Slimming, Weight Loss, Losing Weight
It is now unfortunately a fact that almost a quarter of the population is now classed as obese, and it continues to rise – despite the fact that we as a population are now more knowledgeable about nutrition and exercise than at any other time in the past. Men and women are both just as likely to be obese, although women are more likely to be morbidly obese (having a body weight high enough to pose a severe risk to health).
Obesity is that fleshy accumulation of fat in your body which increases to the degree that it can swiftly increase the chances of health problems that can harm your health and well being, including such problems as heart disease and diabetes. This fat can be fairly evenly distributed around your body or concentrated say on the stomach area (apple-shaped) or your hips and thighs (pear-shaped). It can take years off your life and also impair the quality of life, your self-confidence and esteem.
Common physical problems include:
- Breathing difficulties – particularly under exertion and disturbed sleep patterns due to the inability to breathe properly.
- Difficulties carrying out every day activities such as working, walking, bending down etc
- Increased perspiration
- Joint pains particularly in the knees and back. Posture problems
- Skin ailments ie acne etc
- Gall bladder problems / gallstones.
- High blood pressure
- High cholesterol
- Ailments associated with the arteries such as heart attack and stroke (cardiovascular disease).
- Diabetes (type two)
- Related cancers.
- Equally, we can simply feel embarrassed about ourselves, we can feel uncomfortable in certain clothes, or even unable to wear clothes we like - which can restrict our social lives.
These conditions are commonly known as obesity-related disorders and are often common causes of death before the age of 75. Obesity can clearly therefore increase the risks of dying early.
Whilst Obesity can be due to hereditary factors (you can discuss this with your Doctor) - such as genetics, metabolic rate (the rate you burn off fat) and how our bodies store fat, it is not inevitable that you will be overweight - even if your genes are prone to weight gain. Obesity has consequently trebled since 1980, when only 6 per cent of men and 8 per cent of women were categorised as obese. Therefore our lifestyles have changed relatively quickly, with the common availability of fast foods, the use of car journeys instead of walking / using a bicycle. Obesity therefore usually develops from:
- Overeating and / or eating the wrong types of food
- Eating irregularly (which can cause our body to slip into the feast / famine syndrome so that it actually holds on to fat.
- Too little physical activity.
- Medicines such as antidepressants (so if you have become overweight since starting your medication it is certainly worth investigating other avenues), some types of steroids and oral contraceptives can also cause weight gain.
- Ageing too can also be a factor - caused by slower metabolism often causing weight gain unless accompanied by a reduction in food intake or adequate exercise.
How Therapy can help
Initially I would always recommend discussing the situation with your Doctor.
It may be however that you have simply allowed yourself to get into bad habits. Maybe you have tried the various diets that are available these days. However, the sheer word "diet " infers something that you do temporarily. You ‘give up’ something – so you can consequently feel a loss, or feel that something is missing from your life. It’s possible that you can lose a bit of weight to begin with, but you eventually slip back into old ways. What I work on, is getting your subconscious to accept a healthier life style – to want to take more exercise, to want to eat more healthily ! Now this can quite often be done with only one or two sessions of hypnotherapy, where you will find that you are just naturally taking the healthier options. People who are slim and trim find a way of being active and almost always make wise decisions in what they eat and drink, and the amounts that they eat and drink. This can be you.
There is however another aspect, quite often unrealised by people – that of ‘unresolved issues’. These are usually emotional events from the past, which can have quite a bearing on how we think, feel and behave in the present. These unresolved issues can cause us to ‘comfort eat’, to eat or drink to excess as a way of dealing with stress, binge or even have eating disorders. Clearly, for those clients with such ‘issues’, it is always better to resolve those issues first, which I would discuss with and explain to you during consultation. Such therapy can take some six to eight sessions to conclude depending upon the symptoms / severity.