Changing Lifestyles
You almost certainly know that excess weight increases almost every conceivable health risk, from aching knees and backs to lethal cancers. Remarkably, losing just 10% of your current weight can begin reversing these risks by decreasing blood pressure and improving cardiovascular fitness. Weight loss can also help you feel and look better – and even improve social and job opportunities.
Wellspring has created and tested a scientifically based solution to the many challenges of long-term weight control. We’ve published books and articles in professional journals, as well as presented research at several international conferences about this approach. In a nutshell, here it is:
- Your biology resists weight loss. Like our ancestors hundreds and thousands of generations before, our biology today still wants to keep as much fat as possible in storage in case food gets scarce.
- Biology isn’t destiny. Just as athletes can overcome their bodies’ resistance to running a 4-minute miles or hitting tennis balls 140 mph, your body can learn to live, quite happily and comfortably, with less weight.
- Using principles learned from science can help you think, eat and move in ways that will overcome your biological barriers to weight loss. You’ll learn and experience easy eating principles you can live by (e.g., eat very little fat; find lovable foods that love you back; eat foods that are low in caloric density). You’ll learn that you don’t have to train for a marathon to move like a successful weight controllers (e.g., just wear a pedometer and log at least 10,000 steps per day). You’ll learn to think differently about this process, improving focusing, coping, and stress management skills.
Elements of the Program
- Education: You’ll receive several textbooks, a pedometer, and a self-monitoring and journaling booklet. These materials will be supplemented by presentations on nutrition and demonstrations of our approach to cooking by our culinary instructors.
- Congntive-behavioral Therapy: You’ll have a Behavioral Coach (BC), a masters or doctoral level psychologist or social worker, who will provide group sessions. These sessions will focus on helping you develop an athlete’s mindset about this challenge in your life. That will include self-monitoring, journaling, goal setting, problem solving, and sress management training.
A group CBT session at Wellspring generally operates as follows:
- Summary of each guest’s progress since the last meeting
- Discussion of a CBT/weight control topic such as coping mechanisms
- Dialogue on reading assignment from last meeting
- Goal setting utilizing SMART goals
