Persistent Weight Loss Myths

It’s pervasive! Mis-information about what is healthy to eat.

Mis-information about what kind of exercise actually helps you to start burning fat and keep burning fat…

Mis-information about hypnosis…

Sometimes it’s discouraging. Other times it fires me up and drives me forward on my mission to help people get to where they want to be faster, easier better…

Here are just a few off the top of my head.

1. Eating frequent snacks. The truth? if you are burning sugar instead of fat you will crash and burn without frequent “top-ups”. But when you have successfully switched to fat burning mode, you can easily go many hours between meals without feeling tired or depleted.
2. Fruit is healthy. I have a friend who is a diabetic. He eats a ton of fruit. Why Because he thinks its “healthy”. He’s also a vegetarian and doesn’t “get” that rice and beans and “whole grains” are also experienced as sugar by our bodies. The picture I chose for this post is an example of the common thought, that “Fruit is healthy”. Of course in moderation it is certainly better than a doughnut! BUT it still feeds the bad bacteria in your gut and continues the frustration you may be experiencing in attempting to lose weight.
3. The first law of thermodynamics. Calories in Calories out. It’s as simple as reduce the amount of calories you take in and increase the amount of calories you expend and you will lose weight and inches…. FALSE! It’s an over simplification and it will get you in trouble. the hormones triggered by the kinds of foods you eat either support fat storage or fat burning. If you go on a starvation reduced calorie diet you will trigger a whole host of unwanted processes, you body will think there is a famine and so start to get more and more efficient at NOT using up your fat supplies. You ghet sad and depressed as you struggle to not eat foods you are craving. DEPRIVATION sets in… and eventually you give up and BINGE.
4. Whole grains are “healthy”. Read Wheat Belly and Grain Brain if you want the facts. The bottom line is that Wheat is one of the food highest on the glycemic index. Your body experiences it as sugar.
5. “Alternative” sweeteners like Agave are “better” than regular sugar. Come on! It’s still sugar. Just because the “Agave Industry” wants to sell more of it doesn’t mean you should eat more of it.
6. Gluten Free  or vegan desserts are better for you than regular desserts. Maybe. But THEY ARE STILL FILLED WITH SUGAR! Every single vegan I’ve ever met was totally addicted to carbs… and carbs are …. sugar! Wheat is SUGAR. Corn is Sugar, quinoa is sugar!
7. It’s better to drink diet soda than regular soda.  NOT! Some of the sugar substitutes are 100’s of times sweeter than regular cane sugar and what that does is cause you to become accustomed to sweeter and sweeter tastes. Chemical sweeteners are basically poison and contain excite toxins. If you had a choice between something sweetened with chemicals or something sweetened with actual cane sugar, you would be better off with the natural sweetener. HOWEVER!
8. It’s better to drink Juice than soda. NOT. Fruit juice is simply concentrated SUGAR. ALL soda and fruit juices should be on your DO NOT TOUCH list.
9. Fat will make you fat. False. There are books and books written about this but sadly few of my weight loss clients have heard of them much less read them. Check out The Fat Fallacy: The French Diet Secrets to Permanent Weight Loss
10. You are “stuck” with your genetic predisposition, Your “family” body. Totally false. You may be stuck with your basic body structure like whether you are big boned or small boned, endomorph or ectomorph, tall or short, but what you put into your body and what you do with your body and what kinds of thoughts you think are totally and completely determined by YOU. Where your family of origin factors in is mostly the beliefs about your body and about what foods are good for you and about the quantity of food you need to be “healthy” etc.
11. Marathon runners are healthy. Other than wearing out their bodies with hundreds of miles of high impact stresses, and wearing out your body with over training, Marathon runners and long distance cyclists as a group are totally convinced they have to load up with carbs in order to fuel  themselves. If you love to run, go ahead and do it. But if you are running to be fit and want to stay fit for life and avoid injuries that cause you to stop moving, then you will want to explore other options that take less time and are safer.
12. Eating energy bars and meal replacement shakes sweetened with fructose is healthy. Sorry Isagenix and Herbal Life. Your meal replacement shakes are filled with fructose. NO THANK YOU.
13. Yogurt with fruit in it is a healthy food choice… maybe in extreme moderation AFTER you’ve switched to fat burning mode. But the fruit will also make you bloated and gassy. And Fruit is… SUGAR. The healthy bacteria in the yogurt IS good for you. But somehow you’re going to have to find a way to either eat full fat organic yogurt without sugar, or get your healthy probiotics with fermented vegetables or in a  supplement.

In case you didn’t read what I just wrote here it is in a nutshell:

•  Sugar is sugar
• Honey is sugar
• Wheat and other supposedly “healthy” grains are sugar
• Potatoes are sugar
• Fruit is sugar
• Restaurant food is often filled with hidden sugar
• SUGAR is messing with your gut bacteria, and your brain and causing you to crave more and stay fat.

Some myths about hypnosis…

1. One hypnosis session is all you need.

If it doesn’t work then you just had a “bad” hypnotist. False! Chances are the habits and life patterns you are attempting to change have been the result of DECADES of your own “self-hypnosis” or “Cultural Hypnosis”.  Your neurological patterns have been deeply grooved and established. Doesn’t it make sense that you just might need a wee bit of repetition and reinforcement to get new patterns to “stick”?

2. A good hypnotist can “make” you stop craving sugar.

False! A lot of folks have a definite almost drug addiction like craving for sweets and carbs. Ultimately many of us have had a candida overgrowth in our systems that is quietly l iterally FORCING us to feed the yeast beast!

So the best process is a tapering down of sugars and foods that act like sugar at the same time that you start building up your healthy gut flora. At some point a complete sugar abstinence needs to happen. In order to reset your metabolism. That requires time and patience. When I finally stopped ALL sugar. I lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks. When I stopped all sugar I could easily do intermittent fasting to trigger fat burning. Skipping dinner is no big deal. Skipping dinner and breakfast is no big deal if you are burning fat. But if your body is still on sugar burning mode, it’s going to be screaming. So you have to proceed intelligently. A good hypnotist can support your weekly goals or monthly goals. A good hypnotist is a vital member of your weight loss and fitness team. But a hypnotist can’t MAKE you do ANYTHING that you don’t want to do. If you thought that was the case you have been “hypnotized” by hollywood portrayals of hypnosis.

3. If you go to a hypnotist that means you don’t have to do anything on your own to change.

False!  Again Hypnosis is is essentially you learning how to communicate with your vast and resourceful Unconscious Mind. If you get the co-operation of your unconscious Mind you CAN make changes rapidly and permanently. Sometimes it seems like magic. But if there is conflict between what your unconscious mind wants and what your conscious mind wants, there can be a stalemate. Just like a dog or horse, planting its feet and refusing to budge you unconscious mind can stop you. So in reality hypnosis is a way to open up that pathway of communication so that you can enlist the support and help of what poet Mary Oliver calls, “The soft animal of your body”.

Here are a couple of more honest and helpful ways to begin today to get to where you want to be:

1.  Be gentle and patient (yet firm) with yourself  and you will start to make steady progress towards your health and fitness goals.
2. The healthier you get and the more aware and sugar sensitive you get, the less you will want the crap. I was fasting the other night and I went to see a movie. I was able to go to the snack counter and buy a bottle of water without a single urge to get any junk food. Just didn’t want it. To me it felt the same as if I saw some dog food. Not repulsed, just not interested. It’s just not food I eat. End of story.
3. Start to hang out with other people who are into a healthy life style. But make sure they are not using 30 year old exercise and nutrition concepts that will slow you down! In other words be careful who you hang out with or listen to.
4. Start to move your body in safe, pleasurable, gentle ways.

Speaking of movement: There are 3 kinds of movements that impact your fitness levels.

1. High Intensity Interval Training... 7-8 sets of alternating 90 seconds of moderate movement and 30 second bursts of all out Cowabungah intensity… The bursts should be so intense that by the last few seconds of the 30 a second burst, you can barely do it. then you relax back into a moderate level of intensity for the next 90 seconds…. you do this a MAXIUM of 8 times NO MORE THEN 2-3 TIMES PER WEEK! You can do this on an elliptical, a tread mill, in a pool or lake, on a bike, or simply by climbing a decent hill or mountain. Essentially it’s how we evolved, PUSH then back off and rest… then PUSH then rest… alternating 30 seconds of PUSH with 90 seconds of taking it easy. In 20 minutes your done for the session.

2. Slow burn resistance training… This is using weights, preferably dumbbells or kettle bells but can also be body weight exercises. done EXTREMELY SLOWLY.. If you do a full body workout this way it should take NO MORE THAN 30 MINUTES and you will probably need AT LEAST 3-5 days OFF..

3.  Daily movement. Get up out of your chair as much as possible. gentle stretching, balance, tai chi, yoga, walking, playing with your kids, raking leaves, working around the house, parking your car at the opposite end of the mall. generally moving you body as much as possible. Walk. Get a mini trampoline and start jumping on it a couple times a day. Start climbing hills or mountains. Get on your bike and ride it to the store for that quick errand. rake leaves, dig in your garden, move a rock to the other side of your yard. get some basic dumbbells and do compound exercises with them SLOWLY. 10 minutes a day of that and you can start to build fat burning muscle and boost your metabolism.

The main keys here are to avoid hurting yourself. avoid over training. avoid the mental resistance to “exercise” or “going to the gym”

What hypnosis does is give you support and clarity to get off of the self-hate, self-sabotage hamster wheel.

If you are forty or older you want to start moving your body in ways that are safe. You want to be able to do these movements until quite literally the day you die. If you over do it or hurt yourself it will stop you and set you back.

Enjoyable. YOU WILL NOT DO WHAT IS NOT PLEASURABLE. period. You HAVE to make your work outs enjoyable.

Intelligent. if you just flail away doing long boring cardio you are just not going to make the same progress as High intensity interval training or slow burn resistance training. period. It’s just a scientific fact.

You do not have to spend a gazillion hours every week working out.

While I was writing this blog post: (BTW being a writer is one of the traditionally most sedentary jobs around. I’ve NEVER been an athlete, or into any kind of sports.

I HAVE  split wood, gone hiking, ridden a bike, swum… never really stuck with any sport or workout very long… because I usually find exercise…. BORING!)

BUT HERE IS A LITTLE GLIMPSE INTO MY “DESIGNED FOR MY OWN PLEASURE WORKOUT”

1. Instead of starting off my day with eating breakfast, I’ve been writing this post standing at my desk.  NOT sitting and mixing up my writing with moving my body.
2. I was occasionally jumping up and down on my rebounder mini trampoline for 90 seconds then high knee running on it for 30 then back to moderate bouncing… ( it was  FUN) Then I came back in to my office and worked a little more)
3. Next, I did some slow balance steps and reverse lunges… slow motion squats.  got my heart rate up and then came back to write some more.
4. I have not had breakfast yet.
5. I’ve had not fruit or grains or carbs or any other kinds of hidden sugars since Friday (Halloween) when I ate an apple… And even tho I’ve not eaten since dinner last night (about 14 hours ago) I am not feeling shaky or tired or irritable or even more than just a little hungry. I feel kind of energized and actually a bit “high” (it’s a NATURAL high LOL).
6. Next I did some slow ab crunches and held a plank for as long as I could,  then back to my standing desk….
7. I’ll next do some slow dumbbell squats and standing presses then write some more

By the way it’s monday which is my day off. I don’t see clients. I don’t go anywhere if I can help it. I stay home and take care of me and my mind and body. that doesn’t mean I sit around all day watching videos LOL.

Big thought: The more I take care of ME first, the more I not only get done but the more I can do for other people. How would that feel in your life?

So Today, I am doing exactly what I most want to do, I’ve used the creative first part of my day to write and work on my weight loss/fitness programs as well as my own personal weight loss/fitness goals. 90 day goal period. PLUS I’ve just decided to go to the mountains for a good hike with my buddy and NLP student Mike Covey.

S0 NOW i’m making a good breakfast that should hold me for the rest of the day.

Ok breakfast is done.

Time to head out…

I hope you take the time to consider that your body is a vehicle for you to enjoy and interact with the world of sights, sounds, feelings, tastes, textures, scents and awareness. If you don’t take care of your body where will you live?

Watch the video, educate yourself, begin to experiment with a long-term strategy for gradual, steady, optimal health and wellness, well being, happiness, self love and fitness.

If you want support, need help, guidance, coaching, I’m here for you. My next class “It’s Not Just About The Food” will be limited to 25 people and will start up at the beginning of February in Clifton Park. I will again be collaborating with Bethany Gonyea, and Leslie Thornton… Who Knows, Mike Covey may be there as well.

When you are ready and open to a different approach that takes the long view. Let me know.

Want to learn more?

If you have questions for me or you’re ready to check out my course about mastering your mind for a change around food, and fitness, click the button below…

It’s Not Just About The Food