Eating Vegetables: Hypnosis for a Healthy Diet

Have you ever seen that television show where some people just never ate vegetables? And did you feel like there was something recognizable in that? Do you also want to change it or just help others, like your children, to eat more vegetables? Then in this article I will go over ways you can make sure you do eat vegetables yourself and with a little help.

If you already have to gag from touching vegetables, it's your subconscious telling your body to react this way. After all, vegetables are healthy and it makes no sense at all that they would cause you to react this way. So your subconscious is actually sending the wrong signal to your body when you touch or eat vegetables.

The beauty of hypnosis is that it gives your brain the power to tell your body how to respond to certain actions, such as eating vegetables. In the process, it changes the signals the body gives to your brain.

The goal of modern hypnotherapy is therefore to help patients tap into the potential that lies within their subconscious. That’s why it’s possible to learn new behaviors by giving more power to the influence your subconscious has over your body.

Learning to eat vegetables

It may be that you didn’t have the best cook growing up or later in life, which is why you now find vegetables unappetizing and have a hard time making them taste good. Maybe vegetables always seem too bitter to you. As a vegetable eater myself, I can tell you that vegetables don’t always have to be bitter. Vegetables can also be juicy and sweet— just like fruit, really.

To ensure your body no longer reacts by gagging or even panicking , hypnosis can guide your subconscious to respond differently to vegetables than it did before. This can be achieved, for example, through suggestions that cast vegetables in a positive light.

One suggestion might be:

"The nutrients from vegetables take care of every cell in my body and make me stronger physically and mentally."

"Vegetables are the healthy version of candy."

Depending on your beliefs about vegetables, the hypnotherapist can tailor the suggestions so that they specifically address your vegetable phobia, if you have one.

If you are especially struggling to leave unhealthy snack foods behind and therefore want to eat vegetables then you can also use other suggestions.

A suggestion if you want to learn to snack on vegetables instead of cookies or chips when you have a craving is, for example:

"When you're hungry go eat vegetables."

In a study on weight loss with hypnosis, “covert modeling” was used to encourage participants to actually engage in the healthy behaviors. Covert modeling is actually a fancy English term for visualization. The idea behind it is that visualizing a behavior increases the likelihood that this behavior will actually be carried out. In the study, participants actually lost weight because they found it easier to choose healthy foods over junk food.

Covert modeling is used in neuro-linguistic programming and cognitive behavioral therapy in addition to hypnotherapy.

Unfortunately, these results were only obtained for the short term, and that may have to do with the fact that the subjects studied did not have to apply self-hypnosis. Self-hypnosis is important to enhance the effects of hypnotherapy and in some cases to maintain the effect. You can be given self-hypnosis techniques by your hypnotherapist aimed at your problems eating vegetables.

Vegetable eating children

Getting your children to eat vegetables can be quite a struggle. Fortunately, children are still incredibly receptive to hypnosis—though I’m referring to children who are past the toddler stage. For younger children, the book *Healing Stories* by Paul Liekens can also be extremely helpful.

Through hypnosis, you can help children look at vegetables in a different way. Popeye has already been used to show that spinach makes you strong and always wins the girl (even if you don't necessarily want to at that age). You can also use hypnosis to find out why your child has trouble eating vegetables and thus do something against that belief.

A friend of mine hadn’t liked oranges for a very long time because she once ended up in the hospital for kidney surgery. While recovering, she was in the pediatric ward where a nurse wanted to give her an orange. At that moment, another girl threw up after eating an orange, so she decided that oranges weren’t good for you and didn’t eat one for years. That belief was based on a specific moment while she was surrounded by other children who were also recovering from surgery. That’s why you can sometimes react strangely to certain foods, even though you normally wouldn’t. Hypnosis can help determine whether your child has experienced something similar—for example, at school—and whether that’s why he or she refuses to eat vegetables.

In addition, children are also much more amenable to suggestions.

Other practical tips for learning to eat vegetables

Of course, hypnosis already helps you quite a bit, but learning to eat vegetables can also be made palatable in other ways. That's why I have a few more tips for yourself and for your children.

Let your child pick the vegetables at the supermarket.

Children are more likely to eat their vegetables if they’ve chosen them themselves. You can also involve them in cooking so they can “taste” their “homemade food” afterward. You can also buy several types of vegetables yourself and let them choose. Adding fruits they already like makes it a lot easier.

Make vegetables irresistible

Who says you can only cook vegetables? Baked vegetables are often much more flavorful. In doing so, you can also season them more easily. For example, use delicious olive oil with lemon juice and try different spices to find out what you really like them with.

You can also put sauces over vegetables. I sometimes eat bell bell pepper strips with mayonnaise as a snack, then I still had more vegetables than if I had chips with dipping sauce as a snack.

Give your child a veto

Above all, don't make a fight out of eating vegetables, but give them the choice. Some kids need to have seen new vegetables as many as 12 times before they try them, and they need to see you eating it too, so they can be sure it won't kill them 😉 . So persistence wins, but that can sometimes take a while if you don't want to eat the same vegetable 12 days in a row. So twelve weeks is more realistic.

Eat a smoothie

Smoothies are the health trend for eating enough vegetables now. Thereby, the advantage is also that it is tasty and easy. So throw some vegetables in the blender, add some water, yogurt and a banana and you've had your vegetable shot.

Make it easy

You can already buy many ready-made snack vegetables, such as a bag of carrots that have already been washed. Make sure that's the first thing you see when you pull open the refrigerator for a snack.

In short

Not being able to eat vegetables is very annoying. The cause usually lies in the subconscious mind. There was once a moment when you did not want or dare to eat vegetables and from then on something went wrong.

With hypnosis, you can help your brain direct your body's reactions. This is because hypnosis works on your subconscious that has more influence on signals to the body. Signals by the body are therefore reflected correctly.

By then applying self-hypnosis, you reinforce therapy.

Children can also use hypnosis to eat vegetables again, but it is not yet recommended for small children.

In addition, you can also help yourself by making vegetables more appealing through preparation. For example, you can serve herbs and sauce with them or make them into a smoothie. Involving your child in the choice and possibly the preparation of the food increases the chances that he/she will want to try new vegetables.

Would you like to learn more about hypnosis and self-hypnosis? Then check out the courses and events offered by the Hypnosis Institute of the Netherlands.

Also pin this handy infographic as a reminder:

Sources:

www.fairmountassociates.com/articles/The-Possibilities-in-Hypnosis.pdf

www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00207148108409156

www.webmd.com/diet/eat-your-vegetables-15-tips-for-veggie-haters?page=2