Why ILWM Residential?

If you’re like the other 71 million Americans on a diet, you have tried many programs that have promised quick weight loss, only to find out that any weight loss achieved quickly reappeared once the diet was ended. These diets are impractical, unhealthy and simply not sustainable.

If you are fortunate enough to be able to have attended a residential weight loss program, you spent a month on site learning in a classroom about food and dieting, left feeling good about your prospects of success, only to lapse back into the old self destructive habits. Not only did the new way of thinking about food not stick, but you did not spend enough time in the gym learning about exercise and internalizing your routine. Not enough time was spent converting what you have learned in the institutional environment into your home and work environment. Additionally, the classes were large, general in nature, and were not personalized for your individual characteristics and needs; the curriculum was designed to suit the most common needs of the 100 or so people in the program with you, not your needs. Remember, your personal characteristics and needs are as unique as your fingerprints—your weight loss program must reflect this uniqueness and address exactly what you need to be successful in the long term.

ILWM Residential is very different from the other residential programs with which you may be familiar. We allow a maximum number of ten individuals into the program at any one time, not the hundreds that some of the popular programs routinely enroll each week. By limiting the number of participants, the caregiver/participant ratio is much lower, ensuring that participants receive more individual attention. Additionally, the program ILWM develops for participants is based on physician and psychologist interviews, and is designed to address your individual needs. Residential programs are never cheap—why would you pay thousands of dollars for an off the shelf solution designed to meet the needs of all 100 people?

Rather than sitting in sterile classes in a hospital environment with dozens of strangers, ILWM features a warm, friendly, empathetic environment that is conducive to your individual success. This allows us to support participants emotionally, which is a key factor for individual success. Since a large part of many people’s weight issues involve emotional and stress eating, any effective solution must address this. Large groups hinder the one-on-one interaction needed to address the emotional aspects; individual attention is the key to success.

Understanding

At ILWM Residential, we strive to exceed expectations for each one of our customers. Expectations cannot be exceeded—much less met—if there is a disconnect between the customer’s wants and needs and the program’s philosophy and corresponding service offerings.

We believe that when it comes to individuals with weight challenges, the intensity of their frustrations come from the fact that they have a dialectic conflict between the “want” to achieve results quickly and the “need” to make sustainable long-term lifestyle changes that often take time, motivation, and constant self-monitoring. These opposing “wants” and “needs” force us to make compromises. Consider the following: In an effort to lose weight quickly, many individuals will put themselves on a very, low calorie diet or fad diet and start an exercise regimen or significantly increase the duration and frequency of their current fitness program. This usually results in quick weight loss. Because the weight loss gives the person affirmation they can be successful without making significant lifestyle and behavioral changes, they put little effort into changing their behaviors. After a certain period of time their weight loss slows and then plateaus because their regimen is not sustainable. Since they made little effort to make the needed behavioral changes they find themselves returning to their old ways and within a short period of time find their successes completely eradicated and often find themselves in worse health and weighing more.

Conversely, they choose the route of making ‘lifestyle change’ characterized by slow weight loss and better, healthier decisions. Some are successful at this and find themselves healthy and able to manage their weight over the long-run. Most, however, as the obesity epidemic highlights, lose their motivation because they do not see results and thus feel they are not being successful. After all, when you make significant changes and after one month only weigh 2-3 pounds less it can be very defeating.

Philosophy

ILWM’s unique focus also differentiates it from other traditional residential programs. ILWM has a dualistic philosophy of weight loss, one designed to recognize and utilize human nature as a driving force in your success. In the traditional “Old World” thinking of the diet industry, you can either achieve rapid, short-term results, OR sustainable long-term results. The ILWM Dualistic Philosophy believes that you can achieve BOTH rapid, short-term results AND sustainable, long-term results from the same program at the same time. Short-term, rapid results are powerfully beneficial if they are attained intelligently and if they are designed as stepping-stones toward major lifestyle change. After all, the most powerful driver of weight loss is. . . WEIGHT LOSS ITSELF! Success breeds further success. Our weight loss programs help individuals achieve quick results in a way that motivates them long enough to make sustainable life changes and learn how to incorporate new ways of thinking and new approaches into their life.

Today’s world is not the same one your parents lived in. It’s much faster, chaotic, complicated, and has many more moving parts. This environment is partially responsible for our poor eating habits, stress management, and time management. Any successful weight loss solution, especially those that claim to address lifestyle issues, must deal with our everyday lives. ILWM understands this deeply, and provides the tools necessary to meet the challenges of your life and can help you master them.

Our unique level of personalization and customization

At ILWM, we recognize that you unquestionably desire a positive and personalized experience when you participate in a weight loss program—especially one as comprehensive as a residential program. The ILWM Residential program differs greatly from other programs in its approach. We believe that the level of success our members have with our program directly correlates to the level of personalization they receive while on-site at ILWM.

A smaller, warmer, and more intimate program, ILWM’s Residential program is truly customized for each participant, unlike the larger, hospital-based programs that offer one-solution-fits-all programs. Whether you need to lose 50 or 300 pounds, whether you’re diabetic or an emotional eater, whether you have limiting physical conditions, are suffering from a co-morbid condition such as heart disease or hypertension, or are struggling with binge eating, ILWM’s Residential program will customize a curriculum designed to meet your needs and goals, and will make optimal use of the time you spend on campus.

A deeply personalized program is not only engaging, but is one that can create a life-changing event for you. Our clients find their experience to be an inherently personal one, where they are engaged on emotional, physical, intellectual and even spiritual levels.

Approach and Design

The Future is Unpredictable

The solutions of yesterday no longer apply to the problems of today. ‘Traditional’ Residential Weight Loss Centers outwardly exhibit this disconnect with the realities of today’s world. In fact, most of them brag of being ‘tried and true’ or ‘30+ years with the same recipe for success.’ The mantra of the ‘old way’ is:

• Set a goal
• Develop a single plan of action to meet the goal
• Do not stray from the plan
• If you stray, pick yourself up and get back on plan

This way of thinking is linear and simply states that we intend to start at Point A (Now) and we will follow a single plan to get to Point B (Future).

For Example:

However, in real life, this way of thinking is insufficient and is often one of the attributing factors for lack of success with a new weight loss regimen. In ‘real life’ we get hit with many ‘Black Swans’ that catch us off guard, knock us down and often prevent us from getting back on track. A ‘Black Swan’ is a term made popular by Nicholas Taleb in his bestselling book The Black Swan, and is defined as a large-impact, hard-to-predict, and rare event beyond the realm of normal expectations. For some of us a ‘Black Swan’ may be the loss of a loved one; for others it might be an event that is not as catastrophic as death but powerful none-the-less like the loss of a job or perceived betrayal by a friend. ‘Real life’ is also full of daily stressors that accumulate and can overwhelm us. ‘Black Swans’ and accumulation of daily stressors often render a seemingly simple, easy-to-follow plan ineffective and thus, no longer applicable.

Even when we develop back-up plans, we find that reaching our goal can still be very difficult.

This can get even more confusing with multiple back-up plans.

After one or two ‘Black Swans’ we often throw our hands up and say ‘What the Heck.’

This is where ILWM stands out from other programs and might mean all the difference in you being able to finally lose weight and change for good. The ILWM behavioral program—Sustainable Changes—is one of the most unique models for change.

Even when we develop back-up plans, we find that reaching our goal can still be very difficult. This can get even more confusing with multiple back-up plans. After one or two ‘Black Swans’ we often throw our hands up and say ‘What the Heck.’ This is where ILWM stands out from other programs and might mean all the difference in you being able to finally lose weight and change for good. The ILWM behavioral program—Sustainable Changes—is one of the most unique models for change.