Why Am I Eating This Now ?

A healthy skeptic. I totally get it. On the surface, this program is different because I’m not telling you what to do. So there’s no rigid 5-step morning plan you have to complete or more rules about keeping food in or out of the house.

But more deeply, my approach is on food being about belonging. This still isn’t on the radar of most emotional eating courses.

As a result, this program is about self-awareness and meeting your needs, not food.

You’ll have to get out of your comfort zone but not in the way you’re thinking about finding more willpower or discipline for food.

It’s about challenging yourself to look inward and show up differently in your life.

If you’re still not sure after reading this program page, I recommended listening to this episode of my Insatiable podcast, or Season 5, which focused on Eating Triggers.

You’ll get a clearer sense of how this is different.

Still not sure? Don’t take the program. You don’t want to bring intense doubt and fear to this process – this makes us resistant to self-exploration and trying new things.

You may find, at another point in the future, this message resonates better and the program will be here if you eventually decide it is the right path for you.

I don’t believe people are addicted to food.

(I do think some people have more sensitive physiology to sugar yet not so much that they are powerless over food).

Rather, we all have a primal, non-negotiable need for emotional safety via belonging. 

And if we don’t feel emotionally safe, we will turn to food to simulate that feeling. Food makes us feel safe but doesn’t satiate the deeper belonging need we have.

As Dr. Gordon Neufeld says, “There’s nothing as addictive as something that almost works.”

And telling people they’re addicted to food only makes them feel less safe of themselves!

Having said this, this course isn’t for people with active eating disorders. Once you feel stable and firm on your recovery path, this is when this course would make sense.

My work is a wonderful compliment to AA and/or therapy.

About 25% of my clients are in AA and most of them tell me, “this is what AA is missing” and they love AA. (about 50% of my clients are sober).

This isn’t to say it’s an either or with AA, just that this is different.

And it has to be because while you can avoid alcohol, you can’t not eat.

It’s also why 12-step food programs don’t work for most people. More restriction with food isn’t the answer. In Overeaters Anonymous (OA), which I tried myself, they often reinforce the all-or-nothing thinking and corresponding restrict-binge cycle with their “no white flour, no sugar, etc”.

My work is about getting to the root cause of why we turn to food and enable you to feel like you can eat just one of something (moderation is the new radical!).

In terms of therapy, I love a good therapy/therapist! Again, this isn’t either/or, it’s just that this work is very today and action oriented whereas therapy is often looking backwards and reflection. You need both.

I’ve actually found my sober and therapy clients to do incredibly well because they’re comfortable becoming more self-aware.

Yes. This is a wise choice because when you stop turning to food, your problems will still be there that caused you to turn to food.  The self-awareness and tools you’ll learn in Why Am I Eating This Now? will enable you to work through the emotions that will arise when the food isn’t covering them up. This means you’ll be better able to keep the weight loss off.

Additionally, without addressing your emotional eating triggers, you can feel very overwhelmed. Some people report anxiety and depression on these drugs because now they’re coping mechanism of food is gone. This program will enable you to work through the triggers so you can enjoy the results of your weight loss (as weight loss alone won’t make us happy or resilient in the face of stress). 

Also know that this community doesn’t care if you do want to lose weight or not. I know some programs and communities judge weight loss goals. Not here. You do you (I myself just lost 30 pounds after pregnancy and going through menopause so weight loss was a focus for myself up until recently)!.

In an ideal world, every client would start with Why Am I Eating This Now?.

I recommend starting with Why Am I Eating This Now? and then if you want to take the next step in your Truce with Food journey, you’ll have a running start and will do better in Truce with Food because of your increased self-awareness and sense of belonging.

Plus, I credit the price of Why Am I Eating This Now? towards Truce with Food so there’s really nothing to lose and everything to gain by starting with Why Am I Eating This Now?.

Also note,  you might not need Truce with Food after Why Am I Eating this Now?. as it’s  a hearty dish of my methodology that is designed to be empowering and life changing on its own. Plenty of people have ending their emotional eating issues with this program alone. 

If you have an FSA or HSA account, most likely. Many clients pay directly with their HSA credit cards and successfully submitted their receipts to their FSA accounts. However, check with your plan as each of them do vary. I’m happy to provide a receipt for health coaching if you need one. 

Why Am I Eating this Now? can definitely support you.

In fact, this program can help you not only stick to your healing diet, it can exceed your expectations for what you think is possible with your healing.

This is because we address how you’re relating to yourself. Those of us who’ve struggled with chronic health issues (I used to have depression and IBS) often have a unhelpful relationship with ourselves. Meaning, we are mean to ourselves and put so much pressure on ourselves to heal perfectly.

This process is about changing your relationship with yourself, which physiologically will put you more into a “rest and renew” healing space than fight or flight. 

I’ve had past clients be amazed at how their stomach issues got resolved as their stress profoundly reduced.

And you cannot fully heal if you don’t address the emotional tiggers and patterns that contributed to your physical symptoms (functional medicine and most nutrition-based healing approaches miss this all the time).

By the time we are officially diagnosed with a chronic issue, there’s been unaddressed overwhelm or stress on us for years.

What my clients come to realize is what I experienced when I wanted to fully get rid of my depression and IBS: being able to transform emotional triggers and overwhelm into safety is the missing piece in fully healing.

In other words, the emotional component is as important as the food.

We won’t be addressing the food in Why Am I Eating this Now?. However, the emotional transformation is as critical to your healing and, it will make implementing the food changes easier.

Plus, as you emotional heal more, your gut becomes more resilient so you can eat more foods, not restrict more. Total win-win.

Great question. I’ll break this into two parts. First off, do people show up and do the work?

80-90% of people show up and d0 the work in my programs.

This is far above average than most programs. Clients who’ve never finished any program before have finished my programs because they’ve become self-aware of their emotional triggers that make them want to quit or not carve out time for themselves.

Once they see this pattern and are given the tools to correct this pattern, they continue to show up, surprising themselves.

This question also implies how many people have sustainability after the program.

Both of these are important questions. If you’re asking: can I do this, can I show up, can I do the work? Can I continue to make the changes in my life? Yes. I assure you you can do this. This isn’t a diet. This isn’t a plan. This doesn’t require willpower like you imagine.

This is for anyone who wants to stop the insanity of fighting food and get out of the crash and burn cycle of healthy eating.

Why Am I Eating this Now? is a completely new orientation to how you think, act and respond to overwhelm in your life.

The change is fulfilling and exciting, which creates a desire to continue to do the work because you’re finally getting results from the effort you put in. Continuing to do the work doesn’t feel like Sisyphean task. Instead, it feels like a snowball going down the hill, continuing gaining speed. 

Yes. This program could also be called “Why Am I Not Eating Now?” or “Why Am I Restricting Now?”

Some of us turn to food, some of us stop eating, and some of us start restricting.

While different food behaviors on the surface, underneath, the common thread still leads back to belonging and safety. We all just relate differently to belonging.

Why Am I Eating This Now?  will provide the self-discovery and tools so you can now choose how you respond to the triggers that make food a bigger part of your life than it needs to be.