Dan Vitchoff’s ‘Save A Life’ Campaign Provides Opportunities for Local Boy Scouts

By Vanessa Orr

Lifestyle changes, such as losing weight and stopping smoking, can go a long way to improving health and quality of life. Many diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, stroke and some forms of cancers can be prevented by adopting a healthy lifestyle. For many people, though, trying to give up smoking or lose weight seems an almost insurmountable task. Breaking old habits and patterns is extremely difficult to do. Despite even the best intentions, people are often sabotaged by their own subconscious thoughts.

“There are two parts of the mind; the conscious and the subconscious,” explained Pennsylvania Hypnosis Center’s Dan Vitchoff, M. Ed., CHT, one of the nation’s leading hypnotherapists. “While your conscious mind might tell you not to smoke cigarettes or eat junk food, this information doesn’t always register in the subconscious mind, and you eventually end up smoking or eating junk food again. Your subconscious mind runs your life about 90 percent of the time.”

The subconscious mind is responsible for many things that preserve life, such as the fight or flight response and even whether you look both ways before crossing the street. Because the subconscious mind has a built-in defense mechanism to protect the mental programming that already exists, it can prevent you from adopting new thoughts, habits, behaviors, patterns and beliefs. This is precisely why it is so difficult for some people to lose weight, quit smoking or make positive changes in their lives.

“Hypnosis can help you access your subconscious mind so that you can start to change the mental programming and eliminate any old, unhealthy, undesirable behaviors and habits,” said Vitchoff. “Replacing them with newer, healthier behaviors and habits is much easier than most people think.

“I am dedicated to helping people improve their health,” he added. “Many of my clients benefit not only from losing weight and quitting smoking, but subsequently lowering their blood pressure and total cholesterol, managing their blood sugar and feeling for the first time in their lives that they are finally in control.”

In addition to being a board-certified hypnotherapist and member in good standing of the National Guild of Hypnotists, Vitchoff is also a mental training and performance coach, certified NLP trainer and the proprietor of the nationally acclaimed sports improvement technique, 33 Method. “The top five to 10 percent of people in any athletic field use a mental coach to ensure the highest level of performance and accuracy,” said Vitchoff, who provides mental training and performance coaching to the U.S. Olympic Trap and Skeet Team and the International Rifle Marksmanship Team.

“Many of the people on the U.S. Olympic Team were taught how to shoot when they were young by someone in the Boy Scouts,” said Vitchoff, who was once a Boy Scout himself. “I became interested in partnering with the Boy Scouts on my ‘Save A Life’ campaign because they are one of the only organizations that provide badges in shooting safety and marksmanship.”

Through June, Vitchoff will donate $25 to the Boy Scouts of America, Greater Pittsburgh Council for every new client that participates in a Weight Loss or Smoking Cessation Program and mentions the Boy Scouts as their charitable designation for the ‘Save A Life’ Campaign.

“Fundraisers like this help us expand programs in the area, create training materials, run five camps and provide scholarships to boys who otherwise couldn’t participate,” said Amy Franz, director of development, Greater Pittsburgh Council. “As we prepare to celebrate our 100th anniversary in 2010, we greatly appreciate this continued support to reinforce scouting as important to the fabric of the community.”

The Greater Pittsburgh Council serves more than 50,000 youth between the ages of six and 20 in Allegheny, Beaver, Greene and Washington counties, as well as the eastern townships of Westmoreland and Fayette counties. More than 900 organizations in these areas use scouting as part of their youth programs.

“Our mission is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout oath and law,” said Franz. “Being a member of scouting provides boys with a positive peer group and a set of role models that they might not otherwise come into contact with.” Research shows that men who were Scouts agree that scouting has positively influenced their character development, self-confidence, interpersonal skills and family relationships.

On June 13th, shooters will gather at Nemacolin Shooting Academy to participate in The Bank of New York Mellon Wealth Management Boy Scout Sporting Clays Classic fundraiser for the Boy Scouts. Now in its 12th year, the event is open to teams of five. The Eagle Level Sponsorship includes a round of shooting with one of the members of the U.S. Shooting Team. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to shoot with one of the five best trap and skeet shooters in the world,” said Vitchoff.

Franz invites the public to become involved in other Scout fundraisers as well. “We have several fundraisers, including a dinner in April that will feature Daniel ‘Rudy’ Ruettiger of Notre Dame,” she said. “We also hold a number of golf events, including one on August 11th at the Pittsburgh Field Club and Fox Chapel Golf Club.”

To learn more about how you can become involved with the Boy Scouts, Greater Pittsburgh Council, call (412) 325-7910 or visit www.gpc-bsa.org. To learn more about the Pennsylvania Hypnosis Center, call (724) 934-8446 or visit www.pahypnosiscenter.com.