Light Lean Healthy Being Q&A

Just a few of the emails we've been receiving:

Dear Mary,

I subscribed to your movie "Light Lean Heathy Being" and I cannot tell enough how blessedI am for following my intuition for doing so. I want to tell everyone I know how wonderful it is to connect to these kinds of messages from Spirit anytime you need to or want to. You are truly God's Light! What a great idea to put these kinds of movies together with music and pictures to fill one's mind with positive thoughts.

I am going to try shining my light on a person that I have been getting angry with when she tries to control me. Instead of getting angry, I will send her love and light, without words. I have not gotten outwardly angry, but I have not liked my reactions to the situation either. I know all of this, but I needed to be reminded to do so.

Again, thank you for caring enough to use your gift in the positive way. Blessings, Avanell Kirchman


Mary.

I purchased your LLHB movie at a very difficult time in my life and when I was searching for other people of Spirit for support. I am making major life changes and I am challenged every day to hold fast to the goodness of my intentions to live in a positive place after 37 years of marriage.

I immediately found your movie the calm place I take myself too often, but this time I found it supportive in the biggest part of my life that needs to heal.; I need to loose weight for many Health reasons and it is hard to stay focused while painful arthritis in my knees is a part of every single day. I have also the need to find a suitable job to pay many medical bills as my husband continues to be on long term disability for serious diabetic complications.

Now, what happened as I began listening to and watching my LLHB movie. I immediately felt relief and knew I had a friend. That friend however became my own Spirit each and every time I listened. I even copied the text and read it once a day for additional purposeful inspirational support when I didn't have time to go to my computer.

I found myself trusting my instincts about what I chose to eat...I found myself calm and relaxed when I did eat. I had a confidence I haven't had with food for a long time. I liked to eat again and I was not anxious about food, nor did I "see" my eating problem as a bad thing for my own Health anymore. I just had a sense of knowing I could meet the challenge to Eat Light Lean Healthy and become the Healthy Being. I have always believed is my own personal gift in life. I eat good foods mostly because I value my body health to balance my Spirit. But I do eat too much and have a problem with portion control and filling up voids. I am reminded by your Movie of the center of my own calm; I let go of my negative mind patterns and I become calm and focused on Abundance and Good. It is really simple because it is a tool to help me do what I do in other areas of my life, such as in family, work in an elementary school classroom, with friends and in my life.

I found myself amazed one day when I pushed away a plate of leftover food ....not something that I didn't like, either......a food I knew I was more of a favorite.......and didn't want or need anymore. I actually was willing to throw it away even with my finances at risk. That is HUGE for me and I realized, "I am enough." I am enough without all the food that I had used to fill me up at each "eating." I smiled to myself, got up from the table and scraped the food into the garbage disposal. It was a moment of peace, and the most positive relationship I have had with food in a long time. I didn't feel bad about eating and I had some kind of sensed of balance.

I know that being Negative and Fearful won't help. I also have your Peace On Earth DVD movies with LightMovie.com, YouAreLoveMovie.com, Inner Guidance Movie and SilentNightMovie.com.

I am 60 years old next month but very young at heart. My body is worn down but my Spirit is alive and well.

Thank you for making this LLHB Movie. I shall cherish it forever as a token of inspiration and support on my way back to Health and Wellness.

Good Luck. I hope other women are finding success and confidence to remain Light Lean Healthy Beings of Spirit and who return honoring their Body. It's time for me to return to Balance and Light and Health after raising my children in unusual circumstances. l was out of Balance one day when I woke up and saw the Light. I have been choosing Health for my body to equal the health in Spirit that got me to being a 60 year old woman with amazing Adult Kids and two brand new little grandbabies!! The rest will come with a Healthy Body.

Good luck..... I will pass your name onto anyone else who sees the LLHB segment and I will NOT allow anyone to break my agreement with your material.

I am sure the next three months will be a Light Lean Healthy Being Movie success for me. Sincerely, Judy Sage


Hi Mary

I thought you might be interested in something I have just been through with the movie, "Light Lean Healthy Being."

To catch you up on my experience with your movie "Light Lean Healthy Being:"

In February I discovered your fantastic organization and ordered three of your movies. I weighed my self and I weighed in and around 210 lbs. I was way over my normal weight that I had been at for several years. After trying about every weight losing program there is I decided about ten years ago to do it my self. To make a long story shorter I managed to maintain my weight in the mid to low 180's. I stayed there for close to ten years and then I started gaining and lost control. I have arthritis and the lighter I am the better it is. So I think around the first of February I started watching your movie twice a day one in the morning and one in the evening. In a few short weeks I was down to 200 lbs on the 28th of February and that came off real easy. Then I hit a snag. I did get down to 194 lbs but couldn't keep it there and then I started listening to the movie once a day. Through the month of March and April I could not get the weight to drop. I stayed in the middle 190's and more times then not it was the upper half. Starting a couple weeks into May I started listening and watching the movie twice a day again but had quit weighing my self. The reason for writing is that last week I just happened to weigh my self and I weighed 190 lbs. I was excited and checked to se if I was in the 180's yet. I haven't got their yet but think I have my self on the proper frame of mind and practicing what I say every time I watch the movie. When I lost the weight so easy and fast at first in my mind I thought I could just eat when ever and what ever I wanted as long as I watched the movie.

Well that's not the way it works.

What I wanted to share with you and maybe you can help someone if they get in a slump like I was. Don't give up on the movie. I have a feeling not continuing losing weight as I did at first was in the mind. And when I quit weighing my self every day and did my thing with the movie I started to walk past the candy dish, I started feeling full sooner and actually was practicing the words from the movie. I didn't realize it until I found my self at 190 lbs the other day that it dawned on me not to give up and keep pushing away at the movie and it will work on your mind to follow the suggestions you have so well placed in the movie. That's the only thing I can lay the loss of weight to. No earth shattering news but I have a sneaking feeling that many will quit if they stay at a weight for a long period of time. Stay with the movie and I am convinced at least for me I have to watch it early in the day and again in the evening.

I have a problem that for some reason has crept in the last month. I have a problem falling asleep during the movie I just drop off and come right back but have missed a line or two. I then concentrate and read the lines again and again I fall off for a line or two and back again. I haven't been able to lick this in the morning but usually don't have trouble in the evening viewing. Instead of getting down about it I just keep right on going and try get in as much of the movie I can. I will go along for a while and not dose off and then it comes back again.

Hope this finds you trusting in the Lord and more and more wonderful things will come your way.
Jim Cwert


Hey Mary,

I trust that all is well for you and your family. I did not lose weight as a result of the movie (because you hadn't written the movie yet), but when I read your Masterminding 101 curriculum I decided then that whatever I ate would be good for my body, provide proper nourishment and help me lose weight and I am now two sizes smaller...and I didn't exercise!
Trevy A. McDonald, Ph.D.
Author/Publisher/Transformational Speaker

positively affecting my health and eating behavior. Whenever I worked with them, I experienced immediate results. Consistency historically had always been an issue for me.

Since I had begun making meditative movies, I realized I could put my statements of intention into a movie that I could easily watch every day, so I would simply begin a new habit of watching it every morning before I began work.

It made sense to me to just add a 7 minute meditative movie to my morning routine, and view it again at the end of the day right before I shut down my computer to go make supper.

I also knew the value of keeping it simple. So, I would add one new behavior at a time. The first was to simply watch the movie "before" I opened my email and began work for the day and again before making supper.

Then I added the full length movie as my Screen-Saver, setting it up to begin playing after 5 minutes of non-activity on my computer. It's so great to have it pop-up on my screen repeatedly throughout the day, and when it does I find it easy to just give a few minutes to watching it before I dive back into work.

My goal with these statements of intention was to affect my thinking and therefore my behavior. My body has genius intelligence and can figure out the "how." The kind of statements I developed over time were about trusting myself with food, trusting my body to heal itself. I just used the statements that felt good and not ones that brought up too much emotion.

From my research, I found that it's more important to be "directive" and intentional with my thoughts of health rather than to keep running around in circles over the "why" am I in pain or "why" am I overeating. I did quite a bit of work on my health and chronic pain issues with Dr. E Page Bailey's Educotherapy, a method designed to cause a change in cellular health. In short, Educotherapy is the study of specific and directive knowledge that will cause new neurological pathways to be formed and developed so the body can heal itself. It is not experiential and does not require dealing with the past.

Dr. Bailey developed a neurological rehabilitation program following his own experience recovering from a severe injury. The program is the result of that experience and 35 years of research, field testing, teaching and follow-up. Neurological rehabilitation reverses the chronic state, and has allowed thousands of persons suffering pain, illness, or injury to recover, to regain their health, and to return to productive lives.

I took his chronic pain and illness rehabilitation information and used it to move past the CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome) and chronic migraines. After I had achieved that level of physical comfort and energy restoration, I applied his techniques to health, wellness maintenance and now to achieving my weight goals.

At that same time I also began working with Nutrionalist, Linda Chitwood of Awareness Nutrition, who dramatically assisted me my recovery from fatigue and pain. Today, she tests me weekly to determine any additional supplementation my body needs for overall health maintenance.

Can you explain (in layman's terms) what affirmative meditative imagery is?

I first used the term to describe my movies... I don't remember seeing it anywhere before I started to use it to describe my movies in my marketing efforts. It describes my flash online movies that I began creating in 2005.

Layman's terms:

I began creating flash online movies that helped me relax and connect with my inner spirit (i.e., intuition.) I have a very active creative mind, which I happen to enjoy very much from a creative standpoint. However, in my extensive research of the mind, body and spirit connection, I knew that to find creative solutions to the problematic areas in my life that it is equally important for the mind to relax to allow new insights and guidance.

And how exactly does it work to help dieters? Will they experience physical changes, mental changes, physiological changes?

I will be the first to say that this movie is not about a magic pill. It is about providing a pleasurable way to daily create new thought and behavioral patterns through the power of repetition.

Research has definitely shown that some people have lost a lot of weight with this type of affirmative imagery put to music in various forms. Weight loss has been achieved in conjunction with a behavioral weight loss program, and sometimes just by itself. I've added the meditative aspect by creating it as a flash movie that while you relax, you also stay awake and conscious with deliberate intention to reprogram your thinking.

A restful state of mind is a healing state of mind. Steadfast statements of peace will harmonize the whole body structure and open the way to healthy conditions and insights.

Research reveals that weight loss imagery definitely has a track record for decreasing the impulse to eat compulsively, out of anxiety or depression, because it's a calming, uplifting and empowering experience for most people.

And here's the key: You can't expect to become a calm, uplifted person after listening just once or twice - this movie stimulates the areas of your mind that have been untouched by new perceptions and learning. This movie trains you think and act like a light, lean and healthy being.

With repetition it becomes your automatic response and ultimately becomes your norm. These very specific statements of intentions have the capability of healing and dissolving angst. With repetition one can learn to better soothe oneself through the messages the movie conveys.

How do you know it's working?

You may find yourself starting to experience an aftertaste in your mouth from the shift in your metabolism as the biochemistry of these statements starts converting fat into energy. Simply, brush your teeth!

One of the statements gives your body a directive to transmute and eliminate anything that is not beneficial to the achievement of your health and weight goals, so you may find you are going to the bathroom more often.

You'll become more aware of fullness and satisfaction because the statements encourage a much greater connection with your inner awareness and pleasure with food. It's also been reported back that people are having orgasmic experiences with their food and have no need at that point to over eat. That's what I call being in the "now" with your food!

What you may experience is a desire to drink a lot more water than you're used to; and getting your gym shoes on and getting out there to walk or dance to your mp3; you may even find how much you enjoy feeling your body move and your muscles strengthening.

Another thing you'll begin to notice is less interest in foods that are not in alignment with your intention to be a light, lean, healthy being. I will not venture to say what those foods may or may not be, because every single person has their own perfect intuitive guidance system. There is much that's been written about various foods, fats, carbs, etc. over the past 10-15-20+ years that is totally inaccurate or not in alignment with individual body types.

What is accurate is what your intuition is guiding you toward. Learn to trust what your body needs and wants.

Do you have to believe a statement is true in order for it to work?

I utilized only those statements which, through repetition, shifted my belief system and advanced my knowledge base, and are as true as anything else I choose to give my attention to and believe! If the statement feels good to you, then it feels good. Give your mind a chance to learn something new.

Last year I learned how to drive a motorcycle. I did not fall in love with it immediately or even for most of the first year. But, several times a week last summer, I made myself get out on the road and practice in areas that were safe. I did this repeatedly and found, to my amazement, that my confidence grew in incremental, healthy steps. I am still very mindful, cautious and prayerful when I strap on my gear and get ready to ride.

I bridged this new learning experience over into my experience with trusting my intuition while eating. It feels just as scary and foreign to me to eat moderate amounts of food that I have deprived myself of for over 30 years! Every day in every way, I make headway and my confidence is still growing.

In your experience, how long does it typically take to see and feel results when using affirmative meditative imagery?

Some people get rolling right away and start learning how to see the measurable successes they are actually having as they are learning how to allow their Inner Spirit into the equation.

Some find that this is just what they needed to "believe in" their ability to make these important changes fairly quickly. Others might spend weeks and months before they are able to get on board with trusting themselves and their inner guidance. When these incremental shifts happen, a person can feel more confidence, inner power and trust with themselves. This movie, along with many of my other movies, provides continuing motivation in the context of a whole life experience.

This movie is all about listening to your intuition about everything, so that which created you and "breathes you" is certainly competent and capable enough to guide you to where you need to be next!

I believe we all know that nothing changes until we step up and do one new thing to change what's not working for us. The changes that need to occur in our health and weight have everything to do with how we are living our lives. The mental constructs of our negative, debilitating thought patterns are repetitive and persistent, unless we make a simple decision to interrupt and create new patterns of thought.

This movie shifts our thinking to create within us new feelings of peace, which creates new ideas and allows new solutions to come through us in ways that are full of our life force.

It's simple: Push on with just one new thing repeatedly.
It's really quite easy to sit at your computer and press play!

When it's all said and done, you will have to be the one that sets the intention to become your best and healthiest self.

Can you estimate how many people have used your approach to get leaner and more healthy?

It's only been out a couple of months on the internet. We have had over 1000 people viewing the first 3.5 minutes of it free online daily, and people will email me from time to time with their results. At the bottom of this page, I will include some of the email responses we are getting from the hundreds of people who have bought the 7-minute download.

The "key" to the success stories coming in, is consistency. Daily viewing, and for most having success, a minimum of 2 times a day if not more, as needed to meet emotional issues that can come into play.

Did affirmative meditative imagery techniques help you personally lose weight? If so, how much did you lose and how long did it take? What sorts of behaviors did you seek to change in yourself? Were you ever skeptical that it would work for you?

Yes ... it's working and I'm still doing it. My husband commented the other day that he became very aware that I no longer talk excessively about being over weight. That I am more peaceful and relaxed around meals.

My highest weight was 192-ish! My lowest so far is 176 lbs... 16 lbs in five months. Even my husband is noticing a difference in me and my size. My goal is not speed, it's the long term achievement I'm intending through re-training my mind to think differently, to relax around food, to connect with my inner guidance and trust it so my behaviors begin matching my new relaxing thinking about food. This is the first weight reduction I've experienced in over ten years of having tried to get back on the diet program that had always worked for me. I would say that I still eat relatively low carb because I do feel best when my blood sugar is in balance.

I have an intuitive feeling that I will achieve my ideal weight within a year... it's only been 5 months and counting. I am conscious of how much pressure I feel by this article coming out and I started to feel this urgent need to loose all the weight yesterday. But, that would not accomplish a new relaxed light lean healthy me... so I've been diligent with being OK with my steady progress.

What's different is that I'm no longer mentally counting carbs obsessively, I'm relaxing more and more with all food and I'm eating in moderation, listening to what my body wants and stopping when I'm moderately yet satisfyingly full.

I was never skeptical that it would work, because each time I would make time to write these statements I felt the changes reverberating in my body and even buzzing in my cells.

The issue for me, and I believe for most people, is consistency with the repetitiveness necessary in retraining our thinking and behavior patterns.

Other people's successes coming in continuously motivate me to keep watching and allowing it to work for me. We intend to post a Success Story page at our website sometime in September. I've included a few at the bottom of this link.

Is there a type of dieters who you've found will benefit most from watching the movie?

All types. It's going to be different for everyone. There are people who need structure of a specific eating plan, and those that hate structure. The only difficult thing about this is just letting yourself relax and giving yourself enough love to say, "I'm going to give myself 7 minutes of affirmative meditative imagery a minimum of 2 times a day for my health, well-being and for the achievement of my ideal weight goal." So in a sense, it provides just enough structure, but not too much structure where you can't hear your inner guidance and connect with what your body needs and wants.

Both men and women are reporting being able to get past their previous plateau points. I find that very encouraging for all people wanting a long term result.

Most importantly they are reporting more peace with their food and that they are feeling better and better physically.

How many times per day would you recommend that dieters watch the movie?

The results are still coming in on that. Each person is different. The intention of the movie is for each person to learn how to listen and hear their own inner guidance as to how many times they need it from one day to the next. Those having the most immediate success are reporting back that they watch it a minimum of 2 times a day. Others report that they will watch it before each meal and at the onset of a binge or an emotional upset.

Some people began reporting burning the voice over to their own CD's and playing the statements while falling asleep at night. That's why we've just made the voice MP-3's available on the DVD and the downloadables ... and I've just started doing it now at night as well.

Can you point to any research that has been done on affirmative meditative imagery?

If you do an Internet search on "affirmative meditative imagery," you will only find me!

My research stems from a vast variety of authors on the subject of mind, body and spirit connection.

There is an almost overwhelming body of research... if you'd like for me to give you specific authors I would start with Catherine Ponder: "Healing Secrets of the Ages."

I've enjoyed her affirmations and extensive and comprehensive works for nearly two decades now. I drew upon the concepts she teaches when developing statements of intention that covered emotional eating and safety issues, prosperity and spiritual connection and protection, fulfillment, and just plain stop eating when you are full directives to give the mind to develop new neurological pathways.

Joe Dispenza, D.C. "Evolve Your Brain." He was also featured in the movie "What The Bleep Do We Know!?" In one of his trainings he says, "We know the brain is shaped and molded from our environment. Science shows our brains are shaped and molded by our ability to pay attention and when we pay attention and take in new knowledge we begin to wire that in our brain. Then we begin to make new circuits and when we build new circuits we begin to see and perceive reality differently based on the way our brain is wired."

The one piece of research that reminds me just how important it is to relax around food was from "The Crack and the Cosmic Egg," in which Joseph Chilton Pearce tells about studies in which fasting volunteers had their blood drawn and analyzed for its nutrient content. They were then hypnotized and "pretended" to eat bowls of sugar. Their blood was drawn again and analyzed. The sugar content in their blood was drastically elevated. Although they had eaten nothing, their body chemistry suggested that they must have. This is but one example of the powerful potential for the mind to affect the body.

Working at Yale University, Dr. Judith Rodin showed fasting volunteers beef steaks, which were then cooked in front of them. Not one of the volunteers actually ate anything. Their blood was drawn and analyzed before, during and after the test. Many of the blood samples taken during and after the study showed dramatic increases in insulin levels. Since one of the things insulin does in the human body is convert nutrients into fat, and since we always have nutrients in our bodies, Dr. Rodin theorized that people can gain weight by simply smelling, seeing or hearing food cook --without ever eating it! She suggested that this finding may explain why many dieters either fail to lose weight or even gain weight while on a strict diet.

Paul Ernsberger, Ph.D., in his research at Northwestern University, showed that this "insulin response" is caused by STRESS and the stress hormone, norepinephrine. This hormone, which is produced in response to stress, triggers a chain reaction in which insulin is produced.

Thus, your stress reaction to food and your negative expectation of how it will affect you can be more fattening than the food itself! Ernsberger showed that the "fight or flight" response triggered the production of this chemical. This response is produced when the brain sends "danger" signals.

Think about how you respond to eating food. Have the years of dieting or "watching what you eat" made food a dangerous commodity for you... "It is dangerously fattening," or "you can't be trusted" around food. You may believe you will be "dangerously out of control," (as may have been your experience).

The reality is that your stressful response to the idea of eating food makes the food you eat fattening to you. When you eat celery, there's no such response. Celery is "safe." It's dietetic. It's non-fattening --Right? Our beliefs - repetitive thinking and feeling about food - gives direct messages to our brains and our bodies respond immediately.

So I wrote this meditative movie with imagery and statements of intention that help me calm down around food and feel healthier every day!

The intention is to see it, feel it, sense it through imagining ease with food.

If you were trying to get someone excited about this approach, what would you tell them?

The most exciting thing I would talk about is how I don't eat emotionally any more.

In the second half of the movie, I have included a specifically designed statement about emotional eating, and it's amazing how fast that one starts working!

I would tell them that there is nothing more important for each and every one of us than our connection to our bodies and our inner guidance, intuition, "gut indicator" or whatever they prefer to call it. The important thing is asking our bodies what they really need to feel good and become healthy and comfortable.

I've incorporated a statement of intention to deal powerfully with every known eating trigger: personal safety, self value, loving oneself, spiritual protection for oneself and love ones, peace and pleasure with all food, physical health, wellness and comfort, spiritual connection and relaxing into our greater good in play for us at all times.

How does affirmative meditative imagery compare with self-hypnosis for weight loss?

This movie is not intended to be a traditional "meditative" or subliminal, alpha-wave, relaxing movie. You may notice that the statements of intention come and go more quickly than those found in a typical 'meditation' tape. Even though it will relax you and bring you peace, it won't put you to sleep, unless your body "needs" a nap or "needs" to sleep.

This movie was created for the computer - high tech - audience who wants to get focused at the start of every day, and remain focused as needed throughout the day. By fall we will have a DVD for TV viewers.

One important aspect of the "Healthy Being" program is to revitalize our rate of metabolism. Most of us are in sedentary work environments. The pace of the statements creates a higher vibration so that these messages stimulate our body's biochemistry to "pick up the pace." Our desire to settle back into our lethargic patterns must be interrupted and rerouted in order to accomplish healthy goals!

What words of encouragement do you have for someone who has never heard of affirmative meditative imagery and wants to give it a try?

Learning to listen to one's inner guidance takes practice and with practice you become more efficient. Our minds are inundated with self talk that is not intuitive but is fear based. We must practice being discerning about food and learn to simply trust ourselves.

30 years ago, when I landed on the Atkins diet and had easy success and maintenance with it, people would ask me how I kept my weight so lovely and when I told them how, they would tell me that it; 1) the diet wasn't healthy for me or my kidneys, and 2) it couldn't possibly work. What? I was living proof it worked, and they would say straight to my face that it couldn't work. Talk about feeling like you are crazy!

The most exciting element of this movie is that in watching it, and learning how to stay present with it as it plays, is simple. We are intending to have long term physical health and a natural and comfortable experience in our bodies. Long term results is what we are re-training our minds to automate within our physical experiences with food. What happens in the mind is that repetitive, deliberate and directional thought creates new neurological pathways that our bodies will respond to in time, just like our bodies are responding to all the fear and guilt we are already experiencing around food.

It's just depends on what information you want to allow in. Be discerning. The body simply asks for moderation as your goal and you can tell your body to be satisfied with that. And it will, in the time it takes.

Folks can view a shortened version of the movie for free on your site, correct?

That's correct. This 3.5 minute excerpt is ideal for those interested in the movie but who would like a sampling of things to come before purchasing it as a download or screen saver for personal motivation and healing the mind/body/spirit connection to health and wellness.

And for $20 they can get a DVD of the full movie along with a transcript of the words, correct?

Correct. Some people like to write out their favorite statements every day or to take them along with them to read several times a day.

We have just completed the full version of the movie on a DVD and have it ready to ship right now. We have been receiving tons of requests for it that way. I'm finding not every one wants to sit down to their computer to watch. They are saying they would prefer to watch it on their TVs... so give people what they want, I always say!

We have completed the downloadable mp3 audio version of the voice-over version for people to put on their mp3 players or burn onto a CD for listening during the day or while driving. This mp3 will also be included as a separate file on the forthcoming DVD, giving people three ways to enjoy and use the content.

 

I'd like to give my thanks Beth Weissman, writer for Women's World for putting our movie on their cover story.

How to Obtain a DVD, Download or Screensaver of this Movie