Weight Reduction Miracle - Hypnotherapy Plus The Atkins Diet

by BreckenPool

Article by Alan Densky

Despite the popularity of the Atkins Diet, it is often greatly misrepresented! Popular, but slightly exaggerated depictions of the program portray dieters wolfing down nothing but vast amounts of meat and fat. Although the diet is not quite this simple, many dieters have used it to successfully lose weight and improve their health.

On this program, dieters follow a very specific program based on restricted carbohydrate intake. Emphasis is placed on the nutritional aspects of the diet over exercise and other factors, although exercise is recommended. There are 4 phases in the Atkins plan:

Induction: During this two-week phase at the start of the diet program, dieters can only consume up to 20 grams of carbohydrates each day. Dieters can ingest high protein foods such as meat and eggs, fats such as oils and butter, and other foods with little to no carbs. Many foods containing carbohydrates are not permitted at all, including alcoholic beverages.

This initial phase is intended to help the body go from burning carbohydrates for energy, as it usually does, into burning stored up fat (a process known as ketosis). Most dieters begin to see natural weight loss during this phase.

Ongoing Weight Loss: During this period, dieters gradually increase their carbohydrate consumption by adding 5 grams of carbohydrates into their diet every week. Dieters fine-tune their diet, continuing their weight loss to put themselves within 5-10 pounds of their goal weight, before transitioning into the Pre-maintenance stage.

Pre-maintenance: Dieters use the Pre-maintenance phase to find out the maximum amount of carbohydrates they can ingest without gaining weight. During this stage, dieters add 10 grams of carbohydrates to their diet each week. Once dieters reach their target weight and can maintain it for one month, they move into the Lifetime Maintenance phase.

Lifetime Maintenance: For lasting results, the Atkins program is supposed to be maintained throughout the dieter's lifetime.! Using t he techniques that helped the dieter reach their goal weight, the dieter keeps up an eating and exercise program to stay at their goal weight. Individuals can revert to previous stages if they ever begin to regain weight.

Dieters who can commit to the Atkins diet are typically successful in losing weight; however, many people are unable to follow through with the program and end up quitting early on in the difficult induction phase. In general, most diet plans fail simply because dieters cannot stay on the plan.

Many people struggle to stay on diets because they experience strong food cravings, have problems with compulsive overeating, cannot control their appetites, or simply lack the motivation to lose weight. Getting over these mental obstacles is the hardest part of losing weight.

One reason why many people cannot seem to control their eating is because they are emotional eaters. Such people eat in response to their feelings, such as when they are bored or upset. However, this eating style programs a "conditioned response" into the unconscious mind. This means that when people experience the same feelings that made them overeat initially, they will feel compelled to overeat once again.

Hypnosis works by helping our unconscious minds disassociate our eating habits from our emotions. To extinguish the conditioned response to overeat, a hypnotherapy weight loss program is used to break the association in the unconscious mind between overeating and certain "trigger" behaviors.

For instance, if you tend to overeat when you get bored, hypnosis can disassociate boredom from eating in your unconscious mind. Hypnotherapy techniques can then be used to replace the overeating response with another activity, such as exercising. That way, the next time you become bored, instead of going to eat, you will feel motivated to exercise, resulting in natural weight loss.

Hypnosis is an excellent stress relieving tool as well, helping us cope with our stressful emotions and relie! ve tensi on without eating. As a relaxation tool, it calms the mind, helps you develop positive strategies to manage stress, and boosts your self confidence to motivate you to lose weight.

Hypnotherapy can also be used to end the emotional stresses that keep you from losing weight. Many overweight people use their weight for emotional protection. For instance, after a painful end to a relationship, people often find themselves becoming overweight so they can avoid relationships and avoid having to endure emotional pain again. Through hypnosis, we can turn our negative thoughts into positive ones and focus on improving our health instead of becoming overwhelmed by our worries.

Not only is hypnosis an ideal motivation tool, it relieves stress, extinguishes the conditioned responses that trigger overeating, and can help you overcome many mental obstacles that prevent weight loss. Hypnosis techniques are exceptionally effective at helping people stick to a diet program, such as the Atkins diet, and lose weight.

About the Author

Alan B. Densky, CH.. Visit the hypnotism website for Free hypnotherapy downloads, videos, and newsletters. He offers several ways to lose weight, including hypnotism for weight loss DVDs and weight loss hypnosis CDs.

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