Virtual Gastric Band Programme

An Interview with Sheila Granger

Sue Wood from Alpha Hypnosis was lucky enough to sit down with the creator and founder of the Virtual Gastric Band Training Programme, Sheila Granger, when she visited New Zealand from the UK earlier this week. 

Sheila gave us a lot of insight into her unique programme which teaches people how to change their thoughts, so they change their habits and behaviours towards food in order to lose weight. Sheila now travels the world teaching hypnotherapists how to deliver this programme to their clients. 

Sue worked with Sheila in 2014, training in the basic Virtual Gastric Band Programme and it changed the way Sue works with clients since then. With feedback from her client’s, and her own, weight-loss journey Sue has aded to the programme to make it 6 sesssons, plus 6 months back up support, which gives you peace of mind as you go through your own transformational weight-loss journey.  

Content: 

Sue: Why did you develop the Virtual Gastric Band Programme?

Sheila: Well, to start with, it seemed like a ‘madness concept’ – a virtual gastric band, and I didn’t really see how it could work hypnotically with somebody and how it could bring long term results simply by, well the concept is ‘imaginary surgery’ – getting somebody to develop a new set of habits that they can realistically live with and, if we think about it, by putting the right foundations back in place again. So I thought it was a ridiculous concept, but I did some research in the UK, with some trial groups, in a doctor’s surgery, and I personally was blown away by the difference that concept (the virtual gastric band) was making to a hypnosis weight-loss programme. Whereas before, with hypnosis programmes, some concepts would work with some and not for others, or on a temporary basis. By putting those foundations back in place this seems to be the game changer.    This is because, well, we all know what to do – it’s not rocket science – you need to eat less and exercise more – but that’s okay on a conscious level. And we seem to have been trained on a set of eating habits from when we were young children, ‘eat it all up’ or ‘eat all the food on your plate’. So we have been trained in our eating habits from a really young age and the problem is with most diets is that the people are still trained to think about food all the time.   

Sue: Yeah, they’ve got to count calories or points or something like that.   

Sheila: Yes, sooner or later somebody cannot do that for any sustainable period because it really doesn’t change how they think about food. So with our Virtual Gastric Band Programme it really changes how people think about food. And if we change how we think about something, then that’s going to work in the long term. It really isn’t a diet, because all those things only work on a temporary basis. This is about bringing a long term sustainable change in someone’s habits.    We all want to wake up thin tomorrow and what we want, we want it now. We don’t want to wait for it! We can’t liken this to actual physical surgery, we are not physically putting a barrier there (like a gastric bypass surgery or stomach stapling surgery), so we are never going to get the same results as someone would get, the rapid weight loss that somebody might get with physical surgery, but if we can get someone to lose a few pounds a week (on our programme) that would be sustainable. And they could get to where they wanted to be. The difference is that they are going to stay there because they have developed a new set of habits.  

Sue: Thank you Sheila for taking the time to talk to us about your amazing programme and giving us some insights into why and how you developed the programme.   

If you would like to find out more about the Virtual Gastric Band Programme and how it can help you lose weight please get in contact with Sue.