Most diets are games nobody could win. The rules are strict, the scoring is harsh, and a single slip counts as losing the whole thing. Play that kind of game for long enough and you start to believe you are a loser at it, when really the game was rigged. Most of us have played that game more times than we would like to admit.
In many of my sessions I use sport and games to rewrite the rules. The point is to make it fair. A fair game is one you want to keep playing, and keeping going is most of what matters.
Play against yourself
Golf is a useful example. In a friendly round you are not playing against the best golfer in the world. You are trying to beat your own last score. Weight loss feels very different when you measure yourself against an earlier version of you instead of a photo of someone else.
That shift turns every small improvement into a win. Eating lunch sitting down counts. Stopping when you are satisfied counts. Getting back on track after a bad evening counts most of all.
It also means choosing goals you can influence. You cannot control exactly what the scales say on a given morning. You can control what goes in your shopping basket, whether you go for a walk and how you speak to yourself. Those are the shots that count.
A lapse is not the whole match
In football, possession goes back and forth all game. Losing the ball is not losing the match. Food is similar. A big meal or a bad day is a moment of lost possession, and the skill is getting the ball back quickly.
Video games have levels for the same reason. Nobody starts on the final boss. You learn the basics, get a little better and move up. When the next step feels achievable, you keep playing. When it feels impossible, you put the controller down.
Good games also give you a sense of progress you can feel. Notice the small signs: sleeping better, more energy on the stairs, a craving that passed without a fight. Those are your level-ups.
Something to try: change the scoring
Tonight, before bed, score your day in a new way. Give yourself a point for each choice you are pleased with, however small, and a point for every time you recovered after a slip.
Leave out anything to do with the scales. Keep this up for a while and notice what happens to your mood and your choices when the game starts to feel winnable.
Some people like to keep a running total for the month.
- A point for each choice you are pleased with
- A point for getting back on track
- No points taken away
Episodes to listen to
All three sessions use game ideas, but each borrows from a different one. Choose the sport or game that means most to you.
Winning the Game of Weight Loss
On an imagined mountain golf course, you watch two versions of yourself play out over many years: one who always feels behind, and one who only compares with their own past and counts progress as a win. You choose which one to become, then take one small step straight away.
Good if you are always measuring yourself against other people.
Making the Weight Loss Game Winnable
This session layers a few sporting images: drifting out of a motorway lane and calmly steering back, possession swinging during a football match, and getting up after a knockdown in boxing. Each makes the same point, that a lapse is temporary and a quick recovery is a success in itself.
Good if a lapse tends to feel like the end of the game.
Hypnosis to Win the Game of Weight Loss to Be Lean and Mean
Here weight loss becomes a role-playing game: you control a character whose daily choices shift, bit by bit, towards whole foods and more activity. A simple rule of three keeps the plan easy to hold in mind, and each choice opens or closes paths towards the version of you that you want to become.
Good if you grew up on video games and like a clear quest.
Common questions
Why do I always give up on diets?
Many diets are built so that one slip feels like failure, which makes giving up feel logical. Strict rules are also hard to keep when life gets busy. A fairer approach, where progress and recovery both count, tends to be easier to stick with.
What is the best mindset for weight loss?
There is no single right mindset, but many people do better when they compare themselves only with their past selves and treat setbacks as part of the game. Small, repeatable choices tend to matter more than big bursts of effort. The aim is a process you can keep playing.
How do I get back on track after a bad day of eating?
Treat it like losing possession in a match: annoying, but not the end. Make your next choice a good one, without trying to make up for the day by cutting back hard. Many people find a quick, calm recovery matters more than avoiding every slip.
Please read
Hypnosis works with habits, feelings and attention. It is not medical treatment and does not replace your GP. If you have, or think you may have, an eating disorder, or you are pregnant, diabetic or taking weight-loss medicine, please speak to your GP first. Beat, the UK eating disorder charity, is on 0808 801 0677. The podcast sessions are for adults: listen somewhere comfortable, never while driving.
Where to go from here
Listen on The Hypnotist Podcast
Every session above is free to hear on The Hypnotist Podcast, along with more than 200 other weight and eating episodes.
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More on this topic: whether hypnosis works for weight loss.