Release the Weight. Become the Person
You Want to Be.
The Releasing the Weight system was created for smart, ambitious people who are ready to harness the power of their mind to lose weight through habit change, not dieting. Weekly, private coaching supports you to rewire your brain and free yourself from the tyranny of cravings and calorie-restrictive diets, so that you can lose weight and gain energy, while still eating foods that bring you joy.
INTRODUCING...
THE ANTI-DIET
IT'S TIME TO ESCAPE THE EXPLOITATIVE, HARMFUL DIET INDUSTRY.
THERE IS A BETTER WAY.
It's not your fault that dieting hasn't worked for you in the past, or if you've lost weight and gained it back. Traditional diets don't teach you how to make the internal shifts that lead to lasting change. That's why 95% of diets fail.
Traditional diets rely on willpower, motivation, and restriction. But willpower and motivation wax and wane. And what we resist persists.
Releasing the Weight personalized coaching teaches you the tools to free yourself from the relentless push/pull struggle with food.
This time, it's not about starving or getting skinny.
This time, it's about fueling your body and building an internal strength that releases you from the grip of food and the type of hunger that is never fed by what you eat.
You've tried many diets before.
You've gained the weight back.
Here's why it will be different this time.
Personal Support
This not a One Size Fits All app. This is a 1-to-1 weight loss habit change program tailored for you. Dr. Kara will customize the Releasing the Weight habit change system for your goals and needs, while also serving as your accountability coach and personal cheerleader.
Power over Cravings
Traditional diets may help you lose weight in the short term. But unless you fundamentally shift your desire and cravings for certain foods, once you go off a diet, the weight usually returns. Releasing the Weight teaches you how to reduce or even eliminate cravings, so that you can lose weight and keep it off.
Nourishment, not
Narrowed Choices
No foods are off-limit. There are no pre-packaged foods, pills, shakes, or supplements to buy. There's no strict meal plan, calorie-counting, carb-cycling, or red/yellow/green light labeling. You can learn to lose weight and feel fuller by nourishing yourself with what you are truly hungry for.
Redefining Success
We live in an era of instant gratification. But your body is evolutionarily wired to fight against the fast weight loss that's promoted by the diet industry. And willpower for controlling cravings is fleeting. Success in this program entails learning the real steps to sustainability, so you no longer have to rely on willpower to decide whether to buy the ice cream or eat the cake.
Research Based
The principles of this program are based on evidence-based findings and best practices from the fields of neurobiology, neuropsychology, and behavioral science. However, not all all bodies and lifestyles are the same. Here, you'll be supported to be the scientist of your own experience and to adapt best-practices to your individual needs and life circumstances.
Quieting the Critic
Are you intimately familiar with voices in your head that regularly shame you? Voices that harshly judge your body and your food choices? If that voice has been deafening, you'll learn to turn it way down. You will learn how to stop rebelling against those internal voices that beat you up, and let go of the weight that's holding you back.
How Do You Release the Weight?
There are 5 research-based modules in the Releasing the Weight framework, delivered over the course of three months.
After an initial introduction to these five core modules, Dr. Kara shares additional information with you using a just-in-time coaching approach that that begins with your weight loss history, goals, and current challenges.
With this highly tailored and adaptive coaching approach, you get access to the right information, at the right time, taking into account what's happening for you each week as you practice implementing the material you were introduced to the week before.
Module 1: Habit Loops
The first step to changing your relationship with food is getting very clear on habitual behaviors, thoughts, and feelings that keep you from becoming the person you want to be. Sometimes we know intellectually what we need to do differently, but we can't get ourselves to do it. Other times, the source of our behavior is more unconscious. In this module you'll be supported to map out both the obvious and the sneaky, self-sabotaging habit loops that prevent you from losing weight and keeping it off. You can start this process on your own with my free Kickstarter guide, or we can map your habits together. Getting clarity about problematic habit loops in your relationship with food and turning towards productive ones is the core of our work together.
Module 2: Habit Change
One you've mapped your habits, the key to changing them isn't simply repetition, it's repeatedly paying attention to what you get out of them. Once we wire in a habit, our brains conveniently tend to ignore the downsides and pay attention to the upsides. You can retrain your brain, though! You'll receive access to many tools to help you make key mental, emotional, and behavioral shifts without relying on willpower, restriction, or "powering through." You'll learn to engage the skills of curiosity and compassion as super powers to gently turn away from behaviors that no longer serve you and towards those that do. If this sounds too woo-woo, I get it. But if you're ready to move on from white-knuckling change, this module is for you.
Module 3: Your Circadian Rhythms
When you sleep and when you eat have a profound impact on of your senses of feeling hungry and full. You will learn to pay attention to your body's natural sleep rhythms to understand its impact on the hormones that control hunger and satiety. You will also learn the fundamentals of intermittent fasting and decide where and when to implement this tool to optimize your personal nutritional intake and weight loss. If intermittent fasting sounds scary, don't worry! You will ease into it at a pace that works for your lifestyle and never need to go more than twelve hours without eating.
Module 4: Knowing What You Eat
There are no restrictions to what you can eat or drink in this program. But knowing what you eat is essential to changing your eating habits. We tend to eat the same foods day in and day out. And we often eat them mindlessly or when we aren't really hungry, leading us to eat more than our bodies need. While working together, you won't count calories, but you will measure macronutrients using a free desktop or mobile app. Macros are the nutritive components (proteins, carbohydrates, and fats) or types of food that you eat. You need ALL these macros to fuel healthy, strong bodies.
Module 5: Mindset
Cravings that have controlled you will lose their power as you learn to use your mind to reset how rewarding you find go-to comfort foods or eating behaviors that don’t serve you well. This doesn’t mean you have to stop eating favorites or miss out on important social events. You will build your capacity for true choice by bringing your awareness and natural curiosity to Why, What, When, and How you eat. You will also unlearn dieting ideas that have become normalized by diet culture, so that you can stop any cycles of overeating and restriction that you might have tried, which tend to result in yo-yo weight loss and gain over time.
WHAT CLIENTS ARE SAYING
"In one month I’m down 7lbs and I’m confident I’ll remove the other weight. I have a bikini to wear for my 50th birthday! Today I was on a call with Kara and had my greatest learning on my eating triggers. The learning doesn’t stop and I’m so grateful to be on this journey. I no longer feel ashamed of my body and eating behaviors, which is quite remarkable to me!"
Caroline, CEO, Author, & Mom
"I've been working with Kara as my coach for a couple of months now. So far I've lost about ten pounds. More importantly, Kara has been helping me release old habits that were no longer serving me and establish new ones that will move me toward my goals for lasting change. She is knowledgeable, supportive, and kind. I highly recommend working with Kara."
Jenny, Award-winning author, Podcaster, & Mom
What You Get When You Sign Up For
Releasing The Weight Coaching
10 1-1 Coaching Sessions
Over three months, experience coaching that's tailored to your needs, with an initial 90 minute intake call and 9 additional 50 minute calls.
Ongoing Support
You are not alone in your journey! As part of our work together, you're encouraged to message me daily with questions, challenges, and celebrations.
Resource Guides
Changing your habits means learning new information. I make it easy by providing you with guides that take you step by step through achievable, lasting habit change.
Kind but Firm Accountability
Life happens! The path forward to resetting our eating habits is rarely linear. Dr. Kara will help you learn to navigate life's inevitable challenges to reassess and revise your action plan as needed.
Dr. Kara's Weight Loss Story
As I turned 50, the weight I had accumulated after spending decades at a desk and having two kids was making me miserable. I barely recognized myself.
Truth be told, I didn't really want to know how much weight I had gained. I wanted to love myself regardless of my size. I was intentionally rejecting cultural imperatives for women to be thin. And I didn't want to step on the scale and have yet another reason to beat myself up.
But none of my clothes fit, not even my comfy ones. And I refused to buy bigger sizes. So I was living in one pair of large, tattered, black sweats and a few tees (and this was years before the pandemic!).
I couldn’t bear to see myself in the mirror or in pictures with my kids.
I was exhausted and had little energy for the most basic things that I wanted to do, like take my kids to the park. Activities that I used to love, like yoga, were too uncomfortable with the rolls around my waist. Sex? Forget about it!
Although I desperately wanted to lose weight, I was unable and unwilling to endure the calorie restriction that I had used when I was younger to take off extra pounds. I would gorge in anticipation of starting to count calories, psych myself into it, then give up after a few days when my motivation waned.
Everything changed when I woke up to my underlying, unconscious eating habits. I discovered that my cravings were mostly driven by feelings of stress, boredom, and inadequacy that I was trying to soothe through food.
As I learned what was causing the habits and how to change them without forcing myself to do anything, I began to release the extra weight from my body and life.
Even though the specifics of everyone's eating habits are different, the underlying habit loops are the same. When we heal our self-sabotaging habits, we can lose weight, and look and feel better, even as we get older. I did it as I turned 50 and so can you!
Releasing the Weight Coaching
When you sign up for 1-on-1 coaching, you get more than just a generic, one-size-fits all program. Dr. Kara provides a roadmap that is as unique as your individual goals and support along your journey. The key to successfully implementing this approach is communication that incorporates research-based methods with the evolving demands of your life.