The Ornish Diet is an extremely low fat, all-vegetarian diet program. Correct application of the nutrition plan, exercise, and stress-management techniques of this diet program results in weight loss and noticeably improved health for most dieters. Although this diet requires much more dedication than a lot of other diet programs, and often requires major lifestyle changes for the dieter, studies have shown that it is good for both losing weight and reversing heart disease. With its focus on managing stress and choosing healthy foods, this diet is also an ideal candidate for use in conjunction with weight loss hypnotherapy.

The Ornish diet comes in two similar versions, a Preventative diet and a Reversal diet. The Preventative diet is excellent for people who want to lose weight and lower their chance of developing heart disease. It is also suitable for dieters trying to lower their cholesterol levels. The Reversal diet is designed for people already suffering from heart disease who want to reverse the effects of the condition and lower their risk for heart attacks.

Both forms of the Ornish program recommend a nutritional approach that is composed of 10% fat, 20% protein, and 70% complex carbohydrates. Under the plan, all meat, fish, and poultry are to be avoided. All nuts, oils, seeds, and fats are also not allowed. Refined carbohydrate foods such as white flour and white rice are also not allowed, but whole grain bread and pasta, beans, and legumes are permitted.

Foods allowed in restricted portions include egg whites and fat free dairy products such as fat free milk, yogurt, and cheese. Most processed foods are not allowed, since any processed foods with more than 2 grams of fat per serving are not allowed.

The diet allows you to eat fruit, vegetables, whole grains, and beans at each meal until you feel full. The good thing about this plan is that since you are permitted to consume as much as you want of allowed foods, you can feel full and satisfied all the time. This plan, unlike many others, is not based around unhealthy "starvation" techniques.

Combined with the eating plan, another key aspect of the Ornish diet plan is stress-management. There are numerous stress-reducing techniques you can use, such as yoga, meditation, and hypnosis. Hypnotherapy is ideal for reducing anxiety and tension while supporting natural weight loss. Hypnotherapy works by guiding your unconscious mind to having positive thoughts instead of negative ones when you start to get anxious. These techniques are very effective in promoting relaxation.

While the Ornish diet program is healthy and effective for most people, it can be hard to follow because it has many restrictions. This diet and others like it often fail because dieters cannot stick to them. Many people struggle with dieting because they suffer from an uncontrollable appetite, irresistible cravings, compulsive overeating, or a lack of motivation to lose weight. These obstacles keep many hard-working dieters from maintaining their diet and achieving permanent success. Hypnosis helps you beat these obstacles, and is an excellent complement to the Ornish diet approach because it provides motivation to stick to a weight loss program.

Hypnosis works to control the appetite by "reprogramming" the unconscious mind to eliminate and replace bad habits with good ones. A lifetime of unhealthy eating habits such as "emotional eating" can cause people to eat compulsively, even when they are not hungry. Hypnotherapy breaks unhealthy associations with food and our emotions to stop this conditioned response and end emotional eating. Hypnotherapy can further influence dieting success by replacing the overeating response with another activity, such as exercise. This way, instead of having urges to overeat, you will feel motivated to engage in healthy physical activity.

Hypnosis can also be used to eliminate the emotional anxieties that keep you from losing weight. For many people, being overweight provides a "secondary gain" in the form of a feeling of safety or emotional protection. For example, many people with low self-esteem have a fear of people not liking them, so they use their weight as a reason to assume people will dislike them. Through hypnotherapy, we can have more positive thoughts and focus on having better health instead of becoming overwhelmed by such anxieties. We can use hypnotherapy to improve our self-esteem, placing more value on ourselves and our own health.

Hypnotherapy offers a strong, natural combination of stress relief, motivation, and behavior regulation to encourage weight loss and help you follow your diet of choice. Using hypnosis with the Ornish diet program is particularly effective, but hypnotherapy is excellent for helping people stay committed to any diet program. Hypnotherapy promotes the success of weight loss programs along with natural weight loss so dieters can enjoy long-lasting results.

Alan B. Densky, CH is certified by the NGH. Visit the hypnotherapy website for Free NLP videos, newsletters, and downloads. He offers several ways to lose weight, including hypnotism to lose weight DVDs and weight loss hypnosis CDs. http://www.neuro-vision.us/