Weight Loss Hypnosis And Toxic Workmates
I am going to tell you a nasty story of bullying which one of my supervisees, Sally brought to me. Unfortunately, it is not unique, it is a bad example but far from the only one I have come across.
Where Weight Loss Hypnosis Fits
A good reason to want weight loss hypnotherapy
Sally told me the story of her client, Jo.
Jo is a nurse who works for a charity which gives advice on healthy living. Jo wanted weight loss hypnotherapy as her weight was gradually creeping up and she hated it. “I’m getting more and more tired at work, I’m losing confidence and I look horrible,” she said. In a quiet voice she added, “the worst thing is I feel such a fraud. I’m constantly advising people on healthy eating and watching their weight and look at me. Why should they listen to me? I’m just a joke.”
As they talked, Sally became mystified. Jo described a reasonably healthy diet, she was on her feet a lot of the time and walked her dog every day. She didn’t drink and never snacked in the evenings. So she ticked a lot of Sally’s ‘do this’ boxes and was avoiding a lot of the baddies – those habits which pile on the weight, often without the client realising what they do.
The ‘generous’ cakes
Then they got onto talking about Jo’s working day and the problem became obvious. It was two workmates Jo called The Toxic Twins: fat and unhealthy themselves they had established a ritual which they had got the rest of the team to buy into. Every day they supplied cakes and mid-afternoon, everyone gathered back in the office and ate the cakes, the twins were so generous weren’t they? And what cakes: cream cakes, sponge cakes, chocolate cakes and biscuits. The Toxic Twins packed away two or three cakes themselves in these sessions and tried to make everyone else do the same. And that wasn’t all. If anyone was around in the morning, the toxic twins made it very clear that they were expected to eat the several slices of buttery toast on offer.
Jo was always saying, I don’t want that, I am putting on weight and it’s got to stop. And the reply from the Toxic Twins came back: “You’re a misery, a bit of cake never hurt anyone, who do you think you are, Kate Moss?” And it got really nasty. The Toxic Twins treated Jo as if she was a snob or just weird. And they tried to get others ganging up against her.
Hypnotherapy for self-esteem
Sally is a very experienced weight loss hypnotherapist and she identified what Jo needed to do. She worked with Jo to build her confidence and help her to put herself first. Several sessions of hypnotherapy for weight loss and hypnotherapy for self-esteem began to work. In a weight loss hypnosis session they practised how Jo would deal with the Toxic Twins, she used jokes, little songs, humming ‘there’s more to life than cake’ and for her the biggie, saying: “sorry, it is your choice what you do, but I don’t want to be that fat.’
Weight Loss Hypnosis Can Work Well
And over time it worked. The Toxic Twins quietened down and other people came over to Jo’s point of view. They were fed up too, but had never had the confidence to speak out. They asked Jo where her new confidence came from and she said how useful her hypnotherapy sessions had been. And guess what? Sally now has three clients from that workplace. And there is fruit on the menu in the afternoons.
So this story has a happy ending. But bullying over food at work is common. So keep an eye out for it with your weight loss clients.
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Ann Jaloba
Ann Jaloba has a spent her whole career writing, editing and authoring health and wellbeing journals, books, websites and magazines. She is a qualified therapist and supervisor and coaches and supports entrepreneurs who want to write for publication. With thousands of face-to-face client hours under her belt, Ann is is happy to share her wisdom and experience.
This is a shocking story of bullying Ann, and whilst I hope this is a fairly extreme example I believe there are much more subtle and common ways in which we can be persuaded by others to make bad choices around food. Fear of upsetting family and friends, peer pressure, the idea from fat friends that you are somehow being a traitor for not wanting to be part of their fat club any more. Your story shows how hypnotherapy in the hands of a good therapist can give you confidence not just in your ability to control what you choose to put in your body but also help you to break away from the bullies, the feeders and the saboteurs who would try to derail you.
What a shocking sad story. It just shows how people can be bullied in many different ways and in this case with food.
I have directly experienced this sort of behaviour myself. I was working in a very male dominated, “bacon butty, pasty and chips” sort of environment and I used to take a lot of salad, vegetables and fruit in to work.
People would walk past my desk and make comments. The nicest one was that I didn’t have a desk, I had a picnic table. I like that one and use that image often.
Most of them were quite aggressive in their tone. Such things as
“There’s just as many calories in that as this bacon butty”
“There’s more sugar in that than this”
“You can’t possible enjoy that”
“You’re just weird!”
“Freak!”
Considering my background and general attitude, it didn’t affect me. If anything I used to revel in it and used it to challenge their beliefs and behaviours.
If it had been anyone less self-confident then it could have been horrible!
I just found it a fascinating case study in human psychology.
I have come across similar situations of varying degrees in every work environment except one (a major supermarket retailer who provides lots of fruit for their office employees).
Often it is disguised as “Team Building”, but if you don’t participate in that unhealthy behaviour (cakes, biscuits, sweets, chocolate, alcohol) you are not a team player, “not one of us”.
I think you make a very good point about eating rubbish being disguised as ‘team building’ Bryan. I am shortly publishing a book for nurses which covers this as it’s a big problem in health environments (!). It takes a strong person to work out strategies for dealing with this.