Learn About Group Coaching (Forum)
It's hard to learn Normal Eating on your own from a book, and you don't have to.
The Normal Eating Support Forum is one option, but sometimes to get unstuck you need the kind of insights you only can get from an experienced coach. Since coaching uses the Normal Eating method, all clients must have access to the book Normal Eating for Normal Weight, either by purchasing the ebook or paperback, or by joining the forum (an online version is available to forum members). You'll benefit most from personal coaching if you read the book first.
Emotional eating is never about the food, it's about your life. The starting point for discussion will be your eating, but we'll spend a lot of time talking about the life issues behind your emotional eating (eating when not hungry, eating past full, bingeing, purging, restricting, grazing), weight obsession, and body hatred.
As homework for the first session, I'll ask you to write your weight history in the special Normal Eating style described in the book, and send it to me prior to our appointment so I have time to read it before we speak. The NE weight history is designed to reveal patterns and triggers in your emotional eating that you may not realize are there. We'll spend our first appointment going over your history, and then talk about where you are now and what you need to work on.
What happens next depends on your individual situation. I may ask you to keep a special type of eating experience log that helps us to see your emotional eating triggers in real time. It's somewhat different from what's described in the book since I've refined the technique; I'll send you instructions. I'll ask you to email the log to me before our appointment so I have time to read it, and then we'll discuss it in our session.
Logging is a very powerful tool. Emotional eating is like a big red arrow pointing at the areas of your life that need attention, and the logs will show it. Typically people are not able to make these connections on their own at first, so this is an area where coaching really helps. Over time, you will learn to do this on your own, instead of translating all discomfort into "hungry". We'll identify these trigger issues and work through them together.
For some people, weight obsession looms very large, and we'll explore the roots of this so you can be free of it. If you're stuck in a junk food rut, we'll work together on food experiments so you can reconnect with body wisdom. Everybody’s issues differ, everybody’s needs differ. We'll talk about what you need to talk about. Coaching is an individualized process, not a course or a class.
In general we'll talk about life more than food - your eating patterns will point to the parts of your life that need focus. In the end, both your life and your eating will improve.
Most of my clients who are overweight lose weight - not by dieting, but by relief from food cravings and weight obsession. People with bulimia seem to do particularly well with Normal Eating compared to other approaches. Normal Eating works!
The Normal Eating program and the wonderful support on the forum made a real difference in many areas of my life right away, but after a couple of months I was still "stuck," eating-wise, in a pattern of bingeing that I just couldn't break out of. I finally signed up for private coaching--to be honest out of sheer desperation.
I had tried therapy before, but coaching was different. Sheryl was very insightful, and pushed me, gently but persistently, to think and write about things I'd successfully shied away from up until that point. That push, and the feedback I received from Sheryl and from my fellow NE-ers once I finally took the plunge, made an incredible difference not just to my eating (though I do feel suddenly free, not just of bingeing but of the very desire to binge), and not just to my attitudes about food and weight, but to the whole of my health, my happiness, and my self-image. I feel transformed--awoken, as from a long, bad dream, back into my "real life"--and I'm so grateful.
E. S.
Washington, DC
USA
My weight, body and food issues have plagued me for as long as I can remember. A great deal of my life has been spent in loathing my body, berating myself for overeating and in terror of weight gain. I don't like to say things like "for many years" because I think the way to get the point across is to say for many hours of many days, for many years I was consumed by these issues. The other details of many of those hours, days and years of my life are dim in comparison to the feelings and thoughts around these issues.
At some point, searching for understanding and resolution of these issues became about living my real life to the fullest. At this point I was ready for Normal Eating. I was ready for it to make sense, and I was ready to take the leap of faith that it requires from a lifetime dieter. My life improved dramatically.
Recently I decided to go the extra mile and I started telephone coaching sessions with Sheryl. This has been the "icing on the cake" (I just can't stay away from those food metaphors). We set goals which included:
1. feeling relaxed and confident about eating
2. the ability to eat according to hunger 90% of the time, and
3. not restricting food choices based on "should".
They sounded lofty, especially when I realized that embedded within them was acceptance of my body.
I am thrilled to say that I have reached those goals, and that although I love the forum and think it is very helpful, it is the individual contact from our "guru" Sheryl that helped me to really understand that when my mind was screaming "body, food, fat" my emotional self was just trying to avoid my life. I no longer avoid my real life, my real emotions. I am living life in all its complexities - calling anger anger, sadness sadness, happiness happiness. I enjoy food for its smell, texture, taste and nutrition. I treat my body with care.
Thank you, Sheryl, and thank you Normal Eating for the quality of my life.
Rosalyn Tenenbaum
West Hills, CA
USA
I signed up for personal coaching because I came to a standstill in my journey to becoming a normal eater. I wanted to see a little more progress and needed some direction on which way to move. I have to admit to being scared of the unknown and opening up to someone about my eating issues, but I was quick to learn that the Normal Eating coaching sessions are far from the cookie cutter diet plans that I've been following for years. Sheryl's personal coaching sessions are individualized and are indeed very personal.
Personal coaching provided another set of eyes to look in on my emotional eating issues and help me discover some of my triggers and find non-food ways of dealing with them. Sheryl is very intuitive and has a way of finding the relative details that I couldn't always see or didn't always want to accept. Just knowing my own triggers for emotional eating helped me move forward with my journey with Normal Eating.
Through personal coaching, I've discovered my ability to be mindful of my own feelings and what is going on in the moment. I've learned to separate my feelings from emotional hunger and I'm practicing to accept those emotions rather than try to bury them with food. I don't always have a solution to my problem, but I do know that over-eating and bingeing are not going to resolve anything.
I'm amazed at how quickly I saw progress at the end of four weeks of personal coaching. It's been years since I've felt free from dieting and this close to becoming the normal eater that I'm meant to be. I've felt levels of hunger that I don't ever remember feeling and I've been completely at ease with leaving food on my plate. I'm learning that I can have my cake and eat it too. Food is not scarce and it will always be there when I am hungry for it.
Personal coaching has been an amazing tool for helping me find peace with food; I am extremely grateful for finding NE and for the very insightful coaching sessions with Sheryl. Anyone who feels that they want the extra help building their normal eating skills owes it to themselves to sign up for personal coaching.
R. McKeil
Moncton, New Brunswick
Canada
I talk to clients all over the world. Outside the U.S. we talk Skype-to-Skype so there's no cost for the call. I use audio-only on Skype. I've tried video with a few clients, but we found the video to be distracting; it's not the same as face-to-face. You can listen better when you're not worrying about where the camera is pointing, and you can take notes.
I'm on the east coast of the United States, and schedule appointments Monday through Thursday from 11am to 6pm Eastern Time (US). If you are in the UK, evening appointments often work well - 8pm your time is 3pm my time. If you are in Australia, morning appointments can work - 10am in Sydney is 6pm the day before for me.
Sessions consist of a 45-minute phone conversation plus my preparation time (reading your weight history, eating experience logs, or other written material - sometimes I give other assignments).
Coaching works best when it's ongoing - weekly sessions over a number of months. I recommend a minimum of four weekly sessions to start. Since coaching isn't covered by insurance, I try to keep the per-session fee low, and you can save money by purchasing multiple sessions at once.
If you're interested in personal coaching, please send me email to set up your first appointment before purchasing sessions.
Once we have scheduled an appointment time, you can purchase sessions below. Payment is due in advance and is processed by PayPal, but you don't have to be a PayPal member. You can pay by credit card.
