An emerging model of behavior change in women maintaining weight loss.

This study is based on and expands Newman's theory of health as expanding consciousness with women who maintained weight loss for at least 1 year. The researcher engaged in two in-depth interviews with twenty women. Individual patterns for participants who maintained weight loss revealed a personal journey of self-discovery and control with initial chaos, choice, and then emergence of behaviors reflecting expanded consciousness. Looking across participants, six patterns emerged from the data with evolution of a model of change that has implications for nursing practice at defined times within the change process of weight loss.