September 2, 2009
Podcast #58 from https://bengreenfieldfitness.com/2009/09/podcaste-episode-58-does-hypnosis-really-work-for-weight-loss/
Introduction: In this podcast episode: hypnosis for weight loss, how to build muscle with a Gymstick, a question on vitamin and mineral deficiency, how to ride your bicycle uphill, and how lean can a 55 year old man actually get?
Ben: Welcome to podcast episode number 58 and I’m your host, Ben Greenfield. Today we have a pretty interesting discussion about hypnosis for weight loss. I’ve always been a little bit wary of this myself. I actually drive by a billboard when I go to work that advertises hypnosis and the results it can achieve but I thought we’d bring an expert on the show to talk about hypnosis for weight loss. It turns out that it could also be used for enhancing performance, motivation, adherence to nutrition protocols, etc. So that will be an interesting interview. I also have a few interesting questions in the Listener Q and A in today’s podcast episode and then just a couple of special announcements before we move on to the featured interview with Dr. Roberta Temes from New York. And I thought one of the most interesting things was that she actually hypnotizes people over the phone and almost had me hypnotized during the interview. Really interesting voice. So you’re going to want to listen to that and again anything that you hear during this podcast, remember you can check out in the Shownotes.
Remember if you have a question, you can email me [email protected]. You can leave a comment over at the blog and just about every blogpost has been getting some interesting comments especially one from last week, from the paleo diet. Somebody was on there and they just were not happy about the fact that I called a naturopathic physician a doctor. That was an interesting discussion. You should check that out if you haven’t had the chance to yet. So you could email me your question, [email protected], you can leave a comment on the Shownotes or you can even call. I have an 800 number set up and there’s an extension on there when you call the 800 number where it says if you have a question for Ben Greenfield Fitness.com and that 800 number is 8772099439. So, I also have that number in the Shownotes. So you can see that toll free number. First question is from listener Eric.
Eric asks: I have been told that standing to pedal up hills in a triathlon is “taboo” because it burns too much energy. I have also been told that the ‘not standing rule” is bunk and it is fine to “stand when needed”.
Ben answers: That’s a great question Eric, it’s baffled people for thousands of years. Ok, maybe hundreds of years or dozens of years. But essentially there have been some studies that were done on cyclists who stand to pedal on hill climbs and most of these studies were done looking at the actual physiological response to uphill cycling. Meaning that they measured energy expenditure in the same way you’d measure VO2 max by wearing a gas mask and they measured the heart rate. And what they found was that in most cyclists, and this study was done in competitive road cyclists, the energy expenditure and the heart rate have been significantly greater for standing when compared with seated. When the cyclists were riding up a kind of not too steep of a grade, like a 4% grade which isn’t much. However, when they got them up to a 10% grade, that same trend was not seen. And the hypothesis was that the change in the biomechanics of the cyclist at the higher grade, at the 10% grade involved more pushing and pulling force applied to the handlebars and that added an additional energy expenditure when the cyclists were seated and that resulted in really no significant difference from the standing position. So what it comes down to is that if you are on a steady incline that’s not really steep, it could benefit you to stay in the saddle and when you get to a really, really steep hill or about the point where you feel like you’re really tugging on those handlebars, pushing and pulling on them to be able to generate a force, that’s about the point where you’d want to stand. Now the other question that I get from triathletes is do you climb in the arrow position? I would stay out of the arrow position unless you’re on a very, very low grade incline because when you’re tucked in that position, you are able to maintain a higher cadence and you are able to utilize your quadriceps a little bit more but as soon as you sit up, you’re actually able to generate a little bit more force and utilize your glutes and your hamstrings and that actually can help you out on the hills as long as you’re not doing it too much. Don’t do it over and over and over again in that sitting straight upright position. But especially if the hills are a little bit steeper you can get away with that and for the hills that are very steep, I would stand. I personally train with something called a computrainer which is a stationary training device that lets you for example ride a set course on a computer and look at the amount of wattage that you’re producing. My wattage always jumps up usually by about 10 to 15 watts anytime that I rise from that arrow position up into a seated position. Of course the flip side of that is that you are wearing down some of those running muscles. So it’s kind of a difficult decision to make. But the general rule to follow is not very steep hills, stay in the arrow position. As they get a little bit steeper, sit up and as they get real steep, stand. So great question Eric.
Chris asks: I came across your website while looking for some routines for the gymstick. I already own a silver gymstick but used it very briefly before starting up at a gym. As I now have a mortgage and gym memberships seem to have gone up since I was last at a gym, I’m now thinking of revisiting the gymstick as an alternative. My question is; i’m over trying to bulk up and have super wide shoulders, yet still want to have some width but mainly be toned and defined. Can the silver (or gold) gymstick increase muscle size (even slightly) at all or is it strictly for strengthening and toning?
Ben answers: For those of you who don’t know what a gymstick is, you could go to www.bengreenfieldfitness.com and do a search for gymstick. You can see some pictures of it, but essentially it’s a stick with elastic band for resistance on either side of it so you can do chest press, shoulder press, curls, lunges, you can actually do quite a few single leg stance, more athletic type of activities. They actually have a really cool website that gives you a bunch of different exercises. But I use it once a week and when Chris is referring to the different colors, the silver gives you about 1 to 25 kgs which is a little over 50 lbs of maximum tension that you could get. So you think about what it would feel like to press 50 lbs overhead or a couple of 25 lb dumbbells, maybe 35 lb dumbbells that’s about how much maxiumum resistance you’re going to get out of a silver. And the gold gives you about 10 to 15 lbs past that so you’d be looking at being able to throw around up to about 60, maximum 70 lbs with the gold. The gym stick is very good for toning. It’s very good for doing high reps, getting lean, working on muscular endurance. You’re never going to be able to get the same amount of muscle mass as you would by going to the gym and throwing 200 lbs on a barbell and bench pressing with that or 300 or 400, whatever the case may be. I personally am 500 lbs, but that’s just me. No I’m just kidding. I couldn’t bench press 500 lbs in my wildest dreams. But the thing that you can do with the gymstick to put on muscle mass is you can actually superset some of the exercises that you do, thus prefatiguing a muscle. So for example, one superset that I’ll do is I’ll do a set of clap pushups or regular pushups and then I’ll throw the gymstick on and I’ll burn that out with another 12 to 15 of the gymstick chest press. Or you can do a handstand pushup against the wall, turn around, press the gymstick overhead. You can do jump squats and then put the gymstick onyour back and do squats with that. But the idea is that you can build muscle with it. But you’re going to need to superset and actually pre-fatigue the muscle before you hit it with the gymstick to get optimum results when it comes to increasing muscle size with something like that. If you don’t have a gym membership and let’s just use myself as an example, let’s say I didn’t have a membership even though I do at the local YMCA, if I didn’t and I could choose to have a few things around in my home and these are the things I do have around in my home – I have a 40 lb dumbbell set. That’s just two 40 lb dumbbells, I have a stability ball. I have a gymstick. And I have an elastic band and that’s it. That’s my entire home gym and I’ve literally not visited the “real” gym for 2 to 3 weeks at a time before and just been fine exercising at home with those tools so hopefully that helps you and I’ll put a link to the gymstick in the Shownotes Chris.
And then we have another quetoin from Listener Christian. Pretty long question but I think I’ll read it because her frustration… his frustration? Her frustration really comes through in the email.
Christian asks: I have once before emailed you over some knee pain and IT band pain i have suffered with for some time. you were very helpful with the information. i have not gotten your book Bulletproof Knee yet, just short with finances right now. i had heard a pod cast of yours awhile back over the benifits of Magnesium oil and how athletes lack in it. im a triathlete and i take a GNC womans athlete multivitamin and total omegas. i got into using an amino acid powder blend for training with and add gludamine to my shakes in the morning. to stay hydrated every day i use a half a Nuun tab a day and a whole one on long rides. I continue with exercies to strenghten my hips and roll out my IT often and stretch every day. i eat very clean- protein shake with blueberries and banana for breakfast. then i snack on organic gluten free cereal with granola mixed in. i have spinach chicken with tomatoes and cucumber for lunch. snack on celery and carrots and then eat a rice cake before i work out or train. then do chicken and broccoli for dinner. im 135 lbs and i believe i get about 1400-1500 calories a day.(I’m assuming you mean intake. You’re not burning through that.) im getting disappointed in not being able to trim down a little more but more importantly im not recovering from training sessions. i rode the Ironman course Saturday and did an easy ride to Coeur D’Alene on Monday and swam tuesday night. plan to swim again tonight because my legs just are too sore to ride or run. im frustrated that im not able to bounce back like other athletes that are much older than me. im only 24 and i feel like im 60. (This is a 24 year old girl.) im stiff all the time even with stretching. i got lots of knots that i get worked out of my legs and im just not seeing improvement. it seems like my body is not flushing the lactic acid and i dont see why not. i eat and drink plenty. my question is am i lacking some vitamin or mineral that will help with the inflammation and aches and pain? i take an aleve a day now and thats not cutting it. i want to continue doing what i love and next year im doing Ironman, but i got to get this old lady feeling out of me. I realize im not a paying client of yours but i would truly be grateful for any advice you could give me. Thanks so much for your time, frustrated and in pain.
Ben answers: Wow. Ok. Most of the time this would be something that I would actually do as a consultation over the phone with an athlete. I’m not going to spend the whole 30 minutes on this or anything like that but I just want to give you a few tips based off what I’m reading Christian. Ok. The first is that I’m looking over your electrolyte intake and your mineral intake. You did mention magnesium oil yourself and how I talked about the benefits of that. Most of the listeners to the show who have listened for the past few weeks are aware of the benefits of it. But in looking over your mineral and electrolyte intake, you know… Nuun is an electrolyte tablet, its dosage recommendations are 2 an hour and you’re using half in one day and a whole one on long rides. For most cyclists, long rides mean 2 plus hours. So you’re really not getting much at all in terms of electrolytes. That’s the first thing that comes to mind. And that’s what I have a lot of my athletes that I’m actively coaching now doing, is simply no questions asked, supplementing with magnesium and having them use the topical magnesium oil. So from an electrolyte perspective, I would add that. When I look over your nutrition, it actually looks pretty good in terms of the total amount of calories that you’re getting in and then when I jump down to your exercise protocol, it seems pretty straightforward but do say that you’re stiff all the time even with stretching. A few of the other things that I would look into in terms of your ability to recover from exercise is it’s possible that you’re not completely utilizing all the protein that you’re taking in. You may want to consider adding digestive enzymes or protolytic enzymes into your protocol to allow you to upload that protein just a little bit better. You may also – let’s see, you’re already taking glutamine but you may also want to consider from a protein perspective taking in a branch chain amino acid source which I also don’t see in here. So branch chain amino acids and protolytic enzymes, from a gut perspective you could also look into digestive enzymes and you could look into probiotics. So all I’m thinking about is the fact that even though your food intake looks very clean, it’s possible that your body isn’t actually assimilating it, absorbing it and breaking it down as well as it could to actually give you the fuel on board that you need to bounce back. When you say it seems like your body is not flushing lactic acid, that’s a moot point. Nobody gets sore really from lactic acid. It’s more of calcium leakage and inflammation that can result in post-exercise muscle soreness. Lactic acid is usually out of your system within just a couple of hours after you finish a workout. So, it’s not the lactic acid as much as it’s the calcium leakage. Again, magnesium can help with that. As far as post-exercise muscle soreness, you know if you were a much older person I’d say well yeah maybe you need to stretch a little bit more. Maybe you need to take an ice bath every workout, because it takes longer and longer for your muscles to recover the older you get. You’re 24 years old though. You shouldn’t be feeling this all the time. That’s pretty uncommon. So as far as your inflammation, your aches and your pains – it could be a problem with a deficiency. As far as bouncing back from a workout, that wouldn’t necessarily be a magnesium deficiency as much as possibly a vitamin D deficiency or – vitamin D is a hormone precursor or an actual hormone deficiency. You can get your hormones tested. You can go in and you can do a 24 hour sex steroid test. That’s usually a urine test. You can do a saliva test for hormones but you can take a look and see if your body actually has what it needs to optimize recovery. You can look at testosterone, you can look at cortisol. You can look at any of your estrogens, your progesterone – those are some things I would take into consideration. You didn’t talk about your periods much. I don’t know if you’re regular but that’s smething else I would ask if we were doing a consult. You describe it as getting this old lady feeling, well there are quite a few things you can test to find out if there is something that needs to be addressed, but red flag – biggest red flags I see right now, or biggest obvous things would be a magnesium intake and then some type of more complete protein intake with the branch chain amino acids, protolytic enzymes, digestive enzymes and preferably even a probiotic. And then the last thing, you say you’re taking Alleve once a day for the muscle pain. You got to be careful with that stuff. Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug induced gastrointestinal problems are a big problem. You can get internal bleeding in your stomach, in the lining of your small intestine. You leave anything like that like those little ulcers untreated you get digestive juices, stomach acid that can eat a hole into your intestinal lining. You get decreased nutrient absorption. You can get swelling, you can get scarring from ulcers that can close the actual sphincter where your stomach empties into your small intestine. That prevents food from passing, that causes everything from lack of absorption to weight loss to again lack of protein uptake. So there could be a lot of problems with taking the Alleve, I would try to combine a topical anti-inflammatory with something like the magnesium supplement. Like you could do… one good brand is Tromil. That’s something you can get at just about any health food store. Arnaca Montana and a few other herbal extracts that can decrease muscle soreness. I would be careful with taking the Alleve on a daily basis. That’s not something you should be doing to your body and that can cause GI toxicity when taken long term. The last thing from a connective tissue perspective, you say you get a lot of knots, you say you get a lot of tightness. Im not sure if you are doing massage on a regular basis. I believe you mention that you were doing a foam roller. Maybe not. It’s a pretty long email. Maybe not. Foam roller, a stick. I use one called a muscle track. You can see that on www.bengreenfieldfitness.com. Or a massage therapist would all be something that would help out quite a bit. So there are a lot of different things that we’d need to throw at this. Typically a question like this, it tends to be something that becomes multifactoral and I feel like I’m just kind of droning on. Typically when I’m doing a consult with somebody, we’re bouncing things back and forth. I’m asking questions, you’re answering. But that’s just my basic response to your email. There’s a lot of little things, a lot of little red flags that we just have to kind of check them off one by one. But what it comes down to is just because you’re eating clean and taking a multivitamin does not mean that your body is getting what it really truly needs for Ironman. And I think that about wraps up our questions. So remember just email me [email protected] if you have a question and we’re going to go ahead and move on to hypnosis for weight loss.
Ben: Hey podcast listeners, this is Ben Greenfield and today on the other line I have a psychotherapist with a PhD degree in counseling psychology. And Dr. Roberta, for more than 35 years has practiced psychotherapy in New York City. She’s actually a faculty member at a medical school in Brooklyn. She is an author with several books. But most significantly, the one that we are going to talk about today and the process that we’re going to talk about today is called the Complete Idiot’s Guide to Hypnosis. If you happen to be in front of your computer while you’re listening in to this podcast, you can actually go to www.drroberta.com and find out a little bit more about Dr. Roberta who we’ll be interviewing today. And primarily what we are going to talk about is weight loss, weight control and hypnosis. So Dr. Roberta, thanks for coming on.
Dr. Roberta Temes: Thank you.
Ben: I want to hear a little bit about your background in this because it seems just fascinating having surfed around your website. How does someone get into the field of weight loss and hypnosis? What’s your background in this?
Dr. Roberta Temes: Ok, well I was just a regular shrink doing psychotherapy in a mental health center when I had a problem with one of my kids. My daughter needed some surgery and she was very nervous about it. She was a little girl and she kept saying, “Mom I want to cooperate but I get so scared when I go in to the doctor’s and the hospital and I start thrashing around and I can’t do what needs to be done.” And I mentioned this to one of my colleagues at my mental health center and John said to me, you know that sounds like a good use of hypnosis. Why don’t you bring her in here and I’ll hypnotize her to be cooperative and not be frightened. I was a little wary. I had only seen stage hypnotists. I didn’t know anything about it. So I went in with Karen and the psychologist hypnotized her. He hadn’t done this very often. He was reading from a book to know what to do. But he did it and then 5 minutes, it was done and she opened her eyes and said oh I look forward to tomorrow when they do all the stuff in my mouth. I was like “What?” and I decided after that surgery went so easily and so swiftly and the doctors actually accused me of giving her medication. They said did you sedate her? No. But I said ok, I want to learn this. So I started to learn it and it turned out that I had a very good talent for it. Part of that is because I have kind of a boring voice. When I was a teacher, people used to fall asleep but it’s a very good voice for hypnosis. So I was good at it and I started it and little by little people heard about me and before you knew it I had a full time practice in hypnosis.
Ben: Wow, and so any listeners who are listening in right now, I guess the know what a good hypnosis voice sounds like. So, when you’re studying hypnosis and you’re getting into that field, do you actually have to go to some type of a school or certification process? Are there standardized permits or certifications or things like that that are necessary for a hypnosis practitioner?
Dr. Roberta Temes: I am so glad that you asked that question because truth be told there is no standard. Hypnosis is not regulated by anything anywhere. Therefore whenever you hear or read about someone who says oh I’m a certified hypnotist, that has no validity. They might know hypnosis very well but they might have taken a one hour mail order class. I could decide that anyone who listens to this podcast is now a certified hypnotist, send you all a piece of paper that sends Dr. Roberta has certified you because there are no national standards. Anyone can call himself a hypnotist. Pretty scary, huh?
Ben: Interesting. Yeah it is a little scary. And what I’m primarily interested in because I drive past a big billboard everyday on my way to work that advertises weight loss and hypnosis, is the same deal with those same types of clinics… anyone can simply waltz in and be a weight loss hypnotist?
Dr. Roberta Temes: That’s true. But what we’re hoping is that the person who does that has years of experience and knows what they’re doing.
Ben: Absolutely.
Dr. Roberta Temes: But who knows? We don’t know. My thing is I suggest people go to someone who is well recommended. I think there’s nothing like word of mouth. If your friend has been very successful losing weight with a particular hypnotist, that’s the hypnotist to whom you should go. Because otherwise, I’m not even sure of their credentials mean anything. I could have a PhD and be a bad hypnotist. I think it’s really the ability that you have. Perhaps you should go to someone who has a state license in medicine or psychology or nursing, just because they have something to lose if they do something terrible.
Ben: Right, now how did you actually get into the weight loss arena when it comes to hypnosis or what type of experience have you had in that?
Dr. Roberta Temes: Well, here’s what I did. I started just opening my doors and saying come on in if you wish to be hypnotized for anything. But I soon learned that the most frequent people were weight loss, smoking cessation and insomnia. Those were the three things people wanted to do most. So, with my years of experience I kind of honed a niche so I could become very good and know what they needed best and with weight loss, I realized that it would be a good idea to make a CD for people because whereas smoking… I can give you the hypnotic suggestion. You will never again smoke. You hate cigarettes. Cigarettes will kill you, will poison you and you’ll never pick up a cigarette again. However I can’t do that with food. I cannot say you will never eat again. And you’re exposed to food all over the place. You can’t walk, watch TV, be with another friend without being encouraged to eat. And it didn’t seem fair that I would hypnotize someone and it would last for a week or two or three or four, and then they’d call and say you know it’s starting to wear off. I’m starting to wish to eat all those forbidden foods. So that’s when I got the idea of making a CD for weight loss so they can simply play the CD again and again.
Ben: So before we get to a lot of the content of the CD and the book you designed based off of these experiences, when someone actually comes into your office and they’re going to go through a hypnosis for weight loss session, so to speak, what exactly happens? What’s the walk through of a typical session?
Dr. Roberta Temes: Well the first thing that happens is we chat a little bit to see if they really need to lose weight. Because some people are so brainwashed by our society that says you must be very skinny but they don’t understand (audio break) so that’s the first thing we do. And some people think that maybe there’s something wrong with them emotionally because they’re overweight because again society often says oh if you eat too much there’s a psychological reason. It’s because you hate your mother or you hate yourself. So we go through all those myths to be sure that people understand that those theories have been disproved and it’s now suspected that the opposite is true. That fat people are emotionally stronger than most because in fact they endure so much ridicule and criticism and yet they go out everyday. None of this is true. So poor self-esteem is just a myth. Humans come in a variety of shapes and sizes and obesity is not an eating disorder, it’s not a psychological disorder. It’s a genetic disorder. In fact people do have a genetic predetermination to eat more and as they gain weight glucose piles up in fat cells and then their predisposition to gaining weight increases. However they can still gain weight because genes gives us the capacity to be fat but your eating habits turn the capacity into a reality.
Ben: Right, there’s still a lifestyle component.
Dr. Roberta Temes: Right. So what we do then, we figure out what diet program you should be on. If you simply say to yourself I’m going to eat less or I’m going to watch my food, you won’t lose weight. If you want to lose weight you must be on a program. That has been proved over and over. It doesn’t have to be a specific program like Atkins or South Beach or Weight Watchers, it can be your own program of counting calories or counting fat grams or eating at specific times and places. But once you have your program in place then the hypnotist can hypnotize you to stick to your program. And that’s where I come in. So first we determine the self-esteem issues and the program issues. Then we say ok, now we’re going to think of suggestions to tell you when you’re hypnotized and the clients and I figure out suggestions specifically for him. We say… typical suggestions… you will have no desire to eat while watching television. You will have no desire to eat while driving. You’ll notice when you feel full during a meal and stop eating at that point. You’ll only eat at a designated meal time. You won’t keep junk food in the house. You’ll eat your heaviest meal before 7pm.
Ben: For the actual hypnosis, prior to making those suggestions to people, do you have to have them in a certain state?
Dr. Roberta Temes: Yeah, this is what I’m saying. First we work – you asked what happens in the course of a session. So the next step is we develop the suggestions. Once the suggestions are developed then the person is hypnotized by me. Then I read them the suggestions. Then they visualize themselves enacting the suggestions and then they’re finished and the session is over.
Ben: So really, this is a lot different than say the type of hypnosis that I would think of when I’m seeing what’s portrayed say in Hollywood or popular media or with magicians. This is more of just a suggestion and a self-visualization process?
Dr. Roberta Temes: There are two different types of hypnosis. There is entertainment hypnosis, also called stage hypnosis. And then there is medical hypnosis, also called clinical hypnosis. I do the latter. And so I do hypnotize the person. After we’ve made our list of suggestions, I tell them to sit back and relax and I talk to them for about 10 minutes. In those 10 minutes they will enter a state of deep suggestability and we call that state of deep suggestability hypnosis or trance. And I do it with words and my words permit them to become very suggestable and enter into that altered state of consciousness.
Ben: I can hear in your voice right now that you’d probably be very good at this.
Dr. Roberta Temes: I have a very boring voice.
Ben: No, it’s a soothing voice actually. So what type of studies or research have been done on specifically hypnosis for weight loss? Because I know there are a lot of people that are critical of this.
Dr. Roberta Temes: Really? What are they critical about? I’ve never heard that.
Ben: Primarily… just the clients that I work with for weight loss or who come in for exercise and nutrition, the question I get is what do you think about weight loss and hypnosis? Does that stuff really work, is usually what I get. And you know, one of the things that we can do is listen to you and some of the information that you’ve put on your CD and in your book and what you do, is it a book or is it a CD by the way or is it both?
Dr. Roberta Temes: Both.
Ben: Ok, both. That’s what I thought. But are there other resources for them where they could go… any success stories?
Dr. Roberta Temes: There are a number of scholarly journals where we have reports of clinical trials done where people were divided into groups. One group got hypnotized, one group just got nice support and encouragement and they came every week to their meetings and at the end of six months, those who were hypnotized lost three times as much weight as those who got nice support and encouragement. Those types of studies have been replicated over and over. In fact, you know the place that sells my CD for weight loss is called www.hypnosisnetwork.com and they offer a money back guarantee. So you can imagine that it is very successful. Hypnosis is very successful for weight loss.
Ben: What I like is that my initial impression of hypnosis for weight loss was that the hypnotist would sit someone down and literally tell them that they were going to lose weight or that they were going to burn fat more quickly, but really what you’re doing is you’re enabling someone to make the proper lifestyle exercise or nutrition modifications. That’s the impression that I’m getting. Am I on the right track?
Dr. Roberta Temes: Of course. Of course. Hypnosis is really… all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. I can’t make somebody do something. Instead I function as their coach. They have a goal and I help them get to their goal.
Ben: So for the audience listening, the type of preson who this would really be good for is the type of person who starts a program and falls of the bandwagon or who has trouble starting a program, period, who simply cannot seem to make those modifications without stumbling somewhere along the way and just stopping. A hypnosis program is something that would allow you to reach your goals more effectively?
Dr. Roberta Temes: Absolutely. Absolutely. And your sessions – for example in my CD, there are different tracks. There’s one track that gives you motivation to exercise. So when you find that you have stopped going to your trainer or your gym because, let’s face it, most of us don’t do it 365 days a year and you want to have motivation to get back on track, you would listen to just that track on the CD which gives you a hypnotic suggestion so that you will automatically without thinking go to exercise everyday.
Ben: So you can just select a part of the CD for a weakness that you have, like a nutrition weakness or a lack of ability to find motivation to exercise. And when someone listens to this CD, what’s the time commitment like if I wanted to, say, I’m assuming this would be on a daily basis… hypnotize themselves using the CD?
Dr. Roberta Temes: After you listen to each track once, and each track is approximately 10 minutes each. Then you would go back daily and decide which track is for you. And you may decide that right now you want the track about not eating too much when you go to a restaurant or when you go to a catered affair because that’s what you might need at that particular day. Another day you might want to do the ones about just having fun and accepting yourself and enjoying yourself and participating in all activities of life.
Ben: Interesting. And the hypnosisnetwork.com is where people could actually find both the book and the CD?
Dr. Roberta Temes: No, they just do the CD and the book you can get in Amazon. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Hypnosis and my own website which is www.drroberta.com gives you lots of information. And one of the interesting things that is now fully accredited and established is hypnosis by phone. So that just as you just said, my voice could be so soothing and calming, when people call me and make an appointment for hypnosis by phone which they can do at www.hypnosisbyphone.com I can hypnotize them for whatever reason. Just this morning I hypnotized somebody who had to make a sales presentation and was very nervous. And I functioned as the coach to get him over his nervousness.
Ben: Interesting. Well maybe that would be a good idea for a future episode is to do a demonstration. Of course you’d probably have to be careful doing something like that in getting someone’s permission to actually release the audio, I’m assuming.
Dr. Roberta Temes: Well the problem with the audio is we don’t want anyone to ever do it whiel they’re driving.
Ben: So you wouldn’t want somebody to be listening to an episode where you hypnotize someone and get hypnotized themselves and be operating heavy machinery.
Dr. Roberta Temes: That’s right.
Ben: Yeah, we don’t want any tractors to end up in a ditch.
Dr. Roberta Temes: Exactly.
Ben: Well this has been quite helpful. I know for me, I had some preconceived notions about what hypnosis for weight loss actually involved and this really answered my questions in terms of me as a fitness professional, just knowing about another technique out there especially for some of my clients who have difficulty motivating themselves. So I want to thank you for coming on the show and I’m going to put a link to some of the resources you discussed in the Shownotes to this podcast. So, I would like to thank you for your time Dr. Roberta and you’re over in New York I believe, is that correct?
Dr. Roberta Temes: I’m in New Jersey. I do most of my work by phone and on the Internet when I’m in New Jersey where I do have an office. I am eager to help any of your listeners who contact me.
Ben: Fantastic. Fantastic. Alright, well thank you and have a wonderful day.
Dr. Roberta Temes: You too. Bye now.
Ben: Bye.
For personal nutrition, fitness or triathlon consulting, supplements, books or DVD’s from Ben Greenfield, please visit Pacific Elite Fitness at http://www.pacificfit.net