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BOOK TAKES A SUBCONSCIOUS APPROACH TO WEIGHT LOSS
By Katy Kickham

Rena Greenberg has used hypnosis to help more than 100,000 people

lose weight since 1989.

For nearly two hours, a petite, red-haired woman has full command of a room filled with more than 80 people. The calm, soothing voice of Rena Greenberg

takes the crowd on an hour-long journey into their minds’ subconscious. She tells them to picture themselves fitting into their clothes comfortably, being repulsed

by fatty foods and attracted to foods that improve health and energy.

At the end of their journey, she directs the members of the audience to pick up pendulums she handed out when they arrived. She tells them to hold the

objects still. As she speaks, the pendulums begin to move back and forth and in circles. As her voice grows louder, the movements of the pendulums intensify.

The mind-boggler: None of the audience members was moving the pendulums – and neither was Greenberg. It was only a test. If an audience member

saw the pendulum move, there was a good chance Greenberg helped the person tap into his subconscious.

Hypnosis has been a major component of the method Greenberg has employed since 1989 to help more than 100,000 people lose weight. Greenberg,

founder and CEO of Wellness Seminars, Inc., usually draws about 40 new and repeat clients to her weight loss and smoking cessation seminars in Sarasota

each month.

But now people will not have to leave their homes to have the experience. Self-hypnosis, along with neuro-linguistic programming and a remembrance technique,

are the main components of Greenberg’s book, “The Right Weigh: Six Steps to Permanent Weight Loss.” The book debuts Jan. 1.

It is not just another diet book. Greenberg’s book takes on weight loss by tapping into the subconscious. It details how to get past doubt and fear of failure

about losing weight by changing the way people think about themselves and food.

“What I am trying to do is approach weight loss from the inside out. We all know what we need to do to lose weight. The issue is where do we get the

motivation? When we change the way we think about food, our behaviors change,” she said.

The Siesta Key resident started studying health and nutrition after a close brush with death at the age of 25. She suffered heart problems that eventually

required her to have a pacemaker implanted. She looked to hypnosis and self-hypnosis to achieve a healthy mind and body. Greenberg found hypnosis could

help people stop smoking, lose weight and gain confidence. She is now a certified hypnotherapist, nationally certified biofeedback therapist and an ordained minister

with a master’s degree in divinity.

But the images of brainwashing and out-of-control behaviors television and movies often use to portray hypnosis are a far cry from what goes on in Greenberg’s

seminars or what she teaches in her book. She guides people into a state of relaxation and concentration similar to what most people experience daily. It occurs

just before someone goes to sleep or just after the person wakes up. Greenberg uses the example of someone lying in bed when a phone rings or a dog barks, but

the person does not respond to the stimuli.

Greenberg says self-hypnosis can help people break old habits. It helped her beat her sugar addiction and overcome her weight struggles. She now prefers

healthier foods.

It helped Karen Strese fight her weakness for chocolate. She attend a seminar and lost nearly 10 pounds in four weeks. “It just kind of comes natural, really. You just don’t have the urges you had before,”, she said.

Part of the message her book and her seminars teach is eating to sustain health and life, instead of eating for comfort, reward or just shear boredom.

Greenberg understands time is scarce for most people. She dedicates three chapters in “The Right Weigh” to making suggestions on how to make good food and activity choices with little thought or effort at all.

“The book is something anyone can do on their own to ultimately achieve what they’ve been praying for,” Greenberg said.