Thursday 10 February 2011

First Post

I have been a certified hypnotherapist (CHt) since the mid 80's. And yet I've never had a blog on it.  Partly that's because what I do with clients is confidential, unless they choose to make it public.  So no worries, I'm not going to talk about you on my blog unless you've agreed to an interview or something.

The purpose of this blog is to talk about my work with hypnosis and how I've used it to change my life. Currently I'm working on a technique of using hypnosis many times a day to work on my fitness goals including reaching my ideal weight, and motivating myself to exercise. My recent inspiration to pursue this came about when I chanced upon hypnotist Paul McKenna doing a segment on the Dr. Oz show on the topic of weight loss. Now I believe with all my heart that this can work, but I feel I've never applied it consistently enough for me to reach my goals. But I'm ready to give it another go. It's been 3 days since I started doing this project, and so far I've noticed a significant drop in my interest and obsession with food. If it weren't for the fact that my tummy rumbled for a good hour tonight before I got up to look for some dinner, I probably wouldn't have eaten dinner at all, and that's not like the old me.  I'm rarely one to miss a meal.  It's nice to know I can have a day where I'm not obsessed with what I am going to eat next.

The other thing is I'm not going to mention this to anyone I know in real life until I've seen results.  I know my boyfriend was not supportive when I tried to tell him about Paul McKenna. My boyfriend said, "You know I'm not really into that stuff."

And I don't want to be the fat hypnotist trying to tell clients that they to can lose weight with hypnosis. That's been a thorn in my side since I started in the 80's. It's undermined my confidence in so many ways. Once I lose 100 pounds, then I will be a good advertisement for my own program, but until I've lost at least 20 pounds I'm keeping my mouth shut.

One area the hypnosis is addressing is getting back to a more active lifestyle. So today I did something that I've been meaning to do for 3 years.  I bought a season's pass for Knott's Berry Farm, which is near my house. Now who wouldn't rather walk around an amusement park a few times a week instead of in a boring and depressing suburban neighborhood.  Today was my first day and I took my photo with Snoopy. The first one is a self portrait.  Sorry my arm is not longer,  But that's Snoopy's nose.

The other thing I did was start a food journal. Dr. McKenna was saying studies show that a blindfolded person eats about 50% less because distractions are removed. He's not the first one to tell me that we shouldn't be eating while watching TV or reading or typing on the computer. I want to be much more aware of what is going into my mouth. I'm not consciously trying to make any radical food changes. I'm just going to let the hypnosis work on my subconscious mind, changing me from the inside out. As much as possible I'm going to keep my analytical mind out of the picture. After all, the analytical mind has already failed or I'd be thin, right?