Our opinions are based on our subconscious programming and our current circumstances. If our subconscious minds change, our opinions change. For example, before hypnosis, someone with a sugar addiction might believe: “Sugar is everything, I want dessert with every meal. I deserve to eat things that taste indulgent and amazing.” After hypnosis, the same person might think: “Sugar actually isn’t delicious. It’s kind of disgusting. It’s way too sweet, and consuming it makes me feel terrible. I don’t want it. Get it away from me!” Two different opinions held by the same person, just weeks apart.
Adding another layer, take a moment to consider how opinions can be backed by facts and still be opinions. How can that be? Facts are facts!
Well, there are facts to back up why it’s good to put bacon on everything.
There are facts that say bacon causes heart disease.
There are facts that say some red wine is good.
There are facts that say alcohol kills brain cells.
There are facts that say fat in food causes fat in bodies.
There are facts that say fat is required for healthy brain functionality.
There are facts that say sugar is bad for us, so use sweeteners. There are facts that say artificial sweeteners cause innumerable diseases.
There are facts that say vegetables will solve all your health problems.
There are facts that say nightshade vegetables must be avoided by people with autoimmune disease.
And what do we do with all this contradictory yet proven information? We all pick our favorite facts that fit in with our current worldview and then we defend them mercilessly. There might even be genuine, irrefutable science that proves one way of eating is healthier or is better for the environment, but if the findings of that science in any way go against our personal belief systems or, honestly, convenience, well, the truth is rarely enough to change human behavior. We typically become set in our ways and then defend those ways as the only “right” way. Which facts we make our favorites (i.e., the ones we choose to believe over others) are largely informed by the people we hang out with, where we live, what we care about, and honestly what we want to do.
What you genuinely believe is healthy or good to eat is likely deeply offensive to someone, somewhere in the world. Plus, with food allergies and sensitivities on the rise, what’s healthy for one person, regardless of that person’s opinions or beliefs, is different from what’s healthy for someone else. When you combine the confusion of everyone choosing their “favorite facts” according to preconceived worldviews, thousands of different diet books, and individual food sensitivities, how the heck do we know what to eat? The answer is, you combine blood tests and intuitive eating.
Blood Tests
Blood tests will tell you what you are allergic to and sensitive to so you can stop eating them regardless of your opinions and your taste buds’ preferences. While certainly an investment, if you can afford to get this done at least once to start with, you will be amazed at how much better you feel when you know what foods to omit from your diet. Why? Because if you eat food you are allergic to, you will have an allergic reaction. That is bad. Objectively bad. Not favorite facts bad. Continual allergic reactions over time can lead to chronic inflammation.45 (You’ll learn more about “leaky gut,” which may be the reason for these allergies and sensitivities in a bit.)
You might think you have no food allergies—my forty-two-year-old client Jake didn’t think he had any, and he had nine. NINE! But to him an “allergic reaction” is what happened to his neighbor when he was a kid; Evan was stung by a bee and rushed to the hospital in anaphylactic shock. Since nothing like this had ever happened to Jake, he assumed he didn’t have any allergies. When Jake found out allergic reactions might look like bloating, extreme fatigue, dizziness, light-headedness, weight gain, rashes, he realized he had been expressing some version of these symptoms every day, for years. Once he received his blood test back and eliminated these nine foods from his diet, he not only lost weight much faster but also felt more energized and clearheaded than he had since he was a teenager.
If you’ve ever wondered if hidden allergies or sensitivities may be at the root of your weight gain or health issues, you might benefit from being on the lookout for a condition called “leaky gut.” According to Healthline,
Leaky gut, also known as increased intestinal permeability, is a digestive condition in which bacteria and toxins are able to “leak” through the intestinal wall. Mainstream medical professionals do not recognize leaky gut as a real condition. However, there is quite a bit of scientific evidence that leaky gut does exist and may be associated with multiple health problems.46
Jake’s integrative physician explained to him that with leaky gut you can become sensitive or allergic to foods you eat often because food proteins are crossing the intestinal barrier and the body attacks the foreign agent with an immune response. That is the definition of a food allergy.
So Jake can eat gluten, cheese, and sugar without having an allergic response, but it doesn’t make those foods “healthy,” and they’re not helpful to any weight loss goals. But at the present moment if he were to eat broccoli, onions, green beans, almonds, or ginger, he would be doubled over in pain because he has developed food sensitivities toward these foods over the years—which doesn’t make these foods “unhealthy” for anyone else who doesn’t have those same food sensitivities.
This is why intuitive eating, which we’ll dive into in a moment, is so important. Just because Jake’s body can’t process celery or ginger or broccoli right now doesn’t make them “bad foods.”
If you have a history of disordered eating, referring to certain foods as “bad” food, “junk” food, “garbage,” or “poison” might be triggering. Even for those without a history of disordered eating, those terms might feel extreme to you. For others, these terms will be helpful in programming the subconscious to choose a different way of eating, and it won’t be triggering at all. As always, please continue to view this book and all resources as a “choose your own adventure” by only choosing hypno-affirmations that will imprint your subconscious mind with the terms that are most helpful for you. More on this and aversion therapy on page 185.
The good news? Once you have data about any potential food allergies and sensitivities, you can use hypnotherapy to rewire your brain so you no longer crave or miss the foods that are objectively bad for you. You can also use hypnotherapy to overcome a fear of needles so blood work becomes a breeze!
Intuitive Eating
Intuitive eating is eating or not eating what’s right for you, right now, in this moment. What’s right for you in the morning might not be right for you in the afternoon. What your best friend is ordering for brunch might not be right for you, no matter how Instagrammable it looks. What’s right for you in July might not be right for you in December. What’s right for you might not look anything like what your past opinions and favorite facts would agree with. It doesn’t matter. Your past opinions and favorite facts were formed before you committed to changing your life and to doing what it takes to get the results you’re looking for.
If your past opinion was that cooking with lard is delicious (because your grandmother taught you how to cook, and that was her opinion—so watch it, Grace, you better not say one bad word about my granny!) but your intuition tells you lard is making you feel awful, you have to go with your intuition. Not what your mind tells you to eat, not what I tell you to eat, not what beloved Granny told you to eat—what your own intuition tells you. If you want the results you wrote down on your Intake Form, and I know you do, committing to eating intuitively will get you there. Letting go of past opinions and the “favorite facts” will get you there.
Here’s a great explanation from Healthline of how you can use the subconscious mind to decide what’s right for you:
Intuitive eating is a philosophy of eating that makes you the expert of your body and its hunger signals . . . Essentially, it’s the opposite of a traditional diet . . . It doesn’t impose guidelines about what to avoid and what or when to eat . . . Instead, it teaches that you are the best person—the only person—to make those choices . . . To eat intuitively, you may need to relearn how to trust your body . . . To do that, you need to distinguish between physical and emotional hunger:
•Physical hunger. This biological urge tells you to replenish nutrients. It builds gradually and has different signals, such as a growling stomach, fatigue, or irritability. It’s satisfied when you eat any food.
•Emotional hunger. This is driven by emotional need. Sadness, loneliness, and boredom are some of the feelings that can create cravings for food, often comfort foods. Eating then causes guilt and self-hatred.47
When I teach my clients intuitive eating at the subconscious level, it all becomes crystal clear. They understand what foods are making them feel sluggish, unhealthy, unhappy, disgusting, gross. They understand which foods their body is craving more of. They are able to tap into the power of intuitive eating when prepping their meals, when food shopping, when ordering at a restaurant. And most importantly, they are able to determine if they are experiencing a genuine sensation of hunger, or if an uncomfortable emotion is activated and it’s attempting to soothe itself through the neurochemicals released by certain foods. In this week’s hypnosis recording, you will learn how to train your brain to release any old, unhelpful opinions and learn to eat intuitively in a way that’s right for you and your unique makeup.
Homework
A.Practice self-hypnosis three times a day, every day this week (right before breakfast, lunch, and dinner). Turn to page 20 for a reminder of how to do self-hypnosis or head to www.CloseYourEyesLoseWeight.com to follow along with a tutorial video.
Week 3 Hypno-affirmations—Intuitive Eating
•Blood tests help me know which foods are best for me.
•My intuition knows which foods nourish me most.
•I take a deep breath and tune in before ordering food.
•I take a deep breath and tune in before buying food.
•I choose foods that support my long-term health.
•My body is a machine. Food is fuel. I only put the highest quality fuel into my machine.
B.Listen to the “Week 3—Intuitive Eating” hypnosis recording every day for the next week here: www.CloseYourEyesLoseWeight.com.
C.Use your journal pages daily to stay motivated, log your progress, and determine which pick-me-up hypno-affirmations you’ll benefit from most.
You’ve now learned how to replace opinions about food with the objective truth about what your body—and yours alone—needs. All thanks to blood tests and intuitive eating, which tell the story of what works for you and what doesn’t. I’m sure you’re feeling infinitely better already! As we go into week four, you’ll learn how to do what many people consider impossible—crave exercise. Yes, it’s not only possible, it is the expected outcome when you retrain your brain. I’ll show you how.
45 Lisa Esposito, “When You’re Allergic to Almost Every Food,” U.S. News, March 9, 2016, https://health.usnews.com/health-news/patient-advice/articles/2016-03-09/when-youre-allergic-to-almost-every-food.
46 Becky Bell, “Is Leaky Gut Syndrome a Real Condition? An Unbiased Look,” Healthline, February 2, 2017, www.healthline.com/nutrition/is-leaky-gut-real.
47 Kerri-Ann Jennings, “A Quick Guide to Intuitive Eating,” Healthline, June 25, 2019, www.healthline.com/nutrition/quick-guide-intuitive-eating#basics.