TRUST IN ME
For nearly 46 years, on and off, I have fought with fat. During my numerous forays into this war I have won some of the battles and I’ve lost some. I don’t know if I would call it a draw at this point, but as I look back over my record it’s about even. I’ve utilized quite a number of fat loss methods over the years. I’ve gone to Weight Watchers and medical fasting clinics. I have tried nearly every diet food in a box that is stocked in a frozen food section at the grocery store. I have two shelves in my book case dedicated to various diet books by authors that claimed to have the answer to my fat problems.
Approximately seven or eight years ago I was at another desperate place type of moment to lose my fat. I was weighing in at a density level of around 330 pounds. I knew deep down that I wanted the fat gone and that I had tried a lot of measures to defeat it, but obviously I had not been successful. Back then I was still a newspaper man (I got my news from the daily newspaper as opposed to the internet) and in the Sunday edition there was regularly a full page ad that intrigued me. It was a plan that claimed that it could enable me to lose my fat (excellent), stop smoking (I didn’t and don’t smoke, but if I did I could stop), stop drinking (like someone would want to do that), help me improve my sexual prowess (come on), and improve my moods (I like cranky). I had seen this ad more times than I could count, but I always thought it seemed hokey. But when a person feels “desperate” they’ll try just about anything and that’s what I was on that particular day.
So, I called the company and set an appointment for one evening the following week. For two or three days I was very nervous about going to the appointment. I had heard all sorts of stories about this type of treatment. Right up until the time I walked into the office I was not certain about whether or not I would even keep my appointment. I pulled into their parking lot and sat there in my car for several minutes deciding if this was really what I needed to do. I got out of my car, walked into the building, and because it was around 7:30 pm the building was mostly empty. I walked slowly to the elevator and pushed the button to go up to the floor of their office and I was still considering just pushing the first floor button again and leaving. But I got off the elevator and walked around the corner and down to the office. This was the moment of truth. If I walk in here there will probably be someone at the desk to ask me my name and once I do that I’m committed. I grabbed the door knob and asked myself one last time if this is really where I am in my desire to get rid of this fat hanging on my body. My answer, yes, it is where I am.
I turned the knob, pushed open the door, and walked in. The reception area was very small. It was a nice room and it was obvious that the office was well attended. The smell was great. I don’t know that I could identify the smell, but it was some variety of flower smells and they were very soothing. There was very soft and soothing music on as well and it made for a very inviting atmosphere. I was the only person in the waiting room and there was no one at the little desk to greet me, so I just sat down and waited. I was a several minutes early, so I didn’t think much of it. The good news for me was that no one had seen me yet, so I had time to abort this mission if I desired to do so. I chose to stay. At straight up on the hour the door of the inner office opened and a well-kempt middle aged lady came out to greet me. She was short, probably 5’4″ish. She had on a soft colored blue dress with an interesting pin on her lapel. Her manner was very subdued and she spoke in a very quiet and soothing tone. She gave me her name and verified who I was and invited me into the office.
I walked into her office, which I think was the only office for this particular suite. It was very nice. Her desk, book shelves, and tables were all of the same kind of dark mahagany wood finish. In the office she also had the same very nice smells and music working that was in the waiting room. In the middle of the office there were two chairs facing each other. One was a very nice leather wingback chair and the other was a very nice reclined type of chair. I was offered the reclined model and she took the other. We sat down and she began to ask questions about why I was there, what I hoped to accomplish with our meeting, what my goals were, and what kind of timeframe I had to accomplish my goals. She asked about what type of body I hoped to have and what I had done in the past to get the body I wanted. I answered all of her questions as best as I could and it was a little bit embarrassing. Giving that type of information to a person that I met 15 minutes ago and whose name I had already forgotten was strange, but I went with it nevertheless.
After she took down all of my information she began to tell me how this was all going to work. In all honesty I’ve forgotten most of what she said to me that day and in the end what she said wasn’t very important. The long and short of it is that she was going to do FOR ME what I had been unable (insert unwilling) to do FOR MYSELF. She had me recline in the chair a little, close my eyes, and relax. She said that she wanted me to listen to her voice very closely. She began to talk in a very soothing voice and in all honesty I began to feel very relaxed, maybe as relaxed as I had ever been. She told me to relax my toes, then feet, then legs, and on up it went until she got to my scalp. I did it all and I felt like I was sinking into the chair. She had my full attention at this point. I can recall some of the things she was suggesting to me like, “when you think about eating I want you to think about only making healthy food choices’” or “when you think about your body I only want you to think about yourself as a 195 pound person.” I also remember her using the term “cool water” very often during the course of this meeting. She talked about making good food choices and choosing exercising over watching television. She said that I will from now on drink “cool water” instead of soft drinks. She used all of the various things I initially told her and began substituting them with things I should be eating or doing. At the end of the session, while I was still in the relaxed state, she gave me a hand signal to use any time I wanted my mind to utilize the suggestions she “imparted” to me. I can tell you what I wish now was the hand signal, but it was simply making a fist with my thumb tucked inside of my hand.
She counted backwards from 10 and said that as I came out of my relaxed state the suggestions would be embedded in my subconscious mind.
10, 9, 8 – you’re beginning to feel your surroundings.
7, 6, 5 – you’re beginning to feel your surroundings even more.
4, 3, 2 - you’re more alert to your surroundings.
1 – that’ll be $250 please.
Just kidding.
1 – you’re back and completely aware of your surroundings.
I did it; I went in to be HYPNOTIZED! I can’t believe I did that! Two weeks after my session I was still eating like a Wildebeest and I think I actually put on several pounds. I called the company that set me up with the lady and asked them for another session because the first one DIDN’T DO JACK! I asked if it would be possible for me to get another hypnotizer because I didn’t think my lady knew what she was doing. I knew she was incompetent because I wasn’t getting any of the results the people in their newspaper ads were getting. In the end they refunded my money because I became a real pain in their ass with multiple daily calls wanting another session with no additional costs.
So, why tell you that story? I want you to know without a doubt that I’ve been where you are. I’ve tried stuff most of you won’t try and I say that to my shame not yours. You don’t need all of the whacked out crazy stuff that is advertised by people that only want to make money off of your desire to lose fat. There are folks out there that want you to take their pills, undergo their surgeries, do their fasts, try their unhealthy diet strategies, and the list goes on and on.
A man emailed me the other day after looking at my blog and my pictures and asked a very simple and straight forward question. How? How did you do it? That’s a fair question. I’ve said in a number of my posts that I don’t think there is any one particular way to lose fat. I think there are some good strategies out there that are healthy and will make you better/healthier than you were when you started. I can and will tell you how I’ve done it in my next post, but before I do I want you to ask yourself a few questions. First, you need to ask yourself what you want. Second, you need to ask yourself what you’re willing to do to get what you want. If you are unsure of the answer to the second question then the first question doesn’t really have much meaning. You really do need to put in some good time of thought on the second question. Once you know that answer then it will let you know if you need to modify the answer to the first question. I may want a Mercedes Benz, but if I’m only willing to work part time at a minimum wage job then it’s pretty safe to say I will still be driving a 1991 Ford Taurus next year. My desired outcome has to match my willingness to work. More on this later.
I hope you enjoyed my story (true story). As I told the gentleman a few days ago, I will put up a post in the next few days that gives you a look at how I’ve gotten from where I was to where I am and how I plan to get to my destination.
One last thing. I know that the proper term is hypnotist, but the word or non-word hypnotizer just makes me chuckle.
I’ll talk to you later.
Michael
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