Conscious Weight Loss™ is a unique process offered by life coach Kathrine Brown. It goes far deeper than just what to eat and what to avoid. It's not just about the mechanics; it's a journey into self-awareness. Once the barriers have been broken, there is no limit to your success.
Conscious Weight Loss™: An Interview with Kathrine Brown
Recently, LoveToKnow was able to speak with Kathrine Brown, founder of the Conscious Weight Loss™ process, to investigate what it is and how it works. Is Conscious Weight Loss™ right for you? Read on and decide for yourself.
About the Process
LoveToKnow (LTK): What is Conscious Weight Loss™?
Kathrine Brown (KB): Conscious Weight Loss™ is a process that makes your thoughts transparent to you so there's no more self-deception about the beliefs and behaviors that are keeping you overweight. If you say you want weight loss but your choices don't reflect this, there's truth to be with. Most people don't know how to be with their truth without judgment, so this manifests as resistance. This process helps you understand your resistance in its many forms (e.g. rationalizing, avoiding, escaping), learn from it and find your way back to your authentic self which, by the way, has no need for excess weight.The fundamental flaw with other weight loss offerings is their failure to recognize that resistance is a natural part of change. If you don't or can't follow their program, they insist the problem rests with you. This only erodes your self-esteem, leaving you worse off than when you started. Conscious Weight Loss™ teaches that every belief and behavior currently operating in your life is serving a vital purpose and invites exploration and transformation through a compassionate lens. This is weight loss with dignity.
LTK: Why is it important for women to understand how Conscious Weight Loss™ works?
KB: Dieting, by its very nature, is based on a control paradigm. It relies on external rules and restrictions to force your way to an outcome of weight loss. And even if you manage to get there, you'll then be living in fear of regaining the lost weight. This means your energy will always be preoccupied with your weight issue, which means you'll never be free of it. This approach has no integrity. A choice paradigm recognizes that everyone knows deep down what their own solution is and will naturally begin to align with this and choose from this perspective once they learn how to soften their resistance.
LTK: Why do women struggle with losing weight?
KB: We generally need to understand our thoughts first, before we have the clarity to act. But Einstein said "No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it," so unless you're actively seeking a higher level of consciousness through the teachings of others, you'll get stuck in your own limiting thought system. How do you know when you're mired? When you spend more time explaining rather than examining your beliefs and behaviors.
How it Works
LTK: How are personal growth and weight loss related?
KB: It's more like they're inseparable. That's why I've always said Conscious Weight Loss™ is first and foremost a personal growth process with weight loss being the natural outcome of this focus. Personal growth replaces your long-standing coping mechanisms with proper life skills. Losing weight without doing this inner work is pointless. As soon as circumstances shift or your stressors increase, because you're still operating from the same coping mechanisms that caused your weight gain to begin with, your choices--and body--will eventually revert. This is the biggest blind spot of the weight loss industry. Weight loss without personal growth is not sustainable.
LTK: Is your process for everyone?
KB: As a personal growth process, it's the path that every one of us has to take eventually, but not everyone realizes this. It takes at least six serious but unsuccessful attempts at losing weight through typical diet and exercise methods before a person is humbled enough to consider this process. At that point, they're more willing to admit that successful weight loss entails much more than just diet and exercise and maybe, just maybe, they're getting in their own way.
LTK: Is it affordable?
KB: At $500 CAD (about $465 US) per month, individual phone coaching is a significant investment but the payoff is priceless. By seeking professional guidance through Conscious Weight Loss™, you'll experience palpable quality of life shifts within the first few sessions and you'll go on to take at least 10 years off your life's learning curve. It's far more costly financially, emotionally and spiritually to be living in struggle all this time.
That said, affordability is still important, so that's why you'll now be able to access Conscious Weight Loss™ via phone coaching pods (small groups of 5 to 10 people) at only $100 CAD (about $93 US) per month, as of October 5th, 2009. They offer the same great content and live interaction of individual phone coaching but with a group dynamic.
LTK: Do you require exercise?
KB: These are what I call the "mechanics" of weight loss and while they're essential, they're not where we begin. Most of my clients are already saturated with information about nutrition and exercise when we start. Their gap isn't with knowing what to do, but rather, doing it. Bridging that gap is my specialty. For example, I can take someone from being a sugar addict and/or a workaholic with no time for exercise, to being someone who values and practices a balanced, healthy approach to life. Again, I do that by focusing on the person's resistance and exactly how and why it interferes with what they say they want. As they learn to dial this down, their natural choices begin to emerge. For the record, weight loss isn't sustainable unless it's natural.
LTK: How much weight can someone lose?
KB: You can lose all of your excess weight in this process and when it does come off, it often happens quite rapidly. However, you may spend months unlearning your conditioning and rewiring yourself for this change first. For those that embark on this process from a personal growth perspective, they come to see and value this as a necessary period of preparation. If you're just looking for a means to an end, you will not have the patience or humility required for this process.
LTK: Is this process safe?
KB: Yes, it's natural and incremental so there are no extremes that can trigger health issues. The mindfulness, stress-reduction and body awareness techniques you'll learn in the process have even been successful at reducing and/or eliminating some health issues. I myself am completely free of debilitating back pain that used to severely limit my daily activities and make running impossible for me.
LTK: What do your coaching sessions consist of?
KB: Conscious Weight Loss™ is a year-long, cumulative process that consists of three developmental stages: Awareness, Truth and Alignment. I've designed 40 innovative concepts and exercises to help you learn and deepen these stages for yourself. There isn't a more comprehensive weight loss coaching process available in North America. My primary objectives are to create a safe environment for your learning and an enjoyable way to apply it.
Two hallmarks of my coaching sessions are clarity and energy. You'll come away with fresh perspectives and powerful insights about your weight loss struggle. Clients often experience "Aha!" moments that feel like they've just read a key passage in a great book. These moments help them see their belief and behavioral patterns more clearly, illuminating their path to growth. When you have this kind of clarity, you finally have the clarity to act. Clients typically report a renewed interest and even excitement about their weight loss efforts, completing their sessions in a better frame of mind and with more energy than when they started.
More Learning
LTK: What should be understood about weight loss?
KB: At the heart of it, weight loss is fear loss. Trace back any choice you make that doesn't support your weight loss and if you go far enough and deep enough, you'll discover an unexamined fear that's running your life. Address these through personal growth and your weight will take care of itself.
LTK: Tell us about your book.
KB: It's called The Empress's New Clothes Don't Fit: The Bare Truth of Women and Weight Loss. If you're familiar with the original tale, you'll recall the Emperor got caught up in his own vanity until a child finally spoke the truth about this.
My book is a serious look at women and their weight issues - how the issue typically starts from simple vanity but then morphs over time to become an all-consuming struggle. It's a book that offers clarity on how you ended up in struggle but more importantly, how to find your way from struggle to joy. And I'm bold enough to speak the truth about this!
LoveToKnow would like to thank Kathrine Brown for taking the time to explain her process for weight loss. For more information, visit her website at ConsciousWeightLoss.com.
