The Ornish Diet is an extremely low fat, vegetarian diet plan. Proper use of the eating plan, exercise, and stress-management techniques of this diet program results in weight loss and noticeably improved health for most people. Although this program takes more dedication than a lot of other diets, and often requires major lifestyle changes for the dieter, studies have shown that it is good for both weight loss and reversing heart disease. With its focus on stress management and choosing healthy foods, this diet is also an ideal candidate for combined use with hypnotherapy.
The Ornish diet can be in one of two, slightly different formulations, a Reversal diet and a Preventative diet. The Reversal diet is formulated for people already suffering from heart disease who are looking to reverse the symptoms of the condition and lower their risk for heart attacks. The Preventative diet is perfect for people who need to shed pounds and lower their chance of developing heart disease. It is also a good plan for people looking to reduce their cholesterol levels.
Both versions of the Ornish plan recommend a diet plan that is composed of 10% fat, 20% protein, and 70% complex carbohydrates. Under the plan, all meat, fish, and poultry are to be avoided. All seeds, nuts, oils, and fats are also banned. Refined carbohydrate foods such as sugar and white flour are also not allowed, but whole grain bread and pasta, beans, and legumes are permitted.
Foods allowed in limited amounts include egg whites and fat free dairy products such as nonfat yogurt, milk, and cheese. Most processed foods are not permitted, since any prepackaged foods with over 2 grams of fat in one serving are banned.
The diet lets you to eat whole grains, vegetables, beans, and fruit at every meal until you feel full. The good thing about this diet plan is that since you are permitted to consume as much as you want of permitted foods, you can feel full and satisfied all the time. This diet plan, unlike many others, is not based around unsafe "starvation" methods.
Along with the diet plan, another key aspect of the Ornish plan is stress-management. There are numerous stress-reducing practices you can use, such as yoga, meditation, and hypnosis. Practicing hypnosis is ideal for reducing anxiety and tension while promoting natural weight loss. Hypnosis works by helping your unconscious mind focus on having positive thoughts instead of negative thoughts when you start to feel stressed. These techniques are extremely effective in promoting relaxation.
While the Ornish diet program is healthy and effective for most dieters, it can be challenging to follow because it has many restrictions. This diet and others like it often fail because people are unable to stay on them. Many people struggle with dieting because they suffer from an out-of-control appetite, irresistible cravings, compulsive overeating, or a simple lack of motivation to stick to a weight loss program. These obstacles keep many hard-working dieters from maintaining their diet and achieving long-term success. Hypnosis therapy helps you overcome these obstacles, and is an excellent complement to the Ornish diet plan because it provides motivation to stay on a weight loss plan.
Hypnosis works to control the appetite by "reprogramming" the unconscious mind to eliminate and replace bad habits with good ones. Years of unhealthy eating habits such as "emotional eating" can cause people to eat compulsively, even when they are not hungry. Hypnosis breaks unhealthy associations with food and our feelings to stop this conditioned response and end emotional eating. Hypnosis can further influence dieting success by replacing the overeating response with another activity, such as exercise. This way, instead of feeling the urge to overeat, you will feel motivated to exercise for your health.
Hypnosis can also be used to eliminate the emotional anxieties that keep you from losing weight. For many people, being overweight provides a "secondary gain" in the form of a sense of safety or emotional protection. For example, many people with low self-esteem fear rejection, so they use their extra weight as a reason to assume others will dislike them. Through hypnosis, we can have more positive thoughts and focus on improving our health instead of becoming overwhelmed by such anxieties. We can use hypnosis to boost our self-esteem, placing more value on ourselves and our own health.
Hypnosis offers a strong, natural combination of stress-management, motivation, and behavior modification to encourage weight loss and help you follow your diet plan of choice. Using hypnosis with the Ornish diet program is particularly effective, but hypnosis therapy is ideal for helping dieters stay on any diet plan. Hypnosis promotes the success of weight loss diet programs as well as natural weight loss so people can enjoy permanent results.
