Gastric bands get in the news from time to time and they do seem like a wonderful solution to overweight. When they work well, they allow previously obese people to regain a more normal weight.

In order for them to work well, patients prepare themselves by changing their eating regime. They deal with any emotional problems that have caused inappropriate eating. And having resolved those issues, they are ready for the gastric band.

They are available on the National Health in certain circumstances, and they can be done in private clinics. If you are thinking about it, then a key issue is long-term after-care. These gastric bands can be the source of future problems, and so you need to have check-ups to be sure they are still working well. They are not guaranteed for a lifetime, they do fail. And the check-up will include checking you are continuing to follow your eating regime.

Many people who become obese and therefore interested in gastric bands are eating for comfort; using food as a way of coping with stress, dealing with boredom, or have got into bad habits of using food recreationally. Essentially using food as a drug to numb bad feelings or for fun. These uses of food need to have stopped before the gastric band is fitted. The point of the band is to make your stomach so small, the size of a golf ball, that you don't have room for unnecessary food. Patients who continue with their old eating habits suffer problems such as explosive diarrhoea. And indeed, the determined gastric band saboteur will swap the recommended small healthy meal with comforting chocolate, sweets and crisps, and so manage to cram in the calories without overfilling the new tiny stomach. So the desired weight loss doesn't happen, and the patient feels even more miserable than before.

So, even with a gastric band, the difficult emotions that triggered the overeating need to be resolved.  Just how intense such unresolved emotions can be is illustrated by the case of a patient, who, having undergone adjustable gastric banding had begun self-adjusting her band by deflating it on an almost daily basis to allow a binge and subsequently over-tightening it to prevent further eating during the rest of the day.

Thus, emotional or binge eating post-surgery can result in protracted vomiting, pouch dilatation, band dislocation, dumping syndrome and other problems that are, strictly speaking, not really a consequence of the surgery itself but rather that these patients have not resolved underlying psychological issues and have not developed alternate and constructive coping strategies.

If you are thinking about a gastric band, then most clinics recommend  cognitive behavioural therapy for emotional eating or binge-eating disorder prior to surgery, and continuing after surgery too, to ensure that you get the most benefit and the fewest problems with your band.

So, if you are thinking that a gastric band might help, come and see me to help with any underlying emotional issues and a move to an eating regime which will prepare you for a successful gastric band.

Food is essential for life but also a source of tremendous pleasure. We use it to celebrate friendship and family, and if we are lucky, there will be many occasions every year to enjoy eating with lots of other people. Celebration is a very positive and important role for food. Overeating at special events is nothing to worry about. However, food is so accessible, so cheap and some is advertised so heavily that there is a lot of pressure for us to overeat every day.

Eating with friends is something to enjoy. But once over, getting back to eating in a planned, balanced and healthy way is a priority. A small amount of weight gain is not a failure. Rather than beating ourselves up, we can concentrate on stopping any further weight gain. This will give us a sense of achievement to support us as we return to our regular sensible, balanced and planned eating pattern. Returning to this pattern of eating will deal with any excess weight.

Occasional overeating at parties is not what makes us fat. Instead, it is the every day overeating - eating between meals, the sweets, the crisps and all the other snacks that are so readily available and so very palatable. They have been designed by people in labs wearing white coats to ensure that they really do hit the bliss point.

Or you might be overeating to help you face social challenges or emotional needs such as comfort, security or fun. Many of us from time to time have found ourselves scavenging in the fridge or cupboard for a little something nice to eat to overcome boredom or to deal with stress. Emotionally-driven eating may result in weight gain, but it can create an sense of discontent because of the weight gain and feeling of failure because we can't control our appetite. Hypnosis will help you to deal with any anxieties so that you are feeling confident when it comes to getting back to a helpful way of eating.

Do you eat for emotional reasons? Of course you do—everybody does! Soon after birth we develop powerful emotional connections to feeding, eating, and food.

We celebrate happy occasions with food. We eat to express love, have fun, soothe a hurt, and reward ourselves for a job well done. These days, with food readily accessible and inexpensive, eating is an easy way to add pleasure to our lives. Emotional eating only becomes a problem when it’s used to cope with or avoid difficult and uncomfortable feelings.

If you feel your emotional connection to food is causing problems for you, these suggestions may help.

• Avoid labeling yourself.  Labels become self-fulfilling prophecies. Instead, label the behaviour. Behaviours can be explored and changed. For example. Eating when I feel stressed. Using food for comfort. Eating as a form of entertainment.
• Get back to the basics. To identify emotional triggers, ask “Am I hungry?” whenever you feel like eating. And then grade it out of 10. In fact, most of us no longer really know what hunger feels like. For me, my eyes feel tight, nothing to do with the belly at all! If there are no physical signs of hunger, it’s likely that the urge to eat was triggered by environmental or emotional cues. Much of our eating (and more besides) is triggered by external signals and our response is automatic. For example, driving on the way home, expecting your tea, starts you thinking about food. Seeing a picture of a dinner makes you think about food.
  
• Leave judgment at the door. Guilt and shame can trigger bingeing and then feeling bad.
  
• Be a caring friend for yourself. When you eat for emotional reasons, you are simply trying to feel better. What could you do instead?
• Cravings are time-limited. They soon pass. Distract yourself and you will be surprised to find that you have forgotten all about the craving. Treat them like an annoying child. The more you give in, the more they will whinge.
• Respond instead of react.  Eating is a choice. When you identify the triggers, you can then choose how you'll respond to your triggers instead of reacting automatically.
• Read the need. Your desire to eat when you aren't hungry is a clue that you have unmet needs and uncomfortable feelings. Recognising that they are gives you the chance to deal with them.
  
• Avoid labeling emotions as good or bad, or positive or negative. All emotions are information that you can use to better understand your interpretation of an experience and help you recognise your true needs.

Try this quiz. These statements are examples of the most common types of emotional eating: depressed eating (items 1 – 3), anxiety/stress eating (4 – 6), angry eating (7 – 9), bored eating (10 – 12), lonely eating (13 – 15), and happy eating (16 – 18). Reviewing your responses to these statements should give you a general idea of your emotional eating tendencies. The first step in overcoming emotional eating is to become aware of your unique pattern.  Some people are anxious eaters, others lose their appetite when anxious but eat more when depressed. Hypnotherapy can help you manage your emotions and build a wider portfolio of ways of coping.

____ 1. When I am feeling “down” or “blue” a little snack will lift my mood.

____ 2. When I’m feeling depressed I have more desire to eat.

____ 3. If someone disappoints me I want to eat something.

____ 4. When I am feeling under pressure I have the urge to snack.

____ 5. I eat more when I am stressed than when I am calm.

____ 6. If I am worried or afraid of something I tend to eat.

____ 7. Sometimes when people irritate me I want to get something to eat.

____ 8. I have had something to eat to get back at someone who has upset me.

____ 9. When I get angry, eating will make me feel better.

____ 10. I look forward to eating something when I’m bored.

____ 11. I eat more than usual when there is nothing to do.

____ 12. If time is passing slowly, I look forward to having a snack.

____ 13. Being alone increases my appetite.

____ 14. I am less likely to eat when other people are around as I am when I’m by myself.

____ 15. Eating makes me feel better when I am lonely.

____ 16. I celebrate with food when I’m in a good mood.

____ 17. If I’m feeling really good, I don’t worry about my diet.

____ 18. When I’m happy, having a favorite snack makes me feel even better.