Articles - Snippits

Research at Tufts-New England Medical Center has proven that all of the popular diets work when dieters are able to stick to them. Atkins - low carb; The Zone - low glycemic index; Ornish - low fat; Weight Watchers - low calorie.

But medical researchers have provided convincing evidence that almost no one can stick to any diet because of their appetite.

So to be successful with a diet, weight loss hypnosis can be very effective.

The Dictionary defines "Appetite" as: "The desire for gratification of some want, craving, or passion." So "appetite" is eating and drinking for relaxation and pleasure.

Many people confuse hunger with appetite. Hunger is defined as "The body's call for nourishment." In other words, when the body needs fuel, that's when you feel genuine hunger. By that definition, it is not possible for a person who is overweight to actually "be hungry."

However, it is possible for you to have feelings that you interpret as "hunger." And the stomach contracting in expectation of being fed causes those feelings.

When you were a toddler and you got upset, your mother would put a pacifier into your mouth to pacify you. You would get distracted, become mellow, and often go to asleep. That scenario was repeated thousands of times so that your unconscious mind was programmed: When something goes into your mouth, you get relaxation and pleasure from it.

Now that you are mature, if you feel upset, you crave something in your mouth for relaxation and pleasure - food!

People Also Get Cravings and Urges Because Of Conditioning.

When you associate eating with any other behavior, the other behavior will trigger cravings for food and a urge to eat. This is called a conditioned response. For example: If you eat when you drive your car, you will automatically get an urge to eat each time you drive your car.

What About Compulsive Overeaters Who Eat Because Of Emotional Reasons?

A compulsion is defined as an "irresistible impulse." One of the presuppositions of NLP is: There is a positive intention behind all behaviors. In other words, our unconscious mind only motivates behaviors that benefit or protect us in some way. In NLP terms, we say that being fat is a behavior when it provides a positive outcome or intention.

You may be wondering what the possible positive outcomes of being fat are. The list of possibilities is as long as the list of people who are overweight. But I'll give you a classic example: A person gets their heart broken in a relationship. So to protect the self from getting the heart broken again, the unconscious motivates the self to gain a lot of weight to keep the self out of relationships and prevent another broken heart.

A big secret to getting rid of your appetite is called reframing. With reframing, we respect the fact that the mind is motivating us to consume our food for relaxation and pleasure. And if we are eating compulsively because being fat is protecting us, we respect that also.

In a Neuro-Linguistic Programming six-step reframe, we compromise with our unconscious mind. In the case of eating for relaxation and pleasure, we ask our unconscious to assume the responsibility for making us automatically substitute some new behaviors. The substituted behaviors must be as effective and available at providing the same relaxation and pleasure. But they must also be more acceptable to us on a conscious level. When the unconscious is motivating us into alternate behaviors that provide the relaxation and pleasure that we require - we lose our appetite on this score.

If you are an emotional eater, we do an additional reframe. We ask your unconscious to accept responsibility for finding and substituting new behaviors in place of being fat. These new behaviors must be as effective and available at providing the same protection. But they must be substitutions that are more consciously acceptable to you. When your unconscious is motivating you into alternate behaviors that provide the same benefits that you require, you lose the compulsion to overeat.

As far as feeling cravings because of conditioning (conditioned responses), we utilize various hypnotic and NLP techniques that erase those conditioned responses. That breaks the connection between the behaviors, and obliterates the cravings and urges.

As soon as your appetite has been eliminated, and all of your compulsions to overeat have been dealt with, you can easily stick to any type of healthful diet indefinitely so that it becomes a permanent lifestyle change.

Alan B. Densky, CH is certified by the National Guild of Hypnotists. Alan started his practice in 1978. You can learn more by going to his Neuro-VISION website. He maintains his own free article library. And he offers free hypnosis newsletters and MP3's.