The Ornish Diet is a low-fat, vegetarian diet plan. Correct application of the eating plan, exercise, and stress-management techniques of this plan results in weight loss and improved health for most dieters. Although this diet program requires more dedication than many other diets, and often requires dramatic lifestyle changes for the dieter, research shows that it is good for both weight loss and helping to reverse heart disease. With its emphasis on stress management and making healthy food choices, this diet is also an ideal candidate for combined use with weight loss hypnosis.

The Ornish diet comes in two similar forms, a Reversal diet and a Preventative diet. The Reversal diet is designed for people already afflicted with heart disease who are looking to reverse the effects of the condition and cut their risk of having heart attacks. The Preventative diet is ideal for people who want to lose weight and lower their risk for heart disease. It is also ideal for dieters trying to reduce their cholesterol levels.

Both types of the Ornish program recommend a nutrition plan that is made up of 10% fat, 20% protein, and 70% complex carbohydrates. Under the plan, all meat, fish, and poultry are to be avoided. All oils, seeds, nuts, and fats are also banned. Refined carbohydrate foods such as white flour and white rice are also not allowed, but whole grain bread and pasta, beans, and legumes are permitted.

Foods allowed in limited quantities include egg whites and nonfat dairy products such as fat-free milk, cheese, and yogurt. Most convenience foods are banned, since any processed foods with more than 2 grams of fat in one serving are banned.

The diet lets you to eat vegetables, beans, fruit, and whole grains at each meal until you feel full. The benefit of this diet is that since you are allowed to consume as much as you want of allowed foods, you can feel full and satisfied all the time. This diet, unlike some others, is not based on unsafe "starvation" techniques.

Combined with the nutrition plan, another important key to the Ornish program is stress-management. There are a wide range of stress-reducing practices you can use, such as yoga, meditation, and hypnosis. Hypnotherapy is ideal for relieving anxiety and tension while supporting natural weight loss. Hypnotic techniques work by helping your unconscious mind focus on having positive thoughts instead of negative thoughts when you begin to feel stressed. These techniques are extremely effective in reducing stress levels.

While the Ornish plan is healthy and effective for most dieters, it can be difficult to follow because it involves many restrictions. This diet and others like it often fail because dieters are unable to stay on them. Many people struggle with dieting because they suffer from an out-of-control appetite, irresistible cravings, compulsive overeating, or a lack of motivation to lose weight. These obstacles keep many hard-working dieters from maintaining their diet and achieving long-term success. Hypnosis therapy helps you overcome these obstacles, and is an ideal complement to the Ornish diet because it provides powerful motivation to stay on a weight loss plan.

Hypnosis works to control and regulate the appetite by "reprogramming" the unconscious mind to eliminate and replace bad habits with good ones. Years of unhealthy eating habits such as "emotional eating" can cause people to eat impulsively, even when they are not truly hungry. Hypnosis breaks unhealthy associations with food and our feelings to end this conditioned response and end emotional eating. Hypnosis can further influence dieting success by replacing the overeating response with another activity, such as exercise. This way, instead of feeling the urge to overeat, you will have the motivation to engage in healthy physical activity.

Hypnotherapy can also be used to eliminate the emotional anxieties that keep you from losing weight. For many people, being overweight provides a "secondary gain" in the form of a sense of safety or emotional protection. For example, many people with low self-esteem fear rejection, so they use their weight as a reason to believe that others will dislike them. Through hypnotherapy, we can think positively and focus on having better health instead of feeling overwhelmed by such anxieties. We can use hypnosis to improve our self-esteem, placing value on ourselves and our own health.

Hypnosis offers a strong, natural combination of stress-relief, motivation, and behavior regulation to promote weight loss and help you follow your preferred diet program. Using hypnotherapy with the Ornish plan is especially effective, but hypnosis is excellent for helping dieters stay committed to any weight loss plan. Hypnosis promotes the success of weight loss programs along with natural weight loss so dieters can enjoy long-lasting results.