I think I tend to be a bit skeptical about a lot of things, especially if they don't have some good science backing them up.  However, I have read about hypnosis in some reputable science journals and so on. A lot of the sites I have been reviewing indicate that hypnosis seems to be particularly helpful for pain management, dealing with addictions and anxiety. There's quite a few cases of people undergoing dental procedures and even surgery without anesthetic using hypnosis.  However, there doesn't seem to be as much evidence that it's helpful with weight loss. The Mayo Clinic site says, "Over the years, numerous studies have evaluated weight-loss hypnosis. Most found positive, but modest, results." 

 

I read the other day that losing weight is 15 to 20 percent about exercise (at least formal, scheduled exercise) and 80 to 85 percent about what you eat.  I know that one of my constant mental blocks is that if I JUST work out hard enough, frequently enough, I will lose weight.  Once upon a time, that was true and I keep going back to it, expecting it to still be true.  When I find that it isn't, it leads to disappointment.

On the other hand, exercise is absolutely necessary to my mental and emotional health.  I proved that to myself last summer/fall when I fell completely off the exercise wagon and fell into a deep black funk.  I simply cannot afford to take time off from exercise, period, no excuses.  And yet......

I also cannot expect it to be a substitute for eating less and eating better foods. I'm picturing it like this:  I have a great machine here and I keep throwing in crap fuel.  Oh, it'll run on it, yes, but it doesn't run well on it.  The crap clogs the gears and makes the engine work harder than it should.  It overrevs sometimes and other times lugs up the hill.  Throwing more of the crap in only makes it worse.  So I've got to start taking care of this machine.  Polishing the outside doesn't make any difference if the inner workings are gummed up with crap.  I want to get this machine working at the very best that it can work.

The other picture I have in my head came to me when I was walking into work the other day, all bundled up in heavy coat and muffler and gloves and hat and boots and carrying stuff.  It bugged me, being all loaded down like that and feeling like I was kind of stumping along.  And the image that came to my head was me, wearing a long overcoat with a LOT of pockets and filling those pockets will ALL the extra food that I don't need.  In those pockets is the crackers I eat when I get home and I'm hungry while I'm making dinner.  There's the butter that I dip the crackers in and there's the apple turnover I have when someone brings in birthday treats.

Theres' the extra glass of wine, ALL the extra glasses of wine over the week and month and year (got to add up to quite a few bottles--there's some weight to pack around!).  There's the three pieces of toast that I started the weekend morning with, instead of having one and some protein and fruit.  There's the tortellini and panini and the cake--all the white starches and the excess of even whole grain starches.  There's the sugar binges I go on. 

I keep loading up all these pockets, all over the coat and then I have to pack it all around.  It loads me down so that I have a hard time running or leaping or doing a cartwheel.  Constantly dragging all this extra weight drags me down in every way--physically, mentally, emotionally.

I'm sick and tired of it.  I want to start unloading the pockets.  So why don't I?  'Cause it takes time and effort and change.  I thought about it last night when I was eating all that dessert--at least four good size servings.  I thought about the two pictures and I thought, even as I was getting out the pie plate, "If not now, then when?  This is crap.  I shouldn't be feeding my body like this" but I went ahead and ate it anyway.

It's what I know.  When I am stressed and mad or sad and forlorn or bored and antsy, food is what I turn to.  It works and it's easy and I am so much in the habit that I go to it quickly.  It's kind of like the way I think about losing my temper.  When I was younger, it happened so quickly and unconsciously that it was as if I had no choice, but I got better at recognizing the symptoms earlier and eventually, I came to be able to know when I was gearing up to get mad.  And then I could decide if I really wanted to go down that path or not.  I think I need to get that conscious with my food choices.  It's just that food choices happen so freaking often, all day long, every single day.  I get so tired of having to continually make the choice again and again and again.

I know that if I can get myself going down a new path and keep at it, really diligently, it WILL become easier eventually.  That is just logical.  The more you practice, the easier it gets.  But I suspect that I really am a compulsive eater.  I can't imagine getting to a place where I have total confidence that I will make the right choice, no matter what.  Too bad O.A. didn't seem to work for me.