Dietary Changes and Depression

One of the side effects of being depressed is feeling helpless. But, you don’t have to feel that way anymore. There are changes that you can make to help aid in your recovery. Changing your diet is important for curbing your symptoms.

When depression occurs, there is an imbalance of neurotransmitters in the brain. The main ones are: serotonin, dopamine and norepinephrine. These substances are responsible for connecting with receptors that regulate mood and sleep. The imbalance here is that there are not enough of them being produced.

What we typically eat when we are “feeling down” is comfort food. Does anyone want a plate of macaroni and cheese, pizza, donuts, pretzels and fried chicken? Well, maybe not all together but you get the idea. Eating such foods also release endorphins that make us feel happy but it is only a temporary fix.

The downside is that it also increases our waistline and the impending crash. The feeling doesn’t last forever and you have to keep eating those things to bring it back. The upside is that there are healthier foods that do the same thing and can help you lose weight in the process.

An important substance for brain chemistry is omega 3 fatty acids. They can be found in cold water fish and nuts. Increasing your intake of salmon, tuna, almonds and walnuts will help boost neurotransmitter levels in the brain.

Vitamin E and the B vitamins are also instrumental in keeping the brain healthy. Vitamin E works to keep the nerve cells healthy and flexible. The B vitamins help with the production of neurotransmitters in the brain.

By boosting your intake of foods containing these substances, your brain will benefit. That means more nuts, dairy, veggies, fruit and seafood. So basically, most of the food groups are included here. Try adding bananas, crab, prunes, milk, eggs, sweet potatoes, greens and hazelnuts to the mix.

You can’t go wrong with a healthier diet to decrease depression symptoms.

Weight Loss Visualizations and Affirmations

Weight loss visualizations and affirmations are part of mind training techniques that help to program the subconscious mind for success.

Visualization is an ability to see in your mind’s eye what you want to achieve.

Affirmation is an important aspect of the creative visualization process. Affirm means to make firm. Affirmation is a strong positive statement that something is already so. You are making firm something that you are imaging.

Every thought you think every word you say is an affirmation.

Whenever you say “I hate myself”, “I don’t like the way I look”, “I am so fat” you are making an affirmation. These affirmations help you visualize things that you DO NOT want.

The more you say and visualize things that you don’t want, the more of it will come into your life.

How Visualizations and Affirmations work?

It looks like a magic but it is not… No magic lamp required!

When you repeat something in your mind over and over again, it becomes your habitual thought. If you do it long enough it becomes a part of your subconscious mind that makes sure whatever you affirm becomes or stays your reality.

If you always repeat to yourself “I am fat” or have any other negative image of yourself your subconscious mind will do everything to keep that image.

So you want to lose weight you go on a diet but eventually you start sabotaging your diet and get back to your “old overweight self”. No matter how hard you try you come back to the same starting point sometimes weighting even more than before.

And all of this due to the power of your subconscious mind.

This is basically how the Law of Attraction works.



And what we are? What we think of most of the time. We are what we think and what we think we become/stay – this is a vicious circle.

Creative Affirmations and Visualizations Help Break This Vicious Circle

Affirmations help us replace these outdated negative statements with the positive constructive ones.

Affirmations can be done silently, spoken aloud, written down or even sung or chanted.

Even 10 minutes a day can counterbalance years of negative programming. Naturally the more frequently you remember them the more positive experiences you will have. There are many positive statements that you can repeat to yourself and write for yourself.

Affirmations for Weight Loss



Effective Creative Visualizations and Affirmations

In order for affirmations and visualizations to be effective you need to quiet your mind.

Techniques such as chanting, meditation, breathing exercises can be very helpful in quieting the mind.

However they are just pre-requisites. Affirmations and visualizations work the best in the deeply relaxed state that can be achieved through progressive muscles relaxation or self-hypnosis. This can be achieved through the guided deep relaxation or hypnosis.

Hypnosis can help in every area of life from spiritual development to stopping cravings and weight loss.

Here is the site the program that I recommend: Mind Training for Weight Loss and Anything Else

http://www.weightlosspaths.com/mind_training

Self-Hypnosis for Weight Loss

Self-hypnosis for weight loss is not something mystical or unattainable. Lots of people achieved success by mastering the self-hypnosis techniques and applying them to all the areas of their lives.

Self-hypnosis is a process that helps us to go deep into the subconscious mind and change the negative programming in any aspect of our lives. This can happen by giving new, empowering suggestions to your subconscious mind while in a deeply relaxed state.

Your life right now is a reflection of the program that is running over and over in your subconscious mind.

Do you like what you see? If not, then it is time for change.

Self-Hypnosis vs. Affirmations and Creative Visualizations

Repeating the positive suggestions are helpful any time during the day you do that. They can help you to snap out very quickly of different negative states.

For example, if something in your life doesn’t go in the direction you want to, you are most likely keep repeating to yourself “Nothing is working in my life, everything is wrong”. The more you say it the more negative you will become – this is a vicious circle. At this point try to break your negative states by repeating: “Everything is good, everything is going well”.

At the beginning you will feel a lot of resistance and will be irritated by doing so but if you continue repeating this in your mind you will start feeling better within 10-15 minutes. You’ll be able to see clearly and realize that everything will pass including the life phase you are in, one that you perceive as “negative”.

This is the power of positive affirmations at work.

This kind of suggestions work on a superficial level of the consciousness. While they work, they are NOT making a permanent change. In order for the positive changes to become permanent they need to reach your subconscious mind.

Self-hypnosis techniques help you to relax deeply so you will be able to change the negative programming permanently.

Self-Hypnosis for Weight Loss: Stage One



Before you even go into the creative affirmations and visualizations part you need to learn how to relax deeply.

The first stage of self-hypnosis is the progressive muscle relaxation. Here is how to do that:

Sit or lie in a comfortable position, close your eyes, mentally scan your body and relax all the muscles. Then concentrate on every single muscle and relax it. For example, repeat in your mind “my arm is completely relaxed; my arm is heavy and warm”. You should feel the heaviness and warmth.

To come back from a deeply relaxed position, start to move slowly you fingers, feet, arms and legs, stretch your body, then count to 10 and open your eyes.

Do not rush through this process. If you have never done this before it will take some time before your body learns how to relax deeply.

Do the relaxation exercises 2 times a day for 10-15 minutes for about a week before you attempt to go deeper.

Self-Hypnosis for Weight Loss: Stage Two

After learning the basic relaxation techniques you need to go deeper into the hypnotic state.

It is easier to do with a guided imagery CD that can slowly take you down into your subconscious mind.

In this stage you have to use your visualization skills. Imagine go down the stairs. With each step that you take your body relaxes even more. When you finish your decent you find yourself in a beautiful breath taking place that is special for you.

It is safe and only you know about this special place. See a waterfall or a river and feel how the sound of running water relaxes you deeply.

You can write the script before go into relaxation. You can also record yourself and playback while doing the relaxation exercise.

Another option is to buy a guided imagery professional audio to achieve quickly the hypnotic, highly suggestive state.

Here is the site the program that I recommend: Mind Training for Weight Loss and Anything Else

http://www.weightlosspaths.com/mind_training

Self-Hypnosis for Weight Loss: Stage Three

Now you are ready for positive affirmations. You can listen to the suggestions on the guided imagery CD or repeat your own in your mind or record the affirmations beforehand and playing back while in a deeply relaxed state.

You can use the weight loss affirmations found here:

Creative Affirmations and Visualizations for Weight Loss

Make sure you take your time and pause after saying each one so you will really FEEL it. The feeling part is very important and this is what will make your affirmations work.

Self-hypnosis for weight loss is completely in line with the Law of Attraction and provides steps that can help you to apply the Law of Attraction to your life for weight loss and anything else you desire.

Self-Hypnosis for Weight Loss: Stage Four

This is the final stage of coming back from a deeply relaxed position. It is very important to come back slowly.

Start moving your body first, then count till 10, open your eyes and clap your hands to come out of relaxed, hypnotic state.

Final Words

Self-hypnosis or hypnosis and other mind training, programming technique are the first step in any goal-achievement process, including weight loss however afterwards you need to know how to proceed with your particular goal in order to succeed. In case of weight loss you need to know what the right diet is, how to exercise without exhausting yourself, detoxification techniques and other important things.

Additional reading:

Creative Affirmations and Visualizations for Weight Loss

EFT for Weight Loss

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) – what is it? How it can help with weight loss or with anything else?

EFT for weight loss has been used successfully for some time. EFT involves tapping certain acupressure points in a sequence that helps energy to flow freely in the body and hence can help with numerous different conditions.

As per originators of this powerful technique, it can help cure almost anything.



How EFT Can Help with Weight Loss?

EFT can help lose weight in numerous different ways.

For example, it can help with cravings. It can also help to let go of toxic emotions, of attitude of not loving and accepting yourself the way you are right now.

By starting loving and accepting yourself the way you are, you start taking better care of yourself – you exercise regularly, start eating healthy food, have no problem to follow any weight loss regime till you achieve your goal.

This attitude of loving and accepting yourself the way you are will also help you to maintain your ideal weight.

EFT for Weight Loss Video

EFT and Other Weight Loss Aspects

EFT is just one of the mind-training, re-programming techniques. Other techniques that can help you in your weight loss journey are hypnosis or self-hypnosis, affirmations and visualizations techniques, relaxation and good night sleep.

Hypnotherapy for Weight Loss

Hypnotherapy is an important weight loss tool. It can help to re-program your mind so you will do all the right things and lose weight.

While self-hypnosis is geared towards people who want to do it themselves, hypnotherapy session is conducted by a professional.

This can be done through actually visiting the hypnotherapy professional or through professionally recorded audios that can guide you through all the stages.

Among other mind-training techniques, I used guided imagery CDs as well as binaural beats and Alpha-level CDs to reach deeply relaxed state of mind where I could repeat my own affirmations.

They helped me while I was on my 25-pounds weight loss journey. I also used these CDs for achievement of other important goals in my life.

Hypnotherapy for Weight Loss Video



Hypnotherapy for Everything

Hypnotherapy can help to re-program your mind to achieve anything you want.

In the weight loss process it can help not only to eat right and exercise regularly but also to be motivated to go till the end, till you achieve your goal.

There are different hypnosis programs, some provide separate modules for a particular purpose and it is a cost-effective way to buy only modules that you need.

For example the mind-training program at weightlosspaths.com/mind-training program provides modules for spiritual development, weight loss, manifestation, astral projection and many others.

They provide specifically recorded binaural beats that take the listener into deeply relaxed states of mind where they can repeat their own positive affirmations.

Other programs provide hypnosis techniques in conjunction with Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) that makes them very powerful. They are general purpose programs and can be used to achieve practically anything in life.

Hypnotherapy for Weight Loss: Binaural Beats

Binaural beats and Alpha-level audios help to go deeply into relaxed hypnotic state without going through all the steps of hypnosis.

You need to pre-written your own affirmations that you can repeat to yourself in deeply relaxed states. The affirmations should be in the present tense and positive.

For example, don’t say “I won’t eat junk food” instead say “I eat healthy food”; don’t say “I will lose weight”, say “I weight xxx pounds (your desired weight), I am full of energy and vitality”.

You can find the list of affirmations for weight loss here:

Creative affirmations and visualizations

You can also write your own using the guidelines above.

Here is the site the program that I recommend: Mind Training for Weight Loss and Anything Else

http://www.weightlosspaths.com/mind_training