You may be asking yourself “Why aren’t traditional diets – even nontraditional diets – working for me? Why can’t I keep the weight off once I lose it?” Through my experience as a certified hypnotherapist, I have found that the main reason why the diets have not helped you to create permanent weight loss changes is because you have not made a lifestyle change. Ok, so maybe you already understand that. Let me explain further. If a lifestyle change has not been made then your behaviors have not changed and if behaviors have not changed then your thoughts have not changed. If your thoughts have not changed then your perceptions and beliefs have not changed. Those perceptions and beliefs, I speak of, include beliefs about yourself, your body image, your self worth, and also the beliefs and perceptions about your relationship with food. The beliefs and perceptions related to the behaviors that are keeping you heavy can also be connected to a number of other issues: stress, anxiety, how you react to people, places and events around you, fears and phobias. Many of your perceptions/beliefs regarding these issues and others need to be changed on the fundamental level to create the behavioral changes necessary to eliminate the excess body fat.