Weight loss is a massive industry worldwide and getting bigger by the year, excuse the pun! How would you like to lose weight and it cost you nothing? Read on.

Everyone is looking for a quick fix, a way to lose weight with minimum effort and without drastically changing their lifestyle, this seems to be why the gastric band is so much in demand. The perverse side of the gastric band is that you need to be a certain weight in the first place in order to ‘qualify’ to get the band fitted, unless you are willing to pay for a private operation.

So, assuming that you actually want to lose weight, rather than put it on in order to get on the waiting list for an operation, what other options do you have?

 

You could always diet. There are many many different diets out there and in their own way they may well all help you to lose weight…in the short term. Let’s face it, the reason that we put on weight is because we consume more than we use up. If we eat less and exercise more, then we will no doubt lose weight. So, why isn’t everyone doing this and staying slim?

Once we have reached the stage where we know that we should lose weight and we are really dissatisfied with either our health, or the way that we look, then we have become motivated to act. We pick a diet that we think will suit us and enable us to lose weight in the quickest possible time and will still allow us to eat some of the things that we like (shortest route, least effort, maximum pleasure).

And guess what? We lose weight!  We lose weight and our concern over our weight lessens. We start looking great, we start feeling great, and maybe for a while we continue with our diet because we can see and feel tangible results.

As our concern over our weight reduces, so does our desire to sacrifice. We don’t feel as compelled to exercise and we don’t see the need to stay on a strict diet, why not just have the odd treat?  All of a sudden we are back eating at full capacity, the diet is gone and the thought of exercise has floated to the back of our mind. We start putting the weight back on.  Does this sound familiar?

Why does this happen and why does dieting not work?

The reason lies in how we are motivated to lose weight and what we are motivated by.

When you think of the reason that you want to lose weight, do you have a picture?  Do you have a picture of what is motivating you to lose weight?  Get that picture now in your minds eye….

Ok. Thanks for that.

When something is important to us we are either motivated towards doing it, towards doing something that is positive for us or we are motivated away from doing something, motivated away from something negative.

Think about your picture again.  Is your picture of something that you are moving towards doing, something that is positive for you? For example, do you see yourself in the picture smiling and looking great, nice and slim? Do you see yourself in your old age looking fit and healthy?

Or are you moving away from something that is negative for you? For example ill health or obesity?

Here is how it works. Imagine a line and at the end of one end of the line is TOWARDS, at the other end of the line is AWAY. Imagine standing on that line. If you are moving away from something that you do not want, then you are standing looking at that thing, focussing on what you do not want.  Imagine moving along the line away from AWAY and looking at AWAY. As you move away from what you do not want and as it becomes more distant from you, then the motivation to move will reduce. Eventually you will get far enough along the line so that you are not bothered any more by that negative picture.  You will probably then find that you move back towards AWAY until it becomes close enough for it to be a problem for you again.

This is why diets do not work. People are continually losing and then regaining weight.  It is all to do with how they hold their motivation in their head.

Imagine now that your motivation is towards. You are on the line and you are moving towards something that is really positive for you. You are focussing on TOWARDS and you are moving towards it. You are not going to stop until you get there are you?  This is how you will lose weight permanently.

So it all comes down to what you are focussing on and how you create your motivation. Create a picture of motivation for yourself that is powerfully positive for you, something that really motivates you towards getting what you want!

This is called Submodality and Values work in terms of NLP. We train people how to use the power of their unconscious processes to benefit them in our NLP training courses.

You can apply these principles to lots of areas of life, achieving career and personal goals, smoking, losing weight and so on. Become a qualified Master Practitioner of NLP and learn how to use these techniques to help yourself reach your potential, and help others to do the same.