After a multiyear absence, I am now back in the seminar/workshop business offering people in Calgary weight loss workshops designed to change your thinking around losing weight.

I never really left the business, as my corporate work has always included conducting training sessions and workshops relevant to my consulting practice. But after a long hiatus, I am back leading seminars on a regular basis.

The genesis for adding these seminars to my already hectic schedule goes back to 2010 when my book, Life Sinks or Soars – the choice is yours, was first published.

Two physicians in the city each gave me three of their patients to work with who had significant weight struggles. Their marching orders were clear: my job was not to focus on weight loss or nutrition, it was to assist them to shift their thinking.

I ended up working with four of the six – two wanted nothing whatsoever to do with me and felt the solution to their obesity lay in drugs and surgery. Their stories were similar to many in North America, where weight is struggle for more than half the population, and here in Calgary weight loss is equally as much of a concern.

Thus began my fascination with weight loss.

For the next three years I threw myself into learning about and studying everything I could find on human behaviour, emotional management and understanding the complexities of habit change.

In August 2013, I felt ready to share my expertise with clients. Since then I have completely shifted from a very traditional coaching model to one that focuses first on mindset, then behaviour.

The results have been astounding.

I did not set out to be a smoking cessation counsellor, yet more than 30 clients have quit smoking since working with me incorporating these new practices.

I am certainly not an addictions counsellor, yet I’ve had clients, drug users by their own admission, who have quit and remained clean for several years. Others with serious alcohol challenges have been able to remain sober.

I did not set out to be a sales trainer, yet several salespeople I have worked with have gone from hanging on by their cuticles to breaking sales records in their companies.

All of these shifts, including toward weight loss, have come as a result of the same system. To make a change, my clients need only change their thinking.

What for me has been most fascinating is to observe pounds melting off people who have “tried every diet and program out there,” and to share in their celebrations when those pounds stay away.

This past Saturday I conducted the first weight loss seminar, and it is my goal to do at least 50 by the end of the year. I am in the hopes of starting a movement.

Obesity is rapidly becoming the leading cause of early death and serious illness and is close to becoming the largest money drain on our provincial healthcare systems. 

And it doesn’t have to be this way. Most weight loss programs emphasize behavioural change meaning they encourage their customers to eat differently. This is a proven method of success that has enabled many of their customers to reach their goals. However, the majority of these customers gain all that weight back within a short period of time.

The data on successful weight loss is extremely disheartening. Fewer than 3% of people who lose 20 pounds or more can keep it off for five years or longer.

Weighing Yourself Won’t Get You Results

I believe there is a way of raising that percentage to a much higher number: to focus on mindset before we focus on food choices.

This was confirmed while speaking with many of the attendees at Saturday’s seminar. Their habits were driving their poor nutrition choices and their attempts at using willpower to create new habits have failed miserably.

I have spoken with many people who shared their angst and depression that has resulted from a lifetime of battling their weight. I believe, with absolute conviction, that when we learn to think differently, and believe differently, we are primed to develop the habits that will drive us to where we want to be and ensure that we stay there.

If you would like information on our upcoming weight loss seminars, please email me at a events@strategicpathways.net or call (403) 802-3525.

Not only will this take a weight of your mind, but it will be the first step in taking it off everywhere else.

All you have to lose is that unwanted weight.

Let’s make a habit of meeting like this.