It never fails that when I tell people how I make my living—as a hypnotherapist hypnotizing people slim—they inevitably ask: Does it work; does hypnosis really help with weight loss? My answer usually brightens their eyes with something between excitement and incredulity because most people don’t realize that adding trance to your weight loss efforts can help you lose more weight and keep it off longer. Although hypnosis predates carb and calorie counting by a few centuries, I often hear from desperate individuals that this is their last hope. Because of stage and screen portrayals of hypnosis as mind control or at the very least parlor tricks the benefits of hypnosis has long been misunderstood. It isn’t until everything has been exhausted and people are feeling out of control that most people are willing to try hypnosis. Once they realize their goals, I hear “I should have called you first.” If only people understood that hypnosis is a non-invasive tool that can be used for focus and reaching goals. Hypnosis is also helpful in uncovering and discovering underlying, unconscious emotional factors that cause overeating or making poor food choices when stressed, anxious, bored, depressed, and so forth. Once these emotional eating factors are made conscious, hypnosis is then used to assist changing to more positive motivators and better choices. I understand that most people really want to do the right thing. They start diet after diet only to go back to old unhealthy habits when faced with the demands of everyday life. Most of my clients know every calorie or carb count, what exercises burn the most fat, etc. Ask anyone on the street about his eating or exercise habits and chances are, he’ll tell you he knows he should eat better and get more exercise, but … and they follow up with a litany of excuses. I hear excuses every day, yet those excuses aren’t changing the scales. When people call me about hypnosis for weight loss, I explain that I have several protocols I can follow. The Virtual Gastric Band has a huge 95% success rate according to test groups (my success has been similar). There are other methods that can be used as well, depending upon the needs and goals of the individual. There are as many ways to approach hypnosis for weight loss as there are people needing to make the change. My job is to find the proper fit for you, your job is to show up and be honest.
Excuses
There are also as many excuses for not committing to change as there are people. I have heard many of these excuses, repeatedly. It’s always easy to come up with reasons to avoid getting started with a healthy eating or weight-loss plan. But all too often, these reasons are really just excuses. “I don’t have time to cook or exercise, I have too much stress to keep on a diet, it’s in my genes, I travel too much, etc.” I wonder how much time diabetes, heart disease and other obesity related illnesses will take up as a result of not making the change? Not to mention a loss of lifetime. Overeating is one more stressor in life (such as guilty feelings after a binge), not being able to move about easily or sit comfortably on a plane when traveling is humiliating. As a person who has a high number of morbidly obese family members, I know the challenge of fighting the genes! It is part of why I love my work so much. A big excuse I hear is that a person can’t afford the hypnosis or the foods that are healthy. We hear almost daily about the economic impact obesity is having on us as a nation and what it costs employers. But that doesn’t seem as personal as our own checking account. Research has recently been done on the cost of obesity for the individual. The results showed that being an obese individual in the U.S. costs $4,879 for women and $2,646 for men each year. If you also add the value of lost life to these yearly costs, the price tag is even higher: $8,365 for women and $6,518 for men. Those costs are not just medical costs, either. There is a loss in wages (unfortunately there is discrimination in wages paid to the obese.) Life insurance rates were higher and they even calculated higher fuel costs in driving! Some airlines, such as JetBlue, (Southwest) and Air France, have policies that ‘passengers of size’ have to buy a second seat, costing approximately $60 more per leg of the trip. What many people don’t realize is that it isn’t just the medical and psychological professions that recognize hypnosis for weight management. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) also does. That’s right, I said the IRS! When a doctor prescribes hypnosis for weight loss related to an obesity related illness (such as diabetes, heart or lung issues) the cost of the hypnosis can be a tax credit. A tax credit, to my understanding (I am not an accountant) is not a deduction of a percent but rather a 100% reduction in income. (I would encourage you to confirm that with your accountant.) It has been said that the only person an excuse serves is the one making it. I must say that it is time to realize that excuses related to weight management aren’t serving the obese population. Rather, they are continuing to promote the rapid demise of so many people. Maybe even you or someone you love. I would ask anyone with weight issues to call and find out how hypnosis might help make the change towards health and freedom! Imagine having the support you need to make the changes you so desperately need. I can help you become the you that you have always wanted to be.
