ABOUT PAT

After dieting for 20 years and winding up 100 lbs. overweight, I experienced a rude awakening when I found research saying that 99% of people who lose 35 lbs. or more on a diet regain all that weight and more within 2 years.

It shouldn’t have been a shock. I was living proof. I’d tried every diet I could find, and grew heavier with each one.

Because I had decided to lose weight permanently (a term unheard of in those days), I figured I’d have to be one of the 1%.

My mantra became never go back.

As the child of a southern belle food addict and a Native American alcoholic, addiction seemed predestined in my life, so I knew I’d have to defy more than just the odds life stacked against me. And I did.

Today, I am one of .005% of people who has lost substantial weight and kept it off long term. My 100+ lb. weight loss has been sustained since the year 2000, but it is just one of many amazing goals I have accomplished.

That transformative process led me to want to grow and heal in every area of my life and to help others.

Today, I coach clients individually towards permanent weight loss but also teach and coach small groups of men and women referred to me privately in a year-long online class.

The Bigger Gain – The power of persistence and perseverance.

I began Catalyst Coaching® LLC in the year 2001, after receiving my certifications as a personal trainer and health coach.

Because of my success in sustaining a great deal of weight loss, clients were showing up as the result of media articles and word of mouth. But, building a business from a few clients was another story.

I was shy and had little confidence in speaking publicly. I found many business owners and their tactics to be intimidating and distasteful. I experienced jealousy, lies and sabotage.

When I reframed this into simply another level of growth, I found new facets to my personality – I was a level headed truth teller growing my power to inspire others. I began to connect to people who could help me – referral partners, happy past clients, and professionals who weren’t posers.

I couldn’t believe the positivity I attracted as my own growth as a business owner developed. Today, some of my best friends were made along my journey from shy wallflower to authentic leader/inspirer.

The Life Lesson – Meaningful connection and learning to trust
can grow you past any limiting beliefs.

In 2019, after several years of very stressful living, I found myself on my kitchen floor, in great pain, dialing 911. The operator taking my call told me crawl to the door and prop in open so, when I lost consciousness, the EMTs would still be able to get to me.

Shortly after getting to the emergency room, I was prepped for heart surgery with an aortic dissection. A series of scans showed the condition was not getting worse, so my surgeon put me under constant observation in the cardiac ICU unit. This became two full weeks on complete bedrest, hooked up to various machines.

As an active person who worked out five times a week, this was absolute torture. The early days were hectic. I was drugged and couldn’t advocate for myself. My blood pressure responded to none of the drugs they tried, so I was instructed not to move out of fear of a rupture.

I decided there was only one thing I could do – breathe.

After all, there was no way to sleep in an uncomfortable bed, surrounded by beeping flashing machines and helpful nurses checking on me every hour.

So, I lived between breaths hour-after-hour. I meditated. I chanted healing mantras. I fought to keep my mind intact. In short, I used all my training as a yoga and meditation teacher.

Somewhere in the swirl of people around me, my brain fog began to clear and I came to a statement I often use with my clients. This situation isn’t happening TO me. It’s happening FOR me. What is it telling me?

I started advocating for myself, working with doctors on crafting an alternative to surgery. When I was finally released after two weeks, I was so weak I couldn’t walk down my apartment building hallway without lying down afterward.

I came to see this as a great gift. The event called me to “walk my talk” about health and self-care. I’d been so healthy for so long, I had begun to take it for granted and external and internal stress silently built up.

It had occurred in a single flash – horrifying and completely unexpected.

Years later, I have regular follow-up scans, each one better than the last. Believe me, I am still grateful for the gift of the Gigantic Scare.

New Awareness – Realizing Self-Care is a deadly serious Inside Job.
No one can do this work for us.
Transformation occurs when leading a mindful life.