Positive Changes Week 1

I didn't know if I would share this on my blog because I feel a little weird about it, but it might be helpful to someone. I have been struggling to lose weight for about 10 years now. I'm about 90 lbs over weight. I have been doing the Jenny Craig plan for several years. I have lost weight, but then gained it back. This past week I decided to join Positive Changes which is a place that can help you quit smoking or lose weight. I'm not sure what other things it helps people with. It uses hypnosis technique! I have never been hypnotized before. I have had my first session and the first thing they did was ask me some questions about my goals for myself and supposedly random questions about myself, like what I like to do for fun. He used the answers to my questions to guide his hypnosis with me. They made me wear glasses that had lights blinking. I was reclined in a chair. I felt awake the whole time. I kept thinking about how I was not being hypnotized, like I didn't think it was working. And the back of my neck was hurting from the reclined position (I have arthritis in the back of my neck.) I think the next time I go I will bring a towel or something for the back of my neck. After he was done I told him that I didn't think it worked. He asked me if I remember being at the beach and I said that I remembered going to the beach because when he was talking about being at the beach I tried to picture myself there. He asked me if I remember having spasms in my arms! I totally didn't remember that. At one point my eyes started blinking, with my eyes closed, and I was trying really hard not to open my eyes because he told me to keep my eyes closed, and I didn't want to get hurt by the blinking lights, so maybe that has to do with hypnosis. I totally don't remember my arms spasming. He recorded it on a cd, and I'm supposed to listen to it once a day. They say if you listen to it three times a day it is best, so I've been doing that. I have noticed spasming in my fingers as I listen. It is so weird because I still don't feel like I'm being hypnotized, it just feels like I'm relaxing and listening to someone speaking.

It says that I might fall asleep, and if I do it's ok to keep sleeping, it will speak to my subconscious! This morning I was listening to it, and I fell asleep! I woke up and realized what had happened. It was so weird!

These are the changes I am trying to make in my life:

1. Eat 3 meals a day. Don't skip meals.

2. Eat fruits and vegetables.

3. Eat protein at every meal.

4. Park farther away then I need to.

5. Take walks.

6. I want to exercise more. So I'm thinking about doing stretches every day and some strengthening exercises.

7. Drink water a lot! This is very natural. I have been craving water since starting the program. Even writing this now, I'm starting to yearn for water! It is so weird.

8. Eat more slowly.

I had a friend in college who's Dad did hypnosis for weight loss. He found himself eating less carbs. He didn't do it on purpose. He just naturally didn't want to eat bread and stuff. He lost a lot of weight.

I really hope this program works for me. I have tried so many things. I used to be at a healthy weight and have a healthy relationship with food. I used to regularly exercise. I'm not sure exactly what caused the change.

I always feel funny paying so much attention to my makeup when it is just a small portion of my overall look. I know that I would look so much better if I would lose weight. I would lose weight in my face and it would be better than anything I can do with makeup.

I struggle with using food to make me happy and I find that I feel like I need it to comfort me. The foods that are unhealthy for me, are the foods that calm me emotionally. It is very much a psychological issue. When at Jenny Craig, my counselors would tell me they didn't know how to help me in regards to my mental barriers. There is something in me that rebels against diets. Like if someone tells me what to do, I want to do the opposite. If you tell me to not eat something, all I can think about is eating it!

The hypnotist told me there were two parts of myself. One side of me wants to eat healthy and exercise, and do everything I need to do to lose weight. The other side of me wants to eat foods that give me pleasure and doesn't want to be told what to do. So these two sides fight with each other. It doesn't matter which side I choose, I always will feel bad. That's why diets don't work. If I choose to eat healthy, the side of me that wanted junk food feels deprived. If I choose to eat unhealthy, I will feel guilty for going off my diet. So what Positive Changes is trying to do is bring these two sides together, so they work as a team. I'm not exactly sure how this is going to work. But I really want it to work!

I go to the clinic twice a week. They have a morning hypnosis cd for me to listen to and an evening one. I go to an acceleration class. This is where I will be hypnotized, I think with a group full of people. We each will have reclining chair with the light glasses and headphones. I think we get to chose what we want to listen to. Next week, I will tell you what my experience was like. Then I have a class I will go to on a different day. I'm not sure what the class will be about. There is a class where you learn nutrition information and there is a class where you learn more about hypnosis. After class there is a hypnosis session. Also during the week someone is going to call me asking me how things are going. I hope I will be able to do all this when I go back to work. I work at a school, so right now we are on vacation. I hope I'm not too tired to do everything, but I guess it is ok if I fall asleep because my subconscious will still be awake. (That is so weird!)

I will let you know if I lose weight. I have already noticed a change in drinking more water and I have urges to exercise. I'm not someone that dislikes water. I don't mind drinking it, I just usually drink Pepsi instead or I don't drink at all. I have a tendency to think of every excuse to not exercise. So it will be interesting to see how I do about that.

This lasts 9 months, and it is supposed to not be a diet and I won't be able to do it again. They have no returning clients because this is supposed to last the rest of your life. It sounds too good to be true. I really hope it works.

Let me know what your thoughts are. Please feel free to leave a comment! I love getting comments, and I don't often get them.

I'm so sorry for the person who left a comment. Somehow it got deleted. Thank you for your comment. I don't know why my blog is not letting people comment. And when I want to reply it is posting my full name, which I don't want to happen. I'm trying to fix it. This isn't very user friendly, unfortunately.

Her comment was something like, she would feel nervous to get hypnotized. I was very nervous. My heart was beating so fast! But it is like what I have experience before listening to relaxation tapes. They help you relax your muscles and breathe slowly and deeply. Then they help you visualize something, like imagine you are at the beach. So you feel like you are completely relaxed and are daydreaming. It isn't anything scary. I wasn't even sure I was hypnotized because it felt so normal.