Q: Why should I choose Austin's Hypnosis Healing Center?

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Q: What is Hypnosis / Hypnotherapy?

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Hypnosis Facts 1-6

Hypnosis Facts 7-14

Tired of carrying around those pounds? Sick and tired of diets that don't work? Are you ready to shed that unneeded fat once and for all? Hypnotherapy may be the answer for you. If you are more than 25 pounds overweight, there is a very good possibility that you have an emotional connection to food and eating habits. How would you like to reduce or eliminate emotional eating, as well as change and improve your eating habits, through the use of advanced hypnosis techniques?

I frequently ask my very overweight clients the question: who are you feeding? Sometimes who we are feeding is an emotion, such as happiness, or depression, sadness, and loneliness. Sometimes it's our petulant inner child who only cares about eating that candy bar right now. Or we're feeding our rebellious adolescent, who knows this particular food may not make us feel very good but goes ahead and eats it anyway! After exploring this question for themselves, nearly all of my clients discover that they have been unconsciously feeding a part of themselves that wasn't nourished. For instance, when most of us feel like we aren't being taken care of—usually when we're experiencing an emotional need—we immediately turn to the foods that were gratifying in childhood. These foods tend to be sweet, salty, or starchy. Many people feed themselves based on an emotional need, whether the emotions are negative or positive. When people eat this way, they usually have something that's fast, easy, and requires almost no preparation. We are feeding ourselves quick fixes that usually have little nutritive value, and we're eating when we are in a state of emotional imbalance when hunger doesn't even come into the picture. Many of us are caught in old patterns of how we feed ourselves, and we don't even realize it. The question, "Who are you feeding?" can be a simple antidote for this unconscious, compulsive behavior. Hypnotherapy can help you discover who and what you're really feeding and allow you to quickly heal that part of yourself so that you easily release excess weight.

It is important to have a good understanding of the difference between real hunger, which is physical hunger, and emotional eating. Real hunger occurs when the body is in need of refueling. It is a deep growling sound that comes from your stomach that says, "Feed me!" It is not selective in its food choice and does not wonder if it wants something sweet or salty, crunchy or soft, healthy or soothing. It doesn't really care if it eats American, Italian, Mexican, or Chinese; it just wants you to put something in your stomach. Slim people often consider it a bother to eat and sometimes even forget to eat. When slim people get upset, they will tell you that they are too upset to eat!

Emotional eating, on the other hand, is an entirely different entity. Emotional eating occurs in response to a feeling that you may be having, such as loneliness, boredom, anger, anxiety, frustration, or depression. Somewhere along the line, generally prior to the age of 15, the emotional eater picked up the idea that food was more than fuel. Some even confused it with love!

A good example of emotional eating goes something like this. Susan is a typical weight loss client. One of the reasons that she is overweight is because she snacks at home in the evenings (she snacks other places, as well, but we will use this to simplify the scenario). She suddenly gets a feeling and thinks, "Hmm, I think I want something. What do I want? Do I want something sweet? Do I want something salty? Maybe it's ice cream that I want." She then eats a large bowl of her favorite ice cream and thinks, "Nope, that wasn't what I wanted. I'll have some chocolate cake. Maybe that will hit the spot!" She eats the chocolate cake and then thinks, "Nope, that wasn't what I wanted. I'll have some potato chips. That will do the job!" She eats the potato chips and then thinks, "I'll have a few cookies now, because the chips didn't really satisfy my craving!"

Remember, when you say, "I'm craving something," it's just another way of saying, "There's a feeling inside me that I don't like, and I'm going to try to satisfy it with food." Most of the time you are not consciously aware of the feeling you are trying to "eat away". Cravings are not real hunger, and responding to a craving when your body is not in need of refueling can cause you to be overweight. It is easy to avoid emotional eating once you realize that you are not actually physically hungry but, instead, are trying to satisfy a feeling with food.

Was it food that Susan actually wanted? We can confidently say no, because she tried it and it did not work! She was still not satisfied, even though she ate a variety of foods. Perhaps Susan was lonely or bored. Through the use of hypnotherapy, we can help her discover what the feeling was really trying to tell her to do, break the association between feelings and food, and give her alternative and healthy ways to satisfy her inner most needs. The end result is progressive weight loss.

The key issue is that most overweight people do not realize that they are eating in response to emotions. The reason is because it was likely a long time ago that their subconscious mind created the association between a particular feeling and food! One of the essential things that I do in my weight loss program is to help people discover the underlying feeling that triggers them to want to eat.

Most diet puts you in a state of deprivation, and you long for the day when you can eat "normally." It's a natural response to want more of what you've been deprived of, so that's why, once you stop depriving yourself, you eat more than ever before and gain back the weight…and maybe a few extra pounds!

All fad diets are band-aid approaches to weight loss. Hypnosis for weight loss is not a diet and will help you satisfy yourself in many new ways! You are going to distinguish between real hunger and emotional "hunger." You are going to break the connection between food and feelings. You are going to lose weight! Now you can have the change that you have always wanted…a slimmer, healthier, more satisfied you!