Hello, Stephen. 1. You wrote, "To me, as a starting point, it fits in with what I want from my involvement in NLP: To practice what I preach. To my personal sense of what is aesthetic, being unable to use NLP to behave in a manner congruent with my desires while purporting to be able to use NLP to help others attain their desires doesn't jive. Seems to be lacking in symmetry. Bugs me from an artistic point of view." I interpret you to mean, "If I practice NLP, then I want to be capable of helping others attain their desired bodyfat composition.  NLP alone is what I need to help myself attain my desired bodyfat composition." 2.  In the post of 27/01/2003 21:34:32, an earlier post to this thread, I wrote, "Internal strategies play an important part in eating habits, so an NLP practitioner could help you, but lifestyle changes are also important to achieve healthful eating habits, so to be your only assistant, your NLP practitioner needs the knowledge of a weight-management specialist.  But an NLP practitioner can work with a weight-management specialist to help you; it's that specialist's job to work with other professionals in helping his client achieve lifestyle changes. The modern weight-management specialist will also help you model and rehearse specific behaviors, so be sure that the weight-management specialist follows the lifestyle they advocate." Do you have the skills and knowledge of a weight-management specialist?  If not, then you may not have the skills and knowledge you need to attain your desired bodyfat composition. An NLP professional could serve as your model for the behaviors you want to learn.  You can model for someone else the behaviors he or she needs to lose weight, once you have learned those behaviors.  But you could also benefit from training you'd receive if you consulted with a weight-management specialist.  The weight-management specialist could model important behaviors for you.  Some modern weight-management specialists learn how to rehearse and role-play behaviors that are important for their clients to learn. Physiology plays a role in helping someone lose weight, too.  Food affects physiology directly, and different people will respond differently to the same food.  Separate physical response from emotional response.  The smile on a diabetic's face doesn't make his body happy to eat that slice of chocolate cake, whether his stomach valve opens at the thought or not.  A reliable weight-management specialist will recommend you get a medical exam before you begin work with him, and your doctor may need to provide the specialist certain information so the specialist can better help you. 3. You wrote, "I will look around for a practioner of NLP to run the phobia cure." You may need a successful phobia cure before you get your blood drawn.  But be sure to visit a reliable medical establishment to get your blood work done, because blood work carries risks. -nj