A healthy relationship with food

I have recently been reading a great book called 'Have your cake and your skinny jeans too' by Josie Spinardi. Those of us who have read Paul McKenna's 'How to be thin' may well remember those 4 rules of getting and remaining slim:

- eat when you are hungry
- eat what you really, really want
- eat mindfully, enjoying every bite
- stop when you are full

This is all very well, but these rules go against the habits of a lifetime of dieting, and sometimes we need to know exactly how to do these 4 things, when all of our conditioning goes against them (particularly the first two). Josie Spinardi's book goes into the detail of how to do this from someone who has been there, and ultimately found it to be easy and truly liberating.

Having had a particularly busy (and quite stressful) time of it lately, I have been aware of wanting to get back to a simple, but healthy way of eating which involves listening to my body. What I have found is that following these guidelines (I prefer to call them this, rather than rules which are often there to be broken) I feel absolutely wonderful, and also surprising in that your body will tend to chose foods which may not seem to healthy, but it's important to realise that they are what YOUR body is asking for at a given time.

This really make sense to me. I have known for years and years that diets are not the way to go but sometimes, with all the hype and silliness out there about what we should or should not be doing, it is very easy to lose touch with what your body is telling you it really wants.

If you would like to find out more about how hypnosis can help you to establish a healthy relationship with food, do give me a call on 07817158429/01449780352, or you can email me on wendy@wendychalk.co.uk.

Warmest wishes,
Wendy x

Hypnosis for better quality sleep

We all know how rough we can feel after just one night's interrupted sleep. And even though insomnia is not really thought of as a 'disease' in itself, insufficient sleep is linked with several chronic diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity and depression.

Researchers have found that slow wave sleep (that's the deep sleep, as opposed to REM - rapid eye-movement sleep where we are dreaming) has a positive impact on memory and immune system function, and during this period of sleep, the body secretes growth hormones, promotes cell repair and improves brain plasticity. They have now found that hypnosis can specifically improve this type of sleep.

The researchers found that slow-wave sleep increased by 80% in women who responded well to hypnosis

Although patients with sleep conditions have been successfully treated with hypnotherapy in the past, the researchers say that until now, objectively measurable changes in sleep have not been proven.

In order to further investigate, the team conducted a study with 70 healthy young women who came to the sleep laboratory for a 90-minute nap during midday.

During their nap, the researchers objectively measured their sleep by recording electrical brain activity with an electroencephalogram (EEG). The team says slow-wave sleep is characterized by an even and slow oscillation in electrical activity in the brain.

Hypnosis yielded 80% more slow-wave sleep for those who respond to it.


All I have to go on is when my clients report back feeling 'calmer and just generally more rested, sleeping much better' but it's great to have solid evidence for this.

Sleep well,

Wendy x