How to lose weight healthily this year

Is this your year to finally lose the weight you've wanted? Is this the year you’ve said to yourself, this is it, this is the year, I’m going to do this?  

Previously, have you always gone on a diet to lose weight? Which inevitably does not last, because it is not sustainable. Eating shakes, meal replacements, and food bars is going to help in the short term, but not in the long term. 

Eating is a very emotive topic. We all know roughly what we need to eat to be healthy. Good sources of the main food groups; protein, carbohydrates, some dairy, lots of fruit and vegetables, and some good fats and oils. Not only do we need food to survive, we eat according to our emotional needs. Who doesn’t want comfort food when it's cold and dark outside? Then during the hot summers, we want lighter cooler food. Food is more or less available at every occasion and celebration. 

Our upbringing is going to have a huge influence on the way we eat and what we eat. If we were allowed to eat sweets and were given lots of sugary food, chances are we are going to eat this way into adulthood.  

If we suffered trauma in any way, or home life was stressful, we might have found solace in food as a child. It was easy to get hold of, it was there for us and could well have provided us with security. If food was scarce as a child, this is going to affect us and be stressful. When we find ourselves being adults with the freedom and money to buy whatever food we want, this can result in us overindulging, giving ourselves all the food we wanted as a child but couldn’t have. 

There are so many factors influencing the way that we eat. A lot of eating behaviours, come from our childhood and are therefore now unconscious because we have been eating the same way for many years without thinking about it. 

Because of this, a diet is not going to change all of this. It is not going to change our eating patterns, our thoughts and emotions, and our unconscious beliefs about food. 

It is like a sportsperson. Let's say in their childhood they fell lots of times as you do when you’re children. Now in adulthood, those falls are long forgotten about. They are running and their knee keeps hurting. So they buy new sports shoes in the hope that it stops their knee from hurting.

The shoes make it comfier for a little while, but the person’s gait, speed, and style are not going to change, so the knee keeps hurting. They then need to go to an osteopath or physio to get their body checked out. It turns out the sore knee is originating from their spine, which was out of alignment from one of those falls from childhood. When the spine, hips, and knee are worked on, the knee stops hurting and the person is a better runner than before. No amount of shoes, or even the best shoes made would not have fixed the knee. 

Diets are a short-term solution but are not going to help you in the long term. To help in the long term, you can take two approaches. Learning how to eat healthily and healing the hurts of your childhood that are contributing to your eating issues. 

Hypnotherapy can help you to do both. Hypnotherapy can help you to develop new healthier habits as well as heal your past. 

How can hypnotherapy help you heal your childhood?

Here’s how hypnotherapy can help heal your childhood. 

1. The hypnotherapist can help you do what is called inner child healing. This is where the therapist takes you back to different points in your childhood and you connect with your younger self. From the older self's perspective, you can see what the younger you needed at that time and you can bring empathy and compassion. 

2. Imagine yourself in a safe place. You can see yourself from a different perspective and in your imagination give yourself the tools and skills that would help you. 

3. You imagine you are your parent and give yourself the parenting that you want and need. This can help you feel loved, understood, and supported. This helps you to then stop turning to food to get those emotions. 

Tips to help you lose weight without dieting

Here are some practical tips to help you lose weight without dieting.

One food

Swap out one food at a time, rather than changing everything about your diet. This does not mean you can’t have that food ever again, it just means most of the time you are going to choose a healthier alternative. For instance, instead of sugary breakfast cereals, choose a healthier one and add berries on top, or choose porridge or an omelette. 

Quit sugar

Sugar can cause inflammation. When we eat it, it causes dopamine to be released which feels and tastes so good we feel like we are hooked and can’t stop eating it. Sugar can also cause weight gain. Find healthier ways to get your sweet treat with less sugar. Swap commercial chocolate for dark chocolate. Ice cream for frozen yoghurt. Cut out the sugar in your tea and coffee. 

Move after eating

After eating, it is natural that our blood sugars rise. Insulin is then released to help keep our blood sugars down. If you do your exercise after eating, this helps to keep your blood sugar low as the muscles use that blood sugar to move. Fast walking for 20 minutes, dancing, and climbing stairs are suggestions of what you can do. 

If you are tempted to go on a diet this year, think about what you want. What is the purpose of a diet for you? Are you in it for the long term or the short term?