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Subconscious Diet

12 July 2007 211 views No Comment

Hugh Sanders believes you can think your way to a great body. Forget the fad diets. They don’t work because they neglect the single biggest controlling factor for our eating habits; the subconscious.

Enter Sanders’ first book, “The Subconscious Diet: It’s not what you put in your mouth; it is what you put in your mind!”

Part self-help, part motivational speech, part psychotherapy, the book leads readers on a tour of their random thoughts in search of long-forgotten hurts and grudges that unconsciously spur them to eat when they’re not hungry.

“I’ve been a sales trainer and success trainer for 30 years,” said Sanders, an Azusa resident originally from Tulsa, Okla. “And when I dealt with people who were overweight, I found a lot of people that otherwise could have been successful, seemed to be afraid because of their excess weight. They were tired and shy and many ended up out of the business for no other reason I could see but that they were afraid to be out front.”

Using his experience with self-help training, 65-year-old Sanders decided to approach dieting from a whole new perspective. For years he conducted motivational seminars and sales classes and wrote training manuals for such companies as American Airlines, Avis and Washington Mutual Bank. Over the years he concluded that the subconscious mind was one of the biggest blocks to success.

Sanders thinks weight-loss programs should be approached like any other success plan. Goals should be written down, positive affirmations recited, strategies mapped out and daily exercises completed.

“Because I’ve had trouble with diets myself, I began reading the literature out there and saw that everyone who didn’t have a diet book for sale wrote that diets don’t work,” Sanders said. “And the reason is because diets are restrictions and by definition temporary. Most people gain weight because of all the snacks, candy and sugar they eat not because they’re hungry, but to relieve stress and boredom.”

The book says diets fail because they miss two-thirds of the whole picture; the reason people over-eat in the first place. He said most psychologists agree that people overeat for emotional reasons.

“People must understand that our subconscious mind controls what we do,” Sanders said. “It has been proven for over 300 years of research and analyzing that it literally controls everything we do.”

Sanders describes the hazy void that is our subconscious as a place where thoughts, experiences, morals and values are filtered, and released as a hunch or feeling regarding what action we should take.

For that reason, thoughts are a significant focus of the book. According to Sanders, becoming aware of our thoughts is the first step toward recognizing the connection between our conscious and subconscious decisions.

Peppered throughout the book are pertinent quotes of wisdom from notable thinkers, both ancient and contemporary. Included are pearls from such luminaries as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Plato and this one from Gautama Buddha: “We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts we create the world.”

But Sanders wants people to know that he is not talking about hypnosis and he is not creating a religion. He uses such tools as guided imagery, positive affirmations and writing down thoughts and dreams in search of patterns.

“I have a section on analyzing your thoughts,” Sanders said. “What are the little random thoughts that come to you when you’re alone? Like, ‘Oh, he did me wrong,” or, ‘Gee, I’m fat,” or ‘I wonder what my blood pressure is.” Half of them you’ll throw out as random noise, but if you keep track of them for a week or two, you should be able to see a theme. Is the theme guilt? Revenge? Anger?

For example, if a person’s theme is anger at a past transgression, then Sanders suggests writing a “forgiveness’ letter (not to be sent). In addition, the person must create an affirmation — a new concept — that acts as an anecdote to the negative thought that dominates. Visualizing the goal is the last step.

“Affirmation is the thing, visualization is the creating of the thing,” Sanders said. “Some people call it guided imagery. But whatever you call it, if you can put together a little movie in your mind of what you want to have happen, it reinforces the affirmation.

“For example, if weight is the focus of your problem, then you visualize yourself at the weight and proportions you want to be.”

Sanders believes that emotions are also learned habits of the subconscious. Many people grow up hearing negative messages about themselves from parents, relatives or classmates and peers. Those messages stay with them forever, often assuaged temporarily by food.

“What makes you mad won’t necessarily make me mad,” Sanders said. “It’s what you’ve learned to be angry about. Changing is not the difficult part. Being aware of what you need to change is the difficult part. Every time you hear a negative message from either yourself or others, it’s as damaging as being around second hand smoke.”

Because food is usually associated with positive, comforting emotional memories, we grow up viewing food as a source of comfort, Sanders said. All holidays and celebrations involve food. Parents and friends alike often cook to show love or affection. As a result, food is frequently the first thing we reach for when we feel negative emotions.

“I’m not a diet consultant or a nutritionist,” said Sanders, who earned an associate’s degree in finance from Los Angeles Valley College. “But I think my book is a good companion book with a healthy diet. Understand the subconscious mind, put together the affirmations to make the changes, get rid of fear, hate and guilt, initialize your plan and you” ll have it.

“It can be tricky to figure out what’s in your subconscious mind, but I always remember what the author of ‘The Power of Intention,” Wayne Dyer, said: “The darkest room can be lightened with one candle and it doesn’t matter how long it’s been dark.”

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