Dr. Deborah Kern, Ph.D., who developed a new concept of healthful living called The Conscious Body Method, brings impressive credentials and more than 27 years of experience in health and wellness to Lake Austin Spa Resort as the new Executive Director of Lifestyle Enrichment.

With this announcement, Lake Austin Spa Resort becomes the only spa in the country to exclusively offer the conscious living method as part of its regular health and fitness regimen. By providing guests with personalized tools to interconnect their minds, bodies and souls, this holistic approach enables them to get off the diet roller coaster. The book Create the Body Your Soul Desires, co-authored by Dr. Kern and Dr. Karen Wolfe, MBBS, documents this acclaimed new health and wellness method.

�Our guests can interact with Dr. Deb Kern, one-on-one. In addition to teaching daily classes, she also provides lifestyle counseling and mind-body therapy, and oversees the guest experience as it relates to fitness and health,� says Tracy York, General Manager of Lake Austin Spa Resort. �Along with The Conscious Body Journal and invaluable advice they receive from Dr. Deb, guests leave the resort armed with the perfect tools for maintaining healthy bodies and balanced lives.� Dr. Deb, as she prefers to be called, describes herself as a �health scientist who dares people to live a conscious life.� She attended nursing school at Vanderbilt University and received a Ph.D. in Health Sciences from Texas Woman�s University. She also authored the book Everyday Wellness for Women.

An internationally recognized speaker who has lectured throughout the U.S., Chile, Korea, Costa Rica, Mexico and Canada, Dr. Deb is also a Nia Black Belt trainer and certified yoga teacher. She apprenticed for eight years in the ancient Ayurvedic healing system and studied herbal medicine in Costa Rica. The Dallas native formerly served as director of the Mind/Body Wellness Center at the Crescent Hotel in Dallas and taught fitness at the White House Athletic Center.

More than a decade ago, Lake Austin Spa Resort shook up the spa world by shifting its focus from policing food and physical activities to creating an environment that nurtured the synergy of mind, body and soul. Today, this holistic approach to lifestyle change is recognized as the standard among health and fitness professionals. Now the spa, ranked among the country�s top ten by Cond� Nast Traveler, Travel + Leisure and the Zagat Survey, steps to the forefront in teaching guests how to be conscious in their own bodies regarding issues of body image, weight, food, energy, sexuality and stress. Using The Conscious Body Method as their guide, they are encouraged to consciously examine what�s going on in their lives. They leave the spa with valuable practical wisdom to guide them into healthy lifestyles.

Dr. Deb encourages movement and personalized nutrition; she discourages trendy diets and obsessive exercising. A former competitive race-walker, she knows first-hand the perils of allowing physical activity, food and stress to control your life. The Conscious Body Method strikes a balance between restrictive diets that measure and monitor food and exercise and the permissive mentality that allows you to eat whatever and exercise as little as you want. The constant roller coaster ride between the two extremes, says Dr. Deb, frustrates people and leaves them physically, mentally and spiritually unhealthy. �The word �diet� is really a positive word, but today it is loaded with negative connotations,� Dr. Deb writes in Create the Body Your Soul Desires. �It comes from the Greek root word �diaita,� which means �to live one�s life,� and from the Latin root word �diaeta,� meaning �a manner of living�.� Through fitness and movement classes and lifestyle counseling, Dr. Deb strives to help guests reclaim the word �diet� with a more healthful approach to �living their lives.�

The completion of the new 25,000 square foot spa solidifies Lake Austin Spa Resort�s total metamorphosis into one of the country�s premier spa resorts. Nestled along the shores of scenic Lake Austin in the rolling Hill Country outside Austin, Texas, the resort has been honored by Cond� Nast Traveler as a 2004 �Top Five Spa�, by Travel + Leisure as one of the �Top Ten Spas in North America,� one of Departures magazine�s �Top 25 Luxury Resorts in North America� and as a �Top Five Spa� by the Zagat Survey. Overnight packages start from $995 per person for two nights and are all inclusive of healthy spa cuisine, luxurious spa treatments, fitness classes and activities. For reservations and information, call 800-847-5637 or visit the website at www.lakeaustin.com. ###