My client, Laura Jacobs, was featured in Prevention Magazine! You can see her entire feature below of how she lost 40 pounds in my first Truce with Food program back in 2010. Seven years later, she has kept it off (and lost 20 more pounds).
There’s two reasons Laura was successful that the article doesn’t explicitly connect. It’s important to share these two reasons with you to support your path, if weight loss or treating your chronic health issues naturally, is a goal.But first, I want to be clear about my work.
I don’t promise weight loss. My clients often want to lose weight. And we don’t deny what’s true for them.
And, we put weight loss to the side. Because there is no formula for weight loss.
We make their goals around physical and emotional balance, which weight loss is often a side-effect.
If someone offers you a simple health or weight loss solution, including calories in, calories out, or that you just need to eat clean, it’s a bat signal they are new to holistically understanding the body.
Each and everyone’s healing path will take its own twists and turns. You discovering your path is part of the medicine.
And you want it to be. Because freedom to align with your body’s truth is one of the best feelings in all the land.
I like to think of my work as offering an option C.
It’s not diet culture, which fuels the food battle.
And it’s not denying the battle, pretending “I’m fine” with food and my body when you’re not.
My approach embraces the battle and transforms it.
Sometimes, people lose weight as a side-effect of ending their body battle. And sometimes they don’t.
The focus is on the profound liberation when you don’t just stop fighting your body, but learn to respect its/your power.
Laura was up for the adventure. Not for guarantees, but an adventure.
That openness was the foundation for the two reasons she was successful:
- She nourished her body with the right foods for her. Most people struggling with their body are over-fed, yet malnourished. Laura was able to leave behind a mood disorder diagnosis and all her medication – after three decades! – because she gave her body the foods it needs. She was willing to trust her own experience, not the latest diet trend.
- Laura was able to cultivate a new identity as she sold the company she had successfuly spent her entire adult life building. Laura was willing to let go of how she and everyone around her saw her for who she wanted to be moving forward.
Seeing yourself differently is the linchpin to sustainable health changes (any change really).
It cannot be overemphasized enough. It takes incredible bravery, devotion and resilience to liberate yourself for who you most want to be.
Not all my clients end up making as dramatic of life changes as Laura. And many don’t need to. But they will have to show up differently in their lives, not just their plates.
Congrats again to Laura. Yes, I’m excited for her weight loss because it was important to her. Most deeply, I’m grateful for her following her truth. She forever changed the trajectory of her health and life from trusting herself. And she now offers a new, beautiful story for what happens when women trust their bodies and truths.
As writer Ursula Le Guin says, “We are volcanoes. When we women offer our experience as our truth, as human truth, all the maps change. There are new mountains.”
Be well,
Ali
P.S. Each of us battles food in a mentally unique way. Our first step to a Truce with Food is getting clear on how we battle food. Learn how in my free webinar, What’s Your Food Warrior Style?. Discover your Food Warrior Style Here
EJ Ogenyi
This is such a great story. And yes a lot of methodologies overly simplify things by focusing on the things that come with formulas. Things like pleasure, stress, and fear are put by the wayside when they’re the very things that send us looking for food.
You’re doing an amazing service with your work Ali!
Ali Shapiro
Thanks EJ. Laura did the work. I’m the guide on the side. It’s a complex process to simplicity! Glad you appreciate this.