I have a friend who went to a group session seminar back in the spring and he has lost several pounds but it did take away his desire for sweets and he no longer drinks sodas. The seminar he went to will be back in town next week. It is 3hr long and then you get a tape to take home with you. They talk to you about healthy eating and BMI and other stuff.
I am curious and debating whether or not to go. Has anyone else ever attended one of these group seminars and did they feel it was worth the money and time?

I've never been to one, but I've been curious. If you go, let us know how it goes. They advertise in my area for weight loss and quitting smoking. I think it's $49. I don't know if it's the same thing your friend went to or not.
Take care, Donna

A friend and I attended one of these classes last year when they were in town. It was very informative, a lot of common sense stuff that just makes more sense when you hear it out loud! They basicly told us to not eat or drink anything with more than 6 grams of sugar per serving, chew every mouthful 20 some times, put your fork down between bites, ect. They had vitamins/ supplements to buy that were very expensive, in my opinion. I did buy them though. I took them everyday like I was supposed to and I never noticed anything. I did eat better for a while but again I didn't notice anything and got fed up with it. My friend was the same. The hypnosis part was very cool. You could hear what the guy was saying and you are aware the whole time. The cool part was when he brought us out he asked how long we thought we were under and everybody sayed 10 mins. tops and it had been over 25 mins.!! It was very relaxing and calming. The thing is at the end if you hadn't bought the vitamins/ supplements they only gave you a very short cd to listen to at home, whereas if you did buy the pills you got a 2 disc cd with them. I did them a few times again they are very relaxing. Overall a good experence but not for weight loss. Thats just my 2 cents!!

I'd also like an update on how it goes. I think anything that helps us stay on plan can only be beneficial. It is mind over matter when we are losing weight. I look forward to your "review" )

I have a master's degree in psychology and took several classes that reveiwed cognitive therapies including training in hypnosis and self hypnosis - and similar therapies such as progressive relaxation and phobia desensitization. We had to go back to the dorms and practice on ourselves and our friends.

I didn't take enough classes in hypnosis to become a hypnotherapist or anything, but I did find it useful. Basically, I've guess I have just been too lazy to use it for dieting. I use it more to get to sleep or for pain relief (I guess because I only think of it when I need instant gratification).

Most hypnosis would be considered light hypnosis. Not many people can be deeply hypnotized (where you would follow bizarre instructions and not remember it when you "wake up"), at least not easily. (Brainwaishing is a type of deep hypnosis, but usually requires extreme sleep and nutritional deprivation and other near torture conditions).

So light hypnosis and self hypnosis can basically be thought of as reminding yourself (or having someone else reminding you) regularly of your goals. Sort of like "talking you into" what you want to do anyway. Say it and think it enough to make it true. That's why not much can really be done in one session for long term behaviors. It has to be repetitive to be successful for long term changes. Any hypnotist that doesn't send you home with a tape to use at home, or ask you to come back for future sessions, can pretty much be written off as a bit of a scam artist. The ones that keep you coming back are also suspect if they don't give you the tape after only a few sessions.

You can do it yourself pretty easily too (there's no need to fear not being able to come out of a trance, because you don't really put yourself into a trance - that's deep hypnoisis). There are good books out there on self hypnosis techniques, and good hypnosis tapes for weight loss also, so if you're interested check out one from the library. But in a nutshell you lie down to soft music or in a quiet room, and before going to sleep you concentrate on relaxing deeply. You visualize being successful at specific tasks. Or you might talk yourself out of cravings for sweets by visualizing tempting treats covered in dirt, or crawling with worms or germs. Basically you "practice" in your imagination doing what you want to do in your daily life.

I was curious about this too! I have seen some weight loss cd's/dvd's online but wasn't sure if they worked or not.