Despite the popularity of the Atkins Diet, it is often greatly misunderstood! Popular, if slightly exaggerated, depictions of the program portray dieters eating nothing but giant portions of meat and fat. Although the diet is not quite that simple, many dieters following the program have successfully lost weight and improved their health.
On this plan, dieters follow a highly specific program based on restricted carbohydrate intake. Emphasis is placed on the nutritional aspects of the diet over exercise and other factors, although exercise is encouraged. There are four stages to the Atkins program:
This early phase is intended to help the body go from burning carbohydrates for energy, as it usually does, into burning stored fat (a process known as ketosis). Most dieters begin to lose pounds during this phase.
Pre-maintenance: Dieters use this stage to find out the maximum number of carbohydrates they can ingest without experiencing weight gain. During this stage, dieters increase carbohydrate intake by 10 grams a week. Once dieters reach their target weight and can maintain it for a month, they move into the Lifetime Maintenance phase.
For lasting results, the Atkins program is designed to be maintained throughout the dieter's life. Using the techniques that helped the dieter reach their goal weight, the dieter maintains an eating and exercise program to stay at their target weight. Individuals can revert to previous stages if they ever begin to regain weight.
Dieters who can stay on the Atkins diet are often successful in losing weight; unfortunately, many people are unable to maintain the program and end up quitting early in the difficult induction phase. In general, most diets fail because dieters cannot stay committed to the plan.
Many people struggle to stay on diets because they experience strong food cravings, have problems with compulsive overeating, can't control their appetites, or simply do not feel motivated to lose weight. Getting over these mental obstacles is the hardest part of losing weight.
One reason why many people cannot seem to control their eating is because they are emotional eaters. Such people eat in response to their feelings, such as when they are sad or angry. However, this eating style programs a “conditioned response” into the unconscious mind. This means that when individuals experience the same feelings that made them overeat initially, they will feel compelled to overeat again.
Hypnotherapy works by helping our unconscious minds disassociate our emotions from our eating habits. To eliminate the conditioned response to overeat, a hypnosis weight loss program is used to break the link in the unconscious mind between overeating and specific “trigger” situations.
For example, if you tend to overeat when you get bored, hypnosis can disassociate boredom from eating in your unconscious mind. Hypnosis techniques can then be used to replace the compulsion to overeat with another activity, such as exercising. That way, the next time you experience boredom, instead of overeating, you will feel motivated to exercise, resulting in natural weight loss.
Hypnosis is an effective stress relieving tool as well, helping us cope with our stressful emotions and relieve tension without eating. As a relaxation tool, it calms the mind, helps you use new strategies to manage stress, and boosts your self-confidence to motivate you to lose weight.
Hypnosis can also be used to end the emotional stressors that keep you from losing weight. Many overweight people hide behind their weight for emotional protection. For example, after a painful end to a relationship, people often find themselves becoming overweight, so they can avoid new relationships and avoid having to endure emotional pain again. Through hypnosis, we can turn our negative thoughts into positive ones and focus on having better health instead of becoming overwhelmed by our emotions.
Not only is hypnotherapy an ideal motivation tool, it relieves tension, eliminates the conditioned responses that cause overeating, and can help you overcome the mental obstacles that prevent weight loss. Hypnotherapy for weight loss is tremendously effective at helping people stay a dieting plan, such as the Atkins diet plan, and naturally lose weight.
The Atkins diet principles lay the foundation for a healthy, more balanced way of eating than the standard American diet. Its emphasis is on using good carbohydrates in balance with adequate protein. This is in stark contrast to what most Americans eat daily. The average American eats many processed foods that have hidden sugars and highly processed carbohydrates.
This has put most Americans on the road to diabetes and pre-diabetic conditions. What is sad is that diabetes has a predictable set of stages and that they can be easily recognized. The road to diabetes has to do with something called the glycemic index. All carbohydrates are rated on this index regarding the level of insulin reaction they produce. Foods that have a high glycemic index rating will cause your pancreas to release a lot of insulin to break down the number of sugars and carbohydrates (which produce high amounts of glucose).
The refined carbohydrates and sugars that constitute the vast majority of the American diet rank very high on the glycemic index. We can more readily digest these foods as children because our bodies function more efficiently in our youth. There may have been side effects, like weight gain and mood swings, but they didn’t stand out. As we age, however, these symptoms begin to grow and become more prevalent.
The nationwide obesity epidemic is a result of high-carbohydrate diets and unstable blood sugar levels. Many people who are overweight are also insulin resistant. Insulin resistance means that the insulin is not doing its job in removing glucose from the blood stream. The pancreas gets over worked, and it releases massive amounts of insulin, sometimes 20 times more than the body actually needs.
This results in the blood sugar dropping to extremely low levels. This sets off a chain reaction in the body that leads to a release of adrenaline to correct the blood sugar problem. With age, blood sugar and insulin difficulties become more aggravated. The condition is called “hyperinsulinism” and is a precursor for type II diabetes. It is normally accompanied by high blood pressure and high triglycerides.
After years of using a high-carbohydrate diet, you will finally become fully diabetic. Insulin is the body’s primary fat creator, and extra pounds usually accompany late onset diabetes. Pre-diabetic conditions, if not treated effectively, will lead to diabetes indefinitely. However, there are easily identifiable warning signs to diabetes that appear early. Your family doctor can perform insulin level tests that will let you know if you are at risk for pre-diabetic conditions, and studies show that low-carb diets like Atkins can help.
Controlling your blood sugar is one of the most effective methods to controlling pre-diabetic conditions. The Atkins diet helps effectively control blood sugar. The combination of proteins, fats and good carbohydrates will keep your body satisfied without the roller coaster Effie.
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