A diet is a set of rules handed to you from outside. You follow them for as long as you can bear it, then you stop, and often you end up further back than where you started. It is a bit like snakes and ladders: a climb, a slide, and back to the bottom of the board.
Standards work differently. They are about who you are, not what you are allowed. You already have them in lots of areas of life. The question is why food so often gets left out.
You already have high standards
Think about the standards you hold at work, at home or with the people you love. You probably would not cut corners on your family’s safety, turn up to an important meeting unprepared or let your car run without oil. You do these things because they reflect who you are.
Food tends to sit outside that circle. Plenty of people who are careful and capable everywhere else will eat whatever is nearest when they are tired. Raising your standards means bringing the care you already show elsewhere to what goes on your plate. It is a skill you have. You are simply using it somewhere new.
When you skip a walk or reach for crisps, it can feel like proof that you lack willpower. More often it is a sign that food has never been given a place among the things you take seriously.
Choosing for the person you are becoming
A rule says no. A standard asks a different question: is this the kind of choice the person I want to be would make? Sometimes the answer is yes, and a slice of cake fits perfectly well. Often the answer points to something simpler and better quality.
Some people find it helps to think of the body as a temple, or as something valuable in their care. You would look after a beautiful building and keep it in good repair. Choices then become a way of looking after something that matters, rather than a test of willpower. And when you slip, the standard is still there in the morning. You fix the leak and carry on.
Standards also tend to rise in small steps. You do not need to overhaul everything at once. One better breakfast, a little more water, cooking one extra meal at home. Each step becomes the new normal, and the next one feels less of a stretch.
Something to try at the shops
Next time you are in a supermarket or deciding on a takeaway, pause for a moment before you choose. Ask yourself: does this match my standards, or only my mood?
There is no need to change the choice every time. Simply asking the question moves the decision from autopilot into your hands. Over time, the answers tend to start changing on their own.
Episodes to listen to
Raising standards is one of the themes I come back to most often. These five sessions each take it somewhere different, from a quiet beach to a mountain trail.
Raising Standards to Lose Weight Hypnosis
This session sets aside the idea that eating well has to be punishing and compares dieting to a game of snakes and ladders. You picture a future self with higher self-esteem as a fixed point your unconscious can steer towards, and learn to treat inner resistance as a test of resolve.
Good if you are tired of the diet, relapse, diet cycle.
Raising Standards to Lose Weight Hypnosis
This second session with the same title is my longest take on this theme, set on a quiet beach and under the water. You contrast low and high standards, notice the high standards you already keep in other parts of life, then carry that discernment into food. Brief flashes of the future link different choices to where they lead.
Good if you have time for a long, deep session.
Hypnosis to Lose Weight: Raising Standards in Machu Picchu
Each stage of an imagined trek up to Machu Picchu brings a new step: more water, better quality food, slower eating and listening to hunger. The idea behind it is that old eating habits can be a form of self-protection, and that confidence and self-worth offer a better kind of safety.
Good if you suspect your eating is about feeling safe.
Weight Loss Hypnosis: My Body is a Temple
Your body becomes a grand temple, and each meal either repairs it or lets it slip into disrepair. Lapses are small leaks to fix rather than reasons to give up, and willpower is only really needed at the start, like getting a boulder rolling.
Good if you find a single slip usually knocks you off course.
Automatic Healthy Choices to Lose Weight
You explore the house of a successful, self-made businesswoman, including a kitchen full of tempting food. The session makes the case that your surroundings offer options but do not make decisions for you, and encourages lots of small healthy actions until they become automatic.
Good if you blame your kitchen or office for what you eat.
Common questions
How can I eat healthily without dieting?
Instead of following rules, decide what standard of food fits the person you want to be, and use that as your guide. You can still enjoy treats that meet your standards. Many people find this feels more natural than a strict plan.
What does raising your standards mean for weight loss?
It means treating food choices as an expression of who you are, in the same way you hold standards at work or at home. The focus moves from what you are allowed to what you choose. The aim is for good choices to feel like part of your identity.
Do I have to give up foods I love?
No. Raising your standards is about choosing food that is worth it, which can include foods you love. Many people find they enjoy their favourites more when they are a real choice rather than a habit.
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.
Is hypnosis right for you?
Take my free four minute suitability test. You get an honest answer about whether hypnotherapy is likely to help with your goals, and how.
Prefer to talk it through? Book a consultation call and use code SLIM at checkout for half price: £24.50 instead of £49 (or $29.50 outside the UK).
More on this topic: what I help with.