Aspiring Spirit

Following the South Beach diet plan is among the most popular ways to lose weight today. It is styled around diet and lifestyle changes that help you steadily lose weight. By avoiding “bad” fats and carbohydrates and having plenty of “good” ones, dieters can lose weight without sacrificing their health or feeling deprived.

There are three steps in the South Beach program. During the first phase, dieters can’t eat any carbs except for vegetables. Although several foods are not allowed, dieters still have a variety of foods they can eat. Phase one is the strictest phase, but also the quickest since it only takes fourteen days. Dieters are expected to lose ten pounds during this period.

In phase two, dieters begin adding the previously restricted carbohydrate-rich foods into their diet. Dieters are expected to lose one to two pounds per week while steadily raising the volume of carbs in their diet. Phase two lasts until dieters reach their target weight.

Phase three is the lifetime maintenance phase. Dieters take the strategies they learned from phase two to keep their ideal weight throughout the rest of their lives. If dieters start to put on weight, they are able to revert back to the first phase of the diet.

It is likely that you’ve seen ready-made South Beach meals and snacks in the grocery store. These products are handy, but you don’t need to spend money on them in order to be on the diet. You just need to commit to the different general guidelines for each phase of the diet.

During phase one of the diet, you may eat lean cuts of meat, such as chicken, fish, and turkey, eggs, most vegetables, nuts, and a small quantity of dairy products. Fruit juices and fruit are not consumed during this phase because they are high in sugar. Also not allowed are all carbs, fatty cuts of meat, alcohol, and certain vegetables that are rather high in sugar or carbohydrate content, such as beets. The purpose of this phase is to cut “bad” carbs from your diet and initiate the weight loss process.

During the second phase, dieters gradually reintroduce whole grains, fruit, and other formerly prohibited foods into their diet. In the process, dieters learn how to balance their diet to keep a desirable weight. Once this is successfully accomplished, the diet switches into the lifetime maintenance phase, in which dieters attempt to maintain the healthy habits that helped them reach their desired weight.

The key to success with the South Beach diet program is committing to healthy eating. Although that appears easy, this diet program and most other diet programs fail because dieters give up before the plan can start to work. The struggles that most men and women have with weight loss often result from deeper problems such as a lack of drive to lose weight, a tendency to eat too much, or out-of-control appetite. The good thing is that all of these problems are treatable with techniques that are easy to learn from a high quality hypnotherapy weight loss CD program.

To treat a lack of motivation, practices from a tool called Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) will induce a strong urge to stay on track with your weight loss goals.

To begin with, dieters identify exactly what it is that is most important to them, as a person. This is known as their “highly valued criteria.” Then, NLP techniques are practiced to make the dieters think that by losing weight, their highly valued criteria will benefit greatly. Another option is to make the dieter think that if they don’t lose weight, their highly valued criteria will be placed in jeopardy.

Motivation is created by what we believe, not by logic! So in the above example, let us say that the dieter’s most valued criterion is that the dieter’s kids are safe and well. Using an NLP tool known as Submodalities, we can direct the dieter into believing that if he/she is unable to lose weight, the kids will be condemned to follow the parent’s lead and they will be fat and dissatisfied. This belief will give a strong desire and feeling to stay on the diet and lose weight.

Many NLP techniques can help to reduce or even completely remove the impulses and cravings that force one to overeat. This works very effectively to help dieters stick to the first and most difficult fourteen days of the South Beach diet. It also helps dieters stick to a physical activity program, which will enhance the usefulness of any diet plan.

Stress is a problem that often drives people to overeat or stop caring about their health, but relaxation can be provided by both hypnosis and NLP practices. One such tool is known as the NLP Flash. With the Flash technique, having the unconscious use negative thoughts to prompt you to have calming thoughts relieves the stress that causes the impulse to eat excessively.

Uncontrollable eating habits can also cause people to gain weight. Many people have seemingly out-of-control appetites because over the years, they have unknowingly developed a “conditioned response” to eat in certain situations. For example, many of us eat in front of the television even when we are not really hungry. Fortunately, hypnosis and NLP both have practices that can rapidly extinguish these conditioned responses. These practices eliminate the appetite without the use of pills or drugs.

By treating the underlying problems that keep people from shedding weight, NLP and hypnosis has helped many dieters finally get in the best shape of their lives. Combined with the South Beach program, dieters are able to enjoy easy weight loss and success at reaching their fitness goals.

Alan B. Densky, CH is certified by the NGH. Visit his hypnosis website for Free NLP downloads, videos, and newsletters. He offers several ways to lose weight, including hypnotism for weight loss DVDs and lose weight self-hypnosis CDs.

- Alan B. Densky, CH