Change Your Body by Changing Your Mind: Getting Ready for Real Weight Loss

By Erin Del Toro, Licensed Clinical Therapist

It’s starting to heat up outside, and with summer approaching, losing weight tends to be on the minds of many. Each of the millions of people anxiously seeking weight loss each year do so for a multitude of life-improving reasons. They want to have healthier hearts, feel better in their bathing suits, have more energy and less pain, enjoy better sex lives, feel confident in the clothes they wear, or avoid a range of diseases.

Starting in the early 1900s when reducing salons promised to roll away fat and cigarettes were marketed to women as a weight loss tool, dieters have been promised an easy solution for getting rid of their extra pounds. Popular diets have included the bananas and skim milk diet, the cabbage soup diet, the sugar diet, and the wine and eggs diet. Over the years, dieters have been told to reduce caloric intake to starvation levels, eat only one type of food, nix the carbs, cut out all fat, eat mostly protein, and eat high fat. Keeping track of the best way to lose weight can be a house of smoke and mirrors.

Today, except for a few extreme points of view, the health industry has leveled out and the majority of experts offer a more sensible solution; whole grains, balanced protein, vegetables, and fresh fruits are recommended, with caloric intake matching activity level. However, most people who’ve ever tried to lose weight know that having the knowledge about how to create a leaner, healthier body doesn’t necessarily mean that bad habits will be easy to curb.

Despite having the knowledge of what to do, a high percentage of people are unable to stick with the eating and exercise habits they know they should be following for optimum health.

The reasons for this are diverse. Some have an addiction to the dopamine they get from eating a particular type of food, turning to sugary or salty snacks again and again. Others turn to eating as a go-to activity to cope with boredom or a dip in energy level. Some have certain times of the day that trigger them to overeat or snack, while others may eat to relieve stress or to deal with negative emotions. And a great many simply find the idea of changing their habits in diet and exercise overwhelming. Most people who feel frustrated with weight loss are dealing with a combination of these things.

Those who continue to follow a pattern of setbacks or failure with food and exercise will most likely find a long-term solution by attacking the problem from two angles. This is the plan used by clinical hypnotherapists:

1) Strengthen the mind’s ability to overcome the habits that have been developed, and reprogram it for success.

To do this, identify the negative points or weaknesses in your nutrition and exercise habits and work to create new neural pathways that keep you on track with your goals, even in moments of overwhelming temptation. Focus on moments of success and allow yourself to be proud of each win to help your mind create interest and excitement, which helps to deepen neural pathways more quickly.

2) Heal and move on from the deeper emotional reasons that are causing failure.

You can work on reprogramming your habits 24/7, but if there is an unresolved emotional reason creating a problem that keeps you going back to a bad habit on a subconscious level, it’s fairly likely that the new neural pathways you create will go unused; you will keep slipping into the bad habits triggered by unprocessed emotions. If you have struggled with weight loss long-term, success nearly always requires that you deal with the emotions and experiences that push unhealthy eating.

Often, this comes down to resolving moments from the past. These moments can vary from somewhat silly to seriously traumatic, but I nearly always find that they are connected to a time when the client needed love or safety and found those feelings delivered through the chemicals and hormones created as they consumed food. The blend of hormones emitted while eating caused them to feel comfort, calm, happiness, and even love. Because of this, food has an easy way of creating neural pathways as a way to feel good when we feel nervous, unhappy, angry, or lonely.

When I work with a client on this part of their weight loss journey, they often have some ideas about where their stress is coming from. But often, the answers to why ice cream is their vice every night, why they feel the need to have a snack when they come home from work, or why they binge eat in the afternoon is something that is out of their conscious mind’s reach. Even though they don’t realize it, there is usually an emotional reason steering their weight loss ship into doom.

In clinical hypnotherapy, we help identify the key emotions that are holding you back from success, alleviate the reasons these emotions keep occurring, and disconnect the attraction to food in those moments.

From there, we help you to begin to feel excitement and interest in the idea of healthy food, exercise, and practicing kindness for yourself on the journey. Your brain allows new habits to begin to become more familiar, natural, and easy.

If you’ve struggled to lose weight and you would like to continue your weight loss journey without the help of a therapist, you can delve into your emotional healing with meditation, self-help books, and a myriad of podcasts. Begin by becoming aware of what you are feeling right before you make the choice to indulge. Work at reducing those feelings by focusing on where the feelings originate, journaling, or talking to a trusted friend.

While you work through your emotions, don’t forget to keep your eye on the prize. Every time you want to snack, imagine what life would be like without the extra weight. Let yourself connect with the wise and successful future you, and you’ll be on your way to strong, healthy habits.

To enhance your weight loss success through clinical hypnotherapy, please contact me for a consultation or appointment by phone or text at (435) 429-2560 or by email at erin@balancedmodernhypnotherapy.com.

About the Author

Registered Clinical Hypnotherapist and owner of Balanced Modern Hypnotherapy. She’s passionate about changing the effects of trauma, rewriting unwanted habits and behaviors, and helping others unlock the power of their true potential. Erin lives in St. George with her twin daughters and enjoys participating in the ninja warrior sport and playing in the beautiful outdoors of southern Utah.