The ‘Trim Up & Slim Down’ Blog

Chris Chew asked:


How can you lose weight or gain weight with hypnosis? Is hypnotism dangerous? Does hypnotism really works? What is hypnotism really like?

If you are reading this article, then you will probably have given some thoughts to the questions in the preceding paragraph. Hypnotism therapy not only can help you lose or gain weight, it can help you to achieve many other benefits such as quitting smoking, develop good health habits, develop positive thinking, develop good money habits, eliminating bad habits and many other positive benefits.

Firstly, before you read on, let’s clear up some myths and unfounded fears about subjecting oneself to hypnosis therapy.

Most people have irrational fears about being a subject of hypnotism. This is understandable because of the natural fear of the unknown and besides, these irrational fears are further reinforced into people’s mind by Hollywood movies and TV cartoons showing evil hypnotists putting the heroes into a zombie like state and under the full control of the evil hypnotist. This is not only nonsensical, it is also impossible.

So how does hypnotism work? You see, in our consciousness, we act through our conscious and subconscious mind. Our conscious mind make decisions based on the knowledge and past experiences stored in the huge data base in the sub-conscious or the unconscious mind.

As an example, supposing when you were very young and impressionable, some adult whom you respected told you that rich people are jerks. This information will be stored in your sub-conscious mind and although you may not be aware of it, every time when you see some rich people, your internal self chatter will most likely say that they probably accumulated their wealth by cheating others or by things that jerks do.

Since you do not want to be a jerk, your conscious mind will not think of ways to be rich. It will only think of having just enough to get by and guess what, you will have enough to get by because you are doing things to achieve that, but you will never be rich because you are not doing anything to be rich. Make sense?

Past experiences stored in the sub-conscious mind may be correct information at that time because at that time, as in the case above, that adult may only be referring to a particular rich person who was a real jerk. However, events and situations may have changed to render that bit of information irrelevant or even limiting what you can do or achieve, like losing weight or gaining weight.

Let us look at another example. If your family members and you are overweight and since young, you have heard your parents grumbled on many occasions that no matter what they do, they just can’t seem to lose that extra weight and that being fat must be a genetic condition.

These comments were then embedded into your unconscious mind and today, if someone were to ask you to lose weight, your unconcious will instinctively react by telling youself that losing weight is not possible because you are genetically programed to be obese and that no matter what you do, it will be difficult for you to lose weight effectively.

Of course you will not lose weight with that mind set because you will think that your weight loss effort will be a lost cause and therefore will not even lift a finger to lose weight or after a half hearted attempt, you give up. So, your limiting belief is sabotaging your weight loss effort.

This same analogy can also be applied to people who are skinny and who want to gain weight. There are many other situations that hypnosis can help because of limiting beliefs such as “I can never be rich because I do not have a college degree” or “It is hard for me to attract a lover because I am ugly”.

Most of the time, people are not even aware that they are sabotaging themselves with their own limiting beliefs. This is where hypnotism comes in.

When you are in a hypnotic state, you are actually in a very relaxed frame of mind. Unlike popular beliefs, you are still conscious of what is going on, fully in control of your self and you can get up and walk away immediately if you choose to. You will never be in controlled by your hypnotist like those depicted in cartoons and comic books.

You are put into a very relaxed state, so that your conscious mind is not so active and your hypnotist can suggest new positive messages into your subconscious mind. That means that your therapist will help you to erase those negative limiting beliefs from your sub-conscious mind and suggest new positive beliefs into it like, it is possible for you to lose or gain weight and motivate you to do something about your weight or other problems such as quitting smoking.

Now that you are convinced that hypnosis is a valuable tool to improve and enhance your life, there is still a problem. It can get pretty expensive because one session with a hypnotist is usually not enough to erase the limiting beliefs which you have thought to be true for so many years.

Furthermore, there probably are more than one such beliefs and your therapist will have to find them, eradicate them and the replace them with new positive beliefs. Now hypnotists charge their fees by the hour and this can make a big dent on your budget.

The good news is that the overwhelming costs can be offset by performing self hypnosis. No, you need not be an expert to perform self hypnotism. All you have to do is to get your hands on some hypnotism CDs or MP3s programs made to remedy your specific problem. Then just go and lie down on your bed, turn on the CDs or MP3s, close your eyes and you will have a hypno-therapist right in your bedroom.

Having armed yourself with the new positive beliefs through self hypnotism, you will naturally start taking conscious and unconscious actions to achieve your dreams such as losing or gaining weight.

So, can you lose weight or gain weight through self hypnotism? Yes, you certainly can because if you say that you can’t, then it is your limiting beliefs at work again right?

Appetite Control Information

Valerie Dawson asked:


Losing weight by hypnosis is now a pretty common thing to do. Hypnosis has long been recognized as a scientifically proven method of helping you to achieve your goals in all kinds of ways – it’s long been considered one of the best ways to quit smoking, for example. In recent years an increasing number of people have turned to hypnosis for other help as well – and they’ve found that this is a great way to lose weight and, most importantly, to make sure that the weight stays off.

As this method of weight loss has grown in popularity a lot of the popular media has picked up on its great effects. Weight problems are a matter of great concern for us as a nation after all. So, it’s no great surprise to see hypnotherapy regularly mentioned on TV as a tried and tested solution for sustained weight loss.

Recently, for example, Dateline NBC followed 6 people who were due to attend their high school reunion. It was their 25th anniversary and they had 10 months to achieve their goals – each of them had to want to lose a set minimum amount of weight and they all had to be willing to try a different method of weight loss. This was designed to show just how well (or badly!) each weight loss solution might work.

So, each member of the group was given the option of choosing a different weight loss route to follow. These included Weight Watchers, extreme exercise, the Atkins diet, Slim Fast, the Jorge Cruise weight-loss program and – of course – hypnotism.

Now, it’s easy for us to claim that hypnosis will help you lose weight and maintain weight loss. We know that this kind of program will help you simply because it helps you re-program the way you think about food so you can modify your eating habits with no real effort. All you need is the real desire to lose weight.

But, to reinforce this the NBC show threw up some interesting results. The guy who opted to take on the hypnosis method was placed first at the three month point and second at the five month point with a weight loss of 39lbs. Second place not sound so good? Well, the first place here went to the Atkins dieter – and, as with any extreme diet, there is a risk here of health problems and a very real chance of re-gaining weight again as soon as you stop the diet and start regular eating again.

The fact is that hypnosis gives you a cure for life – it can change the way you view food and the reasons why you eat it. And, it can reinforce the work it does here with a positive attitude towards exercise and living a healthy life. So, it’s far easier to lose weight as you will be actively working towards maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle on a subconscious level. And, this doesn’t stop in the way that a diet does as once you re-program the way you think it stays with you.

As a side issue, the wife of the guy who took on hypnosis was so impressed by the way it worked that she signed up for sessions to quit smoking as she could see how well it worked for him. And, it worked great for her too…..

Smoking Control Center

Jason Johns asked:


No one likes the thought of starting a diet - it’s the word DIE with a T on the end … it just can’t be fun. It’s SO much easier (and more fun) to put the weight on than to knock it off.

Losing weight too quickly is not good for the body, so you need to lose a little weight regularly in order to obtain your ideal weight. However, losing just a few pounds a week is often too depressing for most people, so they quickly dump the diet. Persistence is the key to any success when you are dieting.

If you want to quickly lose some weight without damaging your body you need to reduce your calorie intake significantly and maintain this for a time.

You need to bear in mind that your body uses whatever energy source is most readily available. So if you are eating a high sugar diet, then that is what is used first. This is why it is important to significantly reduce the sugar in your diet, it forces your body to burn your fat instead. Any sugar that isn’t burnt during a day will be stored as fat by your body for later use.

These tips will help you to lose weight quickly and maintain your idea weight.

* Drink plenty - drinking plenty of water will help to speed up your metabolism, which makes it easier to burn off fat and lose weight. It also flushes the body of harmful toxins and keeps your skin healthy and your body hydrated. You should drink about 2 litres (4-5 pints) per day ideally.

* Eat a healthy breakfast - never skip breakfast, the old saying “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” is true. Eat a breakfast that is packed with protein because this will get you off to a great start and give your metabolism a boost.

* Follow an exercise plan - devise an exercise plan for at least 20 minutes every day and stick to it religiously. Exercises which burn off the most fat are aerobic ones such as walking, jogging, swimming and riding a bicycle.

* AVOID snacks - never be tempted to nibble on unhealthy, high sugar snacks during the day. If you must snack then stick with fruit or raw vegetables. Remember to keep a bowl of fruit nearby and pre-cut vegetables such as carrot and celery into nibble size pieces and put them in the refrigerator in zip lock bags so there handy. Carry them around with you so whenever you are hungry you can have a healthy snack instead of facing temptation.

The main challenge anyone who loses weight has to deal with is maintaining their ideal weight. Make change to your lifestyle rather than diet, and you will keep your ideal weight. Remember to watch the amount of calories that you eat in relation to those that you are burning off and to keep active and stick with some form of daily exercise.

Smoking Control Center