Gastric Mind Band Therapy, Session 1

This past Sunday was my first Gastric Mind Band Therapy session. Let’s just call it GMBT and save me some typing. It was wonderful! I felt so relaxed and positive afterwards.

When I arrived, Julie invited me into her cozy office. We sat in comfy chairs and she shared information about GMBT. She utilizes several different kinds of therapy, including hypnotherapy, to help address behaviors and underlying emotional issues that impede weight loss. She described the hypnotherapy as a way re-program your subconscious mind into accepting healthier behaviors.  Then she asked lots of questions while she filled out a questionnaire. She asked about my childhood, adolescence, family, and relationships. She also asked about my relationship with food and exercise, my current habits with both of those, what I have weighed in the past and what my goals are for this process. I found myself really opening up and being honest, both with myself and with her. It was cathartic. I’ve been looking forward to starting this process for a couple weeks and I gave myself over to it, committed completely.

When she talked about the GMBT process, I was surprised to hear you can eat whatever you want. She emphasizes that no food is off limits, you are just encouraged to make healthier choices and control the portions, eating only when you are hungry. You can have dessert, you just should be able to eat a little of it and then move on. I liked it when she explained that you don’t have to finish a dish, either. Once you’re full, you can either get rid of it or put it away for later. That cookie you’re eating is not the last cookie you will ever have. You can have another one at another time. So there’s no need to shovel it in and then eat four of its friends!

After the discussion and the questions, Julie invited me into a separate room with a big comfy lounge chair right in the center. The lights were low and one wall was covered with a huge beach scene. Hypnosis time! I have to be honest, I’ve always wanted to be hypnotized. I sat back in the chair and Julie perched at a small desk beside me. Music played and she began the hypnosis session. First she talked me through a relaxation exercise: she instructed me to relax my feet, then my ankles, etc., until she had talked about my entire body. I felt heavy and sleepy; I may have drooled. Then she started with visualization. She talked about a path in a garden filled with flowers, lush green lawns, all this sloping down to a short set of steps that led to a beach. At the beach there were two paths, one that symbolized my current habits and one that symbolized the positive new habits I want to form. She discussed my motivations, and what my life would be like if I traveled down either path. I know I dozed off a couple times. I missed some of it. I asked her later if that meant it wouldn’t work and she said not at all; that just meant I was in a deep trance. When she concluded the hypnosis session I felt relaxed and positive and all kinds of good. I was kind of disappointed it was over. Before I left she gave me a notebook and wrote down two homework assignments for me: one is a letter to my body about what I want for it, and the other is regarding some personal baggage that I’ll spare you. We also took my “before” pictures. Wow. Talk about the cold hard truth. You guys won’t be seeing those until I have some “after” or at least “along the way” pictures to share as well. Yikes!

I’ll have three more sessions, and Julie records all four of them. She'll give me the recordings when we’re done with the therapy, and if I ever find myself falling back into bad habits I can listen to them alone at home and give myself a “tune-up.”

After only one session, I’ve already noticed a tendency to make better choices about food. Last night I had a chance to have fast food for dinner and I opted for fruit, cheese and some hard salami instead. I’m not making ALL good choices (hello, McDonald’s caramel frappe!) but I’m still doing a lot better than I was before the session. I hope to see even more improvements as we complete more therapy sessions. My next session is this coming Sunday, and I am still pumped about the process! And tomorrow I have my yearly physical. I’m glad that it was scheduled for right when I’m starting GMBT, so after next year’s physical, hopefully I’ll have some positive changes to share with you.


FTC disclaimer: Since I am blogging about the experience, the service is being provided at no charge.

New Sponsor!

Hey everybody, please give a warm welcome to our newest... and first... sponsor: Julie Gibson of http://www.julietherapy.com/!  You will see a link to her website above the top post on this blog. 

Julie is a licensed clinical social worker who provides individual, couples, play and family therapies.  In addition, she is one of six individuals in the United States who is certified to perform Gastric Mind Band Therapy.  What is Gastric Mind Band Therapy?  To oversimplify it, you are hypnotized into thinking you've had gastric band surgery, the procedure where a band is placed around your stomach to reduce its size and aide in weight loss.  With Gastric Mind Band Therapy you have the assistance in weight loss this procedure provides, but none of the surgical risks.  For more information about this therapy, see Julie's website, listed above, or http://www.gmbandusa.com/. 

I have signed up for the therapy and had my first of the four sessions yesterday.  Stay tuned in the coming weeks and months to hear about the experience and hopefully witness my progress!

FTC disclaimer: Since I am blogging about the experience, the service is being provided at no charge. 

Not Today

Life intervened and I won't be able to put up a post today about my first Gastric Mind Band Therapy session.  I will post it soon, I promise!  But I did get hypnotized in the first session and it was very cool.  And this morning when I was walking out the barn to make sure the dogs would have water, it was early and still dark and I started to give a mental groan... and then a thought popped into my head: "I love being active!" And I had a pep in my step throughout the rest of my chores, hauling water out to the barn, taking the dogs out there.  Awesome!

Have a fab day.

FTC disclaimer: Since I am blogging about the experience, the service is being provided at no charge.

My First Gastric Mind Band Therapy Session Is This Afternoon

And I'm very excited!  I know this isn't the session where the hypnotic suggestion is given that I have the band, but I'm still excited to get things started.  I think today's session will be lots of talking about my relationship with food and evaluating my habits, weight, BMI, etc.  I got out some pictures to take to the session, pictures of me before I gained the weight.  The therapist, Julie, didn't ask me to, but I wanted to show here where I've been and what it is that I want back. 

I remember suddenly being a chubby child when I was 8 years old.  I wasn't chubby before that.  Then I struggled with my weight until my late twenties.  At that point I became involved with someone who also struggled with his weight and I followed his advice.  I ate one meal a day and walked two to three times a day.  I also did 20 to 30 minutes of situps, pushups and leg lifts a day.  The one meal a day probably wasn't the smartest thing I've ever done.  It's probably bad for your metabolism.  But I did that for almost ten years.  I lost 80 lbs that way and kept it off for several years.  Then in 2005 I had some big life changes and was on my own again.  I started gaining weight.  I became a runner somewhere along the line and after 2005 I continued to exercise but not as regularly, and I was eating several times a day.  If my food choices had been better, it would actually have been good for me to be eating more often. But my food choices were poor and I exercised less and less.  I realized the other day that I have gained almost 20 lbs a year every year since 2005.  Do the math. Yes.  Wow.  I don't run anymore because I weigh so much more that it' too hard on my body.  And I miss it.  I miss my healthy, fit, hot bod, and I miss being able to walk out the door and crank out a slow two or three miles, coming home sweaty and de-stressed.

I want it back.  I want my fitness back, I want my figure back, I feel like want my life back.  I have a good life... a wonderful partner of over four years, a job, a home, family, friends, too many pets... but I avoid anything that means going out in public because I just don't feel comfortable in my own skin.  And as I look at the last five years and see how quickly I gained so much weight, I can see why.  I'm destroying my health and limiting my life experiences by contiuing this weight gain, and it's time for it to stop.  I am thankful for what I have and looking forward to getting help with taking better care of myself.

And that is why I am so excited about today.

Have a great day, everybody.

FTC disclaimer: Since I am blogging about the experience, the service is being provided at no charge. 

For more information about Gastric Mind Band Therapy (GMBT) go to http://www.gmbandusa.com/.  My therapist for GMBT is Julie Gibson; see her website at http://www.julietherapy.com/. 

Oh Yeah, I’m Gonna Get Hypnotized!

If you’ve been around my blog for a while you’ve probably figured out that if I don’t post for over a week, odds are I am off-plan and getting fatter. Which is what is happening right now.

I’ve been struggling with this weight gain for about 5 years. I’ll try something, lose some weight, stick with it for a while, then I’ll let something throw me off track. Then I get discouraged. Then I get lazy. Then I get fatter. The lesson? Maybe I need some help.

I saw something online a while back about Gastric Mind Band Therapy. My understanding is that you’re hypnotized into thinking you’ve had gastric band surgery, and so are able to experience the help it can give you in weight loss, without the risk inherent in any surgical procedure. There are several different kinds of therapy involved: Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Neuro Linguistic Programming, Hypnotherapy and Guided Imagery. The treatment consists of four sessions, and during the fourth session you are hypnotized into thinking you’ve had the surgery.

The treatment originated in a clinic in Spain and has since spread. Now there are six therapists in the United States who are licensed to perform the therapy, and one happens to be in Kansas City: Julie Gibson. I told her I wanted to be her Gastric Mind Band poster-girl. She said “Great!” I will be blogging about the experience and results, and the service will be provided to me for free (hello, FTC). So everyone give a big hand for Julie! And check out her website at http://www.julietherapy.com/. Julie is a licensed clinical social worker. Per her website she specializes in individual, couples and family therapy, play therapy, and Gastric Mind Band Therapy.

I know there is no magic pill for weight loss. I know it takes time and dedication. I just want some help. And I think I’ve found it! My first session is this Sunday, and I can’t wait to get started.

I Have One Question...

Hi everybody!  I'm enjoying the cooler weather here in the Midwest U.S.  I know I haven't been posting much.  My time seems to be all taken up with trying to do something with the bumper crop of pears that our pear tree has produced this year.  Ummmm and watching Stargate SG-1 on Hulu.com.  I'm on season seven.  There are ten seasons.  I'm pretty sure I'll be worthless until I finish the entire series.

My one questions is: why am I always the one who has to pull stuff out of the dog's butt?  Really? 

I hope you are having a good week... better than my dog's week.  But the odds are you don't chew on 2x4's, so I'm guessing you're doing ok.