When Dotti lost her weight in 1998, I often pestered her with the question, "What made you lose weight this time?" I had watched her struggle for so many years trying to lose weight, and each time her weight ended up worse off than it was before she started. This time, she suddenly stopped floundering, and started doing everything just right: she wrote down everything that she ate; she exercised religiously; and she always ate within her targeted limits. The weight fell off from her quickly and in a few months she was at goal; over 100 pounds lighter than the 245 pounds that she had started at. Why?

Dotti didn't know why. I knew this information was critical, because her motivation was the heart and soul of her success. Where did it come from? More importantly, could it be reproduced?

At the time I was mostly just curious, because Dotti was at goal and looked like she would remain there for good. Her journey seemed rock solid and her resolve seemed unshakable. But things changed.

Dotti held steady at her goal weight for over 3 years. Then one day early in 2002, Dotti took a fall and damaged her knee. She found that she was very restricted in her activities, because she couldn't do any exercise without causing more pain.

In May of that year Dotti quit smoking. The method that she used to quit was hypnosis. I was completely amazed by what happened. Dotti went into a room filled with people and sat down. A man stood up at the front of the room and talked to them for about an hour, and Dotti walked out of the room a non-smoker. She has not even wanted a cigarette since!

To put that in perspective, I quit smoking in 1998, and it was the hardest thing that I have ever done. I had worked at it for decades to finally break the habit off. To this very day, at times a cigarette will "call my name." It was an intense struggle all the way for me. So, when I saw Dotti lay down a 2 to 3 pack a day habit and literally NEVER LOOK BACK, I was flabbergasted.

A little while before Dotti quit, our best friends, Jim and Tammy, also used hypnosis to quit smoking. So, by this time I was a believer that hypnosis could certainly work.

Quitting smoking was an awesome step for Dotti's future health! I was (and I am) very proud of her for taking it. Few people would have the courage to face what Dotti faced over the next several years. She was the webmistress of a huge weight loss web page, in the spotlight for her weight, and she just quit smoking, without ever even considering starting again.

As happens with most heavy smokers who kick the habit, Dotti started gaining weight. She couldn't exercise because of her knee, and the battle of the scale was on. In August, seven months after her fall, Dotti ended up having knee surgery. Her inability to exercise for all of that time added even more difficulty to her struggle to not gain weight.

As the scale crept up, it was not an even gain. She had the tools to fight it, and she tried her best, but it just kept increasing. All at once my question of where her motivation had come from was no longer academic. It was becoming more and more important.

In 2005 Dotti started the year at 210 pounds. She wanted to have her weight down for the DWLZ conference in the spring. She tried her hardest to work the program and get things moving. She fought, and she struggled; and she dragged the scale down to just over 200 pounds by the conference. Then during the few days of the conference she sadly gained it all back. For the next several months her weight just kept going up. She was 223 pounds, only 22 pounds down from her highest weight ever, when she discovered a hypnosis program called "Enjoying Weight Loss".

Dotti sat down and went through the hypnotic sessions on the CDs and immediately turned things around. Suddenly, it was just like she was back in 1998. The change was just as abrupt as it had been when she quit smoking. One moment she was out of control concerning her weight, not able to hold her focus for more than a day or two. The next moment she was rock solid in control, doing everything just right.

Since that first hypnosis session, Dotti has not had a single day where she has gone off her eating program. Even when she was in the hospital having shoulder surgery, she wrote down all of the food she ate, and she did not go over her eating limit at any time. It is hard to describe the phenomenal change that I saw in Dotti.

Before the change, whether it was out of frustration, or a mental self-defense reaction, Dotti was actually hostile to things that she knew would help her in her weight loss journey. Weighing every day (or even weekly) was absolutely out of the question, and writing her food down, even when she attempted it, was pure drudgery for her. There was a continual internal battle going on, with part of her wanting to do things right, and the other part hating the idea of being on program.

After the hypnosis session all of that changed. Suddenly, both Dotti's conscious and her subconscious were in sync, and every part of her being was in tune with her journey. Instead of being afraid to weigh, Dotti is happily calling me up at work in the morning to tell me what her daily weigh-in results are. She keeps her journal always available, and she tracks everything that she eats. She is drinking her water and writing it down.

I am writing this on October 2nd, and Dotti has dropped 13 pounds in just over 2 weeks. But to me that is not the most important part of this. What is really amazing is the fact that Dotti is 100% committed to her weight loss program, and is as strong in her resolve to remain on program as I have ever seen her. And after watching her in 1998, that is saying a lot!

While we still do not know where the 1998 focus Dotti had came from, we know exactly where this latest focus originated! If Dotti ever has to renew her resolve in the future, she can just reach into the CD box and pull out another dose of focus to help her remain on program.

Don't wait to find your FOCUS to start your Weight Loss Journey. There is no better time than NOW to become the person you want to be: healthy, strong, self-confident, full of energy - it's all there waiting for you to start down the road of your Journey! Visit the Hypnosis Network now to order your "Enjoying Weight Loss" CD's.   The Hypnosis Network is offering a 10% discount ALL SUMMER long [use code summer] on any product you order from the Hypnosis Network.  Click Here to Order

UPDATE: January 27, 2006

One hundred and seventeen days have gone by since I wrote the above, and I am just as excited about Dotti's journey today as I was then! She has had week after week where she has either shown a loss or held steady. She has not had a single week where she had a gain on the scale. In fact, she has dropped back down in the 190s now, and that is a tremendous milestone for her.

Dotti has lost 25 pounds so far, and is still very strong on program! She feels comfortable and has no sense of struggling. That is completely different from what she had been doing for the over 3 years since she quit smoking. Even when she was able to hold herself on program for a while at that time, it was painful, and she never felt comfortable, nor in control.

The hypnosis CDs have helped Dotti to do what she so desperately wanted to do for so long: REMAIN ON PROGRAM. She is walking the path to her goal weight, and it is a straight and pleasant path to walk today, thanks to hypnosis. The Enjoying Weight Loss CDs are well named, because that is exactly what Dotti has been doing ever since she first started listening to them!

Today, Dotti listens to the CDs from time to time, whenever she feels like she needs a little boost in her motivation. If she starts finding herself having trouble getting up on the treadmill, she listens to the exercise session on the CDs. If she wants some additional focus on her journaling, or on her Program, she will listen to one of the other sessions.

Dotti now has several months of experience of using the CDs, and at this point the results have been far better than we could have ever believed possible before she tried them. If she had not started using them, I am sure that she would weigh significantly more than the 223 pounds that she weighed in September. Not only did she not gain a single additional pound since then, she has instead lost 25 pounds!

UPDATE: May 12, 2006

On week 2 of Dotti's comeback journey, she jumped up 4 pounds from the previous week, where she had weighed 215 pounds. That jump came as a result of her shoulder surgery. The fluids introduced, and the swelling cause by the surgical trauma, pushed her weight up on the scale. However, throughout the procedure, even in the hospital on the day of the surgery itself, Dotti journaled every bite that she ate. She was right on program, and as soon as the fluids subsided, the next week she dropped an amazing 8.5 pounds, bringing her total lost for her first 3 weeks to 12.5 pounds!

Other than that one side trip, for 35 straight weeks now, Dotti has either shown a loss, or she has maintained her weight, bringing her total loss to 32.5 pounds so far. Dotti has been on program ever since she started using The Enjoying Weight Loss CDs in September. It is hard to convey the change that this shows in Dotti's mental attitude. She was struggling, with very little positive to show on the scale for her efforts. The entire year of 2005 up to September, was a story of frustration, struggle and collapse. Ever since September, Dotti's story has been one of unbroken success and weight loss.

We have just gone through a busy couple of months, with a lot of disruption to our normal routine. And Dotti's exercise routine has suffered because of it, but she has not gone off track on her eating at all—even with every opportunity to do so clamoring for her attention. Each week she has either held steady or dropped a bit on the scale. I was there, and I can tell you that there were many restaurant challenges, and other high calorie opportunities that Dotti walked through with her head held high during the past few months. I am still amazed at what she is doing, and how well she has held straight on her course!

Dotti and I are looking forward to the upcoming warmer season so that we can do more walking and mountain hiking. With the added exercise I am sure that this summer will be a great one for Dotti's Comeback journey.

In the meantime, Dotti has not missed a step in eating on her program, and she has done a wonderful job on her journey ever since she began using the Enjoying Hypnosis CDs. Considering where she was before she started using them, I think this is nothing short of a miracle!