The Transparent Hypnotist

Photograph by The Labour Party

She comes to me for help in losing weight. Somewhere along her path, somewhere between fast food joints and petrol stations with trail mix (the kind with bits of chocolate), she has gained quite a bit of weight. She travels frequently and finds herself using this as an excuse not to keep up with her exercise or even proper nutrition. That is boring, right? 

She finds her self-esteem also wrapped up in the weight. Somewhat naive and believing the pounds would magically shed themselves, every time she went to a physician and was forced to stand on a scale (finally almost thinking about fending this off with a few well chosen martial arts moves - she knows no such gestures), her heart would sink as the scale, perhaps justly so, told of her bad habits. Her beautiful clothes no longer fit quite right and she began to exist in jogging pants (the skinny little black yoga pants long too small). The mirror also betrayed her, but not as much as the everyday reflections off of glass doors or cars (anything reflective). They were the true enemy. She was no longer able to live with the the idea that every reflection was complete distortion. No, the distortion was in her head. Her stomach sagged a bit over her waist line, she had a bloated look to her, and jowls even threatened to be a new addition to her face. 

This client who desperately sought me out was myself. Since I began with the goal to lose 20 pounds (back in January), seven and a half have been removed - not lost. Have I just used hypnosis in this process? No. I have finally had to take my advice to countless others and practice what I preach - I need a healthier lifestyle. This  new life style includes self-hypnosis (for keeping me motivated and tweaking some of the better habits I wish would come easier), portion awareness, some calorie counting (allowing me to make better food decisions), daily exercise (almost), drinking lots of water, and being patient with myself. 

It has been truly tempting at times to go for diet pills or other trendy diets, but I know in the long-term, slow and steady will win my race back to a size eight. It has been a remarkable experience so far in that now I have a much deeper understanding of what people go through in trying to lose weight. I also find that the more I know about healthy living, the better I do, the better I feel. 

I have always done research or tried to find sources for my clients. Since I am now one of them, I find myself always looking for women’s health resources. I have always been tempted, when grocery shopping, to go for foods that say fat free or low calorie, totally buying into the marketing of specific products. It is not a practice that is very consumer conscious really. I had no idea what those terms meant, only that they sounded good in a healthy sort of way (Oh, Ode to Olestra). But then I go to web sites such as www.womenshealthbase.com and find out that well, it is not quite as fuzzy wonderful as I would have hoped. There is math involved (I am not a fan of math, though I see its necessity). There are certain amounts of this or that in those products that may not be so helpful to my cause. But, now I have a better idea of what to look for in nutrition as well as some healthier options.

It is amazing what we think we know compared to the reality. Sometimes you just have take off those mental, rose colored glasses, take a long hard look (put on those reading glasses and gaze upon the ingredients and nutrition information of potential eating pleasures), take a deep breath and make another choice. The road is long.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 18th, 2009 at 7:29 am and is filed under A Resource, Blogvertising, Client Stories, Weight Loss. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.