52 Thoughts for the Chronic Dieter

In my last blog we talked about how emotional eating can be really harmful for your mindset and your waistline. It was heartening to hear so many people getting back to me saying “this is exactly how I feel” (and it’s great when that happens, as it means the answers I have will really help too!)… Some of you had some really good questions and comments, and there were a couple of recurring themes I think are be relevant to many of us 🙂 Theme 1: “I don’t know if I’m an emotional eater” There are plenty of reasons why we overeat when…

Let’s face it, emotional eating is not very fun*. First, you start by feeling bad.  And no one likes feeling bad.  Your particular “bad” may be stress, frustration, sadness, loneliness, boredom, or some combination of the plethora of unpleasant feelings we naturally experience as human beings.  No matter what you call the feelings, you don’t like them, and you want them to go away! And for many of us, eating is a convenient, relatively cheap, and reasonably socially acceptable way of dealing with our feelings.  It doesn’t sound like a bad way to go about it (especially compared with smoking,…

Hello guys! As promised, I’m back to share with you some of the amazing new research on what we’re learning about tapping for weight management.  I know I’m a research geek, but I can’t tell you HOW EXCITED I am about the latest findings – research is how we tell what works, and for me I need to bring you not the latest craze, or what a celebrity endorses, but what science tells us will actually help you in a permanent way.  Two of these studies are so new they are in publication right now, so I’ll share with you…

Towards the launch of our last tapping for weight program, I wrote to you about my journey from into the world of tapping.* It started with reading the AMAZING results of Dr Peta Stapleton’s clinical trial on tapping for weight management, which showed: Desires for high calorie foods decreased – in fact, a year after the study, many participants had forgotten their problem foods. Power over food choices increased – people’s willpower improved (even though most of them didn’t continue tapping after the program). Emotional wellbeing improved – tapping significantly reduced depression, anxiety, and stress. Weight decreased – the rate of…

A while back I had a wonderful experience with a client that was so good I had to share. But we all know weight management is not all sunshine and rainbows, and ignoring the whole story is actually part of the problem when it comes to weight management, so I wanted to share another client story with you too – let’s call her “Sarah” – here’s what she emailed me: “I have always had a sweet tooth and find great comfort in food for all sorts of reasons.  I eat when I am bored, tired, sad, happy, watching TV etc….

I wanted to write to you about a wonderful experience I had with a client this week – it was so good I had to share! As, unlike most approaches, we don’t focus on weight loss too much, sometimes it can be hard to measure progress.  “Feeling” better can be a great measure, but we can all think of times when we’ve felt good about eating, physical activity, and weight management, and then had the good feelings come crashing down for some reason or other.  Similarly, we can use our actions as guides for how we are going, and that’s…

A couple of weeks ago we finished our Twelve Month Transformation program.  Every year, as well as running the program, I do it myself…it’s a great way to ensure I reach my personal goals as well as help my clients reach theirs! The last session is always a debrief of the year, and it was beautiful to hear everyone’s honest reflection.  It was (as it always is) heartening to hear the significant successes people had achieved.  But also comforting to hear the compassionate perspective people had developed in areas where they had gotten part-way towards certain goals (or even not…

So, as many of you know from my first blog, Stills and Alreadys, I had shoulder surgery a while back.  Whilst I spent my fair share of time feeling sorry for myself, moping, and generally sitting in the rubble, I’m not one for staying down when I hit the canvas, so I started to problem solve.  Following the (good) advice I would give a client, I began to look at what I could do in favor of what I couldn’t. Running was out as my arms moved too much, so walking it was.  Walking and physiotherapy exercises…lots and lots and…

Hello Blogees it’s been a while since our last blog, like you I’ve been flat out finishing up work, running around buying pressies (this year, I must say, my family has scored big time!), and trying to squeeze in some time to take care of myself.  I have been wanting to write to you about mindful eating for some time, and I’ve been having so many conversations with my clients around the benefits of mindful eating at Christmas, that now it the perfect time.  Christmas is the worst time to start a diet, but you can learn some important abilities…

Last night, I went to “No Lights, No Lycra”. Oh my god, was it fun. I guess it’s sort of an “anti-exercise class”.   They turn the lights right down (and your levels of embarrassment with it) and the music up (and you feel like you’re in a dance hall instead of a gym class). As the name suggests, you wear casual clothes rather than exercise gear, so it’s even cool if the latest Lorna Jane doesn’t fit you ;-). Why am I telling you this? Well, in addition to encouraging you to go to NLNL (which I do), it’s because…

These are 26 things that only a yo-yo dieter would understand: You walk into a room and check to see if you’re the fattest person You think your skinny friends are being ridiculous when they talk about how their body issues You say to yourself “I’m just going to finish this packet of (insert high-fat/salt/sugar/calorie food), and then I’ll never eat them again” You say to yourself “I’m going to eat all of the junk food in the house so it’s gone and then I’ll start my diet Monday” You do # 4, but then don’t start the diet Monday!…

On the eve of the launch of our new and improved Online EFT for Weight Management Course, I am reflecting on my journey into the Emotional Freedom Techniques. For those of you who haven’t heard of it, Emotional Freedom Techniques, often shortened to “EFT”, and also simply called “tapping” is a unique process of combining focusing statements about a problem with tapping on acupressure points to help the problem clear away*. That’s a bit weird, isn’t it? As a specialist weight management psychologist, let me tell you about my journey into tapping, and how I am now convinced it is…

When you think to embark on your next weight loss attempt, I want you to think of this blog, and remember something. You don’t want to lose weight. Before you think I’ve lost it, hear me out. We do weight loss for an underlying reason, because we want something…and that thing is not weight loss. Like wanting more money, we don’t want it for it’s own sake, we want it because of how we think it will benefit us. So why are you thinking of losing weight? Maybe you want to be healthier. Maybe you want to wear really nice…

On the eve of launching our Healthy Kids Camps developed by my twin brother, Heath, and having just visited our parents for the weekend, I wanted to write a blog about children, families, and weight. I remember having a FOBO*, one of those moments where your awareness is irrevocably broadened, during a conversation with Heath a few years ago, around when he joined Weight Management Psychology. We were talking about the Health At Every Size (HAES) debate**, whether behavioural, pharmacological, and surgical weight loss is so ineffective that people would be better off forgetting about weight loss and working to…

When I wrote the blog “Love is the new hate”, people got it. People are ready for a broader social change, for a more weight-inclusive society. But in addition to the heart-felt (and heartening) “thank-you”s, came through the reality that often we ourselves are the greatest perpetrators of our own body-stigma. The question came – “If I’m more critical of my body than others, how to I change my own thoughts around my body?” Well, psychologist define your body-image as your relationship with your body, and like any relationship, it is complex, multi-factorial, and takes work to change. These tips…

All around the world, things are changing. Over generations, people of all different colours, races, and religions are learning how to coexist together. Gay people and straight people and everyone in between are growing an understanding of our shared humanity. So why not spread the love a touch further and accept size diversity? Fat, thin, muscly, skinny, super-muscly, too skinny, big, small….our bodies have as many variations there are grains in the sand. But inside our outer embodiment, we’re all just people, aren’t we? We all have dreams, values, fears, emotions and opinions… Unfortunately, an opinion we all tend to…

I don’t want to write this blog today. I have just flown overnight, delivered a great workshop to a wonderful group of people, and now I’m flying home and I want to have a sleep instead. So why am I writing? Because it’s important. It’s important for me to distill my thoughts into words, important to me that you hear them – I am writing as I feel my writing is important for both of us… …Important enough to take a few deep breaths, ask for a cup of bad aeroplane coffee, and begin typing. As you know by now,…

It seems there are as many diets out there as there are grains in the sand. Each diet has their own principles, types of food that are “in” and “out” and varying degrees of scientific research behind them. So how do we tell a good diet from a bad one? Should we be dieting at all? Or is there another way forward for developing and sustaining healthy eating habits? I am proposing a new form of “diet” which I all a “Diet +”. What is a Diet + I hear you say (sorry, I couldn’t help myself!)? Any diet that…

Open letter to weight management practitioners, RE: We are all in this together In the short ten years of my career, timing, luck, and opportunity have granted me an unusually wide view the different things we do to help people manage their weight. I have run the psychology component of a large interdisciplinary behavioural weight loss clinic, worked closely with an interdisciplinary bariatric surgery team, and in my private practice have seen my clients work with a whole host of medical, allied, and alternative health professionals, not to mention try every diet under the sun. I have also learned alternative…

I sometimes find it hard to get excited about a client’s fast weight loss these days. In fact I always do. This is even the case if the person tells me they’re “not on a diet” – because they often are without knowing it…. Dieters often swing between two sets of habits, like a clock pendulum swinging from one side to the other. On one side, they have their overeating habits – eating unconsciously, overeating and bingeing, and gaining weight. Naturally, at some point people get sick of these habits, and the pendulum swings….On the other side of the pendulum,…

This is a topic I feel is very important – although part of me thinks “yikes” as I write it. I was having a conversation with a mentor of mine, who spends the first 20 – 30 minutes of the initial session teaching her client how to “be a good client”. When I told her how uncomfortable the idea made me feel, she asked me to think of a good client of mine…and then think about their results – her point was clear, and she was right, good clients get good results. A couple of recent experiences have highlighted this…

After seeing people change for ten years or so now, I feel there is a mysterious relationship between the clutter in peoples’ minds, bodies, and environment… At Weight Management Psychology, we pride ourselves on doing evidence-based work. In an industry (although we prefer to think we sit aside it, not inside it) full of misinformation, half-truths, and theories, this allows us to hand-on-our-heart, say we’re doing the best we can. There are many ideas, theories, and opinions, and I find it very comforting to be able to rely on science to separate the facts from the fancy. As evidence-based practitioners,…

Unfortunately, we live in a world where we are at war. We are at war with food…a love-hate relationship that never seems to end. We are at war with physical activity: a punishment required for already being fat or to ensure we don’t in the future. And we are at war with our bodies, our inadequate, ugly, imperfect bodies that we have to “smash” into perfection even despite our physical, psychological, and social health. And where has this war gotten us? Like in so many wars, hate propagates hate, harmful actions result, and the problems get worse. But there is…

Thought 4 – Goal setting – the Weight Management Psychology Way – Part 1! As you all know, sustaining motivation for managing your health can sometimes be challenging. This can be especially so when you don’t have a clear goal in mind. But, following a Health At Every Size (HAES) informed perspective, which tells us that for most people, setting weight goals can be highly problematic, how does one set a goal to improve their health, wellbeing, and success? After grappling with this connundrum for quite a while (read 10 years), by Joves, I think we at Weight Management Psychology…

Weight management is such a complex, multi-factorial issue that I feel like practicing with most people without the support of a great team is almost unethical. Anita Cochrane, in her research on interdisciplinary teams for weight, identified four main components of an effective team, in this order (1) Psychologist (2) Dietitian (3) Physical activity and (4) Medical doctor, and I believe ALL are necessary for lasting success! On top of this core team may be physiotherapists, podiatrists, and massage therapists, support groups, and even the bariatric surgeon, depending on your requirements. For me this week, having had a shoulder injury…

There are many ways that we can view our setbacks. We can see them as validation of our doubts, reasons to be angry at the world, sticks to beat ourselves up with. Or we can view them as servants that help us learn, grow, and develop. Again, let me draw on my own experience in the hope it will help you find the hidden servants in your setbacks… So, despite my developing a fair “alreadys” list from last week, I have to start again and have a shoulder reconstruction (with a nice bill to match…private health I’ve been so good…

“Still” and “Already” are words that describe our change. The word still tends to focus on what we HAVEN’T achieved, what we CAN’T do, and where we are NOT. For example, I’m still bingeing, I’m still not exercising daily, or I’m still too fat! Already is a word that acknowledges what we HAVE achieved, what we CAN do, and where we ARE! For example, already my binges are smaller than they were a month ago, already I’m walking to the shops of a weekend, or already I’ve stopped gaining weight. This idea is very therapeutic for me, as I try…