The Catalyst Weight Loss System stresses motivation and behavior modification, not diets or severely restricted food plans. Catalyst seeks to heal damaged relationships with food and teach a healthier approach to weight loss.

The system is taught in a straight-forward, sensible course that teaches lifelong skills and helps change negative behaviors to positive ones. Read the response from past course participants have to say about the course.

Catalyst shuns diets and fads to lay the groundwork for you to alter your total approach towards food and permanently change your eating habits. With study after study substantiating the fact that diets usually add pounds to dieter's bodies, there is a real need for education based on sound scientific and medical evidence. The system is based on years of research Pat Barone compiled during her own personal weight loss of 70 pounds.

Anyone who has suffered from being overweight, whether that suffering manifested itself physically, psychologically or psychically, wants to change.

Catalyst can help you answer that question!

A relationship exists when there is a meaningful connection between two things, usually two people. However, food can be an entity charged with emotion and distortion.

We know food is eaten for sustenance and survival. In today's society, we sometimes assign other values and uses for food -- entertainment, comfort, redemption, reassurance, punishment, etc. Some people may even keep bonds to food as a substitute for human interaction.

Catalyst's goal is to identify and correct any imbalances. As you move toward a healthy, practical use of food, your body naturally moves towards a healthy weight.

How is the Catalyst Weight Loss System different than other online weight loss programs?

1. This course was developed by Pat Barone, who is not only a certified weight management consultant, certified personal trainer and certified professional life coach, she has conquered permanent weight loss!  She knows what it is like to battle a lifelong weight problem and her experience can be a valuable resource for you.

2. Catalyst is not centered on food plans. Most "personally designed" eating plans are simply diets. If you are in a difficult situation or cannot eat according to the plan, where does that leave you? Anyone can "prescribe" a diet, not everyone can teach you to change your habits and relationship to food. Catalyst can.  It will also empower you to make decisions that support a healthy life!

You are the only person who can answer this question. More knowledge about how to lose weight in a healthy, permanent way seems important for every person who has a weight problem or suffers from lack of control around food. A better question to ask is "Is now the right time for me to take a weight management course and learn more about how to lose weight in a healthy way?"

Most dieters know their diets have always failed, sometimes leaving them heavier than before they began the diet, but they cling to the idea that they are at fault, not the diet.

In truth, people don't fail at diets, diets fail. And they fail 95-97% of the time!

Download Pat's free article "Willingness Quiz" here:  Are you willing to lose weight permanently?

If you are ready to lose weight, why not do it by a healthy method that is comfortable for you? Weight loss should never be painful, harsh or difficult to maintain – or you won't continue doing it until you reach your goal. If you do the work to change the way you think about food, it will remain with you for the rest of your life. You will not need severely restricted diets – and the biggest bonus is that your weight loss will be permanent.

Pat Barone and her associate coaches offer personal coaching via telephone. Personal coaching is helpful when you are struggling with a particular problem or issue and can't solve it alone. A more experienced (and uninvolved) third party can sometimes spot the difficulty or provide alternatives you never considered. In addition, personal coaching is specific to your exact problem or dilemma because you control the subject matter.  Email Pat at pat@patbarone.com if you think you want to hire your own personal coach.

Most talk about losing weight centers on diet or exercise or some combination of the two. While they are two important prongs of effective weight loss, what will help you the most in your weight loss quest is motivation. An American stays on a diet an average of 3 days (72 hours) and, for the effort, there is usually little lasting reward. Diets may even add weight with rebound pounds that seem to appear from nowhere!

Motivation is your best tool for attaining your desired weight. Motivation will get you through anything – stressful times, illness, weight plateaus, lack of time, fatigue – in short, get you through the natural ups and downs of life until you reach your ideal weight.

The Catalyst system teaches you how to motivate yourself and how to change eating and thinking patterns that prevent you from achieving your goals.

It is advisable that you see a doctor before beginning any weight loss program. When you sign up for one of the Catalyst courses, you will be asked to verify that you are in good health and have been seen by a physician within the last year. Catalyst endorses the type of weightloss most doctors recommend – slow and permanent weightloss without the use of VLC (very low calorie) diets.

A nutritionist may be helpful to you if you wish to have your meals planned for you. However, Catalyst works by empowering you to make healthier choices regarding food because following someone else's idea of a food plan is simply following a diet and usually cannot be sustained for the length of time necessary to lose weight permanently.

The dilemma you describe is the most natural occurrence in the world when you actually think about it. The human body was designed to survive and its intricate, fascinating way of doing that involves resisting change. After all, if you drastically change your daily calorie intake, your physical body will react violently by lowering its metabolism in order to protect itself against starvation. Your brain will become involved as well – not only will your thoughts center on food but chemically your body will begin to crave high fat and/or calorie dense foods that would help it to survive. In addition, psychologically and even psychically, you will resist the change your body is sensing.

Why do people usually quit a weight loss program? Because most weight loss programs are something external to the human being that can be adopted and discarded easily. Real change hasn't occurred. Let's face it. Change is hard. But it is necessary if you want success.

Catalyst anticipates this dilemma by helping you analyze your desire to change and helping you commit to change on a deep level. Once you are committed and you have put the power of your emotion behind that commitment, any resistance that arises can be seen simply as a minor problem to be dealt with quickly and easily. It is wise to expect occasional roadblocks or resistance along the way and to be prepared for them.