• Wendy Evans, MSW, Weight Loss and Wellness Coach
  • www.yoursilvergate.com
  • (207) 939-5078

About Weight Loss Coaching

Weight Loss Coaching is a practical, one-on-one, or small group approach to changing behavior with regard to eating, exercise, and life. It is widely understood that conventional diets don't work in the long run if they are not accompanied by an overall lifestyle change. Success is not measured in pounds and inches but rather a happier, healthier, fuller life.

Several years ago, the psychotherapist, Dr. David Sanford of South Portland, Maine, described coaching in his "Partners" column in the Portland Press Herald. Although he was talking about relationship coaching, I have yet to find a better description of coaching anywhere.

"... coaching is refreshingly practical: It's all about translating the impulse toward change into action--establishing specific goals, figuring out what behavior is going to achieve those goals, making and keeping action commitments and following through with the day-to-day work."

"The sports coach is committed to training her athletes to perform with excellence and to win. She makes the goal of winning vivid and compelling for them. She challenges her players to exceed their sense of what is possible and to accept a new and expanded notion of who they are and what they can achieve. The sports coach encourages her players when they lose faith. She reminds them of their abilities when they forget themselves. She believes in them, demands commitment from them and ultimately works only with those who learn to expect the same from themselves."

"The relationship (substitute weight loss) coach, like the athletic coach, attracts people who want to succeed. He, too, expects commitment from his clients, demands effort and holds his clients accountable for their behavior. He is also caring and generously supportive--there to believe in and support his clients.......when they lose faith in their ability to achieve their goals......He understands the ways in which people sabotage themselves and is able to help his clients get moving again when they become stuck."

"The... coach is the voice of optimism for people who have experienced too much frustration and failure. His message is, "Enough negativity. You can succeed. Let's get to work. Let's do it!"