When I work with clients to help them achieve their ideal size, shape and weight… I do just that. I do not refer to them ‘losing’ weight or focus on the notion of ‘weight loss’ … Especially when you think that most her things we ‘lose’ we’d rather keep…
Blimey, people jump on and off their bathroom scales in a compulsive manner and the only measure of success is how much weight they have put on or taken off…
It is important to work on state of mind, balance and getting the shape right. Heck, at the very basic level, we all know muscle weighs 5 times more than fat and fat takes up 5 times more space… Therefore, you can alter the shape dramatically without too much weight coming off when you exercise…
Yet, lots of these slimming clubs that proliferate the UK and the rest of the world have all the members jumping on the scales in front of everyone to denote success or failure… All this leads me nicely on to matters at hand… Courtney Love… I am bothered by this…
When looking at being the size, shape and weight that pleases you, it needs to be in a healthy and harmonious way!
Whatever you have read about Courtney Love before today, you’ll get a sense for her being known for extremes… I am a fan of hers… I love the way she cameo’ed in Neill Straus’s book “The Game” and yet it is her obvious issues and frailties that harm her public image sometimes…
She has had problems with her weight for a fair period of time with a media documented fluctuation… She piles on weight and then diets excessively, gets incredibly thin and then piles it all back on again… This fluctuation occurs in so many people across the western world… It is like the good and dark forces battling it out within our bodies as we go from one extreme to another… It is very destructive.
Courtney Love was recently in rehab to overcome drug abuse and as is so often the case, this led to her piling on quite a lot of weight (often food ‘fills the void’) that some in the media described as ‘excessive.’ Through some major dieting she managed to reduce her weight by a substantial forty-five pounds and then (which piqued my interest) went to hypnotist (and now ‘weight loss guru in the US) Paul McKenna for further assistance.
You’d think that we now have a happy ending, wouldn’t you? Evidently, some of Courtney Love’s friends now think she is addicted to reducing weight and is taking things too far — Has McKenna spotted any unhealthy traits within her weight reduction?
Here is what this hypnosis article at showbizspy website says:
Rocker Courtney Love has credited hypnotist Paul McKenna for her recent weight loss.
The widow of Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain consulted the weight-loss guru after using conventional dieting methods to shed more than three stone, which she had piled on after quitting drugs.
But even her close friends are concerned that her latest weight loss is far too dramatic.
One said, “She is skeletal now. Her weight would always yo-yo depending on whether she was doing drugs or not but then she cleaned up her act in rehab and replaced drugs with food.
“But Courtney is an addict and now she is addicted to losing weight.
“She looks terrible. She needs to put on a stone at least.
“Ever since she’s been seeing McKenna for hypnosis sessions, she’s lost more weight. It doesn’t look good but she thinks he’s a genius.”
Courtney, 44, underwent a series of Think Yourself Thin hypnosis sessions with McKenna, who moved from London to Los Angeles this year.
She told friends, “I’ve known Paul for years. I lost weight last year the old-fashioned way by dieting and living off protein shakes. But it was hard to stay disciplined. I was worried the weight might come back so I booked myself in for weekly sessions with Paul.
“He’s brilliant and is totally responsible for me staying so skinny. Whenever I start to feel my resolve weaken, I go to Paul for another hypnosis session.”
Courtney says she piled on 45lb two years ago after quitting drugs. She lost it on a meagre diet and through exercise and colonic irrigation.
But she has recently lost a further 10lb, leading to worries about her health.
There are many other articles all over the internet sharing these thoughts…
Hmmm…
Certainly, any internet image search about Courtney Love shows photos that illustrate the issue at hand here… That she is a woman with an issue pertaining to her weight… I mean, the continual fluctuation in her size and shape within pictures of her documents this issue that I believe is rather prevalent in many people (in partiocular women) in the western world today.
Good hypnotherapy should lead to balance, a harmonious mindset and much more besides simply reducing physical weight… Which is often merely a symptom of other things at work… I wish Courtney Love all the best and hope she finds harmonious ways and balance with what she is doing.
Meant to get to commenting on this last week…such an interesting blog!
I think Courtney Love is possibly one of the worst advertisements Paul McKenna could have to be quite honest. I actually liked his “I Can Make You Thin” programme and thought that his system was very sensible. I think it’s probably more challenging than he makes out-particularly recognising when you are truly hungry-but it’s generally based on sound ideas and promotes a healthy approach to food and eating, as well as encouraging keeping active. It’s not ground-breaking, and most of it isn’t even new. It’s certainly not revolutionary but he put it all together well and definitely managed to encourage people to make positive changes in their lives which is a wonderful thing.
This is quite at odds with being associated with Courtney Love in her weight loss journey. She reportedly lost vast amounts of weight through a very low calorie diet (VLCD) consisting of protein shakes (she describes this as th”old-fashioned way” above!). This, while effective in the short term, is hardly dealing with why she gained weight in the first place, and instead of dealing with her attitude to food and eating just removes it from the equation. It’s similar to entering rehab for drug or alcohol addiction I suppose-just don’t allow access to the problem substance. That may work for drugs or alcohol since we don’t need them…but for food? Protein shakes provide the mininum for survival without incurring major deficiencies…but hardly for optimum health! And food is everywhere. We have to deal with it on a daily basis and it is surely much better to have a relaxed relationship where it is something to fuel us, make us healthy, and to be enjoyed rather than a best friend/worst enemy. And did the protein shakes make her look “well” or “healthy”? Not in my opinion. I think she looks like she’s lost weight too rapidly and also has very little muscle. She looks miserable!
What’s more worrying is this statement about her relationship with Paul:
“He’s brilliant and is totally responsible for me staying so skinny. Whenever I start to feel my resolve weaken, I go to Paul for another hypnosis session.”
What a sad result! To believe that someone else is responsible for your body is just such a pity. For her sake, I just hope that this feeling changes and that she begins to realise that SHE is totally responsible for the things that happen to her, not somebody else. An internal locus of control is very useful!
And don’t even get me started on the whole “weight” issue. I’ve probably gone to the other extreme at this stage, in that I don’t go near scales at all usually. Only get weighed for medical appointments/fitness assessments etc! Clothes are enough of an indicator for me-it’s easy enough to tell a loss or gain. Or the tape measure! And my local friendly exercise physiologist is more than willing to attack me with calipers if I want to know how my body fat, which is far more relevant than scale weight. Scales are a source of so much tension for so many people. They’re ridiculously variable to begin with-can show a few pounds difference depending on time of day, whether or not you’ve eaten, what you’ve eaten, whether or not you’ve been to the bathroom… And women will fluctuate depending on hormone levels. And with each fluctuation there is the associated feelings of success or failure. Aargh! Slimming clubs have their place I’m sure. Lots of people find them very supportive and apparently group weight reduction tends to be more effective than going it alone. I went to 2 classes once upon a time many years ago and couldn’t face more. Picked up my books the first week, followed the points religiously…and went back to discover I’d lost 0.5lbs. I felt like a total failure! Reckoned that something that made me feel bad like that wasn’t for me 🙂 And don’t start me on the potential for people to get obsessed with calculating the points value of everything they eat and trying to get away with eating as few as possible…..Grrr!
Sorry for the ramble. Your article was really good!