Yesterday, outside Parliament, a group called ‘Endangered Bodies’ launched a protest against dieting, part of a campaign called ‘Ditching Dieting’ which aims to alert MPs and the public to the way in which the dieting industry ‘destabilises women’s and girls’ appetites and desires’.  This was timed to coincide with a parliamentary enquiry into the causes and consequences of body image anxiety.

The group argues that the multi-million pound dieting industry thrives on women actually failing to keep weight lost, as they then have to continue to attend slimming clubs and follow diets for most of their lives.  Very often, they claim, the women actually end up weighing more than they started, in fact their research has shown that 95% of diets fail with people putting lost weight back on, and even increasing to more than their pre-diet weight, within a 5-year period.

The slimming clubs are in the business of making money and it is evident that it would not be in their interest to make everyone slim in one fell swoop and for this weight to be kept off, as they would then go out of business.  One of the slimming clubs made a claim with their latest diet plan (this time last year) ‘lose weight for the last time’ and I must admit that it did make me laugh, as if their claim was true, then I think that their shareholders would have had something to say about it!

I think the great flaw in diets and slimming clubs is that many women are ‘good’ whilst on the diet, but as soon as they come off it they revert back to old habits, and so put the weight (and much more) back on.  And, cynically, this is where the slimming clubs have their draw, enticing the women back again and again in order to reach the shape and weight they feel they should be (or, more accurately, what the media/dieting industry tells them they should be).

My argument has always been that once you limit yourself to certain diets or food plans, this means that you actually become obsessive about food, and much more inclined to binge on the bad stuff.  I think that if you can really listen to your body and get back in touch with the feeling of actually being hungry, you will then start to develop a much more healthy relationship with food, as opposed to saying ‘well its 12.30 now, so I will have my cup-a-soup and my salad’.   And, if you fancy certain foods that are more fattening, then eat them, but limit the amount that you have.

I must admit that I have spent years in the past being on every kind of diet, and ending up putting all the weight back on.  It was only when, through hypnotherapy, I found out the root cause of my overweight, that I managed to start eating healthily and feeling good about myself.   I will never be a size 8, but I have accepted that this is not my shape, and happy to hover between a 12 and 14.   I love food and cooking, and feel much happier not depriving myself of anything anymore.  And, for the past 10 years, my weight has more or less remained the same, after having had just one course of hypnotherapy treatment.

Hypnotherapy is so effective at both finding out the initial reason why you put on weight in the first place, then through suggestion helping you to get back in touch with your body, to actually want to eat healthily and take more exercise, and also to build up your self-esteem and confidence, so that you will be much less likely to binge.  It may be that the weight loss is very slow, but in this way it is much more likely that the weight will stay off, for good.

If you would like to find out more about hypnotherapy for weight loss, do contact me on 01449 780352, or 0781 7158429, or email me on wendy@wendychalk.co.uk.