All The Benefits of Weight Loss Surgery Without The Side Effects,
Is It Possible?
QUESTION
If you ate like a weight loss surgery patient, would you lose weight too?
Answer: Of Course You Would!
How does it work?
Keep in mind I do not treat or diagnose any diseases or illnesses and you should always consult with a competent medical professional on issues that concern your health.
First the surgical method
Just about everyone that has researched weight loss has heard about the gastric band and the gastric bypass surgeries. These surgeries are some of the most performed surgical procedures in modern medicine, but they have problems.
1. They aren't for everyone, not everyone qualifies. The standard criteria requires you to be at least 100 pounds overweight and or have an urgent medical condition that requires you to lose weight quickly.
2. Not everyone passes the pre-surgerical exam. There are a lot of reasons for this. General Health Problems, Heart Conditions, Lung Conditions, Uncontrolled Diabetes, Problems with Anesthesia and so on. Did you know that being overweight can actually disqualify you for weight loss surgery? If you weigh too much that can create higher risk factors.
3. They are painful. Like all major surgery there is some pain that is involved. Not everyone is willing or able to go through that stage of the process or recovery.
4. They have side effects and risks. These surgeries are like all other major surgeries. There is the risk of uncontrolled bleeding, shock, infection, reactions to the medications, surgical induced system failures and other risks. Not everyone tolerates the band or the surgical reduction of their stomach well. These surgeries are not necessarily more risky than other major surgeries, but there are risks and certainly side effects from having your abdomen cut open and your stomach radically altered.
5. They are expensive. These procedures can run from $20,000 to $40,000 or more depending on what is done, the area the world and the local medical economy, any complications you may require treatment for and of course the exact procedure you have performed.
6. The long term results may not be as good as you expected. It is common for the stomach to stretch some over time. If you don't learn to control your eating you can undo a lot of your hard earned and expensive progress. Scar tissue and other problems can require surgery to undo your procedure. Gastric bands can even slip over time.
7. If you have a job you will have to take some time off from work. This varies of course depending on the procedure and the individual, but you don't get up off of the operating table and go back to work that afternoon. Many people just can't afford to miss work or not be able to do the things they normally do, this includes mothers with young children, care givers, professionals and a lot of other busy people.
Is there a better way?
Yes, for many people there is a better way and it may surprise you. When you have gastric band or gastric bypass surgery you don't have fat removed immediately by the process, you lose weight because the procedure changes how you can eat. If you ate like a weight loss surgery patient you would lose weight like a weight loss surgery patient because the new way of eating is how they lose weight. In fact, if the weight loss surgery patient would just eat the new way they could lose weight without the surgery. The reason that most people have weight loss surgery is they can't change how they are eating. When you have your effective stomach size reduced to about the size of a golf ball you don't have a choice about changing how you eat, you must change. The sad thing is many people undergo painful, risky and expensive surgery just to change their habits.
Everyone knows that to lose weight you simply must eat less and be more active, but the problem is most people don't know how to do what they know to do. That is where hypnosis comes in. I won't kid you, long term weight loss has traditionally been one of the most difficult areas in hypnosis, even though hypnosis traditionally has always had better long term results with weight loss than any other method. I can hypnotize you with your permission and agreement to never smoke again, but I can't do that for eating, you have to eat some and that can easily get out of control again without follow up visits. There is some disagreement about who came up with it first, but someone got the idea that if you hypnotized someone into going along with the idea that they had a gastric band they would behave like a weight loss surgery patient. Study after study in Europe and England showed they do act just that way, even down to the weight loss.This method when properly administered gives better results than any other hypnotic method currently practiced publicly and hypnosis has long been the best method for changing habits and sustaining long term weight loss.
Isn't that just weird?
Not really. I don't try to consciously convince you that you actually had the surgery, although your subconscious mind may believe exactly that and act accordingly. The way this works is we set it up like a game where you sort of play like you had the surgery. Have you ever played a game and got caught up in the game? Have you ever heard about video gamers that got so caught up in their games that the games were more real to them than their lives? Maybe you have watched a movie and you knew it was just a movie, but you got so caught up in the movie you laughed, cried, were happy, sad and your heart even raced with excitement. That is what this is like. We make the game so real that you even lose weight. Once we figure out the best way to play the game for you it is likely your hunger will fade and even go away.
So is it weird? I don't think so. When we watch a movie we are playing a game and pretending that the movie is real. If you just looked at a movie as a way to stage pictures with fake people how enjoyable would that be? Now that would be weird!
When we play games with our friends we call that fun, not weird. If you could play a game that would keep you from having surgery, help you lose weight and have the body you want and all the while give you better health I don't think that is weird at all!
So what is the process?
I don't like spending money on something when I don't know if I will like it either. That is why I will spend up to 10 minutes on the phone with you discussing the process and your goals at no cost to you. Since I am seeing clients most of the day you will have to schedule this 10 minute phone session. You can do that best by email, drop me a line at scotthogue@ymail.com and I will get back with you on some available times. If you like what you hear the next thing is you come in for a half hour non-refundable evaluation session. This way if we are surprised with something not uncovered in the phone session you aren't out the full price for the program. If we both decide to proceed, then you must have a doctor's approval. Would you really want to work with someone that doesn't care enough about you to get a doctor's approval for you? If you don't have a doctor we can give you a list of doctors that are familiar with the process.
After the evaluation session and a doctor's approval you will return for five sessions.
1. Preparing for virtual surgery.
You will get a cd and some materials to carry home with you to help you prepare for your big day. You will also do some trial eating. You will become familiar with the program and the process.
2. The actual session where we install the virtual gastric band hypnotic tool.
We will have already had some basic hypnosis in the earlier visits.
You will get a reinforcement cd to listen to daily.
3. Your first follow up.
How are you doing? Do we need to make adjustments?
4. Weigh in and reinforcement.
5. Your last scheduled appointment.
You should be seeing real results now. Most people are comfortable with proceeding on their own, but I am always available by regular appointment. Many people decide to come back and work on some other area of their life.
What will it cost?
The phone session is free. The evaluation session can take up to a half hour and is $50. I try to keep this session low so people can find out their options without investing a lot of money. This is much lower than my regular hourly fee. You will need a doctor's permission to continue. That may cost you in the range of $50 to $150 or more depending on your doctor, what tests the doctor decides you need and if this is your first visit to that doctor. I don't get any of the doctor's fee. That is strictly between you and your doctor. The following five sessions cost $500 total. The $50 evaluation session must be paid for the day of your session. The $500 must be paid for at the start of the first actual session after the evaluation or in payments of $250 the first weight loss session and another $250 on the third weight loss session. So this is how it breaks down. With the $50 evaluation session and the $500 virtual gastric band program in one payment you will pay $550 for the sessions, plus whatever the doctor charges you. So for my fees you are looking at $550 and with the doctor another $100 more or less versus $20,000 to $40,000 or more for actual surgery with actual pain and side effects.
Is there a guarantee?
Yes and no. Since I can't control what you do I can't guarantee results. I can guarantee you can't violate the laws of physics by eating less food than you use and not lose weight. I am a human being. You are a human being. If you really tried and didn't get results you can talk to me about the fee. The reason I say this is for you to feel comfortable. The only reason you really wouldn't succeed is if you didn't do the program. Since I talk to you for free on the phone, then I do an evaluation session for $50 you aren't out much money before you find out if this is for you. There shouldn't be any surprises. You will know how this works and what you have to do for it to work before you pay the program fees. The only problem I have seen so far is when there are negative people in the client's life that tear down our work. I only see you for an hour a week. If you have a spouse or "friend" giving you negative suggestions and feeding you failure everyday that is going to be a problem. If we know it in advance I can give you suggestions that will help you not be as susceptible to the negative influences of others. This is like everything else in the world, do it and it works. Don't do it and what do you expect?
Is this for everyone?
No, it isn't for everyone. It is for more people than qualify for surgery and most people that want to lose a moderate or extreme amount of weight. If you have less than 20 or maybe 15 very stubborn pounds to lose I would just suggest you have several regular hypnosis sessions, that is probably all you need.
Who doesn't qualify?
I have never had a problem, but as a caution from my training I am very careful with people that are prone to seizures. If you have uncontrolled seizures or you are on certain medications that would disqualify you. Sometimes people have a condition that the doctor feels must be treated with a specific diet. In this case you may not qualify or the program may need to be modified for you. Some people eat to relieve the discomfort of problems they haven't resolved. We all have a tendency to eat comfort foods, but in some cases eating and over eating can be a coping mechanism that you just can't take away without creating other problems. These core issues must be dealt with first and that may require counseling with the proper healthcare professional. Occasionally you run up on someone with undiagnosed stomach ulcers. In some cases the ulcer pain is relieved by eating. Eating certain foods can neutralize stomach acid and almost act as a bandage against the ulcer. In these cases the program must be stopped and the underlying health problems treated by a doctor. If during the evaluation I find you are not seriously motivated and I can't find any core material in your personality, life or memories that I can draw on to help you with motivation I will not proceed with the program.
Can I be too young or too old?
You can't be too old to do this, the question is "are you in good general health and will a competent doctor sign off on you starting a calorie restricted diet?" I will not do this program with younger patients. There are several reasons for that. One is people under the age of 18 are still growing and forming. There are some different issues that must be considered when working with children and rapid or extreme weight loss. There are also other methods we use to hypnotize and work with children, especially the younger children. Although I do hold a certificate in ADD/ADHD childhood hypnosis, I don't consider myself an expert in childhood obesity and hypnosis. I know you can find other people that will do a virtual gastric band on the Internet that work with children, but personally I don't want children to think that "magic" cures are the way to treat all health problems. I just don't think this particular method is the best for children. I may work with older children and this program in conjunction with a competent doctor's referral, but we will work together and probably modify the program a lot. I also would expect counseling for the child so they would have a healthy relationship with food.
How fast will I lose weight?
It is common to lose 2 to 4 pounds the first week, some people lose even more. When you start cutting back on the amount of food you eat then you soon have less in your digestive tract. This loss is not true fat loss. You can't keep this rate up and it be healthy for you. Expect 1 to 3 pounds a week depending on how much you have to lose. A person that is 100 pounds or more overweight will usually lose weight faster at first than someone that has only 20 pounds to lose. They simply have a higher percentage of their body that is fat and more of it to lose as well as what we call "water weight." For most people doctors say that 1 to 2 pounds a week is a healthy and sustainable goal. That may not sound much to you, but the average person has a weight goal of less than thirty pounds to lose and if you lose two pounds a week you can lose over 100 pounds a year. Slower weight loss may be frustrating to you, but remember all the studies show that if you lose weight at the rate of 1 to 2 pounds a week you are much more likely to keep it off than the people that crash diet and lose weight even faster.
What problems do you see?
Goodness, new ones all of the time, people are so unique, but never any serious ones. Common problems include many people don't drink the water they are supposed to. This makes them more likely to be hungry, not replace eating with other habits and even more cranky and constipated. The next one is people often don't eat the vegetables they are supposed to eat. Here again hunger is the side effect and not learning better ways to eat and not as much weight loss with constipation. Some people don't do the protein shakes or protein rich foods and they wind up feeling achy and tired. This usually passes on its own, but why go through it if you can just eat enough protein and get complex carbs for the carbohydrates included in the diet?
What side effects do you see?
Well, weight loss is one side effect. Pardon me for making a joke. You are more likely to hurt yourself getting in and out of the car coming to the sessions than doing this program if you follow the directions. People do sometimes complain of headaches the first few days, especially if they aren't following directions. Too little water, protein, complex carbs and even not doing the stress release exercises can contribute to this. The other side effect you hear about is some people get bad breath with this. I never noticed anything obvious, it may be more noticeable to them than me. When you burn fat you make ketones in your blood stream as part of the process and they can come out in your breath. I suggest a sugar free breath mint from time to time. Not a bad side effect compared to the actual surgery side effects instead of doing this virtual surgery.
Really, how bad is the actual surgery versus the virtual surgery?
Here is the best you can hope for with the "real" surgery, taken from the actual websites of doctors that do the surgery and the national news media that reports on them:
"Weight loss surgery is considered successful when 50% of excess weight is lost and the loss sustained up to five years. For example, a patient who is 100 pounds overweight should lose at least 50 pounds; a patient who is 200 pounds overweight should lose at least 100 pounds. And they should be able to maintain loss successfully for the following five years.
Estimated weight loss in the first 1- 2 years after a Roux-en-Y Gastric bypass is approximately 1/2 to 2/3rd of excess weight. 50% excess weight loss has been documented 10 years and more after Gastric bypass."
"Gastric Bypass Surgery achieves weight loss by decreasing intestinal absorption of food; instead of following its usual path, food bypasses a portion of the stomach and small bowel. In addition to surgical complications, some people experience long-term deficiencies of vitamin B12, folate, and iron. "Dumping syndrome," in which the consumption of sugar causes abdominal cramping and diarrhea, can also occur. Some people will also regain some weight in subsequent years."
"Nearly half of patients who have laparoscopic gastric banding for obesity eventually need to have the devices removed because of erosion or some other malfunction, researchers say.
Among 82 patients followed for at least 12 years after lap-band surgery at a single institution, 49 had at least one follow up operation for complications or device failure, according to Dr. Jacques Himpens, of Saint Pierre University Hospital in Brussels, and colleagues.
They also reported online in Archives of Surgery that 41 had the bands removed during follow-up, with 14 then undergoing Roux-en-Y Gastric bypass. In all but a few cases, inadequate weight loss or device breakdown was the reason for band removal."
I am just saying that if I considered my clients successful if they only lost half of their healthy weight loss goal and then eventually about half of them wanted me to undo what had been done I wouldn't consider that very successful. How about you?
What about weight loss? 50 pounds in a year is reasonably doable just by replacing bad habits with better ones. In fact you may not even need hypnosis to do that. In one study in England the success rate for the virtual gastric band was over 90%. Of course methods and results vary, but this sounds like a much better starting place. If you do the virtual gastric band program and you are not satisfied you go on with your life and other options. If you do the real surgical procedure and you are not satisfied you have another surgery.
Sometimes people that haven't looked into this make fun of me when I talk about how a gastric band that only exists in the mind can cause healthy weight loss. My question is how does a real band create weight loss when half of them have to eventually be removed and there is no band at all? All I am saying is be an informed consumer. Some people are very happy with the actual surgery and I am happy for them. Fewer people seem to be happy long term. Some of the unhappy people wind up with a hypnotist.
Will my insurance pay for this?
Probably not, but it is worth a try. I don't accept insurance as payment, but I will give you a receipt you can turn in to your insurance company. The only things I have ever seen an insurance company pay in hypnosis are smoking cessation and weight loss. If you could get your doctor to write a prescription for hypnosis weight loss sessions I have seen some insurances reimburse the client for part of the fee. Not many companies and not much of the fee, but I will give you a receipt and you can ask your insurance plan coordinator or agent if they will cover it and you receive the payment.
Why do you do an evaluation session or why do you do five sessions after the evaluation or why do you charge so much or why don't you do this like I saw on the Internet or television?
Some good questions. I do an evaluation session because I don't just want to run people through an office. I want to help the people I can help and certainly not hurt or take money from those I can't. I know this makes the process a little slower, but it seems to work quite well. I do the evaluation session and then five scheduled sessions so I have a good chance of seeing you for a six week period. The minimum it takes to build a new habit is about 21 days and 21 days doesn't work for everyone. If we are working together for six weeks I have a pretty good chance of giving you the tools and reinforcement for you to create some new and pretty healthy habits.
I know they do this all on television and then go to the commercial break, but you don't see what has been done with the client before they go on air and how well the client does on their own days and weeks after they left them smiling at the commercial break. To see the results and success I want to see in my work and also for you, six weeks is what works.
Why do I charge so much? I mean, after all I just talk to you in a chair, right? I am a professional. I have insurance. I pay taxes. I have business expenses. I have to keep records. I spent a lot on my training. I take continuing education classes every year. It took me a lot to get here. Your lawyer, your doctor, your chiropractor and even your plumber are professionals. Look at what they have to charge to be in business.
I check my fees from time to time and see how they compare with the hypnotists in this section of the United States. Some do package deals that are a little cheaper, but when they start charging you for cd's, books and other resources that I include in your session I don't see they are all that cheap. I actually see more hypnotists that charge more than those that make lower priced packaged deals. I tell you up front what it takes for most clients. I don't say we can do it in three sessions and then have you come back for three more because you are a special case. I am not saying the others aren't ethical, I am just saying the way I price things is about average for the business when you figure it all in.
Now why don't I do it all like you see it on television? That is a good question. We are all a little different.The clients are different, the hypnotists are different. If you see something on television you only saw the hypnotist do it one time and one way. We don't know if they change how they do it when different people come along. I can tell you they had better change how they do it when different people come along, you have to treat people as individuals.
Different hypnotist learn different ways of doing things and often learn them from different schools. Our own personality affects how we interact with people as well as our experiences. My first wife had a great deal of pain at times before she died. What I learned from her and that experience has shaped how I look at pain. Some hypnotists you have to tell you are hurting and need help in a certain area. I look for pain and ask if people are comfortable. I am just sensitive to that from my background. You know, I noticed myself I don't do it like they do on television.
Why should I go to you? What makes you different?
Okay, here is the payoff if you have read this far. I lost a lot of weight myself. How did I do it? Hypnosis of course!
First the surgical method
Just about everyone that has researched weight loss has heard about the gastric band and the gastric bypass surgeries. These surgeries are some of the most performed surgical procedures in modern medicine, but they have problems.
1. They aren't for everyone, not everyone qualifies. The standard criteria requires you to be at least 100 pounds overweight and or have an urgent medical condition that requires you to lose weight quickly.
2. Not everyone passes the pre-surgerical exam. There are a lot of reasons for this. General Health Problems, Heart Conditions, Lung Conditions, Uncontrolled Diabetes, Problems with Anesthesia and so on. Did you know that being overweight can actually disqualify you for weight loss surgery? If you weigh too much that can create higher risk factors.
3. They are painful. Like all major surgery there is some pain that is involved. Not everyone is willing or able to go through that stage of the process or recovery.
4. They have side effects and risks. These surgeries are like all other major surgeries. There is the risk of uncontrolled bleeding, shock, infection, reactions to the medications, surgical induced system failures and other risks. Not everyone tolerates the band or the surgical reduction of their stomach well. These surgeries are not necessarily more risky than other major surgeries, but there are risks and certainly side effects from having your abdomen cut open and your stomach radically altered.
5. They are expensive. These procedures can run from $20,000 to $40,000 or more depending on what is done, the area the world and the local medical economy, any complications you may require treatment for and of course the exact procedure you have performed.
6. The long term results may not be as good as you expected. It is common for the stomach to stretch some over time. If you don't learn to control your eating you can undo a lot of your hard earned and expensive progress. Scar tissue and other problems can require surgery to undo your procedure. Gastric bands can even slip over time.
7. If you have a job you will have to take some time off from work. This varies of course depending on the procedure and the individual, but you don't get up off of the operating table and go back to work that afternoon. Many people just can't afford to miss work or not be able to do the things they normally do, this includes mothers with young children, care givers, professionals and a lot of other busy people.
Is there a better way?
Yes, for many people there is a better way and it may surprise you. When you have gastric band or gastric bypass surgery you don't have fat removed immediately by the process, you lose weight because the procedure changes how you can eat. If you ate like a weight loss surgery patient you would lose weight like a weight loss surgery patient because the new way of eating is how they lose weight. In fact, if the weight loss surgery patient would just eat the new way they could lose weight without the surgery. The reason that most people have weight loss surgery is they can't change how they are eating. When you have your effective stomach size reduced to about the size of a golf ball you don't have a choice about changing how you eat, you must change. The sad thing is many people undergo painful, risky and expensive surgery just to change their habits.
Everyone knows that to lose weight you simply must eat less and be more active, but the problem is most people don't know how to do what they know to do. That is where hypnosis comes in. I won't kid you, long term weight loss has traditionally been one of the most difficult areas in hypnosis, even though hypnosis traditionally has always had better long term results with weight loss than any other method. I can hypnotize you with your permission and agreement to never smoke again, but I can't do that for eating, you have to eat some and that can easily get out of control again without follow up visits. There is some disagreement about who came up with it first, but someone got the idea that if you hypnotized someone into going along with the idea that they had a gastric band they would behave like a weight loss surgery patient. Study after study in Europe and England showed they do act just that way, even down to the weight loss.This method when properly administered gives better results than any other hypnotic method currently practiced publicly and hypnosis has long been the best method for changing habits and sustaining long term weight loss.
Isn't that just weird?
Not really. I don't try to consciously convince you that you actually had the surgery, although your subconscious mind may believe exactly that and act accordingly. The way this works is we set it up like a game where you sort of play like you had the surgery. Have you ever played a game and got caught up in the game? Have you ever heard about video gamers that got so caught up in their games that the games were more real to them than their lives? Maybe you have watched a movie and you knew it was just a movie, but you got so caught up in the movie you laughed, cried, were happy, sad and your heart even raced with excitement. That is what this is like. We make the game so real that you even lose weight. Once we figure out the best way to play the game for you it is likely your hunger will fade and even go away.
So is it weird? I don't think so. When we watch a movie we are playing a game and pretending that the movie is real. If you just looked at a movie as a way to stage pictures with fake people how enjoyable would that be? Now that would be weird!
When we play games with our friends we call that fun, not weird. If you could play a game that would keep you from having surgery, help you lose weight and have the body you want and all the while give you better health I don't think that is weird at all!
So what is the process?
I don't like spending money on something when I don't know if I will like it either. That is why I will spend up to 10 minutes on the phone with you discussing the process and your goals at no cost to you. Since I am seeing clients most of the day you will have to schedule this 10 minute phone session. You can do that best by email, drop me a line at scotthogue@ymail.com and I will get back with you on some available times. If you like what you hear the next thing is you come in for a half hour non-refundable evaluation session. This way if we are surprised with something not uncovered in the phone session you aren't out the full price for the program. If we both decide to proceed, then you must have a doctor's approval. Would you really want to work with someone that doesn't care enough about you to get a doctor's approval for you? If you don't have a doctor we can give you a list of doctors that are familiar with the process.
After the evaluation session and a doctor's approval you will return for five sessions.
1. Preparing for virtual surgery.
You will get a cd and some materials to carry home with you to help you prepare for your big day. You will also do some trial eating. You will become familiar with the program and the process.
2. The actual session where we install the virtual gastric band hypnotic tool.
We will have already had some basic hypnosis in the earlier visits.
You will get a reinforcement cd to listen to daily.
3. Your first follow up.
How are you doing? Do we need to make adjustments?
4. Weigh in and reinforcement.
5. Your last scheduled appointment.
You should be seeing real results now. Most people are comfortable with proceeding on their own, but I am always available by regular appointment. Many people decide to come back and work on some other area of their life.
What will it cost?
The phone session is free. The evaluation session can take up to a half hour and is $50. I try to keep this session low so people can find out their options without investing a lot of money. This is much lower than my regular hourly fee. You will need a doctor's permission to continue. That may cost you in the range of $50 to $150 or more depending on your doctor, what tests the doctor decides you need and if this is your first visit to that doctor. I don't get any of the doctor's fee. That is strictly between you and your doctor. The following five sessions cost $500 total. The $50 evaluation session must be paid for the day of your session. The $500 must be paid for at the start of the first actual session after the evaluation or in payments of $250 the first weight loss session and another $250 on the third weight loss session. So this is how it breaks down. With the $50 evaluation session and the $500 virtual gastric band program in one payment you will pay $550 for the sessions, plus whatever the doctor charges you. So for my fees you are looking at $550 and with the doctor another $100 more or less versus $20,000 to $40,000 or more for actual surgery with actual pain and side effects.
Is there a guarantee?
Yes and no. Since I can't control what you do I can't guarantee results. I can guarantee you can't violate the laws of physics by eating less food than you use and not lose weight. I am a human being. You are a human being. If you really tried and didn't get results you can talk to me about the fee. The reason I say this is for you to feel comfortable. The only reason you really wouldn't succeed is if you didn't do the program. Since I talk to you for free on the phone, then I do an evaluation session for $50 you aren't out much money before you find out if this is for you. There shouldn't be any surprises. You will know how this works and what you have to do for it to work before you pay the program fees. The only problem I have seen so far is when there are negative people in the client's life that tear down our work. I only see you for an hour a week. If you have a spouse or "friend" giving you negative suggestions and feeding you failure everyday that is going to be a problem. If we know it in advance I can give you suggestions that will help you not be as susceptible to the negative influences of others. This is like everything else in the world, do it and it works. Don't do it and what do you expect?
Is this for everyone?
No, it isn't for everyone. It is for more people than qualify for surgery and most people that want to lose a moderate or extreme amount of weight. If you have less than 20 or maybe 15 very stubborn pounds to lose I would just suggest you have several regular hypnosis sessions, that is probably all you need.
Who doesn't qualify?
I have never had a problem, but as a caution from my training I am very careful with people that are prone to seizures. If you have uncontrolled seizures or you are on certain medications that would disqualify you. Sometimes people have a condition that the doctor feels must be treated with a specific diet. In this case you may not qualify or the program may need to be modified for you. Some people eat to relieve the discomfort of problems they haven't resolved. We all have a tendency to eat comfort foods, but in some cases eating and over eating can be a coping mechanism that you just can't take away without creating other problems. These core issues must be dealt with first and that may require counseling with the proper healthcare professional. Occasionally you run up on someone with undiagnosed stomach ulcers. In some cases the ulcer pain is relieved by eating. Eating certain foods can neutralize stomach acid and almost act as a bandage against the ulcer. In these cases the program must be stopped and the underlying health problems treated by a doctor. If during the evaluation I find you are not seriously motivated and I can't find any core material in your personality, life or memories that I can draw on to help you with motivation I will not proceed with the program.
Can I be too young or too old?
You can't be too old to do this, the question is "are you in good general health and will a competent doctor sign off on you starting a calorie restricted diet?" I will not do this program with younger patients. There are several reasons for that. One is people under the age of 18 are still growing and forming. There are some different issues that must be considered when working with children and rapid or extreme weight loss. There are also other methods we use to hypnotize and work with children, especially the younger children. Although I do hold a certificate in ADD/ADHD childhood hypnosis, I don't consider myself an expert in childhood obesity and hypnosis. I know you can find other people that will do a virtual gastric band on the Internet that work with children, but personally I don't want children to think that "magic" cures are the way to treat all health problems. I just don't think this particular method is the best for children. I may work with older children and this program in conjunction with a competent doctor's referral, but we will work together and probably modify the program a lot. I also would expect counseling for the child so they would have a healthy relationship with food.
How fast will I lose weight?
It is common to lose 2 to 4 pounds the first week, some people lose even more. When you start cutting back on the amount of food you eat then you soon have less in your digestive tract. This loss is not true fat loss. You can't keep this rate up and it be healthy for you. Expect 1 to 3 pounds a week depending on how much you have to lose. A person that is 100 pounds or more overweight will usually lose weight faster at first than someone that has only 20 pounds to lose. They simply have a higher percentage of their body that is fat and more of it to lose as well as what we call "water weight." For most people doctors say that 1 to 2 pounds a week is a healthy and sustainable goal. That may not sound much to you, but the average person has a weight goal of less than thirty pounds to lose and if you lose two pounds a week you can lose over 100 pounds a year. Slower weight loss may be frustrating to you, but remember all the studies show that if you lose weight at the rate of 1 to 2 pounds a week you are much more likely to keep it off than the people that crash diet and lose weight even faster.
What problems do you see?
Goodness, new ones all of the time, people are so unique, but never any serious ones. Common problems include many people don't drink the water they are supposed to. This makes them more likely to be hungry, not replace eating with other habits and even more cranky and constipated. The next one is people often don't eat the vegetables they are supposed to eat. Here again hunger is the side effect and not learning better ways to eat and not as much weight loss with constipation. Some people don't do the protein shakes or protein rich foods and they wind up feeling achy and tired. This usually passes on its own, but why go through it if you can just eat enough protein and get complex carbs for the carbohydrates included in the diet?
What side effects do you see?
Well, weight loss is one side effect. Pardon me for making a joke. You are more likely to hurt yourself getting in and out of the car coming to the sessions than doing this program if you follow the directions. People do sometimes complain of headaches the first few days, especially if they aren't following directions. Too little water, protein, complex carbs and even not doing the stress release exercises can contribute to this. The other side effect you hear about is some people get bad breath with this. I never noticed anything obvious, it may be more noticeable to them than me. When you burn fat you make ketones in your blood stream as part of the process and they can come out in your breath. I suggest a sugar free breath mint from time to time. Not a bad side effect compared to the actual surgery side effects instead of doing this virtual surgery.
Really, how bad is the actual surgery versus the virtual surgery?
Here is the best you can hope for with the "real" surgery, taken from the actual websites of doctors that do the surgery and the national news media that reports on them:
"Weight loss surgery is considered successful when 50% of excess weight is lost and the loss sustained up to five years. For example, a patient who is 100 pounds overweight should lose at least 50 pounds; a patient who is 200 pounds overweight should lose at least 100 pounds. And they should be able to maintain loss successfully for the following five years.
Estimated weight loss in the first 1- 2 years after a Roux-en-Y Gastric bypass is approximately 1/2 to 2/3rd of excess weight. 50% excess weight loss has been documented 10 years and more after Gastric bypass."
"Gastric Bypass Surgery achieves weight loss by decreasing intestinal absorption of food; instead of following its usual path, food bypasses a portion of the stomach and small bowel. In addition to surgical complications, some people experience long-term deficiencies of vitamin B12, folate, and iron. "Dumping syndrome," in which the consumption of sugar causes abdominal cramping and diarrhea, can also occur. Some people will also regain some weight in subsequent years."
"Nearly half of patients who have laparoscopic gastric banding for obesity eventually need to have the devices removed because of erosion or some other malfunction, researchers say.
Among 82 patients followed for at least 12 years after lap-band surgery at a single institution, 49 had at least one follow up operation for complications or device failure, according to Dr. Jacques Himpens, of Saint Pierre University Hospital in Brussels, and colleagues.
They also reported online in Archives of Surgery that 41 had the bands removed during follow-up, with 14 then undergoing Roux-en-Y Gastric bypass. In all but a few cases, inadequate weight loss or device breakdown was the reason for band removal."
I am just saying that if I considered my clients successful if they only lost half of their healthy weight loss goal and then eventually about half of them wanted me to undo what had been done I wouldn't consider that very successful. How about you?
What about weight loss? 50 pounds in a year is reasonably doable just by replacing bad habits with better ones. In fact you may not even need hypnosis to do that. In one study in England the success rate for the virtual gastric band was over 90%. Of course methods and results vary, but this sounds like a much better starting place. If you do the virtual gastric band program and you are not satisfied you go on with your life and other options. If you do the real surgical procedure and you are not satisfied you have another surgery.
Sometimes people that haven't looked into this make fun of me when I talk about how a gastric band that only exists in the mind can cause healthy weight loss. My question is how does a real band create weight loss when half of them have to eventually be removed and there is no band at all? All I am saying is be an informed consumer. Some people are very happy with the actual surgery and I am happy for them. Fewer people seem to be happy long term. Some of the unhappy people wind up with a hypnotist.
Will my insurance pay for this?
Probably not, but it is worth a try. I don't accept insurance as payment, but I will give you a receipt you can turn in to your insurance company. The only things I have ever seen an insurance company pay in hypnosis are smoking cessation and weight loss. If you could get your doctor to write a prescription for hypnosis weight loss sessions I have seen some insurances reimburse the client for part of the fee. Not many companies and not much of the fee, but I will give you a receipt and you can ask your insurance plan coordinator or agent if they will cover it and you receive the payment.
Why do you do an evaluation session or why do you do five sessions after the evaluation or why do you charge so much or why don't you do this like I saw on the Internet or television?
Some good questions. I do an evaluation session because I don't just want to run people through an office. I want to help the people I can help and certainly not hurt or take money from those I can't. I know this makes the process a little slower, but it seems to work quite well. I do the evaluation session and then five scheduled sessions so I have a good chance of seeing you for a six week period. The minimum it takes to build a new habit is about 21 days and 21 days doesn't work for everyone. If we are working together for six weeks I have a pretty good chance of giving you the tools and reinforcement for you to create some new and pretty healthy habits.
I know they do this all on television and then go to the commercial break, but you don't see what has been done with the client before they go on air and how well the client does on their own days and weeks after they left them smiling at the commercial break. To see the results and success I want to see in my work and also for you, six weeks is what works.
Why do I charge so much? I mean, after all I just talk to you in a chair, right? I am a professional. I have insurance. I pay taxes. I have business expenses. I have to keep records. I spent a lot on my training. I take continuing education classes every year. It took me a lot to get here. Your lawyer, your doctor, your chiropractor and even your plumber are professionals. Look at what they have to charge to be in business.
I check my fees from time to time and see how they compare with the hypnotists in this section of the United States. Some do package deals that are a little cheaper, but when they start charging you for cd's, books and other resources that I include in your session I don't see they are all that cheap. I actually see more hypnotists that charge more than those that make lower priced packaged deals. I tell you up front what it takes for most clients. I don't say we can do it in three sessions and then have you come back for three more because you are a special case. I am not saying the others aren't ethical, I am just saying the way I price things is about average for the business when you figure it all in.
Now why don't I do it all like you see it on television? That is a good question. We are all a little different.The clients are different, the hypnotists are different. If you see something on television you only saw the hypnotist do it one time and one way. We don't know if they change how they do it when different people come along. I can tell you they had better change how they do it when different people come along, you have to treat people as individuals.
Different hypnotist learn different ways of doing things and often learn them from different schools. Our own personality affects how we interact with people as well as our experiences. My first wife had a great deal of pain at times before she died. What I learned from her and that experience has shaped how I look at pain. Some hypnotists you have to tell you are hurting and need help in a certain area. I look for pain and ask if people are comfortable. I am just sensitive to that from my background. You know, I noticed myself I don't do it like they do on television.
Why should I go to you? What makes you different?
Okay, here is the payoff if you have read this far. I lost a lot of weight myself. How did I do it? Hypnosis of course!