Group session of psychologist
Artyom Andreyevich Ovechkin:
– How many pounds did you wife drop?
– At least thirty-three pounds. We have three children. But she is as slim now as she used to be many years ago.
– As you see, the training has been very productive!
– She commented on me. What a shame!
– ☺
– OK, got it. Mila, what about you? What was your last straw?
– I guess I was stressed when I found out that my weight is over 220 pounds. Another issue: I went on business trips and bought a new jacket every fall. I was at a size 18, but I bought clothing of 20 size. I prefer loose clothes. This year I found out that all my jackets are too tight for me. Size 20 is too small for me now. I was really terrified. Another scary moment: I noticed that when I met friends, I tried to pass by without greeting them. People are used to seeing me as a person I was before – a successful woman who’s capable of doing anything. I don’t want them to see me overweight like this.
– Quality of life deteriorates.
– And my self-esteem decreases.
– …which, in its turn, affects the quality of your life. OK. Nika?
– I began to gain weight after pregnancy. I feel bad. It’s getting harder to move. If I start rocking baby, I get short of breath.
– I see. Olesya?
– I buy 16 – 18 size clothing. Customers and colleagues hint that I am overweight. I heard a new customer said recently:
“Is this plump brunette your director?” Another customer uses to greet me like: “Hi Rolly Polly!”
– ☺
– Shame on him! I am trying to ignore it but being a director…
– It might be really frustrating. OK, I see.
Olga Vladimirovna Tsyganova, 28, economist, lost 110 lbs I am well aware of the problems with clothes. Once, I was at a size 24, even 26 sometimes. I know it sounds terrifying. How could I let myself gain so much excess weight? Every year I bought clothing of a bigger size. When I started to drop weight, almost my clothing ‘got slimmer’ together with me. I re-sew it because I knew that I didn’t want to stop, and buying new clothes every month would be costly and irrational. I am at a size 10—12 now. It’s fantastic, cause it’s so easy to find a nice trendy outfit for me almost in every store. It’s only the beginning. I’m still working for better results.
Group session of psychologist
Artyom Andreyevich Ovechkin:
– Anzhelika?
– I don’t like myself anymore. It’s scary to look at myself in the mirror.
– What do you feel at that moment?
– Disgust. This is what I turned into…
– Is it frustrating?
– Yes. Excess weight affects my health well-being, especially when I am at work, even though my job is not related to any physical labor. Once my colleague and me walked from one office room to another one. She told me suddenly: “Anzhelika, you have a short of breath.” I felt embarrassed. It was like a slap in the face.
– Breathe. It’s normal that you are crying now. Here, take a napkin. I understand what you mean. During the training we will definitely work through all the feelings that you have accumulated. You haven’t let them go. They are still in your mind. Ksenya?
– Actually, it’s all the same. Eighteen months ago I was two sizes smaller. Then I gained five kilograms and couldn’t drop them for a year. I even gained more during Christmas holidays. In short, I frantically tried to figure out how to lose weight, rushed from one extreme technique to another. I haven’t tried any diet. Of course, I don’t eat in the evening. It helped me for a while. The last straw was when a shop assistant that was picking out clothes for me said: “I guess you wear a size 18”. I am concerned about these changes.
– What size did you wear before?
– I was at a size 12. In my opinion, I look a lot older and a bit vulgar now.
– We all feel spine-chilling after your words.
Where do you come from and where do you go?
Andrey Vasilyevich Trenogov, psychologist, psychiatrist: Before you start losing weight, you need to send a certain time clarifying a few uneasy issues.
In order to achieve the goal, you need to understand clearly where you come from and where you go.
To do this, you can do the following exercise: write down (no need to think it over, just write down everything that comes into your mind) all sides of your life affected by excess weight. How does it affect your physical and mental health, work, and relationships with relatives, friends, and other people?
How do you feel about it? Where are these feelings concentrated (in your head, chest, in the stomach, or in the whole body)?
Ask yourself: How do I see myself now? What image appears in your mind? It can be an abstract image, a metaphor, or something.
Then describe the environment where you want to get to. Move mentally to a moment of time when you have already achieved what you want and describe your new life in the present tense. Describe your health state, relations with friends, and relatives. Think about other positive changes weight loss brought into your life.
How do you feel while describing your new state? In what areas of your body the sensation is concentrated?
How do you see yourself in this situation? What image (symbol or metaphor) appears in your mind?
After completion of the exercise, you should have two images:
one for a “starting point” and another for a “destination point.” These images will affect you like a powerful magnet, pushing you away from the “starting point” and pulling towards the destination.
“Get slim at any cost!” she said and opened the fridge. How did you drop weight?
– I appreciate that you shared your feelings with me. One more question. What have you tried before to lose weight? We have to discuss the issue. So, let’s talk about it.
Gennadiy Arturovich Arustamov, 41, Ph. D. in Economics, a CEO of “Reka-More” company, dropped 90 lbs:
I’d start telling you the story about my transformation from the time when I weighed three hundred pounds. I’ve already met psychologist Artyom Andreevich Ovechkin, as once I attended his counseling session on issues unrelated to weight loss. I knew that he counseled people who suffer from obesity and stress, and decided to ask him for help. Well, that was over two years ago.
My excessive weight began a long time ago, after school. After graduating from college and starting to work full-time, I began to gain weight. In my youth, I was into sports. So, when I quit, the weight literally started going up. I have been trying to settle the problem of excess weight since I was twenty-four. I tried everything. Diets, fasting, that’s quite a story. I became pretty experienced in weight loss. Looking for different solutions, I tried different methods, specialized clinics – almost everything. Anyway, even if it had any effect, it was only temporary. Excess weight returned, even in a larger amount. In an effort to drop weight, I was doing sports actively and intensively. Perhaps, I put too much on my plate. Anyway, it didn’t lead to long-term results either. My physical condition was getting worse. I continued to gain weight. At the time, when I finally realized that I couldn’t handle it anymore, and Artyom and I started working on my problem, my weight was one three hundred pounds.
I felt really bad.
That was accompanied by a continuing crisis at work and constant emotional fatigue. As a result, at the age of forty, I was totally worn out; my nervous system was all gone. Then we started to work. And the changes began. Ironically, things occurred as follows: Instead of weight loss, we started working on stress, trying to determine and eliminate the primary cause, changing my attitude to stress, life, life perception, to myself and others. I read the recommended books. I listened to the bits of advice given by the authors. We worked hard. It is to my credit that I did my best. I was motivated to achieve significant results. At a certain point, weight loss wasn’t my main goal anymore. My mental state, inner harmony, and positive attitude became much more important to me.
It became my main goal, the primary motivation to move on and continue changing myself. Now, two years later, my weight is two hundred nine pounds. I’ve dropped ninety pounds. Yes, I also do sports. But now I do it properly, bearing in mind medical recommendations.
Speaking of success factors, I should admit that the first one is a mental condition, and the second one is a ration. As for sport, it’s on the third place. I guess, it is important to know about it if you are going to get slim.
Why did I set the priorities like this? That’s because I’ve tried everything! I had been trying to drop weight using sport, diets, fasting, both calculation and ignorance of caloric content, even the famous “K…” clinic, for ten years. I had been taken treatments in “K…” clinic for ten years. But, as I’ve already mentioned, my weight came up to three hundred pounds. I bet you wonder what methods are applied in the clinic. Ph. D. of medical science Kosenkov had nearly the same experience of fasting, and he described it in the book. So, you’ll read about it below. The main method of “K…” clinic is a kind of fasting too. Proper fasting, accompanied by different procedures. During the first four days of being there I ate nothing. I only drank a special broth. I drank rice water four-five times a day, and that’s all. No other food. On the fifth day, they started to bring me out of this state. I was given some juice. At the same they maintained my condition by doing lots of bowel cleansing procedures, so that I felt fine more or less. Then, for the rest of the time, I was carefully brought out of fasting. They slowly, very slowly increased my caloric intake and volume of food consumed. The food was pretty common but yummy. You start to feel the taste of the simplest products. You do not imagine how yummy the cucumber or tomato can be! It’s a taste explosion! Oh, wish you know how yummy common buckwheat porridge can be! I almost fell in love with it cause I suddenly found out how tasty it is. That’s true. Besides, there were supporting medical procedures such as massage, hydrotherapy, pelopathy, and so on. As a result, I dropped some weight.
Ten or fourteen days were enough to complete the treatment course. The most important results were as follows. First, it changed my eating behavior. Second, the stomach shrinks. As a consequence, it decreases the daily amount of food consumed. It usually lasts for two or three months. That’s all. During the next month, I dropped some weight because of the stomach shrinkage and decrease of daily food amount. Then you try to maintain weight, you feel well enough, you have energy. But, as I have told, the effect lasts for a few months only.
By and large, your life remains the same, and your mindsets, mental prism through which you look at life, remain the same too. You return to the same life that you’ve left. Now I understand that there is nothing surprising in the fact that you revert to old habits and responses. It’s impossible to change anything in your life without change of responses, habits, and life attitude.
I’d like to assess the experience of my interaction with the “D…” clinic, either. What did it give me? What are the main advantages? How long did the effect last? What prevented me from achieving long-term and significant results? Actually, it was also quite interesting. In my opinion, I get very important information about caloric content there. Now I realize that only one thing matters. It depends on how much energy you consume with food and on the amount of energy you spend then on physical activity and metabolism. There are no miracles, no magic techniques.
They explain it pretty clearly there. You try this method. They give you tools and explain how to calculate calories. They show you how it works. Then you get significant mindsets. The method includes basic psychological techniques aimed to make you feel disgusted with your favorite high-calorie foods. So, it helps to take away some of the addiction. You get a certain mindset that helps to realize: junky food is not that yummy as you thought before. There are breathing techniques that reduce appetite. That’s true, it works. They are aimed at suppressing appetite. There is a pretty interesting method to identify hunger.
It’s really helpful. As a result, I dropped twenty two pounds again. It’s nearly the same weight that I lost after the course at “K…” clinic.
Weight loss effect after “D…” clinic lasts a bit longer, about five months. That’s it. It brought some positive attitude for sure, and besides – some valuable information.
I’ve been thinking about my interaction with Artyom, our collaboration during the counseling, things we had done trying to understand why it led to such impressive and long-term changes: I dropped ninety pounds and maintain achieved weight. I will tell you about it in this book for sure.
Actually, I still keep my weight under control, ensuring that it continues to decrease. I drop pounds pretty slowly now. I still have a long way ahead of me. Nevertheless, I move on! I realize that I have already adopted some new eating habits and perceiving habits. Living this way is easier and more comfortable.