Learning how to curb your appetite is a powerful way to help you lose weight. Eating healthily and exercising regularly will help you beat food cravings. However, there are some common sense strategies which can help you control your appetite rather than letting it control you:

• Distract yourself. If only chocolate will do, it’s a craving not hunger so find ways to distract yourself. Phone a friend, go for a walk or read a book. Cravings typically last ten minutes so recognise that and try to divert your mind and ride it out.
• Eat little and often. Rather than eating two or three large meals, chop up your eating into smaller portions throughout the day. If you don’t leave more than three hours between meals you simply won’t have time to get hungry. The ideal meal plan is to have three balanced meals and two snacks a day. About 28g (1 oz) of either almonds, pecans or walnuts, 123g (4.5 oz) plain yoghurt, or a helping of raw vegetables such as celery, carrots, broccoli or cauliflower florets all make great snacks.
• Brush your teeth early. For whatever reason, when your teeth feel clean you are unlikely to want to eat so if you get a food craving brush your teeth.
• Eat vegetables or soup before the main course. Having soup or an ample serving of vegetables before your main course will fill you up and stop you eating more of the main course.
• Slow down! When you eat fast, you end up ingesting more food before you body has a chance to figure out that it’s satisfied. This strategy sounds simple but it is harder than you think when grabbing a snack or eating on the go has become common place, but if you take time over your meals and really chew your food and taste what you are eating, you’re less likely to overeat. Put your knife and fork down between bites.
• Wait 20 minutes. If you have eaten your meal and want to eat more, wait 15 minutes to see if you are still hungry. Your brain lags behind your stomach by about 15 to 20 minutes when it comes to registering that you are full. You may find that you aren’t hungry after all.
• Go for a walk: When you get a food craving go for a walk. Exercise is a fantastic appetite suppressant. If walking isn’t an option listen to your favourite music; this will take your mind off eating. Simply listening to a few minutes of up beat music has been shown to distract people from hunger pangs.
• Plan or avoid. Vary your usual routine to avoid passing the bakery. If you know you’ll be faced with wedding or birthday cake adjust your other meals to accommodate it.
• Turn off the television or computer: Watching the television or working on the computer while you’re eating is a sure-fire way of expanding your waistline. Your plate might be clean before you realise you’ve eaten a meal.
• Sniff a banana, apple of peppermint: This may sound daft but it works. Research from the Smell and Taste Research foundation in Chicago found that the more frequently people sniffed the less hungry they were. One theory is that sniffing food tricks the brain into thinking you are actually eating.
• Look in the mirror: Hang a mirror opposite your seat at the table. One study found that eating in front of mirrors slashed the amount people ate by nearly a third. It seems that having to look yourself in the eye, reflects back some of your inner standards and goals and reminds you why you need to eat less.
• Get a good night’s sleep. A good night’s sleep is important because lack of sleep disrupts hormones, triggering changing in metabolism and an increase in appetite. Tiredness triggers food cravings so take a power nap for no longer than 20 minutes instead of reaching for the biscuit tin.
• Eat as a family: Try to sit down to dinner as a family. The focus on conversation and the day’s events helps you to eat less, relax and savour your dinner.
• Portion out your snack foods: Don’t eat out of the bag or container: Take the food out of the bag or container and put it in a bowl. That way you can see exactly how much you’re eating. As an example, divide a 282g (10oz) packet of nuts into ten small plastic bags. Make sure you eat only one bag at a sitting, and put the rest away where you can’t see them. The best snack to beat cravings is to eat a handful of nuts (six walnuts, 12 almonds or 20 peanuts) with two glasses of water.
• Destroy temptation. If you’ve succumbed to a craving and start to feel bad while eating it, destroy it. Don’t just throw it away, ruin it or run water over it. You’ll feel a sense of accomplishment that you’ve destroyed your temptation. Don’t worry about the money you are wasting. If the biscuits don’t go down the drain or in the bin they will go straight to your hips.
• Don’t shop on an empty stomach. Shopping when you are hungry is a bad idea as it makes you far more likely to binge on calorie, rich, sugary, fatty foods. Make a list of exactly what you need and stick to it. Buy enough vegetables to last for a week. Avoid the bargain – buying large-sized packages isn’t a bargain if they cost you a new pair of jeans!
• Drink up. Drinking a glass of water before you eat can curb food cravings because you feel fuller. Water can also have a direct impact on energy – you may be reaching for a sugar fix when what you really need to do is rehydrate your body.

For years, women around the menopause have been told to take calcium and vitamin D tablets to protect their bones. But researchers believe there could be another incentive – staying slim.

Women over 50 who regularly take calcium and vitamin D supplements are less likely to gain weight than those who do not, according to a study. Researchers found that those who were deficient in calcium and vitamin D got the greatest benefits. The finding comes from a seven-year study of more than 36,000 U.S. women aged 50 to 79 enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative Study. Half the women took 1,000mg of calcium and 400 ius of vitamin D every day; the other half took placebo pills.

After the menopause, women tend to gain weight especially around the middle. The results of the study showed that calcium and vitamin D supplements slowed the weight gain — particularly among women who weren’t getting enough calcium to begin with. The important thing about this study is that by taking extra calcium and vitamin D you are not only protecting your bones but can easily prevent some of that weight gain after menopause.

Calcium seems to reduce fat absorption and increase leptin, the substance that curbs appetite. Older women are encouraged to take calcium supplements to prevent osteoporosis, so this research suggests there may be a double benefit. In addition, we’ve seen recent reports that vitamin D may play a part in preventing breast cancer and other disorders. Most good ‘bone’ supplements will contain both calcium and vitamin D so you do not have to take separate supplements of the two nutrients.

If you’re having problems losing those extra pounds or finding it hard to get motivated you may want to experiment with one or more of the four natural techniques below. They aren’t miracle cures but they can help you get to the root cause of why you aren’t losing weight or eating healthily and by so doing help you find ways to get back on track.

If you eat when you’re not hungry try hypnotherapy:

Most people with weight issues don’t need reminding that the way to lose weight is to eat less junk, more healthy, nutritious food and to be more physically active. They know exactly what they need to do to achieve their weight loss goal but for some reason they find it hard to actually make the changes they need to.

This is because for the great majority of people food is not the problem; the problem is stress, low self- esteem, and low willpower and until the real reason for overeating is taken into account they will continue to over eat or make poor food choices. In short, they eat not because they are hungry but to relieve boredom or to protect themselves from feeling lonely, angry, guilty or unfulfilled and this unhealthy relationship with food becomes a habit so they are eating without thinking about it.

Habits are stored in the unconscious area of your mind and the benefit of hypnotherapy is that it enables communication with the unconscious mind to make the needed behavioural and emotional changes. Hypnotherapy can also help change negative thinking habits which can trigger depression, low self-esteem and low willpower and give you the motivation you need to begin to love your own body and take care of it.

For instance, it can help give you the willpower to eat healthy and exercise and to turn away foods high in sugar, saturated fat and refined carbohydrates. It can help you feel full quicker, eat slower, and eat less than ever before.

You have to remember that it took years to put on the weight and it won’t come off over night and hypnotherapy isn’t a cure all for everyone but it can work for some people, especially those who for years have been reaching for food when they know they aren’t hungry.

If you’ve never had hypnotherapy before or are worried that it might be dangerous hypnotherapy remember that it is safe when practised by properly trained practitioners. It is usually carried out one-to-one with a trained and trusted hypnotherapist in a therapeutic setting. After taking a medical history and discussing how hypnotherapy may be of use, the therapist will ask you to sit in a comfortable chair or lie on a couch. Your attention will be shifted away from external events or mental stresses and you will be asked to focus on your breathing and increasingly relaxed state.

Once you’re relaxed, therapeutic suggestions will be made such as, ‘you will no longer feel the desire to eat when you are bored’. You’ll then gradually be brought out of your relaxed state and back into the present.

If you find it difficult to maintain a healthy weight pay attention to your digestive health:

Paying attention to your digestive health if you have weight problems is absolutely crucial because if your digestive health is poor you won’t be getting the nutrients you need to burn fat efficiently and lose weight. So take the following small steps to boost your digestion;

• Eat a small piece of fresh ginger before a meal to activate the saliva glands and stimulate digestion before you eat
• Drink a glass of lemon juice diluted with water first thing in the morning before you eat breakfast to give your digestive system a boost
• Try to increase your intake of green leafy vegetables because these ultra nutritious foods are packed full of important vitamins, minerals and antioxidants for good digestion
• Mindful eating: Eat in a peaceful relaxing environment (stress can have a negative impact on digestive health) and chew your food thoroughly. Put your knife and fork down between mouthfuls and savour every bite; digestion starts in the mouth with your saliva.
• Increase your intake of fibre by eating dried fruit such as dates, figs and prunes, beans and legumes, snacking on apples, sprinkling ground flaxseeds (linseeds) on rice, grains, salads or any other meal of your choice.
• Probiotics: The bacteria Lactobacillus acidophilus and Bifidobacterium bifidum are considered good “probiotic” bacteria because they can help to maintain digestive and intestinal health. Although good bacteria can be found in some yogurts, there is a wide variation in the quantity and quality so look for good quality organic yogurt that add the active cultures after pasteurisation, because this heat process destroys both good and bad bacteria. Or alternatively you can add in a probiotic supplement like BioKult.

If you can’t get motivated to exercise and lose weight try yoga:

If you want to lose weight healthy eating needs to be combined with regular exercise but if the idea of spending an hour sweating away calories is not an appealing option yoga is a brilliant alternative way to get fit and flexible.

Although most kinds of yoga help tone muscle and build flexibility the one that significantly helps you burn calories is ashtanga. If you are overweight but fit this kind, also known as power yoga, is a great alternative cardiovascular work out that can help you lose weight and build fitness. If, however, you aren’t as fit as you know you can be you may want to begin with a less vigorous form such as silvanada which will help you build up your calories burning muscles but will also increase your strength and stamina so you can eventually move on to more aerobic activities.

If you can’t stop comfort eating try cognitive behavioural therapy (CBF):

Losing weight and keeping it off isn’t just about watching what you eat it involves addressing why you have an issue with food and why it may have become a way to avoid dealing with emotional problems, such as guilt and fear, which can lead to comfort eating.

Like hypnotherapy, CBF explores the psychological reason for negative eating patterns to get to the core of the problem and help you resolve underlying issues. Unlike hypnotherapy, however, practitioners don’t use the power of suggestion but instead teach you how to recognise the negative thinking patterns that are triggering your comfort eating and then give you powerful tools to stop those negative thoughts and habits.

The real power of the system is that it can help calm your mind and body, so you think more uplifting thoughts, make healthier food choices and don’t feel the need to use food as a substitute for emotional insecurity or hurt anymore. Again, CBF isn’t a cure all for everyone but for some people it can provide the incentive they need to eat healthily, lose weight and keep it off.