By CJ Puotinen

Everyone knows how hard it is to lose weight -- and how even harder it is to keep it off. Recent surveys indicate that nearly one-third of America's adults, close to 59 million people, are clinically obese.

Another one-third of the population is overweight. Public health officials warn that America's increased rates of diabetes, heart disease, joint pain, and other chronic conditions go hand in hand with our nation's weight problem.

Every year a fortunate few manage to say a permanent goodbye to unwanted pounds, but weight loss success stories are the exception rather than the rule, and they usually involve constant effort and discipline. 

Dr. Carol Look takes a different approach. Instead of focusing on calories, menus, and will power, she looks at underlying emotions that cause cravings and overeating -- and she teaches clients how to neutralize those emotions by literally tapping them away using a procedure called Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT).

Consider Mary, who learned EFT from Dr. Look at an Energy Psychology conference. She was 30 pounds overweight, struggling with severely depleted energy, and unable to control compulsive binges.

With gentle fingertip tapping on her face and torso, Mary learned to stop cravings in their tracks. Within four months she successfully lost 30 pounds, and a year later she had not regained a pound of it.

Mary's transformation began when she volunteered in class to use EFT to reduce her craving for Lay's potato chips, her Number One weakness. "Fortunately," says Dr. Look, "I had brought a bag as a prop for this demonstration.

Within a minute or two [of EFT], Mary's craving stopped. In fact, she didn't even like the smell of the chips any more. She complained that they smelled too greasy -- and these were the same chips she had just described as having power over her."

Dr. Look then encouraged Mary to explore the feelings behind her cravings. Mary said she was afraid of feeling deprived and worried that she might not feel safe if she lost weight. These and similar emotions disappeared as she tapped.

"Mary returned home after the conference feeling motivated and back in control," says Dr. Look. "She started a new diet and exercise program and tapped EVERY DAY as I had recommended.

She tapped at home, in the car, and at her job, and she realized that she no longer had to eat to tranquilize her emotional states throughout the day. She no longer stopped while driving to pick up snacks and junk food. Instead, she would acknowledge the emotion she was experiencing and then tap for it."

By the end of September, four months after the conference, Mary had lost 30 pounds. Despite seriously stressful events, such as her mother being assaulted, her father dying after a lengthy illness, and insecurity in her workplace, Mary didn't comfort herself with food the way she had for years. Her obsessive thoughts and compulsive behavior never returned.

"Mary had not just worked on symptom reduction," says Dr. Look. "She had obviously made changes on a very deep level. In March, after five months of acknowledging and dealing with her grief, she began tapping again and lost an additional eight pounds."

Mary's weight loss was dramatic, but so was the change in her energy level. "She was enjoying her vitality, feeling fit, and looking much better, too," says Dr. Look.

"I asked her about her feelings of control around food. She said she could choose to eat 'just one chip' -- something that was unimaginable for her before EFT. She said it felt like a miracle for her to lose so much weight and feel so much better."

Mary's complete story is posted on the EFT Web site along with dozens of other weight loss reports.

Please note that in addition to eliminating cravings and addictions, EFT has been a consistently effective healing tool for hundreds of other physical, mental and emotional ailments. For more information, you can explore the EFT Web site and its numerous success stories regarding fears, phobias, emotional traumas and physical ailments.

While a complete description of EFT is beyond the scope of this article, you can learn all the basics from the free EFT Get Started Package, including a free download of the 79-page EFT Manual. Those wishing to save time and dive right in can get the affordable five-star training DVDs.