In 1995, I weighed 260 pounds. I’d been overweight or obese all my life. My blood pressure was high and I was borderline diabetic. Cheese, ice cream and Coke were staples in my diet. Our daughter-in-law somehow convinced me to try the McDougall plan for six weeks. During those weeks I felt better and I lost weight.
However, since I was in diet mentality, once those six weeks were up it was right back to hot fudge marshmallow malts, cheeseburgers and fries, and I regained all the weight back that I lost and more.
Even though I slipped back into bad habits after my first round on the McDougall Plan, the sound practices he espouses eventually worked their way into my awareness and became the foundation for the way I have eaten ever since.
At about the same time, in a hypnosis training class I volunteered to be the subject for a weight loss demonstration. Since I was there to be certified as a clinical hypnotherapist, I certainly believed in hypnosis, but I was skeptical that it would work for me at my weight. But much to my delight, I started eating less, stopped craving fat, salt and sugar and quickly adapted to living a whole food, plant-based lifestyle.
During the next year, sticking to the McDougall Plan, I let go of 120 pounds and I’ve kept it off. Along with all of this, I got off the couch and completed five marathons. Today I’m an avid long-distance road cyclist, and I love backpacking in the mountains.
Over the past 23 years as a Medical Hypnotherapist, I’ve helped many people end their desires for foods that make them fat and sick and create healthy desires for the McDougall Plan foods that make them slender and thin.
Clients often tell me that as excited as they are to be losing weight, they are more excited to feel better and have more energy. Plus they no longer have the aches and pains they endured when they ate meat and dairy products. It thrills me when people report to me they no longer suffer from symptoms of autoimmune diseases like arthritis, Crohn’s disease, diabetes and that their blood pressure is within healthy limits.
These stories feed my passion. I love to be in my office or live online with people from around the world sharing with them about the Starch Solution, so they too can improve their health and change their life.