Recently there was a news story about a scientific study which
concluded that eventually 9 of 10 American men and 7 of 10
American women will become fat, or in politically correct terms,
overweight or perhaps "waistline challenged". We have known for
years that excess body weight and its more extreme form -
obesity - were major problems, but the findings of this study,
published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, indicate that
these problems may be even more severe than we have thought. Dr.
Elizabeth G. Nabel is quoted in Yahoo News as saying that the
study shows "we could have an even more serious degree of
overweight and obesity over the next few decades."
The true costs to the world of global obesity are unknown, but
they are doubtless staggering. For the obese individual the
costs are not confined to an unattractive bodily appearance.
More threatening in the longer term are the seriously adverse
health ramifications. For example, obesity is associated with a
greater risk of heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and some
cancers. And while the greatest negative consequences are
reserved for obese or substantially overweight individuals,
those whose weight problem is more moderate are also subject to
negative consequences, and those consequences include a negative
impact on both the quantity of life and quality of life.
Specifically, just being moderately overweight raises the risk
of sleep apnea and raises cholesterol and blood pressure, which
are well known contributors to heart disease.
A Mayo Clinic researcher, Mark Vander Weg, is quoted on Yahoo as
saying that the study's conclusions "add to a growing body of
evidence that makes it increasingly apparent that more effective
prevention and treatment strategies are urgently needed." Now I
assume no pun was intended by the phrase "growing body of
evidence." More seriously, he is absolutely right: we need
better prevention and we need better solutions for people for
whom prevention is no longer an option and we need them urgently
or the costs to society and the many affected individuals will
become even greater.
In another article ("Rapid Personal Change"), I made reference
to techniques of personal change and their common applications.
One of the common applications, as you might have guessed by
now, is Weight Loss; or better stated: the healthy loss of
excess body fat. Your body weight includes your bones, your
muscles, your tendons, etc. but you don't want to lose those
because they are good things. Excess fat, however, is useless
and indeed harmful. And that is what you want to lose or avoid
gaining. So healthy weight loss is fat loss, but for simplicity
we'll just call it weight loss.
Now if enough factors are present, there are various approaches
that will work to some degree for weight loss. There are two
approaches, however, that I believe provide the greatest degree
of lasting success for the greatest number of people. Before
getting into some details, let me provide you with a little
background.
If you are like most people you have tried to lose weight,
and/or make other positive changes, a number of times. And,
again like most people, you have been unsuccessful a majority of
the times, perhaps meeting with mixed results upon occasion but
not enjoying substantial and lasting success. Why? Most people
try to lose weight, or make other improvements by changing their
CONSCIOUS thinking. But the two biggest drivers of behavior are:
(1) SUBconscious thinking - that is, the beliefs and images we
unwittingly internalized years or decades ago -- and (2) the
degree of balance versus disruption in the body's energy system.
If the subconscious mind's deeply implanted beliefs and images,
for examples, "I am meant to be fat" or "I am unpopular with the
opposite sex," do not serve us, then we need to change them in
order to live healthy, harmonious, and happy lives. But you
cannot change them by relying primarily on the conscious level
of thought. That would be analogous to trying to rid your garden
of weeds by clipping the weeds but leaving the roots in place.
To make effective and lasting improvement, you need to deal with
the roots. And you do this either by balancing bodily energy
flow through a technique called EFT, which stands for Emotional
Freedom Techniques; or by working directly at the subconscious
level through hypnosis, which is a mind energy state. Ideally,
for lasting weight loss or other major personal changes, you
would do both, that is, a combination of EFT and hypnosis
(although either can work well by itself). Whether working at
the subconscious level of thought or working on the body's
energy system or both, the goal is to root out your old negative
beliefs and images and supplant them with new and empowering
ones. That will lead naturally to the behaviors and the results
you want. And that is what today's premier coaching services and
products do, and that is why they work so very well.
Hypnosis is actually a natural and beneficial human phenomenon
and nothing weird or spooky like Hollywood falsely depicts it.
EFT, whose founder is Gary Craig, is a newer kid on the block,
although the basis for it can be traced back to ancient Chinese
medicine. Both of these powerful techniques are effective for
healthy weight loss. Both also have numerous other common
applications with high success rates.
About the author:
Gary Patrick is an author, speaker and mind-body coach. a
long-time hypnotist, he has become interested in Emotional
Freedom Techniques (EFT). EFT works well on a variety of
challenges, often more quickly than anything else. When EFT is
combined with hypnosis, they become a powerful double whammy for
positive change. Visit Gary at
http://rapidresults.biz.