Cynthia Brinson, MD
Physician
Austin, Texas
I’ve always had unhealthy eating habits; I ate what I wanted all the time, but I would eat candy bars instead of food. I would just stop myself from eating and rarely overate, but the quality of the food that I was eating was very unhealthy. For the last two years, I started eating everything that I wanted in addition to regular meals and I really couldn’t see a way that I was going to work myself out of that. I felt like I had lost the ability to do what had always worked for me and I didn’t see an end in sight.
I was trying to control my eating by daily deprivation, but I would get so hungry that I would throw caution to the wind and eat everything that I could. In the evenings I would overeat and tended to eat high carbohydrate and high fat foods. I would open a bag of cookies and the next thing I knew I had eaten them all, I didn’t know how it happened or how I would stop myself from doing it in the future. After a full dinner, I would sit down and eat eight ounces of cheese and crackers. I felt out of control and desperate; I was gaining weight and I didn’t see a way to stop that from happening. I didn’t have hope that I could fix the problems on my own, so I decided to try something else.
I heard about A New Day Hypnosis on Urban Dealight; I wanted to try something out of the box because I thought I would have more success with an alternative method of weight loss. It intrigued me and I felt that this could be successful for me. I could tell the first time that I came in that this was something that would be effective for me. I was aware of my eating problems right away and I was paying more attention; I was mentally open and thinking about what I had learned. The hypnosis is easy, I love it because it’s very relaxing and it makes me happy. The sessions have been very beneficial for stress reduction and a better quality of sleep.
I understand now that eating disorders come in all shapes and sizes and it has made me more accepting of that with other people. I’ve been eating food during the day and not snacking at night. I’m happy about incorporating fruit into my diet. The other day, for the first time, I heated up something at work and I relaxed and ate it. I have cut back completely on after-dinner snacking. I’m eating reasonable amounts of higher quality foods and I’m savoring food and taking the time to sit down and eat.
I feel more in control. I don’t have cravings all the time and I’m able to negotiate with myself if I have one. I understand why I made the mistakes that I made in the past and I’m now making plans and recognizing mistakes that may have led me to overeating. I don’t lose control and I can override the desire for cheese. An employee noticed that I always have bananas on my desk and my husband commented that he is happy that I’m eating during the work day.
I feel confident that I can continue to have a healthier relationship with food; the biggest benefit for me has been recognizing the habits that I had gotten into and understanding that the way that I was dealing with things was not going to be successful for me.
I know that these changes and my healthy lifestyle will be permanent because I believe in them. I know that the approach that I had was destructive and I can see at this point that it would be very difficult to go back to my old mentality of eating.
I would recommend A New Day Hypnosis to anyone who wants to change their habits and their lifestyle. If you are willing to listen and change, it is a way of changing from the inside-out. It’s not a gimmick or a shortcut; it is about becoming friends with food rather than having an enemy relationship. I am a happier person now and I feel confident that I can live without binging and not let food take over my life.