A couple of months into the fast, Chris, a dieting buddy and computer friend of mine, could no longer stand it. “I want what you have,” she said. “You’re committed, you’re finally doing it, you’re losing weight and feeling great, you’re happy and successful. I want that too.”

I thought, ‘Yeah, all that’s true.’ After countless hours of commiserating with her about not being able to lose weight, all of a sudden I was in the flow. How did this happen? Why this time? Why now? What do I have? And how did I get it?’

At the time, I could not tell you why I had been able to stick to the program. Ce...

That question and quest energized me in ways I’d never before experienced. My motivation was no longer just about me. On behalf of myself and all those who struggled with obesity, I wanted to learn everything I possibly could about the permanent weight loss from the experts at this premiere obesity research program. So I attended their weekly classes religiously. I took every course they offered three times, memorizing and absorbing as much as I could about what they knew.

They primarily used a behavioral-education model and taught us their cutting-edge medical knowledge about weight loss and...

After several days of struggling, I remembered my commitment to the truth. Perhaps I hadn’t done enough to understand the emotions connected with my eating. Clearly I remembered everything I’d been taught in the program. I knew enough to teach their classes. I got it. But it wasn’t enough.

So I redoubled my effort to understand my inner life and started reading three to five books a week. I claimed my inner child, healed the shame that bound me, and was codependent no more. The reading was interesting and evocative but my eating was still out of control.

Each year the obesity research progra...

I expected Chip to feel at least as disgusted with my body as I did. While my body size was not his preference, his love for me never waivered. Instead of rejecting or badgering me to lose weight as I was doing to myself, he was kind, empathetic, compassionate, and curious. As a highly educated professional fitness trainer, he was surprised and intrigued by how easily my body gained weight.

It was as though we were sitting together in a movie theater watching what was happening with my body on the screen. He would objectively point to interesting things in my experience, fascinated and curiou...

Skillful outer support allowed me to deeply enquire into my patterns with food. Each habit revealed a way my false but familiar shape – my ego – did it’s best to support and guide me in the absence of something more loving, true, and real.

Disengaging from negatively judging, comparing, and depriving myself made space for me to find an inner source of guidance that knows what’s truly best for me and shows me the way with love, efficiency, and brilliance.

Enquiring into my willful rebellion with food transformed my self-destruction into true strength, determination, and authenticity.

Explori...

It took longer than 10 months and had many ups and downs unlike the consistent, linear way I lost weight on the fast. But I wouldn’t trade the extra time for a quick fix because I now easily maintain my natural weight and never feel like I’m holding a beach ball under water. Having fulfilled my commitment and discovered the truth about my issues with food and weight, I am finally and truly free.

Every single day I feel grateful to be liberated from internal causes of suffering with emotional eating and excess weight.

Now with over 20 years of research and teaching experience on the exact pro...

The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level
of thinking we were at when we created them.
~ Albert Einstein

The struggle with food and weight is not only a significant source of human suffering; for some it is a matter of life and death. Despite the fact that millions of us have tried for years to fix our problem, we keep finding ourselves stuck in the same places, the same patterns, the same results, and the same thought processes over and over again.

Part of the reason for this is that the Impermanent Approach to Weight Loss ignores the level of thinking we were at wh...

You and everyone – whether they’ve ever wanted to lose weight or not – knows there are two things a person needs to do if they want to lose weight. You are promised that focusing on these two areas will resolve all your weight issues for good.

What are these two areas? You know them; say them with me.

Diet and exercise. Eat less and exercise more. Right?

Of course. You and everyone who has ever walked through a supermarket checkout stand, watched TV, or read a newspaper knows this is the traditional prescription for weight loss. You hear obesity research reported in the news confirming it. ...

We do a bizarre thing with weight loss success in our dieting culture. Yet it’s so common we don’t even realize how crazy it is. Let me use an example to show you what I mean.

Let’s say you walk into a beautiful new custom home. The owner built it himself. You are amazed at the attention to detail, the creativity that went into the design, the expertise in the construction, and that it really feels good to be in this space.

When you meet the owner, the builder of this home, do you excitedly ask him to tell you all about the hammer? Do you say, “I need to see the hammer you used to build this...

You assume that the most critical thing about you that needs to change is your body. You need to get rid of excess fat. Granted, no longer being obese will require that you release excess weight. Your body will need to change. However, I’ve rarely met anyone who didn’t know how to lose weight and hadn’t done it many times. In fact, most of the women I’ve worked with know enough about diet and exercise to teach their own weight loss programs. Couldn’t you write a book with everything you know about calories, carbs, fats, and proper dieting behavior like chewing very s-l-o-w-l-y? You and your di...