Food Addiction Explored:

Food Addiction:

In our very stressful world we sometimes self medicate with food, or comfort eat, when we are stressed, bored, or anxious – we sometimes get “food addiction.”

The short term snack which is often very high in fat sugar or salt which gives us a feeling of comfort.

This comfort rapidly wears off so we can feel the need to repeat the comfortable experience. Before we know it the family sized chocolate bar / crisps / cake / ice cream are eaten. Then we feel guilty: “WHY did I do that!?”

We know full well that foods high in fat sugar and salt can be incredibly harmful and could lead to heart trouble, type 2 diabetes, cancer, osteoarthritis and back pain as we put the system under strain. You only have to think of carrying even a few stone of fat in rucksacks worn front and back for a few hours of activity like walking up stairs or even running and you get the picture of where obesity can really harm us. I am only scratching the surface but don’t need to labour the point!

A diet won’t address the underlying issues of why you overeat binge pick and nibble or comfort eat. So when you fail or give up and go back to the “normal” eating which includes sugary faty salty snacks the wight comes back and then some!

Many studies have demonstrated this since the first known study in 1917 exposed the problems with dieting.

Really you have to deal with WHY you are overeating.

Then you need to put simple weight management strategies in place and stop obsessing about small amounts of pounds gained or lost or calories or sins.

All of this leads to a bad relationship with food and we need to establish a good relationship, get some form of exercise that you might enjoy, eat well, good food, decrease portion size AND feel full.

Address boredom, anxiety and stress with strategies.

In other words it is easy and doesn’t need elaborate gimmick diets!

Add in the HypnoGastricBand which makes you feel fuller sooner and we have developed an approach together that can be permanent in helping you Manage your Weight AND Your Life better.

Client case studies:

I had one client with a badly organised boss who would seemingly pop his head around the door every 30 minutes or so with a: “This needs to be done NOW!!!” The trouble was there were already about 5 things with “absolute priority.” My client had her secret weapon – her Curly Wurly drawer and she would reach for her favourite sweet to “give her energy” and “get her through.” 

She was now almost 30 stone.

We worked on how to deal with the stress. I half jokingly suggested she send her boss fo a session on prioritising. We looked at how to NOT use a sugary fatty chocolate snack as self medication. We dealt with underlying anxiety. I persuaded her to have an honest conversation with her boss.

We realised that otherwise she was on track for possible type 2 diabetes as well as possible osteoarthritis and cardiac problems. The RDA fo sugar is six teaspoons per DAY. Her Curly Wurly had NINE teaspoons of sugar in just one bar!

Another client was “addicted” to jelly babies and we tried to find the source of this “addiction”. Actually it was a similar habitual response to the above. We uncovered through hypnosis a long forgotten incident when her parents were gong through a tough time and she picked up on their anxiety aged 8 and got very anxious and weepy.

She recalled her Mother leaning over her in a red gingham frock. She was 8 years old and sitting in the garden in the sun. Her Mother gave her a huge bag of jelly babies and said: ” Never mind darling .. you eat these jelly babies any time you feel anxious and you’ll feel a whole lot better!”

I suggested that she was no longer 8 years old and didn’t need to make that choice now.  I also gave her some practical suggestions to streamline her Barrister’s practice. 

She got back to me a year later saying:

“I have FINALLY reached target weight and size. But that is almost a side issue now, as my business is flourishing, and I feel a great deal happier. Clients are using my services more because they know that I get things done.

Many Thanks

Ms MJ”

Clients names protected under client confidentiality requirement

So are you really food addicted?

Food addiction is really just a bad habit that seems to address a perceived problem such as stress boredom of anxiety, to name but three. However we can learn to ignore the blandishments of two for one,

We can learn strategies that deal with the anxiety stress or boredom that don’t involve compulsively eating (and/or drinking) to excess.

We are not addicts – it has simply been a coping habitual strategy.

If you were truly an addict you would wake up in the middle of the night with an acute craving. That happens very rarely!

We can do better with our eating and lose the weight and feel happier.

Graham Howes Advanced Hypnotherapist NLP and Certified Weight Loss Specialist – Certified Hypno Gastric Band Practitioner since 2010.

GHR registered GHSC Regulated

Appointments in Ipswich Suffolk, Home visits in Essex. Skype or FaceTime Worldwide and Nationwide.

Tel: 01473 879561 07875720623 

Emails: grahamahowes@me.com