Lucky I have spent the last ten years developing the total answer.  An approach where you can take some of the emotion out of these often-stigmatising challenges, step back and understand them in a new way, and ultimately transcend them forever.  A solution where you can work through these five key issues – and many more – in a supported and structured yet tailored way.

People always ask me about this but I’ve never written about it, so let me tell you about my journey that led to creating the Twelve Month Transformation – and why I think it is just the program for your transformation in 2018.

You can learn more about me here, but after finishing my research in the psychology of weight loss I was fortunate enough find myself consulting for the best weight management clinics in Queensland*. What’s more, I was working with all types of approaches – running the psychology component for the biggest medically-based weight loss clinic in the country, seeing bariatric surgery patients (before and after surgery) for the most reputable surgeon in the state, and working with a ground-breaking Endocrinologist who specialized in weight loss medications.  After seeing the successes but also the significant drawbacks of each of these approaches, I knew I needed to learn more.  I became an expert hypnotherapist, which really helped my clients, but still they were grappling with eating, exercise, weight, and body image issues way more than I felt they should be.  I decided to explore the other side of the coin and learnt about non-dieting from Australia’s pioneer Dr. Rick Kausman and Health At Every Size® from world-leading Dr. Linda Bacon, and was surprised to learn that often approaches that de-emphasised weight worked better in the long term…but even that was not the total answer.  This approach worked well for many of my clients, but not all of them.  It was then, after 6 years of study, another 7 of working, and learning from the world’s best that it was time to move in my own direction…

So why didn’t I become a weight loss specialist, a psychologist specializing in bariatric surgery or weight loss medications, or a Health at Every Size® purist?  Because after all my research, practice, and mentoring, I don’t believe there is one right answer.  I believe there are lots of options available, and it’s our job to help you understand the science behind them and find what works for you.  What’s more, I believe psychology improves all of the answers – that’s why the Twelve Month Transformation works with whatever you are doing**.  It’s an approach that works with your existing supports, includes a range of psychological therapies that are shown to give great results (including hypnosis), and is designed for you to take what works for you, leave what doesn’t, and connect with even more support if it will help you (although you’ll find it’s pretty comprehensive when you get into it!).

In a previous article, I let you know mindset change IS possible with a story of a client who filled in her online psychological profile and found her mindset had completely turned around!  But any approach will have a few success stories.  So even though the story told you it’s possible, it didn’t tell you it was likely.  What happens to the average person doing the TMT?

Twelve Month Transformation Results:

I hear wonderful feedback all the time from our TMTers, but as a firm believer in science, I have been interested to know exactly what happens myself, so in 2018 we are having the program independently researched in a clinical trial (more on this later!).  The research group asked me to collect data from this year’s TMT as a pilot…and this is what we found:

These are the results from 10 Twelve Month Transformation participants who completed our online questionnaire in 2017.  The benefits you see have been developed and maintained over the course of a whole year (unlike a 6-12 week program which tends to see short-term improvements that reverse quickly after the program stops).  They also show a picture of what happens with the average person doing the program – people putting in more effort are likely to get better results than this for themselves.

TMT participants started finding it more difficult to control overeating than the average person
but ended up finding it less difficult.

TMT participants’ exercise confidence increased by 57%.
Participants went from being on-and-off exercisers to regular exercisers.

While almost everyone joining the TMT wants to lose weight, this is NOT the focus of the program.  We have had success stories who have lost over 40 kilograms, many who lose a small to moderate amount of weight, and even people who’s weight remains stable that we consider successes.  As weight loss approaches tend to be ineffective (and potentially harmful) in the long-term, the focus of the Twelve Month Transformation is on improving your relationship with food, movement, and your body.

*I was very passionate even back then, and am lucky that not many psychs specialise in weight management – in fact, I think I coined the term “weight management psychologist”!

**Although we may ask you to tweak your current process – after all, if it had been working for you completely you wouldn’t even be thinking about our program!