"I'm no longer afraid of a buffet," said Antoinette Jucha, 70, of Scott. "I've made my peace with food."

Ms. Jucha has been overweight all her life. She recalled weighing more than her older brother, Joe Zombek, did when he was playing for the Steelers back in the early '50s.

She's also been dieting all her life, without success.

"I figured I was hopeless," she said.

But Ms. Jucha has lost 42 pounds on the Wise About Weight program devised by Dr. Donald Kushner, a primary care physician affiliated with St. Clair Hospital, Mt. Lebanon. She figures this time she'll keep the weight off, because Dr. Kushner's program has changed the way she thinks about food, exercise, and herself.

"It's such a well-rounded program," she said. "The behavioral coaching has really helped me. To learn to put the right things in the right proportions is tremendous.

"They've changed the old saying that you can't teach an old dog new tricks," Ms. Jucha said. "This old dog has learned a lot of new tricks."

Ms. Jucha is far from alone in her praise for Wise About Weight. Recently Dr. Kushner held a "Key West" party for graduates of the nine-week program, where the graduates exchanged low-calorie recipes and success stories.

Key West is the imaginary destination in a part of the exercise program: The graduates had walked the equivalent of the distance from Pittsburgh to the tip of the Florida Keys.

"I've never been on a diet before. But this has really helped change my thinking," said Jim Silvestros, 62. "I'm in better shape than I've ever been."

Mr. Silvestros, who has lost 35 pounds, now walks five to six miles a day in and around his home in Eighty Four.

Joe Blice, 78, of Bethel Park, said he decided to try the Wise About Weight program because "I just didn't feel good. I felt tired."

Mr. Blice has lost 27 pounds.

"They don't tell you to diet," he said. "They just teach you how to be wise about your food. They really get you thinking about exercise and walking."

At the end of the nine weeks, half the participants typically have lost at least 5 percent of their body weight. According to the anonymous evaluation questionnaires filled out by participants at the end of the program, 90 percent say they have made successful lifestyle changes, and 97 percent say they would recommend the program to others.

Dr. Kushner said he devised Wise About Weight because he couldn't find a comprehensive way to meet the needs of his overweight patients.

"The weight-loss market is so fragmented," he said. "I wanted to help people make lifestyle changes."

So three years ago he assembled a multidisciplinary team -- two nutritionists, two psychologists, an exercise physiologist, a program developer, a program manager and a marketing specialist -- to put together Wise About Weight.

"We place a really strong emphasis on behavior changes," he said. Now 47, he said he follows his own dietary and exercise advice and works out on an elliptical machine at home, about twice a week, for about 20 minutes a session.

The Wise About Weight pilot group was graduated in April 2008. Class size is limited to no more than 20 to encourage interaction among participants, said Shar Kinder, 53, the facilitator for the program.

The class kicks off with a six-hour immersion session on a Saturday.

"In the immersion, we really want them to get clear on why they're doing this," said Ms. Kinder, a nurse as well as a professional facilitator. "A second thing is we're really bonding as a group."

The immersion is followed by one two-hour session a week for eight weeks.

All the classes emphasize nutrition, physical activity, and how to control their thoughts and behavior, Ms. Kinder said.

The crux of nutrition is the "balanced plate" -- one quarter protein, one quarter grains, one half fruit and vegetables, she said.

Participants are taught how to read labels and shop for groceries smart, and how to modify favorite recipes so they are healthier and lower calorie without sacrificing taste.

"My husband isn't on the program, but he's lost 26 pounds anyway because we eat the same food," Ms. Jucha said.

"We teach mental rehearsal if you've got a food challenge coming up, and how to deal with the 'creeps' -- portion creep, thought creep, couch creep," Ms. Kinder said.

The cost of the program is $375, which includes an hour of personal nutritional counseling, an hour of behavioral counseling, and a customized workout program, she said.

All classes currently are conducted at St. Clair Hospital, but, Dr. Kushner said, they'll soon expand to other sites.

For more information, e-mail healthier@wise-about-weight.com, or phone program manager Robin Kushner at 412-401-1258.

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.