Detroit Jewish News Article
MIND OVER MATTER by Lynne Konstantin

Rena Greenberg offers a safe, easy way to lose weight

Rena 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 advertising 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 running 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 physiological 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 your own health.”

Eventually, Greenberg realized that she could achieve the same results without the instruments—through hypnosis. So she returned to school, this time at City University of New York at Brooklyn College, where she earned a degree in biopsychology with course work in biofeedback, physiology and hypnosis. She also became a certified 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 habits. “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 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, eventually 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. She then breaks, allowing guests to decide whether to stay (and pay the $69 fee, which also includes reinforcement materials) or leave, no questions asked. “That was one of the reasons I went, knowing I could walk out before I paid,” says Dingman. “Rena explained that it wasn’t like anything you see in movies. When we were leaving, a woman asked me if I felt any different, and I didn’t. I didn’t know if I’d been hypnotized. So I went grocery shopping, thinking it would be a good way to test it out. And I found that the normal things I would buy compulsively, like cookies, just didn’t seem appealing to me.”

Dingman, who says he used to devour an entire pumpkin pie in one sitting, says he just stopped eating certain things, started drinking more water, eating more vegetables, eating smaller portions and doing activities that he enjoys, like mountain biking or hiking. “Before, I had high blood pressure, high cholesterol, was bordering on diabetes. I had no energy. I didn’t want to do anything,” he says. “Now, everything is fine. I haven’t taken any medication in three years.”

Deanna Dotterer also appreciated being informed a the seminar she attended in October, 2005. At 283 pounds, the 33-year old Ferndale teacher was skeptical but went in with an open mind. “It wasn’t like, clap once and bark like a dog,” she says. “ I felt it was pretty straightforward.” “It’s also not a quick fix, she points out. “Like with anything, you really need to be ready, and I was.”

Less than month later, Dorrerer’s family had its usual enormous Thanksgiving celebration. “Afterwards, I realized I simply didn’t go for the bad stuff,” she says. “And I noticed I had been eating less, leaving more on my plate, drinking more water. I used to have bad habits, like emotional eating even if I wasn’t hungry. But now I was able to stop myself. I don’t even realize it now when it’s happening. It’s reprogrammed and it’s really working.” To date, she also has lost more than 100 pounds.

Greenberg estimates that she conducts an average of 10-15 seminars each month, and has hypnotized more than 100,000 people. Starting the program in 1990 in Bradenton, FL, where she and her husband, Barry, moved to raise their two daughters, she has expanded to conduct seminars in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan. “Lots of my Florida clients were snowbirds from Michigan and it sounded like a wonderful place to live,” says Greenberg, who owns a second home in Ann Arbor.

Listening to Greenberg’s soothing yet dynamically compelling manner during her seminars, it’s little surprise that she also is an ordained minister. Greenberg’s Russian father grew up in Israel before accepting a scholarship to Columbia University in New York City, where he met his wife to be, a German-Jewish Holocaust survivor attending Smith College.

Attending yeshivah from age 4 through the 8th grade, Greenberg and her two siblings were raised in an Orthodox household. “Judaism is very much in my heart still, but not so much in an outer way,” explains Greenberg. “But it awakened a deeper spiritual longing to know more about the world of the divine.” With a passion for the poetry of Rumi teachings, Greenberg took classes on “awakening the heart,” a program inspired by Sufi teachings, eventually earning a master’s degree in divinity. “The same thing is at the core of all religions: A deep devotion to God, our creator,” says Greenberg. “When I do Hebrew prayers, I feel an even deeper connection.”

While the spiritual component to her techniques acts as a subtle boost during Greenberg’s seminars, it is much more prominent in her 2006 book ‘The Right Weight: Six Steps to Permanent Weight Loss’ (Hay House, $14.95), which outlines Greenberg’s approach to readers. (A new book, called ‘The Craving Cure’, published by McGraw-Hill, is due out in June).

And it’s an approach that works, says Dorrerer. “You can do all the crash diets and starve yourself, but those don’t last because they don’t change your psychological perspective,” she explains. “This is a retraining of my brain. This is for the rest of my life.”

QUICK TIPS FOR WEIGHT LOSS - Little ways to make big changes:
Have a bottle of water nearby at all times. “It gives you something to reach for, satisfies oral feelings, suppresses appetite and flushes toxins,” says Greenberg.

Take a beak. “Food is usually our excuse to take a break, but we don’t need any excuses. Throughout the day, stop, close your eyes if you can and take a few deep breaths with a positive affirmation, ‘Breathing in, I breathe in peace; breathing out, I breathe out peace.”
Stretch. “We hold so much tension in our muscles that even just a few shoulder rolls help, or bending down and touching our toes. If you’re a mom at home, hug your knees to your chest on the floor. I have a little round trampoline, and if I’m too busy to exercise, I jump on the trampoline. Start with five jumping jacks, work up to 100. Turn on some music. Bring out the music you loved as a teenager—you’ll feel like you’re dancing and have a blast.”