Success Stories

I lost 116 pounds in 10 months. My name is Linda Colbert. I live in a wonderful little town sixty miles outside of Spokane. Harrington is an agricultural town boasting a population of about five hundred people. My husband, Charley, and I have been married for thirty-seven years. He is a farmer and I have driven a school bus for twenty-five years. All three of our children and grandchildren live within a half an hour of the home that they were raised in. We all work together and when big jobs have to be done, like harvest, haying, painting, fence building, or remodeling, we are all there for each other. With all this wonderful family activity you would think I would remain fit and healthy but as 2006 brought the New Year in I found myself weighing way out of control at over three hundred pounds.

How did I get so heavy??? I couldn’t keep up with activities my family did. I dressed awful because I only had one or two things that fit and when I would go to outings, which wasn’t too often, I couldn’t wait to see what they had to eat. That was my focus at parties, not the conversation or seeing my friends and neighbors. In my mind I could eat all that I wanted because I really would start that diet tomorrow. But, tomorrow never came. I’d worry at night and couldn’t sleep. I’d feel panic because of all the sweet things I’d eaten in large quantities and I’d never feel full. The sugar just kept me on this vicious cycle. My relatives were all diabetic and I worried about becoming one myself. Each morning I would start a diet by starving and by afternoon I’d be back binging on high calorie food. Then at night the whole process would start over again. This went on for years and all the while I was missing the swimming adventures, hiking and more, because I was just too heavy to participate. Does this sound all too familiar??!!

The last straw finally hit. We hadn’t been on a vacation for many years and we won a trip to the Bahamas. I spent about $350.00 on clothes that were a tight 4X and tried to put a couple outfits together. My swimsuit was a huge size 26-28 and I did feel huge in it. While I was shopping I cried in Lane Bryant’s, an oversized woman’s store. I threw up in Wal-Mart and I ate two Whoppers, a large fry along with a jumbo Coke in Burger King. I am going mad! A vicious cycle I just can’t get off. I wanted to go on this trip but agonized on how I looked. As the departure date drew closer I ate more and panicked more. The highlights of my trip from hell were: I could hardly fasten the seat belt on the plane, when I did it bit into my sides; I filled up every inch of the three by four bathroom on the plane; and I was out of breath just running a few steps to catch a connecting flight. Whereas three people could normally sit on a van seat my seat could just occupy me and there was always a skinny gal glaring at me like fat was catching. Instead of swimming in the pool I swam in the ocean because I felt that twenty-five miles of beach and five foot waves made me look smaller. I hated every minute and hated myself and felt awful for my husband having to have me as a partner. How had I picked food over my family, activities and a relationship with my husband?

January 2006 hit and I was sleeping eight to ten hours during the day and was consuming four to six regular Cokes along with cake, donuts and ice cream until I was so full I couldn’t move. I prayed for a miracle and then it came. The TV was my only activity and I saw an ad for Positive Changes. I have never been a procrastinator and I move pretty fast on impulsive ideas. I called that day and made a free evaluation appointment but was afraid it was another gimmick and it would be short lived. At least I was trying and was doing something. That was February 2006. At that evaluation I signed up as I felt something different and exciting happening. I had a glimmer of hope to gain my life back.

In the past I had tried to count on willpower and even went as far as tattooing the words, “Hold On” onto my shoulder. Every diet I had been associated with, and I have tried everyone on the market, meant you have to hold on every day. In other programs, you have to use your will power to get through another diet. Positive Changes is a whole new program like I’ve never known before. I was asked if that tattoo hurt, “not as much as looking at myself in the mirror”, was always my tearful reply.

Was I worried about the cost of this program, I was eating more junk food and pop than what it cost me to go to Positive Changes. This was going to be my last chance and if this didn’t work I was resolved to stay sedentary and give up my hope of an active life.

Each week I looked forward to the classes and information along with valuable advice. Also a 12 pound loss that first week shocked me and I knew I had found my miracle. I love the relaxation of the hypnosis sessions, reclining in comfortable chairs, headphones on and flashing lights. I felt every word I had heard opened a pathway to my brain and it soaked up their positive instruction. The new thoughts and attitudes stayed with me all week and my next session added even more. My mind received fascinating information and I didn’t have to rely on willpower to hold on every day. My change in attitude towards food was there and there was no struggle to do and eat the right things. I even replaced my addicting Coke with cool refreshing water. To say the least it has changed my life! I truthfully tell the friendly staff that I was the hardest client they will ever have. My eating was so out of control, lots of pastries and pizza, and worst of all the pop every day. All that is gone and my health has returned. My physical activity is off the charts. In fact, I am fifty seven years old and have walked sixty miles in the Breast Cancer Three Day Walk. My weight loss in just nine months is 113 pounds, six sizes smaller in clothing and I no longer feel bigger than the Pacific Ocean. What an incredible blessing.

I wanted to do this testimony for people who are fifty to a hundred pounds overweight. In a short time you can change your life. Since I have been there, thin, heavy, and all the sizes in between, I know just how a person feels. We put on weight, we overeat, we oversleep and we don’t move. We lose sight of caring for ourselves because usually we are caring for others and they come before our own needs. We all have reasons for what we have done to ourselves but we are articulate, hardworking, clean, sensitive people. Not lazy, uneducated or unclean people that I have sometimes made to feel by the stares and rudeness of others. I just wanted to walk into a room and not be the biggest thing there including the piano.

Give the gift of Positive Changes to yourself and in a short time the real you will emerge. My family has their energetic mom and grandma again and it is so good to be back. Thank you Positive Changes.