NLP practitioner Ali Campbell has the answer to successful weight loss – and it is within you to achieve

If you could bottle the ‘secret’ to easy, effective weight loss you could sell that bottle for a LOT of money. The bad news is that no such bottle exists, the good news is that you don’t need it anyway. Not only do you not need the secret potion, you don’t need the latest celeb diet or supplement either. Here’s the news… Weight loss has virtually nothing to do with food and everything to do with your relationship with food.

Here’s some more good news – it’s not your fault. We are all a product of our thinking, and so when we find ourselves acting (and eating) in a way we want to change, we first need to look at where to make that change. Despite what you might have been told by the diet industry, the answer is in your head not in the fridge.

Thought creates feeling and feeling creates action, and those actions shape our lives… literally. So instead of using food to ‘self medicate’ and change the feelings, how about if we just change your thinking instead?

NLP is said by many to be one of the fastest, easiest and least invasive ways to make powerful changes in your thinking, much faster than you might believe possible!

Here are my top NLP tips for changing your mind to change your body.

Change the way you see food

If you want to change what you see in the mirror, you first need to change what you see in your mind. Close your eyes and picture your favourite ‘bad’ food. All those things that you go to when you need a pick-me-up. You know they’re not good for you, but in your mind’s eye I bet they look so very big and inviting don’t they? Good, now take that picture and make it black and white, then pop a border around it, then shrink the picture all the way down so it’s tiny and off in the distance. How does it feel now? Quite different, right? Squeeze together your finger and thumb to anchor it,then open your eyes. Repeat as many times as you like but you should notice the picture changing and getting less and less appealing each time you revisit it.

Parts integration technique 

Here’s a very simple but quite precise guide for you to learn how to integrate those conflicting parts in yourself, the part that wants to be slim and the part that just wants cheesecake. The following are the exact steps you should follow in order to unite your conflicting parts under the single common goal of your wellbeing.

The best thing to do is familiarise yourself with this, then close your eyes and do it; it’s quite a trick to read with your eyes closed, even with NLP.

Step 1: Identify the parts

Sit palms up with your hands free to move and with your eyes closed. Then, go inside and ask the part that is causing the problem to make itself known to you. Now imagine that part moving out into the palm of your left hand and hold it there.

Step 2: Ask the first part about its intention

Ask it for a sense of its positive intention, ‘Why do you want to eat that chocolate?’ And notice what comes up for you. The answers will unpack gradually. At first it might be something like, ‘Because I want you to enjoy the taste of chocolate’. So then ask it again, ‘Why do you want me to enjoy the taste of chocolate?’ Perhaps this time the answer will be something like, ‘Because I want you to be happy’. As you ask more questions, you move towards determining the highest positive intention of the part, which is the ‘real’ reason you eat chocolate. This is what we are going to work with and change. Keep going until you get to the ‘root’ of the matter. Don’t worry, you’ll know on the inside when you’ve got there.

Step 3: The problem-solving part

Now we are going to find another part to work with the first, in order to fulfil that same positive intention in a way that does not involve sabotaging yourself by eating chocolate.

Repeat the following as closely as you can remember when you close your eyes: ‘I’m talking to the creative, problem-solving part of my own subconscious mind, the part that helps me make decisions every day without my even having to think about it. I’m asking that part for one new, healthy way to fulfil that same positive intention but without the need for chocolate. I do not need to know what that new way is going to be, just have a sense of it, and when I have a sense of that my subconscious mind can put that part in the palm of my right hand.’

Step 4: Bring them/allow them to come together

Talk to both parts and tell them that they have the same intention for you; that there is no need for any conflict. If you were doing it right from the beginning, you will probably notice that your hands have already started coming closer together by themselves. They will continue to do so, guided by your subconscious mind, until they touch; all you have to do is sit there and stay out of the way while your subconscious mind sorts things out 
for you.

All behaviour has a positive intention but we always have the ability to fulfill that positive intention in a different, healthier way. Change can be much easier than you think… When you know how of course.