I’ve done a rare thing in my life.  I’ve lost substantial weight and sustained that weight loss since the year 2000!

Check out my feature in SHAPE magazine.

Why is that rare?  Because, while most of us are very good at losing weight, we are not very good at sustaining weight loss. Studies show diets lead to a 108% regain rate, no matter the diet used!  I understand the complex and often frustrating web of hindrances to permanent weight loss in a way that I believe no one else does.

Like many people, I lost weight and regained it many times in my life — I was a professional dieter.  I knew the ins and outs of every approach on the market and I was often drawn in by the promises of a quick fix from the diet industry.

But every time I lost weight, I regained it.  Despite my best intentions, and the latest diet on the market, the lost weight always returned, quickly and with a vengeance.

Over a period of twenty years, my confidence in myself took a huge hit from the diet game.  It wasn’t just that I didn’t believe I could lose weight and keep it off, I’d lost confidence in the other areas of my life too as a result of all the “failure” I’d experienced in the diet game.

At that point, I experienced an epiphany.  I describe this in detail in the book I’m writing (coming soon!).  Some might say I hit rock bottom.  Friends have said that was the moment I stopped telling God (praying) what I wanted and instead listened to God.  Others say I simply faced my soul for the first time.  But, the essence was this:  one day, after being prescribed a gigantic increase in my prescription for antidepressants by my doctor, I heard this:  “no one is coming.”

No one was coming to “fix” this problem of mine.
It was mine, and nobody else’s.
If anything was going to change,
it was going to have to be me.
So I set out to change me.

 
More in the Chicago Tribune’s featured story, “Finding Thinspiration.”
 

What I learned about the diet game along the way astounded me.  I discovered exactly why I had not been successful all those years of dieting.  I found the science behind how the body actually sheds fat.

Today, I teach from a wealth of both education and experience.

I’ve sustained my initial 70 pound weight loss and I’ve also lost even more weight.  I’m now 90+ pounds lighter!

As my weight loss stuck around, friends and colleagues began to ask for advice. They soon referred their cousins, aunts and uncles.  What started as a part-time dalliance soon turned into a full-time adventure when I received my certifications as Personal Trainer and Weight Management Consultant from the American Council on Exercise (ACE).  Then, I received my coaching certification (CPCC) from the Coaches Training Institute (CTI), the largest and oldest trainer of coaches in the world.  In 2005, I earned my Professional Certified Coach (PCC) accreditation from the International Coach Federation (ICF), the worldwide professional organization of coaches.  I was especially proud when I achieved my Master Certified Coach (MCC) credential from ICF in 2011.  Less than 700 coaches worldwide have achieved this credential and it is the highest level independent credential available.

Today, I’ve synthesized my vast scientific library, my personal experience losing weight and my coaching expertise into my educational products and the year-long enLIGHTen Your Life! Permanent Weight Loss Master Course.  It is an educational program that takes you through the many layers of self-growth that lead to permanent weight loss.

Along the way, I’ve coached men and women on four continents:  executives, actors, managers, doctors, lawyers, psychologists and creatives.  My speaking engagements and training programs have helped corporate wellness programs (link) across the U.S.

I feel very strongly about one thing:  In order to solve obesity, we must end the diet games and focus on permanent, sustainable change.  I’m on a mission to increase the percentage of those who attain permanent weight loss.  I’m proof it can happen.

Join me.  Let me be your catalyst for change!