The TRUTHabout weight loss

byMichel McGuinness

Weight Loss Coach &Clinical Hypnotherapist

Creator of theWeight Loss Motivation Programme

get the programme herewww.slimmerlife.ie/motivation

Copyright 2019. Michael McGuinness

Table of Contents

About me.............................................................4Introduction.........................................................6Foreword.............................................................81. AVOID the “dieting” mindset..........................102. WILLPOWER does not work.........................123. Fat loss NOT weight loss..............................174. Understand your nutritional needs................195. Empowerment...............................................216. Break the emotional link to food....................24Question for you................................................26

About me

My name is Michael McGuinness and I am a leading Weight Loss Coach and a clinical hypnotherapist.

When I started in weight management I was perplexed as to why so many people failed with traditional slimming methods.

This led me to research the factors common to overweight people who successfully maintained their weight loss long-term so that this could be replicated in a weight loss programme.

All this research resulted in a unique in-clinic coaching programme I created in 1995 that has transformed the lives of so many people down the years.

I wrote this short e-book about the SIX SUCCESS PRINCIPLES that are the foundation

on which the weight loss success of those people who lose weight ... and keep it off is built.

Introduction

Be CAREFUL who gives you weight loss advice and what programme you attend. As well as not assisting you to successfully manage your weight long-term, bad advice can seriously damage your long-term health and affect your mental state.

Have you spent your time yo-yo dieting, going from one weight loss programme to another and always back to square one again?

I want to help you stand back from what overweight people do to try to lose weight, forget about everything you have been told about weight loss and “dieting” and open your mind to the possibility that there is a strategy that works.

If you regained weight after attending weight loss programmes in the past, the same is going to happen if you try the same approach again.

Weight loss frustration is trying the same

It isn't YOUR fault that you have not succeeded, the methods you tried just

did not work for you just as they don't work long-term for over 95% of people who try

them.

approach over and over again and expecting a different result the next time. If it hasn't worked in the past, it is very unlikely that it is going to work in the future.

Open your mind before you make up your mind.

Overweight people tend to “follow the herd” when it comes to trying to come to grips with their weight problem. They follow popular weight loss programmes or the latest fad diet.

Do you know of ANYONE who lost and maintained their weight loss for the rest of their lives using these methods?

You may be a bit hesitant when people start talking about weight loss and you may feel that you've tried everything. You haven't tried everything.

Foreword

Your diet should be person-centered (YOU- centered) as opposed to programme-centered. People try to squeeze themselves into “a programme” and that is not going to last.

“The way you lose it is the way you keep it off” is the wisest statement in weight management. The question you should ask yourself is, “am I happy doing what I am doing for the rest of my life in my weight management journey?” If you are not prepared to do it long-term, it is not a lifestyle change, it is just a temporary deviation in your life.

(What you are doing means such things as following a “certain diet”, exercise schedule, attending a weight loss group each week, etc – what you are doing must be sustainable).

If the answer to the question is no, then don't start it, don't do the programme. When it comes to living in a body without excess fat you should see what you are doing today as another step to the way you want your body to be next year, five years from now, ten years from now.

The biggest mistake that overweight people make in starting a weight management journey is focusing on short-term weight loss results – they want to be successful in the short-term – “lost Xlbs this week”.

Successful weight loss comes from new lifestyle changes (habits) you implement in your life.

The 6 SUCCESS PRINCIPLES to lose weight .... and keep it off

1. AVOID the “dieting” mindset

PROVEN FACT. “Dieting” is WORSE for the long-term accumulation of fat on the body for 19 out of 20 dieters than if they had done nothing at all.

“Dieting” means deprivation for the body and in the mind, this is unhealthy for both.

Firstly, weight loss programmes can cause people to start very irrational behaviour towards eating. For instance, someone can starve themselves before a weigh-in day to make the weight and then go to McDonald's on the way home to reward themselves for the successful weigh-in.

It is well documented how younger women can purge their food to make their target at weigh-in. This behaviour can lead to a serious problem with bulimia.

Secondly, food can take over one's life, constantly thinking about food and one's weight, feeling deprived/miserable and feeling guilty when “breaking the rules”.

You are not “doing well” on a weight loss programme if the above applies. This shows why

people finally throw in the towel on the weight loss programme, nobody can live like this forever.

An unhealthy relationship with food comes in many forms. You could be at your healthy weight but in an unhealthy way both emotionally and health-wise.

Someone could be starving themselves, not eating when they are hungry, then binging on junk food and doing excessive exercise. So, you don't have to be overweight to have an unhealthy relationship with food.

When someone decides to “lose weight”, it is important that they ask themselves this important question “is my approach to losing weight creating a healthy relationship with food?”It must be effective, sustainable and healthy for your mind and body.

“Dieting” causes a massive distortion int a person's thinking. When your focus is on “weight loss” you start doing and thinking czazy things.

This is a common example. Someone has lost a few stone but is making no further progress, so they go back to junk food and pile the weight back on.

If you ask the person how they feel on their junk food diet they say that they feel awful, no energy,

etc. If you ask them how they felt when eating well they will tell you how good they felt.

Why did they go from feeling well when eating well to feeling awful on a junk food diet?

BECAUSE THEY WERE NOT LOSING WEIGHT AND SAID WHAT WAS THE POINT

So, now they are a few stone heavier again and feeling awful due to unhealthy eating. If there was logic in that decision I just can't find it.

One concern I have about people attending weight loss programmes is that weight loss can be driven by GUILT and SHAME (which can drive you to crave food to escape from the feelings of guilt and shame).

The ONLY time we should feel guilt and shame is when we have transgressed society's laws and done something wrong to hurt someone else, NOT when we have eaten a bar of chocolate when we are bored. Guilt and shame should play no part in our effort to create a healthy relationship with food.

2. WILLPOWER does not work

The BIG drawback of going it alone and slimming groups is that the resistance in the emotional mind is not addressed. There is no subconscious change.

You are relying on WILLPOWER, that is enhanced through the dynamics of the group, to keep up the struggle with your subconscious mind. WILLPOWER can be described as the conscious effort to do the opposite of what your subconscious mind wants.

Nobody has a willpower problem, the forces working against your willpower is the problem. Unless you address the thinking and emotional forces, it is only a matter of time before you cave in and go back to square one.

Think of this like tug-o-war. You (with your healthy eating and slim body goals) are on one end of the rope and the emotional forces are on the other end. You are no match. You join a slimming group and they assist you on your end of the rope.

Now you are winning the battle for a while with the help of the slimming group (you could lose a lot of weight) but as time goes on your willpower is draining and the opposite team has even more energy (it is angrier as it is not getting the junk food) and you are beaten again. (Think of your willpower as a muscle, the more you use it the more tired it gets). You regain the weight and you give it another go. Then, history repeats itself.

As I said, the forces working against you are the problem and these can change.

You MUST change subconsciously

Advertising and modern culture have conditioned you to think in a particular way about food. It has caused you to have developed a destructive relationship with food.

MINDSET is the difference between success and failure in the long-term. There is no other weight loss programme that I am aware of that deals so comprehensively with mindset transformation as you find in my Weight Loss Motivation Programme”. This is where other weight loss programmes are limited and the MAIN reason why people fail to maintain weight loss.

What I discovered back in the nineties when doing my research on those who successfully manage their weight is that a major shift happens in those people, they direct the focus away from their weight and “dieting” and onto self-care. Care for the body in healthy eating, exercise, and hydration AND mind care. The change in mindset was the driving force in their success.

Ego motivation

This is the motivation that drives a large percentage of overweight people to lose weight. You hear overweight people say that they “are depressed” about their weight, they won't fit into their clothes, they may be so embarrassed that

they won't socialise due to their weight etc.

This is the weakest motivation. This can get someone to lose weight initially but the person tends to lose motivation over time.

Slimming groups can enhance ego motivation, people feel good being appreciated for having lost weight, fear the embarrassment of not losing weight, etc, This is very superficial motivation and is not going to last. Reward stickers, fear, or embarrassment will only take you so long when it comes to motivation to lose weight.

Also, when someone has lost a lot of weight there is not the same level of emotional pain anymore , they are not as embarrassed by their weight and the motivation fades

When you join a new weight loss programme there is an expectation that this is the one that is going to work. There is an initial “honeymoon” period where it looks so easy and straight forward. There is a super-imposed belief that keeps you going but this belief is incongruous with you deeper held beliefs and it will eventually fade.

VALUE driven motivation takes motivation to a higher level – this is the motivation you NEED for successful weight loss long-term. You VALUE something and it takes on a significance that drives you every moment of every day.

What is your WHY?This the most important question when it comes to long-term motivation to maintain a healthy relationship with food. The way you see life drives your feelings and your behaviour.

Problematic eaters don't TRUST themselves to control their eating on the own, hence, they look outside of themselves for that control, they hand the control over to some diet or group to tell them what to do.

Joining a slimming group is a child-like regression. The person wants to please the provider, be held responsible and to be “good”. Going for the weigh-in is like having the “homework” done by having a “good result” on the scales. The person wants to “comply” with the rules.

The compliance is good, people say that they are doing wonderful, there is the initial sense that it is working. The problem is that compliance is like a coin that has two sides to it.

The flip side to the compliance coin is rebellion. People will comply initially but then get rebellious and go back to their old ways, even more so and become even worse than ever.

This compliance is illusory, it feels real while it is happening. The idea that it is going to last long-term is a false promise.

The alternative to this is to own choice. When you become empowered you can make the food choices that are right for you when you understand how to manage the nutritional needs of your body, see life in a new way and manage your “emotional landscape”.

I teach you in my “Weight Loss Motivation programme” how to change your thinking and develop this powerful and lasting VALUE motivation.

3. Fat loss NOT weight loss

The biggest problem people have is that they are focused on short-term weight loss and the scales. When they reach a plateau stage they say what is the point of the hard work and go from healthy eating to unhealthy eating again.

If a person is overweight, they don't have a weight problem, they have a FAT problem, a fat accumulation problem. So, the mirror and the measuring tape are what they need. Using a simple weighing scale that just gives overall weight is not a good idea.

Your overall weight consists of many elements, water is one of them. Some women can retain as much as 5lbs of water during their menstrual cycle.

What you need to know is what amount of FAT you carry. You need more muscle not less muscle. (Muscle on your body is your friend, excess fat on your body is your enemy)

Muscle is three times heavier than fat per square measurement. One could be exercising,

gaining muscle but losing fat and weigh the same on a weighing scales.

You could have two ladies the same in height each weighing 12 stone. One is a bodybuilder doing hours in the gym each day, the other having little muscle, The latter could look a few stones heavier than the other.

The main goal of the species is to survive. If you are starving your body of necessary nutrients you will reach a point where your body becomes alarmed for your survival and will over-ride your behaviour and can spiral your eating out of control . This is what “dieters” often term HITTING A WALL.

4. Understand your nutritional needs

Did you know that there are only three species on this planet that are overweight? They are cats, dogs and humans and they live in the same place.

When wild cats and dogs are in their natural habitat, they don't become overweight even though there is an abundance of food for them to eat.

All species (including humans) can naturally regulate their food intake in its natural form, not in a processed form.

The goal of “diets” is to get you to lose weight with total disregard for your health – it is a case of “the cure being worse than the problem”.

The big problem is that people put blind faith in “diets” of all kinds. Faith is believing in something without any logical evidence. The reason that you have the logical part in your brain is that you are SUPPOSED to use it – the moment you stop using reason and questioning things you are in big trouble.

WHY do you want to “lose weight” in the first place? Is it vanity that you don't want to look fat or are you concerned about your health? If you are trying to lose weight for health reasons why would you consume a diet that is going to damage your health?

Slimming groups want you to lose weight quickly and this is celebrated. This convinces you that their programme works! However, this is NOT a method for long-term success.

The amount of fat you have on your body long-term is a bit more complicated than calories in and calories out, the calories deficit concept is just a short-term change in your fat storage. The way you consume calories will influence your metabolism and will alter you set-weight in the long-run.

The reason WHY “dieting” is worse in the long-run than doing nothing at all is that your metabolism slows down and your set-weight

increases, your body becomes super-effective at storing fat.

The mantra with “dieting” is to eat less, in fact, the correct mantra is eat what your body NEEDS, this creates slimness and health in the long-run. Living in a slim, energetic, healthy body is not about starvation or deprivation but by eating SMARTER (of course, “fun food” can be a part of smarter eating).

There is a WHAT and WHEN that applies to eating that help shed fat off your body, control hunger and avoid sugar cravings. In general, people take the incorrect approach when trying to manage their weight.

Over 90% of overweight people consume calories that cause them to be overweight after 7.00 pm. While there is an emotional/habitual aspect to this there is also a physiological aspect to it, a drop in energy and sugar level due to the pattern of eating previously during the day. My e-book “The Slim Body diet” which comes FREE with my Weight Loss Motivation” programme will help you to understand and correct this.

5. Empowerment

Lasting success comes from a place of empowerment. There is a growing movement worldwide where women are revolting against

the “I am weak, I need support” concept .

Education is power and power leads to success. In general, the weight loss industry is based on the total opposite, creating a sense of dependency, weakness, misinformation, etc.

Everyone is strong beyond belief and is capable of doing wonderful things. The w eakness comes from a BELIEF one holds, and a lack of resourcefulness and SKILLS to succeed . What the mind believes, the mind achieves.

CHANGE not weight loss

With regards to creating a healthy relationship with food, the question is have YOU changed? Someone could have lost 8 stone but nothing has changed if the person leaves a weight loss programme and puts the weight back on again.

You have CHANGED when you can self-manage your relationship with food on an ongoing basis like someone who has no food issues and who is at their healthy weight long-term. The help that you have received so far has not succeeded in creating this CHANGE for you.

Empowerment is the foundation on which my programme in my “Weight Loss Motivation programme” is built. I KNOW that you can live in a body without excess fat, it is who you are. It is not YOU, had you been born one hundred years

ago you would not have been struggling with your weight back then.

The answer to your weight problem is not OUTSIDE of you in different “diets”, the answer is INSIDE of you. Overweight people keep chasing “diets” as though this new “diet” would be the answer. Your life will not change until YOU change.

Personal responsibility

Take PERSONAL responsibility for your weight management, don't hand it over to someone else. It will lead to a life of frustration regarding your weight and you will develop a “learned helplessness” – you are a “hopeless case”.

Think of the saying “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach hin HOW to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. This applies to weight management.

SUCCESSFUL slimmers become educated about how to manage their nutrition and their mindset. They don't become dependent on slimming groups, etc to tell you what to do.

Stop following “plans” and get knowledgeable about nutrition and diet management. I have coached people who have attended weight loss programmes for decades and know nothing about nutrition. They followed “plans” from the

various weight loss programmes and ended up totally confused about what to eat and not to eat.

While external accountability is a help, research shows that intrinsic motivation is necessary for long-term success, growth and self-empowerment.

The group support system does NOT work for long-term weight management ,

Slimming programmes have a “sinning” system of some kind called by different names depending on the programme. This being “good” and “bad” sets you up for failure. While you may be “successful” on the programme you feel cornered by the system, you feel deprived and eventually, you will crack.

6. Break the emotional link to food

This is the BIG one. 70% of problematic eating is emotional eating. If you are trying to lose weight on your own or if you have joined a slimming group this is a SUCCESS PRINCIPLE that you have not addressed. It is THE ONE that is most likely to lead to your eventual downfall.

Unless you can break the LINK you have subconsciously created between emotions and eating, all the diets in the world won't matter. You MUST learn how to develop non-food means of

moving you to a better emotional state.

There was no link between emotional states and eating in the generations gone by, they did not start eating when stressed, bored, etc, they had planned eating times. Present generations have been conditioned by marketing and the culture to “escape” from distressed states and “reward” themselves through the use of food.

You can avail of my expertise in emotional transformation in my e-book “Weight Loss Motivation” programme. This will be truly life-changing for you.

Question for you

Do the SUCCESS PRINCIPLES above look different from what constituted weight loss for you in the past? You now realise why you have failed and 5% of successful slimmers have succeeded.

Almost every weight loss programme and “diet” can help you lose weight in the short-term but you will only achieve long-term weight management success (AND do so healthily for your mind and body) through implementing the SUCCESS PRINCIPLES above.

If you keep doing what you always have been doing, you will get the results you always got.

The success principles MODEL what 40% of the population does who are not overweight. What 5% of previously overweight have done to become successful was to REPLICATE what people do who don't have a weight problem. This makes total sense, doesn't it?

I hope this e-book has helped enlighten you and take you in the right direction in finding a solution for your weight problem.

HERE is a link to my

“Weight Loss Motivation Programme”