News Articles » – Losing weight and keeping it off

OAKLAND PRESS

By Vanessa C. Hines January 2006

“Losing weight and keeping it off permanently is possible if you change the way you think about yourself and the way you think about food,” one health and wellness author says.

Rena Greenberg, author of “The Right Weigh: Six Steps to Permanent Weight Loss Used by More Than 100,000 People” (Hay House Publishing, $14.95) will offer a weight loss seminar Feb. 13 at Crittenton Hospital Medical Center in Rochester .

Greenberg’s approach to weight control combines hypnosis with behavior modification.

`”Diets don’t work because they’re a psychologically temporary situation,” says Greenberg, who has offered the seminars since 1998. “But no matter how much you’ve struggled in the past, just know that change is possible if you utilize your higher potential.

The key to breaking that programming which has made many of us overweight is by tapping into the greater mind and using the power inside us to get to the deeper potential we all have. Hypnosis is a tool to do that.”

She knows firsthand about the power of the mind and its role in losing weight because she struggled with food addiction for years, she says. She confronted the addiction after she became sick and her heartbeat became so irregular and slow she nearly died.

“I personally have a strong sugar addiction that almost killed me,” Greenberg, 44, formerly of Ann Arbor , says, “I got really sick in my 20′s and I had a really low heart rate in the 30′s.”

After having a pacemaker implanted in her chest, she vowed to do everything she could do to regain her health and to get her life b back on track.

“When I got out of the hospital, I felt dedicated to changing my old, destructive ways,” she writes in her book. “I was determined to find true health of mind, body, heart, and spirit, so I learned about the importance of balance for the physical body – the need for adequate rest and physical activity – as well as how crucial it is to eat a variety of whole, unprocessed foods,”

She delved into the psychology of addiction.

“I studied the reality of sugar addiction and how to overcome it once and for all, as well as the immense power of the mind to transform the way we all see ourselves and the way we relate to our environment,” she writes.

“Sometimes we think our habits are who we are,” says Greenberg, who now lives in Sarasota , FL. “We’re entrenched in these habits and think we can’t break free. We might say, “I love chocolate, but we don’t think about how poisonous it is to our bodies.”

Greenberg says people who struggle with their weight have limited beliefs — “the voices of doubt and fear.”

Self-imposed limitations, she says, will keep you stuck in the past. Only when you accept yourself as you are can you move forward, she says.

“You have to have an imprinting of your goals for your life on your sub-conscious mind and a new vision for yourself—and surrender to the great source of inner power within,” Greenberg says. “As long as we’re not at peace with ourselves, we’re stuck.”

Norma Luettke of Clarkston has attended Greenberg’s Wellness Seminars for weight control four times since 2000. She lost 123 pounds the first time and 80 pounds the second time when she attended a seminar to get reinforcement.

“It was an epiphany,” Luettke says. “It was mind-boggling because it worked. I was able to stay on my diet without a problem.”

GREENBERG’S TIPS: Rena Greenberg’s six steps to permanent weight loss include:

Visualize yourself the way you want to be

Look within yourself for deeper strength.

Accept yourself as you are

Look at what’s held you back in the past and get past those roadblocks to a healthy, fit body.

Reprogram your subconscious and create your future with the help of hypnosis and other techniques.

Let go of the past, acknowledge your mistakes, stop beating yourself up and move forward.