Overweight woman hypnotised herself slim with a £6.99 app
A woman whose weight soared to 17 stone 7 lbs after the trauma of finding an armed intruder in her home has told how she transformed her body with the help of a £6.99 hypnosis app.
Mother-of-one Janine Dooley, 27, from Clydebank, Glasgow, was home alone in March 2010 when she confronted an axe-wielding stranger who had broken into her house.
Although the intruder was caught and eventually jailed, the terrifying incident caused Janine to start comfort eating, going from a size 10 to a 20.
The bank worker would regularly gorge on crisps, chocolate and takeaways, sometimes eating 24 Jaffa Cakes just as a 'snack'.
Transformation: Janine Dooley (left, at her heaviest just after giving birth to baby Oscar) has shed an impressive 7 stone (right, pictured this year) thanks to a hypnosis app
But eight years on, after a dangerous phase of using diet pills, she has managed to drop to 10 stone 4 lbs and credits her 7 stone weight loss to a hypnosis app that she plays every night as she falls asleep.
Janine said: 'I used food as a comfort blanket. After going through something that terrifying, I wasn't interested in dieting and the gym. I thought, "You only live once," so I ate what I wanted.'
Recalling the night of the break-in Janine, who has a one-year-old son called Oscar with partner Darren Kelly, said: 'I had just been in the shower and was walking back to my room – which was on the ground floor – when I saw my door close.
'I've got four brothers, so assumed it'd be one of them pranking me. I kicked the door open to see a man in there holding an axe.
'I said to him, 'Take what you want but don't hurt me.' He made me stay in my room while he rummaged through the house.
Janine (pictured with Darren and baby Oscar last year) was home alone in March 2010 when she confronted an axe-wielding stranger who had broken into her house
Before and after images show the dramatic difference to Janine's face since slimming. The bank worker would regularly gorge on crisps, chocolate and takeaways before losing weight
'At first, I was frozen with fear, but then I thought, 'No, I'm not going to let you take everything my parents worked hard for,' so I grabbed my phone and dialled 999.''
Thankfully, the police arrived swiftly and the burglar was arrested, charged and later sent to prison, but Janine could not overcome her fear that it would happen again.
She began comfort eating and sought solace in food, from family bags of crisps to whole packets of biscuits polished off in one sitting, and drank around 14 litres of fizzy pop every week.
'I can now see that I was addicted to food,' Janine said. 'Binge eating is so accepted that I didn't realise what I was doing.
Janine with her family in September last year. Speaking about her unhealthy diet, she said: 'I used food as a comfort blanket. After going through something that terrifying, I wasn't interested in dieting and the gym. I thought, "You only live once," so I ate what I wanted'
Janine, pictured in January, has managed to drop to 10 stone 4 lbs and credits her 7 stone weight loss to a hypnosis app that she plays every night as she falls asleep
Janine with Darren and baby Oscar. Last year, she vowed to beat her demons once and for all and discovered a hypnosis app called 'Virtual Gastric Band – Lose Weight Fast' on Mumsnet
'So many of us out there will use their weekends as an excuse to eat unhealthily – but the difference for me was that it was all the time.'
By the time she and Darren welcomed Oscar in July 2017, Janine was wearing a size 20 and weighed 17 stone 7 lbs.
Her pregnancy had been fraught with health complications, from heart palpitations to high blood pressure, and her son was born via an emergency caesarian.
Janine said: 'Looking back, I feel horrid. I can't believe I was so irresponsible - risking both our lives because I thought food was everything.'
Last year, Janine vowed to beat her demons once and for all and discovered a hypnosis app called 'Virtual Gastric Band – Lose Weight Fast' on Mumsnet.
The slimmer began using the app in November 2017 and soon dropped five dress sizes, down to a size 10 and weighing 10 stone 4 lbs
Janine's pregnancy had been fraught with health complications, from heart palpitations to high blood pressure, and her son Oscar, pictured, was born via an emergency caesarian
She began using the app in November 2017 and soon dropped five dress sizes, down to a size 10 and weighing 10 stone 4 lbs.
She has also rediscovered her love of exercise, regularly working out to YouTube tutorials.
Janine said: 'I would play the hypnosis app every night as I fell asleep, so its message was being relayed to my subconsciousness.
'The app teaches you four main things – eat slowly, only eat when you're actually hungry, eat what you want, not what you can and stop when you feel full.
'It's completely reprogrammed my thinking. Everyone is so amazed. But I have finally learned when to stop eating.'
She added: 'I can also deal with my teenage trauma now. I have more time to enjoy my family, friends and my work, too, now my life is no longer controlled by food.'
For information, visit 12weekstowow.co.uk