Leslie Engles
Semi-retired
Austin, Texas
I have struggled with my weight for the last forty years. It was miserable and frustrating; I always felt self-conscious and thought that I was a disappointment to my mother. I felt constrained and thought that people were judging me. I felt out of control about my eating. If you put something in front of me that I wanted, I would just eat it without question. I was bingeing a couple of times a week. I would eat ten individual chocolates or five individual packets of potato chips or a whole box of cookies over a couple of days and then go out and buy a new box to replace what I had eaten so that no one would know.
I tried Weight Watchers to lose weight, but it was too regimented for me with too much measuring. I tried Nutri-System very briefly as a teenager. I thought it was very unrealistic and knew it was not going to work for me. I've tried low-carbohydrate, high carbohydrate, the grapefruit diet, the cabbage diet. Some things worked temporarily, but I just kept gaining it all back.
I found out about A New Day Hypnosis on Google. We studied hypnosis in medical school, so it didn't seem scary to me. I had a friend who had used hypnosis to stop smoking and thought it might be able to help me with weight loss.
I noticed changes after a couple of weeks. I was eating smaller portions and controlling my snacking. Listening to the sessions seemed to make it easier to make good choices without feeling that terrible deprivation that I was so used to. It helped me focus on achieving a goal that I wanted and it made the choice process a less painful one for me.
I have really appreciated the fact that Laura creates a really safe, warm environment that makes it a lot easier to bare your soul and I've noticed that I feel happier in general. I'm less stressed and I no longer obsess about what I look like or worry about whether people are judging me. I feel a lot more confident about accepting myself.
This has been easier than I thought it would be. I feel more in control and I haven't wanted to binge or hide my eating. I can just eat something and stop. It has helped reduce a lot of the cravings and I don't crave things the way that I used to. I used to want to go get a dozen donuts and now I crave things like orange juice.
My cousin noticed that my face looks a lot thinner and my hairstylist commented that I had lost weight and looked good. My clothes fit better and I feel more confident because I have accepted myself. The biggest benefit for me has been that I am not focused on what everybody else thinks about me. I'm getting my eating under control and I continue doing healthier things. I think about food in a healthier way and think about myself in a healthier way, which has been a relief. I am eating better and I am taking better care of myself and I would recommend A New Day Hypnosis to anyone who wants to have a healthy lifestyle because this process has made me feel a lot better.