A body like this? No sweat. Just discover the power of positive shrinking After years of cutting calories and pounding the pavements, experts have decided that our weight-loss problems are not in our fridges after all, but in our heads. The solution, apparently, is to think ourselves thin. Sara Regan gave it a try [Eire Region]

• Published in: Mail on Sunday
• Main Author: Regan, Sara
• Format: Newspaper Article
• Language: English
• Published: London (UK) Solo Syndication, a division of Associated Newspapers Ltd 01.11.2009

Even that doesn't get my heart rate up any more because, thanks to two children under three, I have a sudden desire to pretend I'm unconscious the minute my husband enters the bedroom. It's not that I haven't tried exercise. I used to join new gyms the moment they opened. I'd happily hand over a EUR 700 joining fee, go once, then enter the building again six months later only to pick up the trainers I'd left in my locker. So you'll understand that, at the age of 30, I'm never going to get fit if left to my own devices. [Gloria] starts off my session by asking what I want to achieve. I mumble something about having a body like Elle Macpherson. She then goes on to tell me that you can't hypnotise people to do something they don't want to do; the idea is to make me want to do it. Apparently, everybody has 'subconscious saboteurs' and, once mine have been identified, nothing will come between me and what I want to achieve. In other words, all my usual excuses -- 'I'm too tired', 'I don't have enough time', 'I've got nothing to wear' -- are really my subconscious telling me not to exercise. Gloria, hopefully, is going to reprogramme my mind with these new beliefs: 'Exercise is fun' and 'exercise will make me happy'. Next, we talk about why I've failed to stick to an exercise regime in the past. It helps people achieve their goals by teaching them to 'programme' their brains. NLP argues that we are all given brains but no 'user manual'. NLP claims to give you the so-called manual for the brain. Its practical techniques revolve around close attention to the structure of language to make your unconscious 'map' work more effectively for you. Any behaviour can be changed, they believe, if it is broken down into sufficiently small pieces.