Anyone who has ever struggled with his/her weight will be only too familiar with that feeling of frustration - and maybe even outright failure - that comes when a new diet or plan does not quite work out as expected.
According to hynotherapist Michael McGuinness of the Mayo Hynosis Clinic, we need to change our mindsets and think ourselves thin.
“People often feel frustrated, and they blame themselves for not succeeding, but the fact is that 95 per cent of dieters fail long-term,” he explained. “They are not to blame - the method they use is causing this failure.
“Each year there is a growing number of diet books, programmes, slimming clubs, pills and potions, but the number of overweight people is still growing at an alarming rate.
“People are eternally optimistic, each time they start a new diet, they believe that this time it will work,” he pointed out. “People start their new programme all enthusiastic, slavishly following the programme, eating the prescribed diet and walking or going to the gym.
“They start to lose weight, sometimes quite a lot, but then a moment comes when it all collapses, and it is back to square one. Soon, all the weight is back on again, and maybe some extra pounds for good measure.”
Why is weight management is so difficult?
Mindset is the answer to that question, according to Mr McGuinness.
Beliefs
“Mindset is like a flowing tide that creates the force that drives you in the direction governed by your deepest held beliefs, emotions, and values. When you try to do the opposite, it is like swimming against the tide. You finally lose your energy, interest, and enthusiasm, and the tide sweeps you back to the real way you feel deep down.
“Willpower is the conscious decision to do the opposite to the real way you feel. This is why dieting has such a failure rate long-term, as this type of dieting depends on willpower. This never lasts, you just feel deprived of the food you should be eating, and start back on a destructive cycle of unhealthy eating, as nothing has changed the ingrained pattern at a subconscious level.
“An excellent weight management programme is essentially an excellent mind management programme. Overweight people can tell you what they should eat to be a healthy weight, the problem is that psychologically they cannot follow the plan long-term.”
Mr McGuinness, clinical hypnotherapist, began his study into the thought processes of slim people regarding food in the 1990s.
He looked at questions such as how they dealt with uncomfortable feelings without resorting to food, how they stayed motivated, and how they could think of junk food without uncontrolled craving.
He discovered that all slim people displayed a similar psychological thought pattern that resulted in success. He modelled this pattern into a hypnosis weight management programme, which he called HypnoSlim.
This programme has helped thousands of people down the years to reach and maintain a healthy weight.
The programme does not involve counting calories, restrictive diets, excessive exercise, or a sense of deprivation.
For an appointment contact Michael McGuinness at Mayo Hypnosis Clinic, telephone 094 906 0226 or 086 161 2301 or log on to www.mayohypnosis.ie
