(Originally published in Diet Now, 2008, p. 38-39)
Think Yourself Thin with Marisa
Diet guru Marisa Peer believes the secret to weight loss lies in changing your attitude to food. She shows you how to break your bad eating habits for good.
Celebrity Fit Club’s resident diet guru Marisa Peer says her relationship with food has never been easy; `Like many women, I spent years obsessed with food and trying to be slim. I was always dieting, but nothing worked. It was only when I started studying hypnotherapy that I discovered there was another way to maintain a healthy weight.
‘When you diet, you’re constantly trying to overrule the brain’s desire to overeat,’ she explains. ‘This will only work in the short term. She believes the most effective way to stay slim is to change the way you think about food.’
You can do this through hypnosis, you can do this…. think yourself thin. It reinforces new images in your subconscious and this in turn will automatically change your behaviour.
Marisa’s devised a think yourself thin plan to help you break your bad eating habits so that you stop dieting forever. Here, she explains how it works.
Change your attitude
“Your brain’s programmed to move you away from pain. If you can learn to link ‘pain’ with certain foods, you’ll no longer crave them. If you create a negative picture of something you won’t want to eat it” says Marisa. For example:
- Muffin — nutritionally worthless, full of sugar, fat and preservatives.
- Fizzy pop — liquid osteoporosis.
- Crisps — potato and chemicals fried in fat.
Visualise a positive outcome
‘You need to make other things more important than food says Marisa. ‘Celebrities do this all the time. They’d rather get a buzz out of looking great on the red carpet than eat a bar of chocolate. To stop craving the wrong food, you need to want the pay-off more than the food’.
- Stop telling yourself that chocolate makes you feel good
- Tell yourself you want to be slim more than you want to eat cake.
- Tell yourself that being your ideal weight will make you I feel amazing.
Change your language
Hypnosis teaches that the words you speak become your reality. For example, how often do you say I’m starving’ when you`re hungry? This statement sends a message to your brain that you’re ravenous, and encourages you to overeat.
Try to use words that are less negative. For example, negative: ‘I’m absolutely starving; positive: `I need to eat something’ Negative: ‘I’ll always be fat’; positive: ‘I know what to do and how to do it.’
Choose to be slim
The minute you say ‘I can’t eat that’ you’ll want it more because ‘you’re denying a desire. The trick is to reinforce positive messages about healthy choices.
For example, if you’re eating a salad, instead of thinking; ‘This is tasteless rabbit food’ think: ‘My body loves this and I can feel it doing me good. Tell yourself that every time you choose unhealthy food such as pizza and chips, you’re choosing to remain overweight. Essentially a way to think yourself thin.
Count the cost
What are the health, emotional and financial costs when you overeat? You may be missing out financially because you don’t feel confident enough to put yourself up for a promotion? Or you might be limiting yourself socially because you don`t feel slim enough to go out with your friends.
Write down the pros and cons of being overweight. List what you feel you’re missing out on and decide if you’re prepared to pay the price. Or are you ready for a new mind-set? Seeing it in black and white can be a real incentive.
Picture yourself slim
‘When you create a vivid picture in your mind, it sends a message to your brain that influences your energy, your metabolism, your appetite and attitude towards your body’ says Marisa.
- Close your eyes and imagine you’re at your ideal weight.
- Imagine walking into a clothes shop and trying on something you’ve always wanted to wear. You look sensational in it.
- On the way out, you spot the food hall. Imagine all that lovely food — fresh bread and cakes.
- What makes you feel better; the idea of having a snack or looking great in your perfect outfit’?
Do this visualisation every day. After a while, you’ll notice there’s no food that can match the feeling you get when you know you look and feel your best. This will help change your attitude to food.
Banish cravings
‘Studies show that people who have a high-carb diet produce more serotonin}’says Marisa. ‘This is why people crave stodgy foods? They’re not necessarily craving that particular food, but the serotonin boost it gives.’
To increase serotonin levels, eat coriander, bananas, eggs, avocados and turkey and chew food slowly to trigger its release.’ Also make sure you get enough sunlight, especially in winter. Vitamin B complex supplement will help. Ditch junk foods, which disrupt serotonin levels, and avoid using sweetener aspartame.
Max your metabolism
Did you know you can speed up your metabolism just by thinking about it? ‘Every thought causes a physical reaction in your body’ says Marisa. Imagine your metabolism as a dial you’re turning up to max. Imagine an internal furnace burning off any excess fuel. Tell yourself your metabolism is working at maximum capacity all the time.’
To learn more, read Marisa’s book You Can Be Thin (£9.99. Sphere) or visit marisapeer.com
CELEB FANS OF HYPNOSIS
Hypnosis is the hot favourite among A-Listers trying to shift a few pounds. Geri Halliwell, Lily Allen, Sarah Ferguson and Sophie Dahl have all used it to help them lose weight and keep if off.
Lily Allen, 22, dropped two dress sizes after seeing Harley Street hypnotherapist Susan Hepburn. ‘After the hypnotism, l want to go to the gym every day otherwise I feel bad’, she says.
Read more on weight loss here, or alternatively you can read the previous blog on understanding women here.