by patbarone
This month’s book contest features the “Just Tell Her to Stop: Family Stories of Eating Disorders“ , by Becky Henry.
This fascinating book offers a different perspective on eating disorders. If you have experienced disordered eating, or have children who might be susceptible, it’s a must read. Parenting a child in today’s world, which is focused on controlling food, food addictions, setting up bizarre behaviors with food, binge eating and food struggle, isn’t easy. It’s a food focused and foodcentric world. This book helps you understand the struggle for control.
Two ways to win!
1. Go to America’s Weight Loss Catalyst Facebook Page by clicking here and hitting the “Like” button. You’ll be the bonus of tips and motivation every morning from the facebook page!
2. Visit any other blog post right here on this site and post your comments, opinion or questions. We’re always happy when you share the blog posts by using the buttons at the bottom of the page too!
You get one entry for every action you take!
Share the Catalyst experience on social media and you’re automatically entered to win this month’s book: Just Tell Her To Stop: Family Stories of Eating Disorders by Becky Henry!
by patbarone
A recent blog post by Shay Sorrells, who was on Season 8 of NBC’s “The Biggest Loser,” inspired this post.
I couldn’t find a place to comment on her blog, but I wanted to share my perspective on her “lessons.”
Do these people look like they will find their essence in those apples?
Shay called her post “The seven biggest mistakes I made after Loser” and they went like this:
- I stopped measuring… [food]
- I took a break… [she says another person suggested she do this and she listened] (more…)
by patbarone
As the last few days of 2011 whisk by, it’s time for our annual contest where YOU guess how many exercise sessions I completed this year. The winner will receive a set of Catalyst products, including workbooks and CD audio classes worth $295.99, that will illuminate the journey to permanent weight loss!
For anyone who’s new to this blog, I’m a proponent of non-diet, permanent weight loss through true lifestyle change. After all, diets are temporary ways to eat, while changing behavior and the deeper needs for food are modifications that last forever.
My weight loss is close to 90 lbs. and my weight loss will be sustained 12 years on March 13, 2012!
After years of battling excess weight and yo-yo-ing up and down the scale, (more…)
by patbarone
I’ve noticed a trend in the experience of my clients as they lose weight permanently. Many of them experience fewer cravings, faster weight loss and are more in touch with their hunger and their bodies when they do not snack.
What? Doesn’t that go against common diet advice?
Yes, it does.
But my own permanent weight loss of close to 90 lbs. was accomplished by breaking just about every rule touted by “diet world.” I don’t put much stock in “rules”, especially when so little of the weight loss from those rules results in long-term change. (more…)
by patbarone
I made a big discovery in the land of permanent weight loss yesterday. Even after maintaining my weight loss for five years (which signals “permanent weight loss” in the medical community), I still struggled at holidays. And, in my coaching practice, clients bring their struggles into their coaching sessions and holidays are often a very tough time for them when they are addressing their excess weight.
Now, however, 12 years into maintaining weight loss, this holiday season is remarkably different.
Instead of forecasting and planning, which I once felt helped me (more…)
by patbarone
Hard Truth: The more we focus on losing weight, the more we gain. It’s true – dieters regain at an average rate of 108%.
Today, there are more “diets, “fixes”, “cures”, “pharmaceutical relief” and “apps” for weight loss than ever before in history. But our society weighs more and has MORE health problems associated with weight too.
It doesn’t add up, does it?
(more…)
by patbarone
Here in the U.S., it’s Thanksgiving week. All around me, I’m hearing a collective intake of breath: those who eat, those who do not eat, those who eat by rules, and those who eat in disordered patterns — they are all in a panic.
Thanksgiving is feared by anyone who isn’t living in a peaceful relationship with food. Laden with high-fat, high caloric food, it’s a celebration of abundance that Americans translate into plenty of food.
Celebrate your happy body.
We could celebrate the abundance of ingenuity, fun, humor, love or… just about anything… but we have translated it into food. Too funny, when you think about it. What if we celebrated an abundance of energy and lined the highways, exercising all day?
Hmmmm.
Don’t mind me, my mind just works that way. As I direct my thoughts towards the past 15 years of my life as I have lost weight (and not refound it), I find myself grateful for many things this Thanksgiving:
(more…)
by patbarone
It’s been a busy few weeks. I’ve been on the road a lot, training and teaching people about permanent weight loss. I absolutely love meeting new people and hearing about their challenges and perspectives.
On this trip, I was confronted with two very different angles on weight loss – particularly my weight loss, which is nearing the 100 lb mark. Roughly 74 of those pounds are soundly in the column labeled “permanent weight loss” (measured at 5 years), since I’ve sustained that loss for over 11 years now.
Perspective One
A doctor approached me after a training session (Before I train the coaches in an organization, I host anyone and everyone in the organization who’d like to know more about permanent weight loss. It may seem crazy, but many healthcare professionals still talk “diet” and don’t understand permanent weight loss.)
This doctor had a quizzical look on his face, and I assumed he needed clarification on something I had presented to the group.
Get a load of this!
(more…)
by patbarone
I’m always a little sad when the baseball season ends. Baseball has a consistency other sports do not; games fill practically every day from April to September. Baseball means summer. The World Series marks the coming of cold weather and snow.
Though my faves, the Yankees, weren’t in the World Series this year, it was a hard-fought, fantastic post-season. It even had a few weight loss lessons, if you looked close enough.
The St. Louis Cardinals were the last team standing. They came back numerous times, particularly in a do-or-die nail-biter Game 6 where they were down three times and came back anyway. It wasn’t enough to tie the game in the 6th inning, Texas came back with a wicked 7th inning and the Cardinals ran up against their very last out of the game before MVP David Freese, a little-known Cardinal playing among big stars, hit a line drive that tied the game again.
But…
(more…)
by patbarone
My two favorite things are change and commitment. It wasn’t always that way. In fact, I’m laughing out loud as I write those words.
Before I learned what it took to alter my weight permanently, change felt really scary and even threatening. I never committed to anything. Oh, I said it did, but I wasn’t reaching any of my goals, so now I know I wasn’t committed to anything.
In those days, I usually decided to diet in the evening, after eating too much all day, and, by 10 a.m., I’d have blown my diet. Every day began with hope and ended in regret.
I liked to gather all my willpower for the latest fad diet, then lose 10 lbs and regain 15.
I studied books, diets and nutrition advice, then wonder why they didn’t work long-term.
I used various food avoidance behaviors, sometimes going most of the day without food, then binging at night.
(more…)
