Couple of weeks ago I saw a great film called Ratatouille. It's animated, and tells the story of a little country rat that goes to Paris to realise his (however unlikely) dream of becoming a chef. Initially, it was just seriously good entertainment, a feel-good movie-but the thing is, it stuck with me and I keep discovering new layers of meaning bellow the humble surface.
One of the treads is about a very nasty food critic that changes his ways (Scrooge-like) after tasting Remi's ratatouille. It reminded him of his mother's kitchen, her cooking and her love...
Food has a very powerful influence on our emotions- it can make us feel much better, purely by evoking happy memories of our childhoods. I guess that's why people comfort eat. It is a coping strategy. Expecting yourself to give up this very powerful strategy without putting something else in its place will probably not be very effective, especially in the long run.
If you want to stop comfort eating, find a different way to cope with stress. Your sense of smell is as effective at bringing back feel-good memories as your sense of taste. That is why these "home-perfume" candles that smell of coffee or chocolate or Christmas are selling like sweet cakes.
Your sense of smell and taste bypasses your conscious, logical mind to influence your emotions in a powerful irresistible way. So use it to your advantage. If the smell of Christmas spices make you feel good, burn these candles all year round. Light one when you feel low. Use different scents for different emotions. Bake bread; make coffee- for the sake of the aroma only! Shop owners and real estate agents are already using this technique to manipulate us to buy more, now use it consciously to change the way you feel.
And when you feel an irresistible urge to over-eat come over you, a very awful smell can put you off very definitely- try it; you will be surprised at its effectiveness.
Buying a new candle or even new perfume can thus be a very effective way to reward yourself as you achieve your weight loss goals when following a weight loss program. Rewarding yourself will give you the incentive to carry on and make you feel good about your body.
Do not reward yourself with a whole lot of junk food but rather something more helpful such as a new piece of clothing in the smaller size that marks a stage in your weight-loss program where you have made another positive achievement. Or run yourself a bubble bath and enjoy the heavenly aroma of a luxurious bath oil- make time to spoil yourself, you're worth it!
It is important that you reward yourself and feel good about what you have achieved. And how better to compliment yourself by buying a new, coveted perfume? The better you feel about yourself the more likely you will be to continue with the program you have chosen.
For many people it is a lack of self worth that caused them to start gaining weight in the first place so a reversal of this mindset can be a very powerful strategy for weight loss success.
It is more important that you feel good about yourself rather than being concerned about what others think. Each time you get closer to your optimum body weight you are benefiting as a whole with improved health and well-being and these rewards that you give yourself along the way are significant reminders of what you have achieved and they are very powerful incentives for bigger and better things.
Never underestimate the impact that this can have on your ability to succeed with a whole new direction in life starting from the inside out. So do not hesitate to use all strategies for weight loss at your disposal to ensure your success- use your sense of smell to help you stick to your diet.
Author Resource:-
Dr de Clermont is an experienced medical doctor, a certified NLP practitioner and hypnotherapist. She is the author of several weight loss articles. She firmly advocates self hypnosis for weight loss at www.hypnosis-for-diets.com. Subscribe to her Gorgeous Gourmet newsletter to get the "Secrets of Weight Loss through Hypnosis" report FREE. Her weight loss ebooks are at www.browse-ebooks.com
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