How the Virtual Gastric Band Program has helped me
After shedding 25 pounds without dieting (going from borderline obesity & back to my healthier weight), I was feeling pretty good about myself.
My next goal was to shed another 5-10 pounds but at that point, my weight completely plateaued.
My weight stayed constant for over 6 months.
I was perplexed and I figured I just needed to do more Healthy Weight Mindset work.
Instead, I started sabotaging myself.
I found endless excuses to NOT do a little homework around my Healthy Weight Mindset work.
I was either way too busy or found numerous other things that were just far more important.
After all, I was only a “little” overweight.
I justified those extra pounds of fat with statistics that people that are 10 to 25 pounds "overweight" are healthier and live longer.
But I knew from my coaching work with my clients that these rationals and excuses were distractions that my subconscious mind was using to keep my consciousness off the track of losing those last pounds.
Enter the Virtual Gastric Band Program
In August of 2014, I read about a hypnosis program called the The Virtual Gastric Band.
As a hypnotherapist, I had studied several hypnosis approaches to release excess weight.
My experience with clients was that different approaches worked better with different people.
But none of these approaches were working to shift me off my weight plateau.
If they weren’t working on me, how could I feel confident to continue using them on my clients?
When I first saw the information about the Virtual Gastric Band, I just knew this could help me and many of my clients.
I became fascinated and intrigued with the concept of convincing my subconscious mind that my body had experienced a gastric band procedure and the mind & body believed that my stomach became the size of a ping pong ball.
I had a friend that was a successful nurse hypnotherapist that used hypnosis as a replacement for anesthesia for surgeries.
The VGB info seemed like a similar concept.
I did more research.
There were only 4 certified course instructors in North America for the most successful version of the VGB program.
Sheila Granger in Great Britain had a perfected a 4 session VGB program that had a 90-95% success rate in two double blind medically supervised studies.
A course to become a Virtual Gastric Band practitioners was being held the next month in Seattle, Washington and I couldn’t wait to sign up.
I was actually more excited for myself than I was about using the training for my Healthy Weight Coaching clients.
My Virtual Gastric Band Experience
My experience was with a version of the weekend intensive of the VGB program.
As I sat in a room the first afternoon with others also training to be VGB practitioners, being hypnotized and taken through a virtual gastric band surgery,
I remember thinking very negatively to myself,
“This doesn’t feel or seem real at all. All my other hypnosis experiences have been so intense and wonderful. This had better work after all the money that I have spent to learn this program as well as travel and hotel. What an expensive endeavor this will be!”
When I went out to dinner that evening, I ate as usual and my stomach did not feel smaller at all.
I held my disappointment at a distance with “let’s wait and see”.
After all, I had 3 more sessions to complete.
The next morning we went through the second hypnosis session.
Again it was not what I expected.
I found I was having more doubts about the monies I had spent for this trip.
We went to lunch.
After after I ate about 1/4 of my plate of food, I started feeling pleasantly full.
Because it was going to be a long afternoon and I didn’t want to be famished at the end of the long workshop day, I tried to finish eating my meal, but I just couldn't.
For the rest of that afternoon, I didn’t just feel full, I felt bloated like I had over eaten at Thanksgiving dinner!
I did not get hungry in the late that afternoon.
I went out to a dinner with a friend at one of her favorite asian restaurants.
I was almost disappointed that I could only eat about 1/2 of my dinner that evening!
Yet, I was really delighted that the program was working!
In the following five weeks, I lost 5 pounds without any conscious effort.
I was off my weight plateau and down to my desired healthy weight!
My first Virtual Gastric Band Program clients that following Fall of 2014, all have had similar experiences as mine.
All 5 clients completed my program as 6 weekly sessions, not as a weekend intensive with 4 sessions as I did.
Over a 6 to 8 week period, all except one reported they were having
an effortless decrease in their appetite,
a decrease in desire and ability to consume a large volume of food,
their cravings decreased or had totally gone.
All 5 clients lost weight of 5 to 25 just by attending the 6 sessions.
The Virtual Gastric Band Program worked! and worked very well.
In spite of the fat that 4 out of my 5 first clients were completely satisfied with the VGB Program,
I felt really disappointed that I wasn't able to help that one like I had the others.
Part of the Program is adding subconscious support to help clients desire healthier food, choose to eat less unhealthy food and beverages and encourage clients to feel more like doing some exercise by moving their body more.
I retrospect, I realized neither me nor the VGB program could not be responsible for changing anyone.
The VGB Program simply provides you with the mental-emotional tools that clients can choose to use to enable themselves to help them become their healthier weight.
I realized how very resistant & non-compliant this client was to doing any of the required follow up homework from our first session.
Yet, in spite of her non-compliance & dissatifaction, she actually did lose five pounds without trying over the 6 weeks of her private sessions.
She also made several very profound & positive life awarenesses, leading to her in making shifts at work and in her relationship with her boyfriend towards her having healthier self boundaries.
I really felt this client just had greater Fat Mindset Programs that needed more awareness of how her past issues were still keeping her safe by keeping her obese.
I offered to give her another 6 sessions free of charge, but she refused with the excuse that the sessions took too much of her time for poor results for losing weight.
All my other Virtual Gastric Band clients were absolutely delighted with the entire process and their results.
In a follow up contact with them one year after they completed the program,
all reported they were able to maintain their healthier habits by occassocially listening to the support CDs.
PS
They all all continued to lose weight without struggling with will power.