don’t develop them in future. By reducing your weight by roughly 10% and maintaining it will help reduce these risk factors.
The British Heart Foundation research shows that being overweight or obese can raise your blood cholesterol levels. It also increases your blood pressure and increases your risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Hypnotherapy and NLP can help support you in sticking to a healthy eating plan and gaining body confidence. It is not a miracle cure as weight loss still boils down to calories in vs energy out. What the therapies can do is change your beliefs about food and eating, change your habits and behaviours, raise your motivation and self esteem. I have a lovely technique for changing how you feel about certain foods, making them less appealing, it can be very successful.
I will work with you identifying and changing why and what you eat and how you feel about food and yourself, ensuring that you feel better about yourself. We also discuss a sustainable healthy eating plan, although I won’t give you a specific diet but we can discuss what is most appropriate for you and create a plan together.
To lose weight it’s important to eat a balanced, healthy diet and exercise more. Through Life Coaching and goal setting I will help you identify some of the barriers that contribute to getting in the way of your weight loss and create strategies to maintain your ideal weight.
Do you recognise any of these?
- You eat mindlessly, eating so fast you don’t really taste the flavours in the food
- You fail to notice your body signalling that it is full
- Always eating everything on your plate even if you are full, so as not to waste food
- Eating as something to do, you eat when you are bored or lonely
- Comfort eating to make you feel better when you are upset or miserable
- You eat to reward yourself (I’ve done so well at the gym, I deserve this cake)
- Not being completely honest about how much you eat and exercise
- Even when you keep a food diary it’s easy to forget about the odd snack here and there
- Picking at ingredients while you make dinner
- Finishing the children’s leftovers
- Lack of motivation
- Grabbing something on your commute to work
- Tucking into a biscuit with your afternoon tea
- You ban food, like a box you’re told not to open!
- Binge eating the whole cake or bar of chocolate
- Being unable to have just one biscuit or chocolate
- Lack of self control
I can help!
Hypnosis, NLP and Life Coaching for weight loss are about helping you regain self-control – helping you to manage any emotional factors and develop a relationship with food that is sensible and promotes a healthy weight. It’s much easier when you feel that you want to eat healthily rather than just think that you should. You will naturally feel like making the right choices when it comes to things like salt, saturated fat, sugar and alcohol. This doesn’t mean that you will never have to use your willpower, but it does mean you’ll feel better able to use it.
