Failed New Year Resolutions and Failed Diets

Struggling with new resolutions or goals?  Why do we feel pressurised to set new goals which are unrealistic and probably unachievable?  Trying to lose weight, start exercising and have a dry January – too much, impossible and you are setting yourself up to fail.

Due to the way your mind works – given a similar set of circumstances, you may react or behave as you have done previously. Think about diets – you’re disciplined, you’re focused and you lose weight. Then when you are close to reaching your goal weight, you ease off the diet, revert back to old eating habits and then start to gain weight again. You have cravings, you binge and feel guilty.  Then you beat yourself up for binging and the cycle continues. You start a diet and do the same things all over again. So how do you overcome and deal with this to lose weight and keep it off?

                   

In my Freedom Weight Loss Programme I work with clients to develop coping strategies to combat self-sabotage, stop negative self-talk and also understand and cope with head hunger. Freedom Weight Reduction Programme

Head Hunger? What is it?

You’re not physically hungry – but there is a cue or trigger in the environment prompting you to eat. Maybe a subliminal advert, a cookery programme on TV, someone talking about food, your partner eating or the smell of a delicious meal. What do you do, how do you not eat?

First of all, stop and think ‘Am I physically hungry or is it a cue or trigger in the environment prompting me to eat?’

If you are not physically hungry you could:

1) Get a glass of water, sip it and carry on with what you were doing.

2) Get off your bum and go for a walk!

3) Have a word with yourself – “I can’t be hungry I only had breakfast/lunch/ dinner 20 minutes ago”.

4) Spend quality time with your partner or child/children.

5) Focus your attention on something other than eating or drinking.

Hype therapy can help.

I use Hypnotherapy to feed positive suggestions to the client to create new good habits and behaviours. We create a new healthy lifestyle, which will enable them to reach their goal weight, and more importantly be able to maintain their weight loss. The focus would be on living life one day at a time, keeping things simple and being organised.

Instead of trying to do or achieve too many goals at once, just start doing some form of daily exercise (that you enjoy) for 30 minutes or more.  Do 2 lots of 15 minutes or 3 lots of 10 minutes – just start moving, walk, run, cycle or use some of the free apps available on your phone.  Create new good habits.  Look at eating smaller portions of food and don’t deprive or restrict what you can or can’t eat.

Above all, just focus on one day at a time – today and what you can achieve today, you will be able to do tomorrow and the day after as long as you focus on today.

Hypnotherapy is an effective way to take back control and create a healthy lifestyle – to stop obsessing about food, if something is healthy or not, and counting calories. I help teach people to learn to use scales as a helpful measuring tool and to be realistic about their weight.