How Denise Lost 45 Pounds and Kept it Off
If you’re one of those people whose weight fluctuates up and down like a rollercoaster, then you can relate to what it was like for Denise. Denise battled being overweight for more than half her life. Watching the scale go up and down and admittedly having “an unhealthy relationship with food”, she decided about two years ago to make a permanent life change. She joined Weightwatchers as well as a gym. She began taking Zumba classes which she soon realized she loved. Doing both of those things was certainly helpful but she still couldn’t get where she wanted to be. “During the day, I did great. I was able to eat well then but at night I struggled.” She joked, “If the cat wasn’t always moving, I probably would have eaten it.”
One day Denise went to lunch with a friend and the friend confided that she had gone to see Valerie Dawson, a hypnotherapist, to help her quit smoking. Denise was open to the idea of hypnotherapy as she had actually gone to a hypnotist thirty years before. “I can still hear the hypnotist’s voice in my head at times.” After lunch she began to mull the idea over and ultimately decided to contact Ms. Dawson. She was thrilled to realize that hypnotherapy with Valerie Dawson was the missing piece to overcoming her lifelong struggle with food. After only a few sessions withMs. Dawson, Denise came to understand that it was like her “inner child wanted what it wanted when she wanted it and she didn’t want to be told, ‘No.’” With that in mind, she put a picture of herself as a young girl on the refrigerator. “It is a reminder to me to stop and ask, ‘Am I really hungry or is this my inner child speaking to me?’”
Through the hypnosis, Denise learned little tricks to help manage her food desires which yielded big results. “I heard somewhere that you can walk away from that cookie, or whatever it is that you’re craving, 10 times but on that 11th time, you will give in.” She learned that if she wanted that cookie, she should set a timer for 10 minutes. After 10 more minutes, if she still wanted the cookie, she would set the timer again. “This gives your brain a chance to catch up.”
Over several months, Denise lost 45 pounds and gone from a size 18 to a size 10. “My goal is to feel healthy and I do. I walk by a window and see my reflection and forget that it is me.” With the help of the hypnosis, Denise admits that her brain can now tell her that it is time to be done eating. “For the first time in 57 years, I am in control over what goes in my mouth and that is just amazing. Before my hypnotherapy, I could eat my weight in chips and salsa. Now I just eat normally.”
Denise feels so good about her success that she wants others to benefit from hypnosis. “I refer anybody and everybody to Valerie Dawson. Having tried everything, I know that she truly was the missing piece to my puzzle.”
If you’ve been battling with your weight, there is a way to get the weight off and keep it off. Read more about how hypnosis can help you retrain your brain to establish healthier eating habits here: Weight Loss Hypnosis