REDUCING WEIGHT PERMANENTLY
By Edward F. Pio

This 2 CD 6-week course is about reducing your volume of stress, setting goals, and creating the body that you desire. Sensory imagery helps in changing your metabolism as well as setting the goal. This program is not about losing pounds but creating a new body, one that you desire and one that is permanent. You may begin this Mini-Course after completion of The Self-Hypnosis Course™.
One of the most important skills that you have learned in The Self-Hypnosis Course™ is balancing your stress on a daily basis by doing a minimum of 30 minutes of self-hypnosis; two 30-minute exercises would be even better. Remember that a 30-minute session, when you are in alpha and theta for most of the session, gives you the equivalent rest of 8 hours of quality sleep. And it’s rest that allows the mind and body to heal as well as reduce the strength of any habits or addictions.

NEEDS 8 HOURS OF QUALITY SLEEP DAILY

The average person between the ages of 20 and 80 needs a minimum of 8 hours of quality sleep every 24 hours to balance the physical and mental stress generated in the other 16 hours. Unfortunately only a small part of the mental stress generated in the same 24-hour period is balanced in sleep. There is no question that doing the self-hypnosis process on a daily basis will not only balance stress generated in the previous 16 to 20 hours but also each time, a small amount of stored stress will be balanced.
All of the physical and mental stress that isn’t balanced in a 24-hour period is stored in the cells in your body and affects their operation. In the first lecture of The Self-Hypnosis Course™ there is an example of a reservoir or lake with a spillway at one end representing stored stress in your body. When the reservoir or lake is full and fluid is running over the spillway, your immune system and every system in your body is affected.
In this scenario, if there’s an inch of fluid flowing over the spillway, the immune system may be detuned enough to allow a small infection to take hold in your body, such as a cold of flu. If there is continuous flow over the spillway for many years, arthritis, hypertension - high blood pressure- and other immune system diseases will develop. With many years of fluid flowing at various levels over the spillway, if then there is a tidal wave over the spillway for a three to six month period, cancer and other life-threatening diseases can develop. A tidal wave can be caused by the death of a close relative, loss of a long-held job, divorce, being diagnosed with cancer or any personal event that leads one into great grief and depression for a long period of time.

KEEPING THE RESERVOIR AT A LOW LEVEL

If the reservoir is below the spillway level and a tidal wave comes, the result will be a short-lived overflow and quickly returning to normal. This is certainly one very good reason for keeping the reservoir at a low level all the time.
In this program you will be doing sensory imaging that is designed to cause changes in your metabolism. The single biggest change that you can cause in your metabolism is to lower the stored stress in your body and create a relaxation response. There is not much that can be done, even with sensory imaging, if your lake of stored stress is constantly overflowing.
Most weight reduction programs focus on what you eat and an exercise routine. My program focuses on balancing stress, goal setting and the rate of your metabolism. What you eat and your daily exercise is very important for a healthy body but secondary to balancing stress and goal setting. Whether you are 20 pounds overweight or 100 plus pounds, and you want to create a new body, you first need to balance your stress.

OTHER DIETS

You might be thinking, why do other supposedly successful diet or weight reduction programs spend so little time talking about stress reduction? I think that it’s because they don’t have an effective stress reduction tool like self-hypnosis or a meditation to offer. In most diet programs there are mentions of stress reduction techniques like deep breathing, yoga and meditation but few details. Many programs offer exercise as a suggested way to balance stress. Exercise has many benefits in maintaining a healthy body but stress reduction is not one of them. Physical exercise actually produces more stress in the body. Fortunately, this kind of stress is balanced with quality sleep and the exercise actually helps produce quality sleep. But how does sleep affect your mental stress?

SLEEP DOESN’T DO THE JOB

In the The Self-Hypnosis Course™ lecture 1, I told you that sleep is a poor tool for reducing mental stress. Mental stress is balanced best while you are in an altered state of consciousness. It really doesn’t make any difference what process you use to attain the altered state; self-hypnosis, meditation, reading a good book, watching a boring TV show or even daydreaming. What is important is that you spend at least 30 minutes every 24 hours in a planned altered state of consciousness.
The studies done by Harvard’s Dr. Herbert Benson, which led to his best selling book, The Relaxation Response, were based on two 20-minute sessions each day. My weight reduction, immune system and chronic pain clients have reported miraculous results with one 30-minute session of self-hypnosis a day. You don’t have to do any particular programming while in the altered state to receive the balancing, just doing the session and staying deeply focused for at least 20 of the 30 minute exercise will accomplish the balancing and reduction of stress.

YOUR METABOLISM

Let’s talk about metabolism. I have heard people say, “my metabolism is so slow that I store fat when I drink a glass of water.” On the other hand there are people who can eat anything in huge amounts including sweets and never put on weight. Genetics is probably the major factor in determining this phenomenon and there’s not much that we can do about that. Your metabolism is a very complicated process that is affected by many things to do with your lifestyle. Most people think that food is the major factor but it may not be.
You can do a number of things that will affect your metabolism. Exercise on a regular basis. Eat three meals a day at regular times. Eat breakfast every day. Cut back on the amount of food that you eat at each of the three regular meals. No snacks between meals. If you must snack make it fruit or vegetables. Stop drinking soda including diet soda. Cut back on coffee. Drink plenty of water every day.

BALANCE STRESS

And probably the most important, as I have said earlier, is to balance stress on a daily basis and be sure that there is a minimum storage of stress; the lake again, is it overflowing or half full? If the lake is half full or less, you are ready to do sensory imaging for effecting changes in your metabolism. If it’s overflowing the spillway, you need to do more self-hypnosis sessions each day.
If you are balanced every day with a minimum amount of stress in storage, your eating habits will change automatically. Many of your eating habits are directly related to unbalanced stress. Eating a meal with complete awareness of what you’re doing is very important. Eating slowly and chewing slowly with complete awareness of every bite will help move you away from automatic eating. The automatic patterns are what can get you in trouble. Try to do nothing during a meal except maybe having a light conversation.
Watching TV or reading while eating, opens you to automatic eating.

POST-HYPNOTIC SUGGESTION

Post-hypnotic suggestions given during the hypnosis sessions in this program will help you eat with awareness and stop automatic or habit pattern eating.