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Rob Powell
Then: 283 lbs., Now: 155 lbs.At 283 lbs., Rob Powell was winded by the simplest activity. After playing tag with his children one day, he "was so out of breath, I thought I was dead," he says. "I needed to do something." In 2001 he spotted an ad for hypnotherapy, a technique that has been used for years to curb addictions like smoking and has been growing in popularity as a weight-loss treatment. "I figured why not?" says Powell, 38.
After just one session at a Chicago-area Positive Changes center – where he lounged in a recliner and watched a video on nutrition and exercise, then listened to a 30-minute tape repeating such directives as, "You will stop eating before you are full" – Powell, a consultant, was choosing salads over fast food. Within two weeks he dropped 14 lbs. Inspired, he committed to a year of weekly sessions and also began exercising, alternating between the elliptical machine and weight-lifting five days a week, getting down to 148 lbs. No wonder then that, even with a year's worth of hypnotherapy sessions' costing $2,377, Powell says, "If it had cost $10,000, it would have been a deal. I got my life back."
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Married less than a year, the couple denies an Atlanta woman’s claims that she and Josh had a fling
Note that this week’s cover of PEOPLE may differ regionally
