Ask Roger: Why isn’t one weight loss session enough?

Why isn’t one weight loss session enough?

I received this email from Charles in Chicago.

“Roger, I’ve been checking out your website and I am impressed. I am also very interested in your weight loss hypnosis program. I have about 175 pounds to lose. You are the only hypnotherapist that I have found that supports a plant-based diet. I’ve tried all the other diets and the evidence has convinced me that this is the way to go.

I read on your site that you do stop smoking in one session. It sounds to me like your weight loss program is several sessions. Why the difference? Why isn’t one weight loss session enough? Thanks. Charles”

This is a wonderful question Charles. Thank you for asking. Yes, I can send someone out the door after one hypnosis smoking cessation session and have them be smoke free for the rest of their life.

We don’t have the luxury of not eating again

The problem for those of us who are or have been overweight, we don’t have the luxury of not eating again. Imagine telling someone, “OK, you are now a non-smoker but for the rest of your life you will have to have three puffs a day for survival.” They’d be back to their pack a day in no time.

If weight loss was a simple as never eating again, weight loss wouldn’t be so difficult. But forever, you and I will have to eat for survival. We will always be surrounded by the tastes, smells and textures of food. We will always have to deal with the social, holiday, cultural, familial and religious aspects of food.

As humans, we break bread together. We commune over food. Sadly, we too often forget the communion and focus only on how fast and how much we can consume.

Because of our physical need combined with the mental and emotional ties that we have with food, one weight loss session is not realistic. I consider weight loss to be one of the most difficult addictions to overcome. Sure, there are hypnosis programs that only do one, two or three weight loss sessions and people do lose some weight. From the reports that I have read and heard, rarely if ever do these people achieve their goal weight and most gain it all back plus some more.