Eat spaghetti bolognaise

  without feeling bad for days & Days

**An Encouraging Word, Vol. 13**

an occasional note from Jean Fain

 Harvard Medical School psychotherapist & hypnosis instructor

 Published September 8, 2007

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Read on if you’re interested in losing weight without the deprivation associated with dieting. Feel free to forward “An Encouraging Word” to a friend. If you didn’t receive this note directly from Jean Fain and you’d like to subscribe, send an email to the address above with the word “subscribe” in the subject field. If you’d rather not receive future announcements, send an email with the word “unsubscribe” in the subject field.

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Re-experiencing Twinkies…

In the uncomfortable aftermath of eating way too much, most people don’t want to think about their mindless eating, which is just eating on auto-pilot with little regard for hunger, taste, nutrition or satiety.  They want to get back to eating healthfully ASAP. It’s as American as beef jerky, this overriding desire to eat with more control, more care after a serious bout of mindless eating. And one that dieters bank on Monday morning and typically forget by Tuesday afternoon.

The very good news: you don’t have to overeat, and you don’t have to wait until Monday to get the beneficial rebound that happens after eating mindlessly. Just imagine eating mindlessly in hypnosis and experience the rebound effect that naturally occurs after overeating… without overeating, and without the uncomfortable aftermath, from bloat to weight gain.  As radical as it may sound, you can enjoy your favorite foods and maintain a healthy weight simply by turning your attention toward mindless eating, rather than away from it.

Having trouble swallowing this paradoxical eating strategy?  Most clients do until they try it. One binge-eating client was surprised to discover how remembering the experience of eating a box of Twinkies enabled her to eat with the control she naturally exerts the day after eating a box of Twinkies. Because remembering in trance typically feels more life-like, more powerful, than in normal consciousness, hypnotic subjects who revivify mindless eating experiences often find they are able to skip the mindless eating and ensuing shame, and go directly to eating more mindfully.

Kind of like the effect of watching the stomach-churning scene of an overstuffed diner take one more bite in the Monty Python classic, “The Meaning of Life.” Only better! (Don’t remember the scene, here’s the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDlSlwqNcmY.)  While the scene, a gross exaggeration of what most Americans experience 20 minutes after the Thanksgiving feast, suppresses the appetite momentarily, revivifying a recent mindless eating experience of your own will help you eat mindfully, more consistently, over time.    

My new free video, “Mindless Eating Trance,”  allows viewers everywhere to benefit from one of the very same trances I use in treating the range of eating issues, from yo-yo dieting to binge eating disorder. Got 10 minutes? Click here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yOaMzFsLk9M) to go back in time, back to a recent mindless eating experience.

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Coming Soon…

I know you’re busy, and 10 minutes might seem like more time than you’ve got to spare, but, if you’ve got half that, you can still gain control of your eating with my new “Mindful Eating Mini Trances.” Listen to suggestions from the best hypnotic weight-loss study, and take charge of your eating… in only five minutes a day! The CD should be available on CD Baby (www.cdbaby.com) any day now. Stay tuned!

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Hurry Up & Snack…

Clients always ask: which energy bar is snack-worthy [read: not a glorified candy bar]? While my motto is “real food” (unprocessed or minimally processed) is better than “fake food” (highly processed, preserved for eternity), I understand the need for a quick, portable energy boost on occasion.  The following snack bars, deemed nutritious by Walter Willett & Mollie Katzen, authors of “Eat, Drink and Weigh Less,” are probably better than most:

Pria Complete Nutrition Bar (all flavors)

Pria CarbSELECT (all flavors)

LUNA (all flavors)

Kashi GOLEAN Crunchy Bar

Kashi GOLEAN Rolls

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Food For Thought…

“If you are what you eat, then it behooves you to know exactly what you are eating. Especially if you eat a lot of Polysorbate 60, Cellulose Gum and Red No. 40.”

--Steve Ettlinger, Twinkie, Deconstructed

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In addition to seeing clients in private practice, Jean Fain teaches hypnosis at Cambridge Health Alliance, a teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School, and she writes for O, The Oprah Magazine, among other women's magazines. More information about Jean Fain’s services and weight-loss CDs is available on her website (www.jeanfain.com).

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(Click the Newsletter link below to read other volumes of "An Encouraging Word.")

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