5 habits that are keeping you stuck with your weight loss

If you are stuck with your weight loss, you could be in despair having tried many things to lose weight. Unfortunately, weight loss is not always easy, despite what popular magazines and weight loss programmes will have you believe. It is also not linear; we do not happily and consistently lose the same amount every week. If it were that easy, diets would not exist.

Quite often, we start well on our weight loss journey. We lose weight and start making better choices with food. Though, as often happens, we come to a plateau.

We get stuck on our weight loss journey and often don't know how to kick start it up a gear.

Unfortunately, we cannot see our own blind spots, so even though we think we are doing all that we can, we could have a few sneaky habits that are keeping us stuck with our weight loss.

5 habits that keep us stuck

1. Unconscious eating

Unconscious eating is when we are eating without paying any attention to what we are eating. The most common one is eating in front of the TV. When we are not paying any attention to ourselves and our food, we become disconnected from it. The result is we end up eating far too much. We do not notice when we are content and often end up eating past the point of feeling full.

2. Not stopping to eat

So many times, I hear people eating their lunches at their desks - they have been working hard and have so much to do that there is no time to stop and eat. We are eating unconsciously again. When we are slightly stressed without realising it, this can cause us to eat more than we need.

3. Not experimenting

We may well start off a diet by following guidelines on what to eat and what not to. That can serve us well up to a certain point, but after that, it might not work so well. The problem is, it can stop us from tuning into our bodies and learning what foods our bodies love. We must learn the quantity that our bodies love and what foods give us energy and make us feel good. It can also get boring eating the same foods, which can drive us back to tried and tested poor food habits. Start by adding in greens, experimenting with taste, and feeling.

4. Calorific drinking

It is surprising just how many calories can be hidden in drinks. Even fat-free/sugar-free ones will be filled with artificial sweeteners, which then the liver must break down and our bodies have to do extra work detoxifying. When we are drinking with eating, we will digest the liquid first, so we are filling up with sugar before getting any beneficial nutrients. Start drinking more water during the day and swopping out the sugary drinks.

5. Too many carbs

It is dangerous to cut out a whole food group, however, too many carbs can lead to sugar spikes, which causes a crash and leaves us wanting more food. The carbs I am talking about here is the beige processed food. Try to cut back on chips, jacket potatoes, bread, pasta, and crackers. Instead, try sweet potatoes or butternut squash which have a lovely, sweet taste and fill us up for longer.

Find alternatives to eating bread, even though it is so quick and easy to grab a sandwich, try to go for a salad instead. Often the pasta salads are covered in creams and dressings that are full of hidden fatty ingredients. This may mean shopping around a bit more, and spending some time making your own lunches, but the result will mean being healthier and losing weight.

How can hypnotherapy help you do this? 

Hypnotherapy can help you to relax more in your body. It can help you to become aware of your stomach so you can stop eating when you feel content. When you become more aware of how you feel whilst and after eating, it can help you to manage your eating better.

Hypnotherapy can also help you to feel more confident and when you feel good about yourself, you make better choices.

You can start by listening to guided meditations on apps. This can help you start to relax and enjoy the positive suggestions, though these will be generic. A hypnotherapist will help you with your specific needs and give you positive suggestions based on what it is you need at that time.