Weight loss - a personal experience

I wanted to write this article about my personal journey, and to inspire anybody who may be interested in not just losing weight, but transforming their life and being the best version of themselves. I am living proof that when you set your mind on something you really can achieve anything - it's just about having the right mindset.

When I was growing up my life wasn't easy. My father was in the Navy and worked away a lot so it was my mother who brought me up. When dad came home from sea he wasn't really in the mood to hear about my poor grades at school, or my lack of motivation - he was ruthless at times, and very critical. Being a Navy officer he was only used to "perfection" and my ADHD and learning difficulties were an absolute embarrassment to him. Dad said I was "thick" "stupid" and I should accomplish more. So, as you can imagine I grew up with not much confidence.

I gave up at school and was actually proud of being in the bottom set of every subject. Being the "class clown" was my speciality and in all honesty I became a nightmare for my teachers, hung out on the street of a night, and was up to a lot of mischief.

One day I decided to visit the Royal Navy Careers office in Liverpool and returned home with all the literature. My father looked me up and down and said: "Hey lad, you won't last a week in the Navy because you don't have the backbone, I know what you are like!" Those words made me even more determined to succeed so I joined HMS Raleigh and managed to pass my basic training and join the fleet.

The Royal Navy gave me discipline, structure, and it was an adventure. I saw the world, did many good things, served on destroyers, submarines and found my love for endurance sports - it was the best thing I ever did in my life. Being in the forces broadened my horizons and it made me tough. I am the man I am today: disciplined, strong willed, highly motivated, reliable, and keep my word no matter what.

They instilled a lot of good qualities into me despite what I'd been through as a youngster and I owe them a lot. So, where is this going you may be wondering? Well, this will make more sense as you read on.

My main aim in this article is to convey a strong message to everyone who reads this. You can overcome anything in your life, there is nothing that you cannot do. I will not have anybody tell me that they can not do something - not, no, cannot, too hard or whatever negative word(s) that come up in your mind does not exist in my vocabulary anymore.

I am focused on helping individuals heal, energise, and become aware of their inner strengths. I left the Navy prematurely when I got married. The marriage didn't work out and I ended up regretting my decision massively. I started to drink heavily, ate the wrong foods and went from being a lean, mean fighting machine into an absolute mess - and I mean a real mess.

The training in the gym stopped, I isolated myself, had no direction in life, and ended up on antidepressants. To add more misery to my list, I found out that my father was diagnosed with prostate cancer - and he was only very young at the time too. My life became a living hell, comfort eating was the norm, and I was digging myself deeper and deeper into a hole I would find extremely hard to get out of later! 

One afternoon whilst my daughters were in school I read an article on the Internet by Steve de shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, who are solution focused hypnotherapists. The techniques were easy to learn, and I felt better much quicker.

After reading one of their publications, and the fact that my mind felt much calmer as a result, I enrolled with the Clifton Practice in Bristol (the gold standard of hypnotherapy training) and re-trained to become a solution focused hypnotherapist so I could deepen my knowledge and help others.

I must add that I have many more skills that I have accumulated over a long period of time, such as; counselling, life coaching, my own life experiences etc... I understand what it's like to be in a dark place, have low self-esteem, be overweight, and have no confidence.

I see my hypnotherapy training as another tool in my tool box that helps my clients to become the very best they can be. You cannot buy experience, and you cannot train for it either. I want my clients to have self-worth, to have self-confidence, and to move forward. I don’t want anybody to suffer in silence and feel the way I felt all those years ago because it really isn't right.

I used all the skills as a solution focused hypnotherapist to help myself first and foremost. I got back into healthy eating habits, I quit alcohol, cut off all the toxic people from my life who were dragging me down and making my life harder. Yes, I actually said 'no' for once and concentrated on myself and did what was right for me, not them. My love of swimming, cycling, walking helped me massively with my mental health, and helped me shed nearly five stone in weight!

I started to believe in myself, and the right people appeared in my life - they were teachers, mentors and good friends who all had my best interests at heart - not pub friends who only wanted me to drink pints and keep them company. I turned my life around completely using solution focused hypnotherapy which can be applied to anything. 

My own life experience with gaining and losing weight, what works and what does not, and my love of endurance sports helps me when working with athletes. 

Its all well having a fit body, and strong muscles. However; what if you don’t have the right mindset? I use solution focused hypnotherapy so you can focus and refocus on realistic, specific goals.

WBC world super middleweight champion Glenn Catley was very big on hypnotherapy. He told me that it helped him in his fight against Marcus Bayer in Frankfurt Germany where he would need a knockout to win. He worked with David Newton (the founder of CPHT in Bristol) and they devised a plan. It worked to perfection because Glenn went and knocked Marcus Beyer out in his own backyard and came home with the prestigious WBC championship.

So, Having been overweight myself in the past, I know how difficult it is to lose the pounds, and more importantly keep them from returning! Trust me I tried every diet you could think of, and I still could not keep the weight from coming back, sometimes tenfold. When I discovered solution focused hypnotherapy and then used it on myself I was then able to reverse bad eating habits, quit alcohol consumption, and then re-tune my mind into making healthier choices automatically.

I am living proof that hypnosis works for weight loss. Call me: 07380253063 for a free telephone consultation.