Christmas is getting closer. This is the time when friends and family gather together and enjoy the pleasure of a shared meal. And snacks, and drinks, and sweets. Sometimes the eating seems like its never-ending. We do eat more at Christmas. That's a fact. We spend longer at the table, we go to parties, we visit friends. But we still have a choice.

Hypnosis works to help you spot the chances to make a choice, and then to make it.

There will be a bit more weight around the hips after Christmas. After such festivities it is almost inevitable. Hypnosis will help you make those New Year Resolutions stick for the long term, easily and automatically.

Most women in the West are disappointed by their bodies and want to lose weight. At New Year, and now in Lent, we make resolutions. How you word these resolutions will go a long way towards success.

So, say your resolution is "I am going to lose weight". How do you know? Just saying it, as we all know, doesn't magic the weight off.

At the moment on the telly, you can get food hampers sent to your home cooked by a chef. And that probably works. But what will happen when you decide you have lost enough weight, or you can't afford the hampers, or your family are sick of you having hamper food and they are still eating your cooking?

Slimming techniques which include unsustainable approaches are just that. Unsustainable. And as soon as you stop the treatment, the weight comes back on. Losing weight requires something to change. A change in our pattern of eating. And so the best idea is to focus on what exactly that change might be. Most of us know what causes us to keep putting on weight. So think what yours might be.

For one of my clients, it was a Chinese meal every Friday. She ate well the rest of the time, in fact was very careful. Just one session of hypnosis and she broke the habit. Her resolution was "I will no longer bother with the Friday night takeaway". For another, it was buying biscuits for the visitors and eating them herself. Just knowing that she was colluding with herself helped her stop buying the biscuits in the first place. Don't forget - In the house is in the mouth. Her resolution was "I will not buy biscuits with the weekly shop". If she had an overwhelming need for a biscuit, there would be none in the house. She would have to get up and go out and buy enough for the immediate need.

But for others it might be eating for self comfort. If you are an emotional eater then deal with that first. Get feeling good and strong, so that you no longer need to comfort yourself with food. Cognitive behavioural hypnotherapy is just the ticket for making friends with yourself. And then you feel strong enough to deal with the habit side of eating.

So if you plan to lose weight, exactly what change are you going to make? It doesn't have to be all at once, bit by bit is good. What is the bad eating habit you want to change, and what exactly can you do to change it? Here are some examples of well-worded resolutions:

I will have just one slice of toast for breakfast
I will not buy biscuits for the cupboard
I will use a smaller plate so I can eat a smaller portion
At eat-all-you-can buffets, I will use the salad plate
I shall say no to crisps and biscuits

Our bodies are surprisingly finely tuned. Just 150 calories a day more than we need - and the weight goes on. So, cut out 150 calories a day and the weight will come off.