Bear with me, this will probably sound stupid at first:

For all my life, I have had an exceedingly bad diet, at first it was just laziness, however over the years it has got very slowly better.

However, I have now reached a point where I just cannot continue eating the way I do. I'm not fat, but that is because I exercise. But I never eat fruit or veg in large quantities and I eat A LOT of junk food.

I have seriously tried to change my diet and I WANT to change my diet, but for some reason, and I now believe it is psychological, I just can't. Something is stopping me eating healthy things and I don't know what it is.

It is seriously starting to bother me, and the last straw came on Saturday when my mother was watching Jamie's School Dinners, and told me she'd been crying because she was so worried about the junk I eat.

I am now realistically considering trying hypnotism, maybe not to get them to change my diet, but to see if they can find out why i'm not able to eat healthily. I was just wondering if anybody has ever gone through a similar process, and can give me an idea of what it involves.

Can anyone also comment on my problem, even if you want to give me a good kick up the ar*e, it might be what I need.

I am starting to run out of ideas, and am becoming increasingly desperate.

maybe u need to speak to a pyschologist or something? counselling? first before hypnotism? maybe u have got it in yer head now that you CANT eat healthy so u will subconciously not? i beleive if you really desparately want something u can get it!!!

Hi Mars...... Ceri IS your woman on this - she highly rates Paul McKenna's books - but I cant remember the titles.......sorry :blush:

Just buy "I Can Make You Thin" by Paul McKenna on amazon.co.uk.

It really does work miracles and totally changes your attitude towards diet and exercise. I even gave up smoking after listening to it - and I hadn't intended to!! :D

I bought the Paul McKenna book after reading your previous posts about it Ceri - but it didn't work for me at all! I found the way the book was written very condescending, but decided to give it a go anyway - but it was no good for me at all! If anything I ended up thinking more about food than I did before so it had the opposite effect to what it was supposed to.

I do like the CD that comes with it though - very relaxing

Just buy "I Can Make You Thin" by Paul McKenna on amazon.co.uk.

It really does work miracles and totally changes your attitude towards diet and exercise. I even gave up smoking after listening to it - and I hadn't intended to!! :D

Well Mars i can't offer any construction advice (when can I ever?!) but I can say I think of you everytime I see those subliminal Mars bar adverts! So maybe you can blame them for your bad eating habits! They are slowly getting into your pyschie!!

I do like the CD that comes with it though - very relaxing


I didn't bother with the book, just used the CD. You have to listen to it every day for it to have any effect.

I have seriously tried to change my diet and I WANT to change my diet, but for some reason, and I now believe it is psychological, I just can't. Something is stopping me eating healthy things and I don't know what it is.

What happened when you tried to change your diet?

What kind of foods were you allowed to eat as a child? Was your diet pretty strict then? Were you not allowed to eat any junk food as a kid?

I only ask because two of my close friends both have problems with eating junk food too, that they have told me relates to them not being allowed to have any as a child. One friend was only allowed to eat organic foods and homemade style foods rather than anything processed or with lots of additives and such. She told me about how she would sneak to the gas station on the way home from school to buy these chocolate candies and eat them before she got home. The other friend talked about how exciting it was just to be allowed to have cereal from time to time.

This is the only experience I've had with the topic...not sure if it relates to you or not but it could be a possibility?

I didn't bother with the book, just used the CD. You have to listen to it every day for it to have any effect.

Sorry to hijack your thread Mars - it's a shame Voice isn't around, she'd be a great person to be able to advise you.

Ceri - when do you think is the best time to listen to the CD? I had tried it at bedtime, but it wakes me up when it finishes so I don't think that's such a good idea. I thought about setting my alarm half hour early and listening to it in bed before I get up - what do you think?

What happened when you tried to change your diet?

It's as if I panic when i try to eat something that would be good for me, which is absolutely pathewtic I know. Kind of like I am scared of healthy foods, which, although it seems irrational, is what I do. I am reluctant to try anything new, incase I don't like the taste.

What kind of foods were you allowed to eat as a child? Was your diet pretty strict then? Were you not allowed to eat any junk food as a kid?

No, when i was very young, (3,4,5) I ate relatively normally. Then I got rid of most traces of healthiness. My parents initially thought it was a phase so they just let me do it.However, i have never seemed to be able to leave it behind

Ceri - when do you think is the best time to listen to the CD? I had tried it at bedtime, but it wakes me up when it finishes so I don't think that's such a good idea. I thought about setting my alarm half hour early and listening to it in bed before I get up - what do you think?

That is definitely the best time Mink, as you will be relaxed when it starts. :D

Mars, my trouble was that I am an "all or nothing" person. I was either "on a diet" (in which case anything remotely tasty was banned) or "off diet" (in which case I would binge eat frantically in preparation for the starvation to come). If I slipped when I was "on a diet", I would immediately abandon the diet and consider that I had failed. I also experienced a feeling of being uncomfortable if the diet succeeded, as my mental image was of a "fat" me.

The Paul McKenna thing has changed all that - I have a positive self image and I find it easy to eat healthily most of the time. However if I really fancy something naughty, I will have it. :D

I am interested to read the comments about the Paul McKenna book. Like Mars, my diet currently consists of wall to wall junk food with hardly any "real" food. Unlike Mars, I am clinically obese. I know I should lose weight, and I have attended groups to help me overcome my eating disorder, yet I still find myself "unable" to eat healthily.

I recently got Paul McKenna's book out of the library, but as yet haven't read it. Perhaps I will give it a go tonight.

Mars, the main thing is that you actually DO want to eat a healthy diet. That must be the biggest step to actually making it.

I don't think there is much point in trying to analyse why you eat like you do though, because I doubt that there is any hidden psychological reason. Chances are, it is a mixture of bad education about food, long term habit which is hard to break and addiction to junk (research has proven that many of the ingredients in junk food are quite addictive). So, unless you want to use a hypnotherapist to help you change your diet, I don't see that there is much point in consulting one. Besides, what is the point in analysing why you eat like you do? You eat bad stuff, you know its going to harm you long term and you want to stop doing it. What else is there to know?

I think you'd be better off consulting a nutritionist or getting a good book on healthy eating and commiting to giving it a go for a month. Just 1 month? Its not a lifetime, and if you don't feel better at the end of it, you can always go back to the junk. Or alterntively, start by making small changes - promise to eat an apple a day. Or promise to make your own breakfast rather than buy it at McDonalds etc. and build up from there.

I read recently that a person can change the habits of a lifetime in approx. 3 weeks. That apparently, is how long it takes for old habits to be broken and new habits to be regarded as nromal behaviour by the brain.

Good luck whatever you do.

Mars, Allan Carr - The Stop Smoking Man - does a diet book. Reading his book stopped a 20 a day, 25 year habit overnight with no withdrawals. Quite incredible (actually 2 year ago today!!!) - I will say my only side effect is that I get drunk quicker than I used to!!! But this is a small price to pay as long as you have good friends to pick you up and put you on the train home.

What you need to do is change your frame of mind. Junk food is very tasty, but not very filling which is why you can eat so much of it. But what you need to be taught is that junk food is actually ok in moderation. But other food is sooooooooooooooo good.

Give Allan a go..worked wonders for me.

But this is a small price to pay as long as you have good friends to pick you up and put you on the train home.

Ain't that bloody small :laugh:

Ain't that bloody small :laugh:

I will always be greatfull.. :bye:

Portsmouth here we come.. :bag:

Just a quick thank you for everyone's comments. I'm gonna to try a lot of the things mentioned in the thread in the hope of improving things.

I'll let you know how it goes :thumbsup:

Good Luck Mars :hug:

I'm not fat................I never eat fruit or veg in large quantities and I eat A LOT of junk food.


.............. I have to hate you now, just briefly.

Don't make it the be all and end all to change the habit of a lifetime over night. (Is it really only 3 weeks Govinder Fan - wow) Mars, if you attach too much importance to it, it'll become a millstone round your neck. I'm sure there's some food you enjoy that's less 'junky' than others - have a bit more of that and bit less of the really bad stuff to start with if you can.

Good luck.

Just a little update for you all:

I had a hypnotherapy session with a very nice lady today. She took me through some exercises I could do to myself, and then put me in a state of relaxation, before talking to me for about 30 mins on stuff we had discussed previously.

It was a really strange experience, and I didn't feel normal when i was in a 'trance'. I'm going to see how it goes over the next few weeks before I decide whether it's been a success or not.