Key components of the CHANGING LIFESTYLES Program at Baseline2baseline include stimulus control, goal-setting, self-monitoring, decisional counseling, rational emotive therapy, relapse prevention training, positive focusing and stress management.

These techniques help students develop the “supernormal” skills and emotional control they need in order to enhance their self-regulatory skills, manage their environments and stay highly committed to success. We think of this approach as coaching the students to view themselves as “athletes in training.” Athletes have to use super-normal self-regulatory skills to transform their bodies. So do weight controllers. This perspective helps students feel empowered, for it inspires them to think of themselves as athletes in training.

Students have 3-5 CHANGING LIFESTYLES sessions per week with Baseline2baseline therapists (called “Behavioral Coaches” at school). Sessions are one-on-one as well as in a group setting.  Students write out specific goals during each session (copy kept by participant and behavioral coach), self-monitor food and activities daily, journal daily and read excerpts from books and handouts.

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A typical CHANGING LIFESTYLES session is as follows:

• Review of each student’s accomplishments in the prior day(s). The tone of these reviews will be consistently positive, oriented to problem solving and reinforcement of specific accomplishments.
• Integration of a CHANGING LIFESTYLES/weight control topic, such as stimulus control, 5-step problem solving, decisional counseling and stress management/coping.
• Quiz (on readings assigned in the prior session).
• Assignment of new readings.
• Review of behavioral contracts (goals).

Individual sessions also review progress and self-monitoring journals, focusing on the details of each student’s efforts.

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WORKING THROUGH EMOTIONAL OR PSYCHOLOGICAL
ISSUES AT BASELINE2BASELINE

Many students bring issues other than weight to Baseline2baseline. Low self-esteem, depression, anxiety and attentional problems often accompany overweight. Enrollment at Baseline2baseline generally produces clear and almost immediate improvements in mood and self-esteem as students are in a peer group working together in a constructive manner to overcome the same problem, and are no longer teased or singled out.

Some issues, including clinical depression and binge eating disorders, will require more direct intervention. The clinical team at Baseline2baseline Programs (formerly Academy of the Sierras), led by the Clinical Director, has ample experience in dealing with all psychological issues that typically contribute to or result from excess weight. Following a comprehensive assessment upon admission, the clinical team provides individual counseling as needed to address these additional issues.

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The Role of the Behavioral Coach

“Behavioral Coach” is the term we use for the Masters- and Doctoral-level therapists who work with our students in individual and group sessions.

We use the term “Behavioral Coach,” because the CHANGING LIFESTYLES Program at Baseline2baseline is a very active, practical process of changing behavior, rather than the passive therapy often depicted in popular culture. Baseline2baseline Behavioral Coaches quite literally “coach” students through the process of lifestyle change.

We also use the term “Behavioral Coach,” because we strongly believe in the “athletic metaphor” for weight control.

All Baseline2baseline Programs students are “athletes in training” in that they are transforming their bodies in ways that their biology resists. Human biology isn’t designed to run a mile in 4 minutes or throw a fastball at 90 MPH. But through training and perseverance, these feats are common for elite athletes.

In the same way, the human body isn’t designed to lose weight and keep it off. Rather, our biologies were designed tens of thousands of years ago to store fat to survive famine. Biologically, we are all still “hunter-gatherers.” However, biology is not destiny. By mastering the Baseline2baseline program, students can return to a healthy weight and stay there for the rest of their life.

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Contact with the Behavioral Coach

Your child’s individual Behavioral Coach will become your primary point of contact at Baseline2baseline Programs. For the first week or two, many families will choose to have daily contact with the Behavioral Coach to ensure that their child is acclimating well to the new environment. Baseline2baseline Behavioral Coaches schedule lengthy phone sessions with families at least weekly, and prepare a written report for families every other week.

If your child is struggling, you’ll likely hear about it first from the Behavioral Coach, and will be prepared to navigate any challenging communications or phone calls, to help your child continue on the path to successful long-term weight control.

LONG-TERM weight control

Baseline2baseline begins planning for the transition home on Day One. By changing behavior, the Clinical program provides the core skills required for long-term weight control.

But there are other ways Baseline2baseline ensures students will be successful after returning home:

FAMILY INVOLVEMENT

The family is involved in Baseline2baseline every step of the way. Families who understand how best to support their child at home will see the most dramatic changes in the long run.

Parents speak to their child’s Behavioral Coach at least weekly and receive bi-monthly written reports on their child’s progress, as measured across all areas of the Baseline2baseline program. Updated photos are also posted on a regular basis on the private Baseline2baseline Parent Check-In Web site.

Parents also attend a three-day Family Workshop at Baseline2baseline. This Workshop provides families with an immersion into the science of weight control and concludes with the development of a written plan for home.

When their child returns home, families know exactly what they can do to support long-term weight control, and are committed to do so.

ACTIVITY PLANNING

Throughout their enrollment at Baseline2baseline, the Activity Management program focuses students on activities they are most likely to continue on a regular basis at home.