Practical tips to manage the Buffet of Temptations this holiday

Beat the Buffet of Temptation

10 Simple strategies to keep on track this holiday season

By Sara Adams, Weight Loss Coach & Hypnotherapist

Christmas and the holidays are filled with parties, delights and goodies – everywhere you look there are temptations lurking – below are some strategies that you can use to keep yourself mentally on track this season.  All of these strategies are common sense, and you may already know most of them – still sometimes we need to be reminded of easy things that we can do everyday to keep us going.

Happy Holidays!

1. Ask Good Questions

No matter what you ask yourself, your mind will come up with an answer.  These answers may or may not be accurate. By asking better questions, you can get more productive and supportive answers.  Consider the example: “How come I can’t stick to my diet?” vs. “What can I do this week to keep on track?”

2. Be Consistent

It’s not what you do “every now and then” that defines you – it’s what you do consistently that defines you.  If you are consistent about your food and exercise – then your life and body will reflect this. What are you consistent about? How can you do the same with your health?

3. Recognize Mental & Emotional Patterns

A major component to weight loss is recognizing your negative mental and emotional patterns around food, eating, what you say to yourself, and how you control your reactions. If you know, for example, that you eat when you are stressed or at your desk, prepare yourself for success instead of sabotage. Acknowledging the pattern and stopping it or altering your reaction to it goes miles.

4.  Turn Your Critic into a Coach

We are all our own worst critics – our inner thoughts can often have more bite and sting than our worst enemy could ever come up with (and it is my sincere hope that you don’t have any enemies – let alone a designation for the worst one!) The point is that as you are in control of your thoughts and reactions; which means you can choose to have your inner “critic” be a coach instead. By asking good questions, the berating inner voice can give feedback instead.  For example, after working out, you weigh yourself and your critic steps in and says:  “All this working out and yet the scale’s not moving! What’s the point?”

As a Coach, your inner voice may say – “Ok, good work getting to the gym and being consistent. What can I do to improve on this good performance?”

5. Allow Yourself to Make Good Choices

You are in control of your health. Part of learning to take better care of yourself (because most people that struggle with weight issues put others first) is allowing yourself the freedom of making good choices. A simple tool before eating, going to the fridge, cafeteria, coffee shop or restaurant is to say to yourself “I make good choices. This focuses the mind to try to “prove” it to yourself – even if you don’t believe it to begin with – just be consistent with it and you’ll start to notice good decisions becoming more routine.

When you go to eat in an emotional state ask yourself: Am I Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired?

6. Remember H.A.L.T

Another simple tool when “going for food” say to yourself: HALT.  This stands for Hungry, Angry, Lonely or Tired. These are the most common “states” when we feel vulnerable and tend to eat for the chemical boost we get from it.  Recognizing these patterns means we can choose our reactions. If you are indeed hungry, by all means, eat – but remember consistent healthy choices makes for best results.

7.  Create a Compelling Future

Why do you want to lose weight or get into shape? It’s only half the goal to say “I want to lose weight” – in order for change to be lasting in our lives, we need to have a goal that we are moving towards – creating a compelling future can help to drive us to make better choices in the moment.  Create the “why” and make it so beautiful that it is the “pay off” for the new set of behaviours and choices you are making.

8.  Delayed Gratification

Thinking long-term about the benefits of choices made today will increase your willpower

Studies have shown that the most successful people in the world – the one that get their “results” for their goals, are people that can delay gratification.  These people have created a compelling future and understand that “short term pain for long term gain” is a real phenomenon on the road to health.

9. Tapping – looks silly but it works

Tapping on meridian points in certain sequences can help with “resetting” cravings, unblocking emotions and dealing with stress. It looks silly – but it works quickly and effectively and can be done on hands to be less obvious in public.

10.  80/20 Rule – or Treat Yourself

Not all weight loss has to be intense focus and willpower – allowing yourself to have a “cheat” day or meal can be good for the metabolism as well as the soul. Find a system that works for your healthy lifestyle – but make room for a little “fun”. If you know that you have a party or event to go to – allow yourself to plan for a cheat night – and stay on track the rest of the week(s) so that it is rewarding. You’ll find once your body is used to your healthy foods, you may not even indulge as much as you used to.

Are You Ready to Transform?

It's time to transform your Mind & your Body!

Hypnotherapy is a powerful and effective tool to help you reach your goals, solve your problems, and live a better life.

Hypnosis for safe Weight Loss and Weight Control is one of the most popular uses for hypnosis and hypnotherapy in the self-healing field.

The Reason

As we all know, the amount of people in North America that are considered overweight and or obese is staggeringly large – to the point of being compared to an epidemic.  Indeed the fact that there is a multi-billion dollar “Weight Loss industry” speaks volumes for itself.

There are many reasons why this problem is so prevalent:

* Lack of Sleep
* Lack of adequate Nutrition
* Chronic Stress
* High-Paced/Time-Crunched Environments
* Low Convenience Foods & Junk Foods
* Hormone Imbalance
* High Cost of Healthy Food

The list goes on and on – but no matter the cause, many people want to solve this problem.

The Solution

Your mind is an important part of the solution to Weight Loss.  You may know on the surface why you are overweight – you may need a complete overhaul of diet and exercise, but somehow you are still stuck.

Through Hypnosis and Hypnotherapy you involve your full mind in the process of creating a better, healthier body and life. Which is the key to successful weight loss.

At Hypnosis for Weight Loss, I believe in healing both the subconscious and conscious beliefs that you have about your weight – I believe that by freeing your mind from negative programming (often ingrained over a lifetime) you can release weight easily and permanently because you are dealing with the emotional reasons why you are carrying it.

In my opinion, weight gain is rarely just about food!  The food is a symptom, the weight is a result of that symptom being activated in the body.

As you start to release the emotional components associated with weight and confidence, you will release the weight itself.

What is Hypnotherapy?

No, you won’t quack like a duck (unless you want to).

Dealing with the emotional aspects associated with Weight is key to Weight Loss Success

Simply put, Hypnotherapy is bypassing the conscious mind so that we can access the greater subconscious, where beliefs and programs are stored – like appetite control, exercise and motivation, or even more complex emotional issues.  Hypnotherapy usually involves interactive therapy while the client is in hypnosis.

If you think of your mind like an iceberg floating in the ocean, your Conscious/Rational mind is the top of the iceberg that is above water – this top mind is the judgmental, decision making mind – it is the ‘voice of reason’ in your ear and it is also the one that will make excuses for you.

With traditional Hypnosis, we target the lower part of the iceberg – the biggest part – subconscious mind with positive life-affirming suggestions which bring about change.

With modern Hypnotherapy, we target specific aspects, feelings, behaviors and blocks through interactive therapies to create drastic positive change.

For more information on hypnosis or hypnotherapy please contact me.

I am based in the Greater Vancouver Area in British Columbia and am available to help you achieve your weight loss goals.