Weight Loss Fifteen: Wartime Starvation Lenny’s Story

At the tender age of eight Lenny found himself lying in a ditch starving. He hadn’t eating in days and was weak and in despair. It was during the VietNam war and his village had been burned. As Lenny lay in the ditch he thought to himself, “If I live through this I will make sure that I will never be hungry again.” Somehow Lenny did live through this tragedy. Eventually he was adopted by an American family and as Lenny adapted to the ways of America he left behind his childhood memories, placing them “safely” somewhere in his psyche. Years passed and Lenny grew up and started his own business as the owner of a deli. When Lenny came to me for counseling over his eating problem he was  fifty pounds overweight. He had become his own best customer. Lenny was desperate to lose the weight and had tried everything. We decided to use hypnosis and the tool of regression. During this process Lenny went back to that moment in the ditch. This was a high impact moment when a core belief was taken on about food and survival. Lenny had made a commitment to never starve and he had kept his promise to himself. This decision he made a eight led him to his career in food. Once Lenny recognized the original cause of his overeating problem he was able to control his eating habits. He realized that finally he was safe. He told his inner child that he would make sure that he would never go without food and that it was now appropriate to eat in less amounts, that there would always be more if he were really hungry.