There is a  world of difference in trying to quit smoking, and becoming a non smoker. A man and wife from Florida  came into my Atlanta Georgia office to use hypnosis to quit smoking. My hypnosis therapy for a person  to become a non smoker, is to have three sessions in eight days.

The gentleman said to me “some of my friends and relatives have traveled up from Florida to see you and I know that you can help me to stop smoking. I replied to him “I can’t help you to stop smoking.” His face dropped and he said “I have invested in air fare and a hotel and you say you can’t help me to stop smoking?” I said “I can’t help you to stop smoking… but when you leave here today you will be a non smoker! Just semantics? No. With my program of using hypnosis to quit smoking or to stop smoking, however you want to refer to it, you will in fact become a non smoker!

What does that mean. It means that if you are stressed, if you are having a cup of coffee, if you at a bar having a drink, if you are out letting your dog go to the bathroom, if you have just had intimacy or whatever your cue to smoke is… we will use hypnotherapy to enable you to remove those cues from your cognitive maps to be a non smoker for life!

Call Bob Crow at 404.277.1827 to become a non smoker.

Cutting back doesn’t work!

I am a practicing hypnotherapist in Atlanta, Georgia. A great portion of my hypnosis practice here in Atlanta is weight loss. Many people that have came to see me over the years have previously attempted to lose weight by  trying to cut back on what they eat. They’ve done this on a daily or weekly basis for years. Why doesn’t just cutting back work?

Our body is not designed to reflect hourly, overnight or even three or four day differentials in diet so the results that one sees if any, are minimal. People think “what’s the use” then give up and try cutting back a few days later with the same lack of positive results. In order for our body to survive it wants to maintain a status quo so that it doesn’t stress itself over when or if we will get our next meal, such as cave man and other early varieties of man would certainly have done. It was not until a few hundred years ago that man had the luxury of being able to eat “three squares” a day. And it was not until relatively recent times that “junk” food became available at gas stations and fast food stores and virtually everywhere that enabled him to snack or “graze” almost continually.

Many of the people that come to see me for losing weight though hypnosis in Atlanta, Georgia are what I have called compensatory dieters. What does that term compensatory dieter mean? It means that they cut back what they eat and/or how much they eat for a meal or two, or exercise and then rationalize to themselves, that since they’ve “cut back” or exercised they should be able to have a little more of this or a little more of that. They are rationalizing. According to Dr. Gregory House from the popular TV series House, rationalizing means lying to one’s self.

In the cognitive maps found in the subconscious mind, are many, many cues that cause you to revert to your old eating habits. Some of these cues are emotional in nature and some are mechanical. Either way these cues keep one eating the way they are used to eating whether they go on some kind of diet or not. These maps being located in the subconscious mind can only be changed in the subconscious mind. Hypnosis is the bridge to the subconscious mind, it is the only way that one can access their subconscious to change these cues. Diets don’t work. You would really have to think long and hard to recall anyone that has lost an appreciable amount of weight and kept if off for two years. Why? Because these people revert to their previous eating habits as the old cues in their cognitive maps are still in place. Using  hypnosis for weight loss will enable one to move past the old eating cues and replace them with new eating cues. Once the old cues are replaced with new cues, you will begin to eat in a manner that will keep you thin intuitively!

Cutting back is a mindset that doesn’t work for weight loss. Why? Well let’s say that you wanted to take a boat from one side of the Chattahoochee River to the other, if you placed one foot in the boat and left one foot on the river bank, no part of you would make it to the other side! In using hypnotherapy for weight loss one must incorporate the concept of commitment. Put both feet in the boat! That’s commitment! Are you really serious and committed to losing weight? If you are, contact Bob Crow at 404.277.1827  or bob@bobcrowhypnosis.com

It’s been said that marriage counseling is either the first or the last step toward divorce. In conventional marriage counseling the counselor acts as an umpire.  Instead of fighting in private, they now have an audience! Perhaps this is good training for a reality television show!  Somethings have been revealed to me in counseling and in life.  One – you cannot change anyone else. Period. You may try love. You may try withdrawing love and even withdrawing sex, but you cannot manipulate or bring about change in anyone but yourself.  Two – you can never win an argument with someone you love or care about. You can hurt them.  You can point out how they are wrong. You can even make your point… but you will never win an argument. Think about this.

When we were two years old we went into “the terrible twos.” That was when we developed an agenda. It never coincided with anyone else’s,  but we tried. We felt that if we could only get our way in the world… we would be happy. How we tried. We manipulated. Some times with temper. Sometimes with anger. Sometimes we withdrew our love or warmth.  We learned how to show “conditional love. “If you give me my way, I will love you or be nice to you.” Our behavior was based on the concept of conditional love. Conditional love became one of our main tools in the continuing battle for what we believed to be our right… happiness. We felt that if things only went our way, we would be happy. When things did go our way, we weren’t happy. We’d moved on to something else that if we got our way in… we would then be happy.

It didn’t work then, and it hasn’t worked yet. It never will. Unfortunately, many of the people who are married – shouldn’t have gotten married in the first place.  Before they got married they knew that there were deficiencies in the other person that weren’t acceptable. But… they really liked or though they liked a lot of qualities in the other person, and  knew that if they could only bring about the changes in the other person that they desired, everything would be okay. We still hadn’t learned the concept of unconditional love. If playing nice didn’t work, we withheld nice… just like when we were a child. If love didn’t work, we withheld love… just like when we were a child. And then as an adult we withheld intimacy. We actually inter spaced that with threatening divorce. Not much different from saying “I hate you” to your parents or grand parents or to your friends.

We grew into adulthood with the concept in our head that if we got our way, we’d be happy. And we strove to get our way then and now, regardless of the consequences to anyone else.

How do we then change our mate? You’re not going to like this but we first start making changes in ourselves. One immediately quits condemning, complaining and criticizing. Furthermore, we discontinue threatening divorce. Many couples begin this threat soon after they get married. At that point they really aren’t contemplating it, but it is a tool designed to hurt. And it did and it does. Is there a way to salvage our relationships in a win win scenario. Actually there is.

A film was released called “Fireproof”. It showed the deterioration of a young couple’s relationship and marriage. The film was on target. If getting our way is the only way that we can be happy… and if unconditional love instead of conditional love is a concept that we won’t buy into, there isn’t much that can be done.

Remember when you were courting each other. You were considerate. You respected each other’s desires and opinions. You were thoughtful. You were caring. You always put your best foot forward. But when you were sure that you had captured the other person – you began to take them for granted. This could well have happened before you got married. But, there was a certain momentum going and anyway it was too late to stop things as the invitations had gone out.

Your first and foremost objective  should not be to cut and run. If you want to fix your marriage, it is counter productive to spend great amounts of my time and your energy attempting to prove just how wrong, how unjust, and how unfair your mate is. Once both of you have stated your case, and you’ll have plenty of time to do so, what is needed is to move on and fix things. I am not going to sit there each session and be a referee. What is the point in that? Once again – the relationship needs fixed… not rehashed. In all but a very very few cases, not only will the relationship be saved… but it will be much much better than it ever was before. I’ve never seen a troubled relationship where it was all one persons fault. What if your focus was to change deficits in you and let your partner change their own deficits?  We all have them. Wouldn’t it change the dynamics of the healing process? It was stated earlier in this article that you cannot change the other person. You really can’t.  There are many many things that can be done to save most marriages… as long as the parties do not let false pride get in the way and they both give it a 110% effort.  Once again, fixing blame is not as rewarding as fixing the relationship!

If you want to save your relationship call Bob Crow at 404.277.1827 for a complimentary appointment.

You had a great week going diet wise.

You ate right Monday.

You ate correctly Tuesday.

The same on Wednesday.

Ditto Thursday.

No slip ups on Friday. Wow!

Saturday morning and you are still on track.

However. You went grocery shopping after breakfast on Saturday and even though you promised yourself that you wouldn’t, you did have a sample at the grocery store. Well, “one sample can’t hurt, besides it wasn’t that many calories.” But, you circle back and have another. When the sample lady wasn’t looking you grabbed another. The guilt is starting to set in. Now you go past the sausage samples and grab a couple. It is meat. Right? Next come the pizza samples and you grab two this time. Telling the lady that you are taking one for your husband or wife. You eat them both. “I am not going to eat anything else.” But… the lobster dip with crackers is too hard to resist. So are the little cookie samples. Likewise the pieces of truffles.

You stand in the checkout line and mentally add up the calorie and carbohydrate damage. You are sick. You are angry at yourself. You feel guilty. You’ve really ruined your diet. You’ve ruined a whole weeks worth of diet. You feel depressed and you are upset with yourself. What you really want to do is make yourself feel better. You are going past the snack bar and say the words of defeat and self sabotage. “What’s the use? I’ve totally ruined the day diet wise. I’ll get a couple of pieces of pizza at the snack shop. And I’ll really give it 100% tomorrow.” “That will make me feel better.” You do. It does. It makes you feel better… for two or three minutes.

Sound familiar? Isolated incident? Or is this part of a pattern that you have followed for years. Why can’t you lose weight?

The answer is simple. You are trying to lose weight with the willpower and discipline of your conscious mind. That simply can’t be done. Try and think of someone you know that has lost weight and kept it off for a couple of years. Let me repeat. One cannot lose weight and keep it off by using the discipline and willpower of the conscious mind. It doesn’t matter what diet you use, if you are trying to lose weight in the conscious mind, with only willpower and discipline going for you, it will not work.

What is the solution? Hypnosis. You need to change your behavior, and you cannot make behavioral change in the conscious mind. Behavioral change can only be made in the subconscious mind. The subconscious is where you find your behavior, your personality, your memory banks, your moods and your habits. It’s where your cognitive maps are located. The cognitive maps guide us through our automated behavior. It’s where our inclinations to act come from.

No one overeats because of  nutritional concerns. Everyone who over eats, does so for emotional reasons. They are upset. They are sad. They are angry. They are worried. They feel lonely. They want to feel better. Wouldn’t it be better to find out why you are overeating and fix yourself? Make the correction? Many confuse eating healthy with losing weight. You can put on fat by eating healthy too.

Are you serious about losing weight? If you are committed to losing your weight and keep it off for the rest of your life call me. Most, if not all of my Atlanta, Georgia weight loss practice, are men and women that have repeatedly attempted to lose weight their entire life. Once your subconscious mind is on your side, and your inclinations change, you will be thrilled with your permanent weight loss. I offer a complimentary  consultation to see if hypnosis will work for you! Call Bob Crow at 404.277.1827 to lose your weight and keep it off.

This is not a temperance blog! I occasionally enjoy a glass of wine with my dinner. But I will nurse one glass all night!  Remember this,  alcohol can be extremely hazardous to your weight loss. One of the worst effects that alcohol has on weight loss is that it’s all sugar. And your body will more readily metabolize those drinks or glasses of wine first, rather than body fat or other foods!

As in the case of people that I see with alcohol abuse problems,  one cannot have the fifth or sixth drink or seventh drink and maybe lose the entire weekend,  unless that person  has had the first drink.  It is not news to anyone reading this blog, that alcohol impairs one’s judgment. Period – no exceptions. Would you really want to fly on an airliner with a pilot that had been drinking? How about having a surgeon operate on you that’s been drinking as well?  Of course not.

What does this have to do with overeating? The word is inhibition. For those that are serious about losing weight,  the lowering of  inhibitions is disastrous. When someone’s inhibitions are affected, they either are unaware or do not believe they are lowered or non existent!!! For example – a person with a weight problem goes to a restaurant to have dinner with friends.  At that point the overweight person  is in control, but just barely.  He or she knows what food that they should order to eat.  But…  The waiter arrives  with the drinks,  now keep in mind, we are not talking about getting drunk.  By the time that the drink is half gone,  so are the inhibitions as well.  After the  second drink is started,  what’s left of good judgment is history. The person rationalizes that “these drinks won’t hurt” or  “this meal won’t matter” or “I’ve had a rough day” or “this is my birthday” or “I’ll really get back on my diet tomorrow!” Are these reasons or excuses? Why sabotage yourself  once again?

It is a proven fact that alcohol and weekends can be destructive when trying to lose weight.  You have been “good” all week and have cut back 600 calories. Do you realize that you can destroy that deficit and then some in a Friday night?  If you decide  it’s is more important to lose excess fat and keep it off,  rather than drinking for awhile, you will give yourself a large advantage.  It is easy enough to lose track of what and how much you are eating if you’ve had nothing to drink.  Chapter seven of my book deals with absent minded eating.  It points out that one always needs to be aware of what and how much they are eating.

Here’s something to remember – one glass of wine a day = one pound a month,  one vodka tonic a day = three pounds a month and one martini a day = close to nine pounds a month! We are not talking about giving up that glass of wine to enjoy with a meal forever,  but a tool to help you to jump start your weight loss program!

Bob Crow has a private practice in Atlanta, Georgia. Contact Bob at 404.277.1827 if you desire to lose weight and keep it off forever!

While you were talking on the phone, you were eating potato chips. You got off the phone and discovered you had eaten the whole bag! A relationship  went in the hopper. While being upset about it and talking to a friend, you ate a whole container of cookie dough. You didn’t take time to eat lunch. By the time you got home you were  starved and felt awful. You needed something to bring your blood sugar up so you began to eat cheese and crackers while preparing dinner. When you finally realized what you were doing, you had already eaten a tube of crackers and a quarter of a pound of cheese!

Sound familiar? No one overeats because they’re  hungry. People over eat because they are upset,  worried,  bored,  hurting,  angry,  excited,  tired, depressed or even happy! Absented mind eating occurs when we are either distracted by a problem or an emotional occurrence or have deprived themselves of nourishment by not eating a balanced meal, thereby allowed their energy level to drop.

Although it sabotages your weight loss program as much as deliberately and knowingly eating too much, absent minded eating is insidious. You generally don’t realize what you’ve done until after the fact. The key is to be aware. Watch for signs of a mood shift or  energy drop.

Contact Bob Crow at 404.277.1827 to lose the weight that you desire to lose and keep it off forever.

How many times when something bad happened to you have you said  “I knew that that was going to happen” or “This always happens to me” or “Everything always goes wrong” or “I just knew it wasn’t going to work out the way I wanted it to?”

Interesting isn’t it? What do you think you were visualizing in your subconscious mind before things went sour? Not what were you wishing for – what were you visualizing? Were you visualizing a happy and productive result? Or were you visualizing something that you didn’t desire? Hoping for good things and visualizing good things are vastly different! What were you visualizing? Are you sure? Then why was the first thing out of your mouth – something to the effect that you knew in advance the things were going to go sour?

Many people visualize certain things in their conscious mind, but where and when it really counts they are visualizing what they don’t want. We were not born afraid of spiders, or snakes, or climbing trees, or public speaking, or riding in elevators or any other limiting behavior. No… we were all born with only two fears, falling backwards and loud noises. Everything else was learned.

Man is the only machine that is meta programmable. That means that he can reprogram his cognitive maps that are found in the subconscious mind! How does one program the subconscious in the first place? It is done in REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. During the relatively short period of REM sleep, the subconscious can process eight hours worth of material in five minutes! A dream or nightmare that you felt went on for hours probably lasted for from three to twenty seconds. Now if all the subconscious has to process is previously processed garbage – the cognitive maps only get negatively reinforced.

The only way that one can access the subconscious mind is through hypnosis as hypnosis is the bridge to the subconscious. Hypnosis is controlled daydreaming. One cannot make the behavioral changes that need to be made in the conscious mind. That’s why pictures of Bentley  automobiles and zillion dollar houses on your bathroom mirror don’t work. You are trying to effect behavioral change in the conscious mind and that can’t be done.

If you wish to begin visualizing what you want to happen in your subconscious mind,  call Bob Crow at 404.277.1827 for a complimentary consultation.

Hollywood and television producers, many of the educational and political elitists and others that already have money, lament the price of success. Success is often portrayed in the media and the entertainment industry as evil and causing a person to be morally bankrupt. Of course there is a price of success, but there is also a price to be paid for failure. The price of failure is far more costly. You see, you will pay the price of failure every day, day in and day out for the rest of your life. You pay the price of failure on the installment plan – literally and figuratively.  You pay it on the installment plan for the rest of your life. This writer doesn’t know what it takes for you to feel comfortable, but you and your family having less will not cause others to have more. This much is sure, life will extract a price from you. You were designed for excellence but programed for mediocrity. A winner is most often a happy person.  You can be as successful as your dreams and effort will take you.The choice is yours!