Livingston Press & Argus
MAN SHEDS WEIGHT VIA HYPNOSIS
by Kristofer Karol, Daily Press & Argus October 8, 2006 (reprinted)

Weighing in at 305 pounds, Leonard Dingman was determined to start living a healthier lifestyle. So, the Howell resident decided to find a weight loss program and settled on Florida-based Rena Greenberg’s hypnosis and behavior modification program, although Dingman wasn’t exactly trusting of it in the beginning.
“I was skeptical because I didn’t believe in hypnosis or any of that stuff,” Dingman said. “I thought, Why not give it a shot?”
That was in 2004. In six months, Dingman lost about 70 pounds and eventually slimmed down to a lanky 180-pound, 6 foot-1 inch man. He’s since added on some weight and now stands at 220 pounds.
“I went down, way down, to where I was in middle school,” Dingman said. “So (family members) were getting worried.”
Dingman, 43, always enjoys mountain-biking, walking and going to the gym, and while there used to be days that he would devour an entire pumpkin pie in one sitting, he has since learned to curtail his cravings.
He estimates the last time he was at a healthy weight was when he was 18 or 19.
Greenberg’s Wellness Seminar Program that Dingman used is coming to St. Joseph Mercy Livingston Hospital in Howell at 6:30 pm Thursday. The crux of the program is changing the mind-sets of participants, so they believe they can actually take off and keep off unwanted weight. The program has been helping people in Michigan, Ohio and Florida to lose weight and stop smoking since 1990.
“The most rewarding part is obviously hearing success stories like Leonard,” Greenberg said. “It’s so exciting to see people taking the tools and taking the methods and using them in their lives.”
For Dingman, he attended one of the workshops because he had seen how similar programs had helped his friends at work quit smoking. At the workshop, he was given an audiocassette that he would listen to at home for the next few weeks that would provide positive messages.
“You just stop eating certain things and she tells you drink more water, and eat vegetables and smaller portions and all that, and do things that you enjoy,” Dingman said.
But the biggest motivator for Dingman to continue his healthy lifestyle is a photo he has from a time when he tipped the scales at more than 300 pounds.
“I’ve had one picture…and I look at that I tell myself I don’t want to look like that again,” Dingman said. “And that’s kind of like a positive thing, you know, that I keep so I don’t fall back into that.”