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Rena Greenberg offers a safe, easy way to lose weight.

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BY LYNNE KONSTANTIN I PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANGIE BAAN

9

,

RENA
ENBERG

and CEO. Welinoss

Sominars,

A

ena Greenberg has always craved
adventure. So fresh out of high
school, the 46-year-old New
Jersey native crossed the river into
Manhattan to earn a degree in adver-
tising communications from the
Fashion Institute of Technology
before setting off on adventures
that included working for the likes
of Ben Vereen and, later, Club
Med.
But by the time she was
25, she was exhausted — and
obsessing over her weight.
"I had very bad habits. I had
a sugar addiction. I lived on
processed foods. I started run-
ning when I was 22," explains
Greenberg. "But I got to a point
where I wasn't listening to my
body. It became compulsive, and
I would run every day, no matter
what." So she began a quest for
health. Even so, at 26, she was
told that her heart rate was down
to 30 beats per minute from the
normal 50-99 range and required
a pacemaker. "I was facing death.
My doctor told me I had the heart
of an 80-year-old, and the only
thing keeping me alive was my age,"
says Greenberg.
Out of the hospital, Greenberg
returned to her studies of health and
nutrition, which led to an interest in
biofeedback therapy, in which external
instruments measure the body's physi-
ological responses. "It shows the direct
connection you can make from brain
waves," she says. "I became fascinated
because I realized, more than anything
else, what an impact it could have on our
own health."
Eventually, Greenberg realized that
she could achieve the same results with-
out the instruments — through hypnosis.
So she returned t
c at City
University
College,

where she earned a degree in biopsychology with course work in
biofeedback, physiology and hypnosis. She also became a certi-
fied hypnotherapist through the National Guild of Hypnotists.
Working as a biofeedback therapist with a cardiologist, then with
a hospital of joint disease, she focused her interest on habits. "I
had changed mine so much and to such benefit, I really wanted to
share it with other people," she explains.
To that end, as founder and director of Wellness Seminars,
Greenberg travels to hospitals around the country conducting
hypnosis seminars to help people break their bad habits,
particularly involving smoking cessation and weight
control. Through her seminars, she addresses the
core of the weight-loss issue: retraining bad hab-
its. "Consciously, we all want to lose weight,"
Greenberg explains. "Subconsciously, though,
we've been ingrained with habits: being sedentary,
cleaning our plates, emotional eating. If we don't eat
the way we always have, the subconscious tells us we
feel deprived."
Through hypnosis, says Greenberg, the
subconscious works with the will, telling
it that we actually prefer healthier foods,
enjoy exercise, the feeling of being lighter,
of fitting into clothes. "We think like a
thin person," she says. And we don't feel
deprived.
Sound easy? It is, says Leonard
Dingman of Howell. The 43-year-old
prototype technician had struggled
with weight issues since he was 14,
and had tried every diet imaginable.
So when a co-worker told him he
quit smoking through a Wellness
Seminar, in June 2004, the self-
described skeptic figured he had
nothing to lose.
In fact, he lost plenty. Within
six months he had lost nearly
70 of his 310 pounds, eventu-
ally reaching a total loss of 100
pounds from his 6-foot, 1-inch
frame. "I had gone down to 180,
but my family and friends were
worried," he says. "They thought
I looked too skinny."
For the first half of her
two-hour seminar, Greenberg
explains exactly what hypnosis is
and what can be expected. >

platiallItt • APRIL 2007 •

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