A study by a team at the University of Otago in New Zealand, published in the journal Preventive Medicine, suggests that relaxation techniques such as yoga, meditation and positive visualisation resulted in sustained weight loss, even when compared to more traditional methods of weight loss: i.e. regular exercise and calorie reduction. Reduction in stress levels resulted in happier and healthier women who no longer craved fatty foods and sweets.

Ask any woman about the number of diets she has tried in her life and the number will probably be close to, or even in, double figures. Part of the problem is our understanding of the word ‘diet’. Study after study has shown that diets simply don’t work. In fact, they may even increase our chances of weight gain because fad diets are often deficient in nutrients you need for sustained weight loss, so as soon as you eat normally again the weight piles back on.

So, if you’ve got weight to lose a diet won’t help you. The only effective way to lose weight – and keep it off – is to eat healthily. A healthy diet contains all the nutrients you need to burn fat and lose weight. However, in addition to eating a healthy diet there is another vital component for successful weight loss and that is the right mindset. An increasing number of experts, myself included, are beginning to see that what you believe is just as important as what you eat. In other words, staying slim is in the mind. So if you are sick of dieting my advice is simple. Stop dieting, start eating healthily, get regular exercise and try the following neuro-linguistic programming (NLP) ‘think thin’ techniques:

 

1) Visualise yourself as a slim person

Create a picture in your mind of what you will look and feel like when you are at your ideal weight and imagine that vision as often as you can. Tell yourself that you do have the motivation to eat healthily and to exercise every day.

 

2) Know your hunger

There are a number of different types of hunger, but only a few of them actually need food.

 

Real hunger: If you haven’t eaten for three to four hours choose a delicious, healthy snack or meal and enjoy. To keep your metabolism (fat burning) high, eating every three to four hours is essential.

Dehydration: If you haven’t drunk enough water or have only drunk tea or coffee during the day you will be dehydrated. Many of us misinterpret dehydration with hunger pangs, but all we really need to do is drink more fluids during the day.

Low blood sugar: If you eat a lot of sugar and refined foods your blood sugar levels will drop and when they drop you will feel tired and in need of a pick me up. This isn’t real hunger though; it is low blood sugar hunger. To avoid this cut down on sugar, refined foods and stimulants like coffee, which also send blood sugar levels soaring and then crashing. Eat fresh whole foods, nuts, seeds, fruits, legumes, and vegetables instead, to steady your blood sugar.

Acid hunger: You may feel really hungry if you drink a cup of coffee or alcohol on an empty stomach. Drink a glass of soya milk or eat a handful of nuts and seeds or a whole grain roll instead.

Adjustment hunger: You ate about ten minutes ago but still feel hungry and want to load your plate with seconds or a large dessert. Wait for another ten minutes before eating more as it takes around 20 minutes for your brain to register fullness.

Emotional hunger: Many of us turn to food for comfort when we feel angry, upset or anxious, but food is never the answer. Try to write in a diary or sit through the emotion instead and remind yourself that you always feel worse after a binge.

 

3) Observe yourself

When you find yourself craving food when you aren’t really hungry remind yourself that you don’t really need food right now, but when you do you can have something and it will taste great. Separate yourself from your hunger. This will help you see that you are in charge – and not your need for comfort food. Tell yourself that you are not depriving yourself you are simply changing your behaviour to get the body you want. Accept that changing patterns of behaviour isn’t easy but necessary if you want to lose weight.

 

4) Banish food bans

Don’t cut out any type of food from your diet – if you do that you admit that it has control or authority over you and not you over it. Stop thinking about food in terms of good or bad; there is no such thing as bad food only food that you need to make sure you don’t eat too much of. Besides, the more forbidden a food is, the more likely you are to crave it.

 

5) Practise real comfort eating

If you feel tired or run down or really want to eat something, give yourself permission to eat as much as you want. Go out and buy the very best and then sit down and eat slowly. Pause after each mouthful and really savour the food. The more you do this, the more you will realise that you are the one in charge, not the food you are eating.

 

6) Take pride in yourself

Think about all your other life achievements and give yourself a pat on the back. This will help you see that saying that you’re just not disciplined enough to eat healthily simply isn’t true.

 

7) Keep a sense of balance

Don’t workout in the gym for hours or cut down on calories in an attempt to shift weight. If you do this your body will go into famine mode and your metabolism (fat burning) will slow down making weight gain more likely. If you keep a balance like this you will stop thinking of food as the enemy and the gym as a chore. Instead you will think of food as something not only to enjoy but as a way to encourage weight loss – because it keeps your metabolism ticking over, and exercise as time out for you to recharge your body and your mind.

 

8) Boost your eating and exercise self-esteem

Instead of feeling that you will never be able to eat healthily and exercise regularly, tell yourself that you are the kind of person who doesn’t want or need to snack on junk foods. If you do have the odd moment of weakness, lose the guilt and just enjoy. Remember enjoyment is essential for any healthy eating plan.

According to a recent study, thinking too much can make you fat. Researchers found that the stress of over thinking can make people seek out more calories and they believe that the details of their discovery could explain the current obesity epidemic.

A research team from the University Laval in Quebec, Canada, who published their research in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, measured the spontaneous food intake of 14 students after each of three tasks. The first task was to relax in a sitting position, the second task was reading and summarising a test and the third task was completing a series of memory, attention and vigilance tests on a computer. After 45 minutes of each task all the students were invited to eat as much as they wanted from a buffet. The researchers had previously discovered that each session of intellectual work only requires three more calories than the rest period. However, despite the low energy cost of mental work the students spontaneously consumed 203 more calories after summarising a test and 253 more calories after computer tests. This suggests a 23.6 percent increase and 29.4 percent increase respectively compared to the rest session. Blood tests taken before, during and after each task revealed that mental work causes bigger fluctuations in glucose and insulin levels than periods of rest.

 

The researchers believe that increased calorie consumption following mental work combined with the fact that people are less physically active when they are doing intellectual tasks could be contributing to the obesity epidemic currently observed in industrialised countries where a large proportion of the working population are desk bound.