[fannymac]

You have to muster up a lot of courage to pick up the phone and make an appointment to see a professional about being overweight. Well, after years of trying this and that and months of deliberating about taking this step I did just that.

Let me tell you if you are looking for a personalised positive experience Lea Stenning wouldn’t be a good choice, unless you are looking for an overbearing control freak mother like figure.

Make no mistake Lea Stenning is running a business.

After a friend had lost weight through seeing her I did a bit of research and although there are some negative feedback comments online about her in the end I decided that her results and experience deserved some credit.

I'm a pretty pragmatic person and to be fair if she had told me the only way for me to loose weight was to eat a cup of camel dung every day at 3pm I would have done it as long as it got a result. Fortunately her answer isn't that bad but there are a few things I took issue with.

Her start off programme is 5 weekly meetings of 30 min where you weigh in and she rolls out her agenda for that meeting. You don't talk. you don't ask questions its a one way delivery. 4 minutes into the first meeting she is explaining forms that she would like you to fill in to encourage men that you know to join her programme - marketing a referral right off the bat. for the next week you keep a food diet and fill out a Q&A for her.

The suggestion here is that we get to the bottom of why your eating habits are the way they are etc. when I came back I got a naughty school girl tut tut about eggs, too many (a couple a day). I did explain that my chickens are laying like crazy and this isn't my normal intake of eggs, still the shameful look over her glasses - she does this often making you feel about 4 years old.

She scanned the Q&A and it was clear that she ignored pretty well everything except what she wanted to see - eating while bored. Hmm I listed about 10 reasons that I would have picked as far more deep seated, work and financial stress, hating waste so I eat left overs, feeling secure when the food tins are full, running a business and bringing up three teenagers etc etc. Eating because I'm bored rates about 2%, I'm too darned busy to get bored. still that was what she hung onto.

She outlined a high fibre, part carb, part protein plan which she drip fed info about over the next few appts. Now this is where it gets interesting. She wants you to come back each week, because I had a lot of travel commitments I needed to spread out the appts to 2 or three weeks apart making my appts over about 10 weeks.

At each appt (30 Mins) when I turned up on time I wasn't called in to her office until 5,7,10 minutes past time and when Lea had finished her delivery she would snap shut your book say a hearty 'lovely to see you' while she jumped up and opened the door -10 minutes before your time was up. She is so adept at her turnstyle that you are spat out into the waiting room before you even know whats happened. I have calculated that over the 5 appts I have lost over 40mins of time by her calling me in late and shoving me out early. This is irksome when you know that the course of 5 appts works out at $60/session.

I had questions I wanted to discuss some things - no. Every time I tried to say what about xxxx is it ok to have that or do that, she would say"we'll get to that I just want to go through this first" then, guess what, we wouldn't get to anything that wasn't on her delivery. I would have like to have used some of that 40 minutes to ask about some things.

But what were the results like, I hear you say. Pretty darned sad actually. I had a goal to loose at least 30kg (starting weight 95kg) and after 10 weeks of following Lea Stenning's programme to the letter I had lost a measly 5kg most of this in the first 3-4 weeks, this included increasing my exercise from the occasional walk to walking at least 4-5 times per week for an hour sometimes twice a day. I can't help the feeling that the early weight loss and her wanting to cram in the appts over a short 5 weeks had some connection. grabbing you during your warm fuzzy feeling of initial weight loss making you want to sign up for the next 10 week programme. Yes, rolling out a business model I would say.

Us women will work pretty hard to get results but that was just soul destroying. After the last appt she offered a free 'quick' weigh in which she scheduled for me. Now I have to tell you that it's an 80 minute round trip for me to her clinic. When I arrived for the appt her computer was not working properly she had no idea I was due there so asked my name (what?), there were several people waiting to see her, when she finally worked though everyone else and got to me 40 minutes later (I bet their appts were cut xtra short) she called me by another name (what again) then proceeded to tell me that her programme was guaranteed and that I must be doing something wrong.

I had reached the end of my line and broke down. now anyone who knows me can count on half a hand the amount of times they've seen me cry. I just don't do crying. Congratulations Lea Stenning you made me cry. She doesn't cope well with cryers, with that I was out. Her computer obviously splurted back into life sometime after that because she called me at home on a Sunday night to ask could I do another food diary for a week and come back to her to see what I was doing wrong. huh. And, 'you really need to loose the weight". talk about add insult to injury. I had taken myself to see her I didn't need her to tell me why I went there. Another thing that Lea Stenning is adept at - taking your thoughts and making them hers and repeating them to you Hmm, rage.

So in summary, yes Lea is experienced, yes she has a very organised and ordered programme. It obviously works for some and not others. I don't believe it is personalised when it only takes in height and weight and no other factors like, life, work, family commitments, medical history, even a blood test, etc.

I came to understanding from a comment she made that her core clientele is referred to her from doctors and that most of them have been SENT to her not self referred like me. I guess she is used to dealing with terminal cases ie loose weight or you'll die.

If you want a support person that can give you the tools you need and that you can have dialogue with (di-meaning two way) then Lea is to be avoided. If you are completely undisciplined and you need a good kick up the rump and don't mind being treated like someone without a thought in your empty head then she could be your answer.

I certainly won't be going back.

Thank you for that information, fannymac. I am sorry you went through this, but the time you took to explain it all and inform others of your experiences will certainly help teh next woman looking for such help in your area. You also have obvious analytical skills and teh ability to break things down and explain step by step any process involved. Thank you very much.

[fannymac]

Further update on my last thread, I am thrilled to say that I have found a solution that works for me. After the demoralizing Lea Stenning experience I have discovered the cohen clinic. After 1 month I have lost nearly 10kgs, I don't have to break my neck doing painful exercise, the food is normal and easily accessible from the supermarket (Prawn salad for lunch and fillet steak for tea my favourite) and the team support you by being available or leaving you alone as much or as little as YOU want. This is awesome, a life changer. look them up they are right here in Christchurch and this plan is PERSONALISED to you. Search cohens diet .com