I went to a refresh a few nights ago and I left highly energized and more clear about the path ahead of me: drop this weight once and be done with dieting. Once and Done. It feels so Zen. Hell, I feel so Zen!

Zen garden; photo by Theresa
At the refresh, Julie reminded us that every time we turn away from sugar, our brain reprograms. The challenge is for us to push back on the urge to eat sugar. The reward is the more that we do this, the more weight we lose. Reprogramming our brains is the bonus. Feeding the hunger with the right foods, reprograms our brain away from the old habit of turning to sugar when we're hungry.

I haven't been aware of an urge for sugar, but when I feed my give-me-beef-now hunger with the right foods, I am rewarded by weight loss.

Today I understand how this program works in a way that I didn't before, and this information came at a perfect time. I've been a year and a half on program and I have not touched sugar in all this time. Over the weekend I had an incredible dinner in Boston, and I indulged in two glasses of champagne and two bites of dessert. Remember, you are either on program or off; there is no middle position here. The good news I am not on a spiral down into sugar, sugar, sugar. I've also moved on. What's done is done.

In the refresh, a few nights later, I realized if I do this program straight through, don't stray, and I don't go into grey areas, I can reach my goal weight and be done with dieting. Once I reach my goal size, I can learn to maintain that size, by going up and down a few pounds within that size for the rest of my life. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel here. I am going to see this journey through. This is very exciting!

What about the rest of you? What's working for you this week? What's keeping you on your journey?
June 21, 2012
Last night I met up with two of our blog contributors, Linda and Jennifer, at Roma, where we shared stories of our success with the Key Hypnosis Program over a meatless pizza.
Left to right: Theresa, Linda, Jennifer, Emilia (owner)
Photo by one of the great Roma staff
I was honored that these women would meet up and share their stories like this. It was inspirational. As a group, we represent a full-range of success on this program:

Maintaining Weight for Two Years

Emilia, owner of Roma, joined us after dinner and shared her Key Hypnosis story. After losing weight with Julie, Emilia has been maintaining her weight for two years.

Emilia - thanks for the delicious pizza, excellent service, and for sharing your story with us! Your comments are welcome!

At Goal Size and Learning Maintenance

Jennifer just celebrated a year on the program and has reached her goal size. She started at size 20 and is now an 8. Read Jennifer's story: One Year.

Weight Loss Phase

Linda and I are in the weight loss phase, following the program to continue our journey to our goal size. Linda was a size 26/28 and is now size 16. See more about Linda and her before and now photos in her post My BEFORE and on the 'weigh' pictures.

My story is all over this blog, but my recent post Down Another Size, shows a photo of me at my largest and another photo from a few days ago.

If you're interested in making a meat-crust pizza, you can follow the pizza recipe I used, which is based on a recipe from Julie.

Or, call Capi di Roma, a day or two ahead of time to request the meat-crust pizza, as it isn't one the menu, and Emilia will have her staff make this pizza for you. Casual dress. Wine and beer only.
Meat crust pizza
Capa di Roma
358 Burnside Avenue
East Hartford, CT
Phone: 860-282-0298

June 15, 2012
Hypnosis for weight loss is being recognized by medical associations and health experts....
Family physician Dr. Mark Hyman has dedicated his career
to identifying and addressing the root causes of chronic illness
I'm on a handful of inspirational and informative email lists (newsletters, etc.) and one of them is from Dr. Mark Hyman. In his June 12, 20112 newsletter, he not only recognized hypnosis as an effective weight loss tool, but he also indicated hypnosis is approved for clinical use, by both the British Medical Association and the American Medical Association. It's great to hear support for the type of work Julie is doing with the Key Hypnosis Program.

In Dr. Hyman's recent article, Increase fat loss by 146%, he also wrote about the first medical textbook addressing hypnosis by Dr. Roberta Temes, author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Hypnosis and editor of Medical Hypnosis.  I'm not suggesting you run out and buy this book or CD's; I haven't read the book or seen the CD's. I'm advocating Julie has been leading us all in the right direction.

Here are a handful of article titles I pulled from his website, which are aligned with some of what Julie teaches us:
  • five reasons high fructose corn syrup will kill you
  • gluten: what you don't know might kill you
  • why eating a low-fat diet doesn't lead to weight loss
  • food addiction: could it explain why 70 Percent of America is fat?
  • three hidden ways wheat makes you fat
The Key Hypnosis Program has a deep knowledge base and Julie speaks to these types of topics in her classes to help us learn how to lose weight and keep it off.  I'm happy to see medical experts backing what Julie teaches, and we are learning through our own experiences, is a healthy way to lose weight and keep it off.

I'm not a medical expert, but I know I feel better than I have in decades from applying the principals of this program in my daily life.

Do any of you have references to other news items in support of what Julie teaches us that you'd like to share?

BTW, welcome to our newest contributor: Adrienne!
June 14, 2012
I think there are many people looking at this blog that are just beginning their journey with Julie, or trying to make the decision to make an appointment. From the looks of the total page views, well there is no way that 45 followers, and 7 contributors make up all those page views.

So to help the people that are seeing what it is all about, trying to make that choice, researching Julie's program, just beginning or what ever, this is what I am asking:

Pretend you are talking with someone who is trying to decide to make an appointment with Julie, or someone who is just beginning the journey, what piece of advice/words of wisdom would you give that person? What would you say to convince them to make that appointment, or that they made the right choice to start her program?

I know we have hit upon some of these points in previous posts, but for someone who is just checking in and doesn’t know their way around the blog it might be helpful to them to see it again, or even for me to see this again. And who knows, we might even get a comment we haven’t heard yet!!!

The support on this blog is priceless!!!

June 13, 2012
Despite my desire to never shop in large-size women's store, I wandered into the Avenue over the weekend and I left with a beautiful new dress!
This is how I feel in my new dress!
In the year and a half since I started this program, I haven't bought many new clothes, because I have a ton  in my closets that I've been "saving" for years. Most of them are too big now and my clothing options are dwindling. Last week a friend gave me some really beautiful tops and pants, but I wanted something new that resonates with me and my new body. I haven't worn the dress yet, so I don't have a photo, but when I wear it later this week, I'll add post it here.

What's significant for me in all this is that I'm coming to terms with where I am with my size. I am not the size I want to be (8), but I've come a long way from the size 30/32 sizes I wore a year and a half ago. I've focused my energy on being frustrated that I'm not further along, i.e., I'm still not wearing at least a size 16, wah, wah, wah, and suddenly, in the middle of my feeling bummed about not being a 16, without realizing it - I moved into size 18. Shut up!

What a great surprise to find myself down another size. I will continue to work on living in the moment instead of focusing on just the future.

What about you? Have you treated yourself to new clothes lately? I shopping more fun than it used to be?

06/13/12 Update - here I am in my new dress!

  
June 11, 2012
Ok, I am going to bite the bullet and post pictures. I have never liked my picture taken and still don’t like my picture taken.

For those that don't like to look at pictures, please don't look and if you have a negative comment because I posted pictures, please don't leave it. It is taking all my courage to post these. I am doing this in the hopes that maybe my story will help someone to continue on this journey.

The first of these pictures is quite painful to me. It was me, not to many years ago at my absolute heaviest weight in my life. The woman in that picture was so sad, depressed, and just couldn’t stop eating. This was right before I re-joined Weight Watchers for the one millionth time. I was a size 26/28. I lost 60 pounds after that picture was taken. Got to a size 20 with WW. Couldn’t get any lower.

My dear husband would beg me to stop eating, he was so worried I would die. But even with Greg begging, I couldn't stop eating. I don't know if any of you has ever had your spouse beg you to stop eating, but that is one of the most humiliating moments, I didn't want to upset him anymore so I became a closet eater

Gained most of the 60 pounds back except for 20 before I went to see Julie. The next 2 pictures were in the few weeks before my first appointment with Julie.
The third picture was in December for our family Christmas card, I had gone down from a 24 to a 20 by that time. People were noticing and I was so excited.
The fifth picture is my in my size 16 jean skirt and my size large shirt. I personally can not see a difference from the middle pictures, but can see it from the first picture.

Never in the years I have been married have I ever worn a 16!! I have even got into some 14 skirts, can't wear them in public yet, but they are on and zipped!!!

My mind won’t let me see the loss. I honestly can not see my weight loss. I know by sizes I have lost some weight, but pictures and mirrors I can not see it.

I know I am loosing, people tell me all the time and I am really hoping someday my brain will catch up.
June 11, 2012
I have been on the weight loss roller coaster for years. The last time I was under 200 lbs. I was in high school. Weight loss was really never a priority in my life, even though as a police officer it would have been more beneficial to me to be in better condition. It took an appendectomy to get me down near the weight I would be comfortable at (around 215) and getting remarried also served as motivation to keep my weight down.

As time went on and over the course of 20 years, I tried a couple of different things, including getting hypnotized. I tried Weight Watchers, South Beach, Belly Off....you name it. I would lose 5 or 10 lbs, but when I went to the doctor last year, I was the heaviest I've ever been....259 lbs. Despite my wife virtually begging me to lose weight, I just couldn't get over my carb and sugar addictions. My knees were killing me, my feet were killing me and I've had a chronic bad back for years. I was resigned to the fact that I was never going to get past this. Even while having people my age develop diabetes and even dying of heart attacks, my addiction just wouldn't let me go.

I am a listener to a local radio station and one of the hosts on the program was talking about a "diet" he was on and the fact that he had dropped a lot of weight. Having seen pictures of this person and having him on Facebook, I noticed that he was indeed starting to look much thinner in his more recent pictures. One day, I messaged him on Facebook and he told me what he was doing...hypnotherapy. He told me about Julie and said that I should at least get on the waiting list, since it was fairly lengthy. Long story short, I went to my three sessions in March and April of this year and haven't looked back. I don't know what I've lost for weight, but when I went to my physical last week, my doctor said it was "substantial". As a bonus, my blood pressure is normal (I had been on medication for it) and my cholesterol had lowered quite a bit, including my triglycerides.

For anyone on the fence about this program, it works....to the point where I tried to physically take a chocolate chip cookie and eat it (as a test) but couldn't lift it to my mouth. My family didn't believe me until I did it in front of them. This program has truly changed my life and I am grateful to Julie and the staff at Key Hypnosis for this program, as well as that radio host on a local station in Springfield. Best I can say is be patient, stay true to the program and look forward. It's a life changer.
June 08, 2012
This question was posted from Anonymous:
I think I am hitting a Brick Wall. It seems my weight Loss has gone way down since the start. I have not gone off the program once whether it be Carbs or Sugar, but not seeing any new results. What is the average time it would take to lose 80+ pounds??? I am changing things up daily but I may be eating a little to much at each sitting. If anyone can offer help that would be great. Thanks in advance for any help given.
I have no idea how long it will take an average person to lose 80+ pounds. I've probably lost that much weight by now and I started in Jan. 2011. So, for me it's taken a year and a half. I've lost my weight over a longer period of time than others who have posted here and sometimes I get all caught up in my head about this. The good news is I stay off the scale and I keep getting a better understanding of what to eat and what not to eat. I feel healthier than I have in years.

I get frustrated that I'm not losing faster, but I'm losing and as long I'm continuing to drop weight, it's going to take as long as it takes. I have to keep my frustration at bay. I've been wanting to drop from this size 20 pants for months. But a few months ago I was elated at being able to wear a size 20! This morning I put on size 18's and they zipped up. I still can't go out of the house in them, but they didn't zip up before this. This keeps me motivated to continue.

Reading about others success here keeps me going too. I continue to get out of my own way so I can succeed. Some days are easier than others at staying out of my way, but the day passes.

I haven't exercised in a few weeks due to an Achilles heel issue and I haven't taken this down time as an opportunity to try other exercise options. This is just how it is today. Next week I committed to a work exercise program for 6 weeks. This comes at just the right time, to help me move to action back. I love these kinds of opportunities.

In my experience, none of us lose at the same rate. How long it takes doesn't matter. What matters is that your weight does comes off when you stay the course and from there you learn how to maintain you weight for the rest of your life. You're asking all the right questions, looking to see if there are things you are eating that you shouldn't.

What words of wisdom do the rest of you have for anonymous about hitting a brick wall?


June 07, 2012