As I discussed in my post, Who the Fuck Needs a Life Coach, not everyone is familiar with professional coaching, so it’s sometimes necessary to explain what coaching is, how it works, and who coaching can help. Beyond that, it may be easy to identify what a business coach, nutrition coach, or fitness coach does – and who might hire them – but what the fuck is a Mind Body Eating Coach?
I’m glad you asked!
While an eating coach might sound like someone Joey Chestnut would hire, a Certified Mind Body Eating Coach helps people who struggle with weight, body image, low-energy, digestive issues, or compulsive eating behaviors like stress eating, overeating, and binge eating.
Mind Body Eating Coaching (MBEC) addresses the nutritional aspect of what’s going on for the client, but our sessions also focus on the personal, emotional, and psychological aspects of what may be driving unwanted eating behaviors.
MBEC training is a nine-month course of study focused on Mind Body Nutrition, and Dynamic Eating Psychology. According to the school’s founder, Marc David, “Mind Body Nutrition takes the science of nutrition to a whole new place, and Dynamic Eating Psychology is a positive, results-oriented approach to eating concerns that speaks to heart, mind and soul.”
A Certified Mind Body Eating Coach is not going to offer you a specific eating plan, nor exercise program, though she may help you create one specific to your body. MBE Coaching helps clients get to the root of why we do the things we do, and why we do what we don’t want to do.
This unique approach offers a pathway to finally heal our relationship with food and body that is different from anything I’ve ever experienced, and I’m willing to bet most of my readers have never tried anything like this before either.
So WHO might hire a Mind Body Eating Coach?
Those who will benefit from Mind Body Eating Coaching are those who wish to:
Replace endless dieting with lifelong nourished eating.
Release unwanted, or compulsive eating behaviors.
Find a natural and sustainable way of eating that suits their own body.
Savor life instead of rushing from one moment to the next.
Feel confident in the skin they’re in, instead of feeling worried about what they weigh.
Here’s what my current clients are saying about Mind Body Eating Coaching:
“Even though I have had only 2 coaching sessions with Cyndi, I cannot believe what a difference it has already made with myself as a whole. The week following my first session was amazing. I was able to actually have calm peaceful moments, (which I have not had since my husband passed almost 3 years ago). I am so looking forward to where my next sessions lead me.” ~ ST in Vallejo
“After only two months, my insatiable desire to snack after dinner is almost completely gone. I can’t believe it was this easy. I thought I was eating a healthy low fat diet, and it turns out THAT was why I couldn’t stop snacking! I’m eating more food, and I am starting to release excess weight!” ~ SL in San Francisco
“Cyndi is a great coach- she’s patient with her clients as they learn. She’s funny, insightful, informative and easy to work with. I like how she celebrates the smallest “aha” moments as she guides you in your journey.” ~ PC in Vallejo
“Cyndi has been very helpful in keeping me focused and keeping me grounded and bringing me back to earth when I lose it. She has taught me a lot about enjoying what I’m eating and being mindful when it’s meal time. I derive great enjoyment from our sessions. I find them very useful and Cyndi very uplifting” ~ BK in Pinole
Please forward this blog post to anyone you know who might like to: – Replace endless dieting with lifelong nourished eating. – Release unwanted, or compulsive eating behaviors. – Find a natural and sustainable way of eating that suits their own body. – Savor life instead of rushing from one moment to the next. – Feel confident in the skin they’re in, instead of feeling worried about what they weigh.
What do you have to lose?
Grow on!
If you’re considering hiring a coach, please use THIS LINK to schedule a chat to see if I’m the right coach for you!
I used to think it was NORMAL to put on 5-10 pounds during the holidays. I told myself it was no big deal, everyone does it, I’ll drop the weight later.
Sometimes I did. More often I gave up. I grew heavier as years passed.
Joy & Cyndi ~ 2005
Two years after I got sober I was using food like a drug and weighed over 220 pounds. I would eat like I could NEVER get full, even when I was full, then restrict my calories ridiculously, and try to lose the weight as fast as possible.
I beat myself up for the extra weight I was carrying, scolding myself, causing increased stress, which caused me to eat more and gain weight, for which I scolded myself. I felt ashamed for being so WEAK that I turned to food for comfort. That caused MORE stress and MORE eating to numb those feelings.
That was my pattern for over a decade.
My chiropractor told me that my debilitating pain was caused by inflammation in my lumbar spine, and that inflammation was caused by inflammatory foods. He did not say what foods were inflammatory, but I cleaned up my act and stopped eating so much sugar, at least for a little while. As soon as my back felt better, I went back to eating whatever I like. Then I woke up one morning with half my face paralyzed. The medical doctors had a name: Bell’s palsy, but no idea what caused it or what to do for it. They told me the symptoms could last for as little as three weeks, or be permanent. They had no way to know.
The palsy symptoms have slowly improved over time, but have never gone away completely. Several months after the onset, I read a book that suggested that palsy symptoms might be due to inflammation. That got me to thinking about inflammatory foods again.
I knew that some of the foods I was eating were damaging my health, and that the medical community was of no help. I decided to start looking for a naturopath hoping that she might be able to help me.
I searched for a naturopath for months before finding one completely by accident. In early October, I was driving home from the beach and pulled over to stretch my legs. When I got out and walked around the sidewalk there was her sign. I should have made an appointment right then, but I took a picture of her sign with her contact information and filed it away.
I really wanted to talk to someone about those lingering palsy symptoms, but I knew without a doubt from the center of my being that she was going to tell me to change the way that I was eating.
I made a conscious decision that I was not willing to give up sugar and treats until after the holidays, so that I could eat whatever I liked and enjoy myself without feeling restricted or left out.
I put it on my agenda to make an appointment with the naturopath early in the new year.
That holiday season I ate like a fiend. Everyone knows if you’ve got a diet coming up you double down on calories, right?
Between Halloween and Christmas that year, I gained 20 lb. When January came I was miserable. My energy was depressed. I wasn’t working out. I had night sweats that soaked my sheets. I was ashamed of the way I looked. I didn’t like the way I felt. I was nauseous most mornings. I was hungry all the time, and I was heavy with shame.
Of course I forgot about calling the naturopath right away, and in early February, I awoke one morning with pain in my intestines that I was certain would kill me. I was really sick. And I was scared. I had a panic attack, and my blood pressure rose off the charts.
I went to the hospital, and got no answers, and no warm fuzzy feeling the answers were coming. Then I remembered that I was going to call that naturopath. So I did.
At our first appointment she told me that she suspected food allergies. She did a blood test, and put me on an Elimination Diet that excluded all the foods known to be troublemakers for two weeks while we waited for the results. I had no problems whatsoever sticking to the eating plan because the pain was an all-too-real indication that there was something seriously wrong with me and I needed to make some changes. Digesting HURT, and I didn’t’t eat anything but produce for nearly two weeks.
When the food allergy test came back, it told me something I had long suspected. Dairy is not my friend. In fact, the food allergy test showed that I am allergic to dairy, sugar, and wheat.
I thought my life was over.
The idea of living without dairy and wheat seemed impossible, restrictive, and heinous. As far as I was concerned the perfect diet was bagels and cream cheese for breakfast, quesadillas for lunch and pizza for dinner. Everyone knows the perfect hiking food is a big hero sandwich loaded with cold cuts and cheese. This is the reason I hadn’t gone to see her in October!
But, I knew that my health was in serious trouble. My body was giving me very clear messages about that. It needed to make changes in what I was eating.
So I stopped eating dairy, wheat and sugar.
And guess what? Not only did I feel better right away, and start to see improvements in the symptoms I had been experiencing within a week, I started to see improvements in things I had not related to food. My skin cleared up. The Eczema on my ankles and elbows went away. The night sweats vanished. My energy level increased tremendously. I started sleeping better, and my libido returned.
By the time my birthday arrived in June, I had dropped 50 lb without doing a single workout. The only change I made was to lose the dairy, wheat, and sugar. It was like a miracle. I had been trying to drop excess weight my entire life.
Sugar In The Wound
Despite my triumph, when stress began to increase, or I was pressed for time, I headed back down that well worn path to the comfort of food, and the ease of wheat and dairy foods.
I mean salads, REALLY, who has time for all that chopping?! Am I right?
Just two weeks before my first vacation to Europe, I was SICK again. I put myself on the elimination diet and called my naturopath. This time I got a diagnosis of SIBO. Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth is no joke. I was sick at least part of nearly every day of my European vacation. I lost 10 pounds the first 5 days we were there. Horrible, miserable intestinal symptoms. We still had a fabulous time, we simply had a lot of challenges along with the fun.
It was after that trip that I realized that dairy and sugar had become my new booze. At the time, I actually had many thoughts about being powerless over sugar. I told myself things like: “I can’t pass up Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, I can’t resist free candy, Halloween is my favorite holiday, I can’t leave any cookies for later, If it’s in the house I have to eat it.” And I knew with every cell in my body I didn’t have the power to pass up cheese on a buffet table.
That kind of conviction will override healthy intentions every time! I had these mantras in my head that blocked my success despite my overwhelming desire to regain my health. I felt like I must be crazy!
Even though I lived through evidence in my own life that proved this eating pattern makes me sick, miserable, and unable to enjoy my life, I returned to it again and again when I was feeling stressed or lonely!
Even though I suspected long before my naturopath told me that I was allergic to cheese because of the way I craved it – just like alcohol – I returned to it whenever I was upset, AND whenever I felt like celebrating. It was truly a deadly double edged sword.
Even though I had experienced hangovers from overeating just like I did from over drinking, if I was stressed or upset when I walked into an event with free food, I was almost guaranteed to overeat even when I told myself I wasn’t going to do it.
But after Europe, I was finally ready to admit that I needed to make changes. I wanted to feel energized and healthy.
I knew I had to make changes, but in my experience, I could not eat a little or I would end up eating a lot. I had learned that with my addictive foods, it was ALL of it, or none of it, so I restricted myself completely. That year at Christmas, I ate ZERO goodies. I avoided parties and gatherings as much as possible so I wouldn’t screw up. I didn’t make my usual holiday candies or cheeseballs. The entire family complained. I didn’t buy candy to put into stockings. I shot resentful looks at people enjoying holiday goodies. I was miserable, resentful and I felt left out, but by golly, I had my food addiction under control.
How many of you think that lasted? By Halloween that year, I was sick again.
Turned out that being aware that I needed to change was a great start, but I still didn’t have the whole picture. I was trying to resist the food cravings with willpower alone, and my willpower eventually ran out.
I was so tired of the weight roller coaster, the night sweats, the inflammation, the achey joints, that powerless feeling I got around chocolate. I was sick of it all.
Worse than that, I was tired of letting myself down! I felt trapped in an vicious cycle of wanting healthy change, planning to make those changes, and then not following through. It left me full of self-doubt and lacking self-confidence!
I felt like I was spinning out of control, like I was powerless over food, like I would never figure it out. And right in the middle of my turmoil, my normally helpful and supportive partner brought home a couple of bricks of cheese from the grocery store.
Rage.
Why would he do this? He knows I can’t eat dairy! He knows I am sick! He obviously knows I can’t resist it. He knows this will end up on my burger and he doesn’t care! I wanted to eat ALL of it because – who cares?
I care.
I clearly heard the voice in my head say, “I care.” Who cares what he brings home? He’s not forcing me to eat it.
And like a ton of bricks it hit me.
Esther Hicks and Abraham tell a wonderful story about getting tabasco in your pie. Just because the tabasco is in the kitchen does NOT mean it will get in your pie. The only way the tabasco gets in your pie is if YOU put it in your pie.
SAME with the cheese, Cyndi! The only way the cheese gets in your pie hole is if you put the cheese in your pie hole!
I had NOT been taking responsibility for what I was eating.
I had been refusing to take responsibility for what I was eating by pretending to be powerless over certain foods. I was giving away my power by clinging to the belief that if certain foods were available, I HAD to eat them. I was pretending that I could not control myself around sugar and dairy, when in fact, I am the ONLY one who can choose my actions. I was simply choosing to give in to temptation and pretend it wasn’t my fault, that it wasn’t my choice, that in fact – I was powerless to change the foods I was eating.
EVERYTHING changed for me with that simple realization.
I took the steps I needed to take to STOP overeating, and stop eating foods I am allergic to, foods that cause harm, inflammation, and all kinds of health problems.
I’ve learned to navigate the holidays without spiraling into stress and overeating, and I’ve developed a process to help clients do the same!
Grow on!
Is your body ready for some healthy changes?
Join me for my first masterclass to explore these key questions:
● Why do I overindulge even when I tell myself I won’t? ● What’s kept me from achieving my health goals in the past? ● Why do I backslide into old behaviors when I’m stressed? ● How can I reduce holiday stress that leads to stress eating? ● Is it possible for me to avoid weight gain during the holidays? ● How can I stay motivated during the holidays? ● BONUS – How can I indulge a little bit without overindulging?
Suffering happens when we wish things were different than they are. Period.
Pain happens in life. Every person in the Universe faces challenges and difficult situations. Every one of us.
We think we are suffering because the other person did something that hurt us, or because we don’t earn enough money to take the vacation we want, or we lost our job, or we weigh more than we want to weigh, or we’ve suffered an injury or accident, or because someone we love passed.
But the suffering – the continued worsening of the pain – is something we create by wishing things were different than they are. I’m not saying those things aren’t hard or painful. They are difficult and challenging and they will absolutely slow us down some. However suffering is not caused by ‘what is.’ We cause suffering by RESISTING ‘what is.’ We’re human. Pain is a normal part of existence.
But when we spend hours, days or weeks puzzling over why this has happened to us, or how we might have prevented it, or how we can still make things turn out ‘right’ or how we just wish so MUCH that things turned out differently – that is RESISTING what is. Resisting what is causes suffering.
Suffering is optional because we’re creating it ourselves!
What is it you’re resisting? What would happen if you simply allow it to be what it is? What would it mean to accept the situation as it is? What would change for you?
Personal Story
Once upon a time, I lived on a diet composed mostly of wheat and dairy. I LOVE the stuff! Give me a bagel with cream cheese for breakfast, a quesadilla for lunch, and pizza for dinner and I am delighted! Then I found out that I am allergic to wheat and dairy after becoming extremely ill from eating too much of the stuff.
I was miserable thinking of all the cheese I would never eat again! I was mad at the world for the unfairness of my challenge, and disappointed in my body for not being able to handle my fave foods like a “normal” person. I couldn’t picture a world where I could possibly ever hike again, because everyone knows the perfect fuel for hiking is bread and cheese! Right? Luckily for me, I couldn’t resist the changes because I was too sick, but I SUFFERED. Believe me, I made sure of that.
Now, it’s completely normal to feel disappointed in a situation like that. But it’s not normal (or healthy) to resist what is. My body cannot handle something I want it to do. That’s the fact. I can choose to resist it and resent it and be miserable about it, and no one would blame me!
But what happens if I simply accept the fact? EVERYTHING shifts.
I’m no longer draining my energy. I’m not feeling victimized. Shifting my perspective is the key. I accept the situation as it is, and then I am free to play with new options that make me feel powerful instead of deprived!
YES, I love cheese, but what I truly, deeply want is vibrant good health which is vitally more important than the temporary and fleeting pleasure of a bowl of ice cream! ESPECIALLY when it’s so much fun to discover fuels my body LOVES like mangoes and blueberries!
Google image
As soon as we accept what is, we begin growing again. Resistance stunts our growth and keeps us stuck in pain, inaction, or both. Before I accepted the situation, I kept coming up against the food allergies like an adversary that would pop up out of nowhere and knock me in the dirt.
Once I accepted the situation, I was able to build it into my life map.
Then I was able to find fun creative ways to go with the flow. Seeing the obstacle for what it is, allows me to move around it with ease. I could then continue moving toward my dreams with a clearer picture of where I was standing and how to get where I want to be!
I am not “settling” for a life without wheat and dairy, I am THRIVING on a life path that has given me the blessings and challenges that have sculpted me into the awesome self I am today!
The biggest gift of this journey is the radical self-acceptance I now offer myself daily. I finally accept myself, just as I am, in all my flaw-someness.
Suffering is optional.
What are you currently suffering? How willing are you to accept it for what it is? How much energy will that free up in your soul? How will it change how you see yourself? If you see it clearly in your life map, what fun, creative options does this open up for you?
I LOVE pie, but on a list of my faves, apple pie has always been near the bottom. Until now! NOW, I am allergic to wheat and sugar and dairy, so what use could I have for apple pie?
Enter Medical Medium!
If you have not heard about Anthony William yet, check out his wealth of information at THIS LINK. Anthony is a medium and gets his nutritional information directly from Source. If that’s too woo woo for you, you’re still gonna want to try his pie!
Deep-Dish Apple Pie
Ingredients: Crust – 3 cups walnuts 4 cups dates 1 cup of unsweetened shredded coconut 2 tablespoons rosemary leaves 1⁄2 teaspoon of sea salt
For the crust, place the walnuts, 4 cups of the dates, the shredded coconut, rosemary leaves and sea salt into the food processor and process until combined.
Press the crust mixture into the bottom and up the sides of a springform cake pan and place the crust in the freezer for 30 minutes.
Very thinly slice the apples using a mandoline or knife, should yield approximately 8 cups of apple slices. Place the apple slices into a medium bowl.
Blend together the remaining 2 cups of dates, lemon juice, honey, coconut milk, cinnamon and vanilla until smoothly combined into a “caramel sauce”.
Pour the “caramel sauce” over the apple slices. Toss the apple slices gently to combine. Place apple filling in the fridge to soak for 30 minutes or overnight.
Using a slotted spoon, scoop the apple slices into the pie, allowing excess moisture to drain away. Fill the pie to the top of the crust with apples and then press down gently to make sure the pie is tightly packed.
I first made this pie last year and it blew my mind that a dessert can be this delicious and not break any of my current eating rules! I am making a turkey dinner for some friends tonight and this is going to top our special meal perfectly!
I took these photos when I made this pie the first time, and the recipe is HUGE, so I pressed it into a 9×13 pan. Now I cut the recipe in half and it fits in a standard pie plate. It’s worth mentioning that the crust recipe makes a nice dessert sprinkle on top of fresh fruit!
That’s the filling bit in the food processor, minus the honeycrisps.
Then you have your sous chef thinly slice all those apples, add the caramel sauce, and…
Voilà! Lots of prep time involved with this pie, but it’s raw, so there’s no bake time.
OMG! I just had a thought. I bet this would be next-level amazing if we top it with cashew cream! Stupendous!
In February, 2017 I developed intestinal symptoms that sent me in search of a naturopath to find out what was wrong with me. Dr. Sara Thyr in Petaluma diagnosed my food allergies. Dairy, wheat and cane sugar were the biggies. I learned that all kinds of ill things can happen to your intestines, liver, vertebral discs, immune system, and overall general health when you eat loads of the stuff that you are allergic to.
I have always possessed an over-zealous passion for cheese! Another word for it would be addiction. When I was a child, my mother mused that I must have been a mouse in another life. Before I found out about my allergies, wheat and dairy pretty much made up my diet with an occasional salad thrown in. Bagel with cream cheese and sausage for breakfast, quesadilla or tacos for lunch, with pizza & salad at dinner sounds like HEAVEN to me!
So it was no small task to remove dairy wheat and sugar from my diet.
At first, I was absolutely miserable about the situation as anyone would be when told she has to give up her drug of choice. However in my case, the cost to benefit ratio was obvious because as I gave up my allergy foods, my symptoms disappeared quickly, and my symptoms had been significant. Getting rid of them benefited my health, and my life, and increased my ability to continue supporting myself as a massage therapist. So I gave up sugar, wheat, and dairy and instantly began to feel better.
What’s one little cheat?
For awhile I gave up coffee because for me, coffee without cream isn’t worth a cup of beans. I learned to enjoy herbal teas, but I really LOVE just one cup of coffee in the morning! So after I had been symptom-free for awhile, it seemed like a tiny, insignificant cheat to treat myself once in awhile to a delicious cup of creamy coffee. I carefully measured my cheat so I could say I was ‘completely OFF dairy, except for this tiny amount.’
Of course, over time the occasional treat became my daily habit again.
“Just one cheat a day won’t hurt! It’s so tiny and insignificant, and lovely,” I rationalized.
The cream in my coffee was the one thing I felt I simply could NOT, would not give up forever. But putting that small dose of cream in me first thing in the day set me up to crave more, and soon I was allowing small wheat cheats (with REALLY great reasons) and a little sugar here and there (because I deserve some sweetness, right?). Bottom line was, the cream in my coffee was setting me up for failure and I seemed unwilling to let it go anyway. Can you relate?
Then one day I was talking to my awesome life coach about it. She’s vegan and recommended her favorite cashew cream in a brand I hadn’t tried. Since giving up coffee seemed like the only other, horrible option, I decided to try it.
With my coach’s inspiration, I started thinking.
Google found a simple recipe that called for vegetable broth. Since that didn’t seem like something I wanted in my coffee, I tried adding water. My first batch turned out surprisingly acceptable, but not creamy enough, and the food processor left the nuts coarse, so I had a small beach in my cup at the end. In the second batch I used nut milk instead of water and the blender instead of the food processor. MIND BLOWN!
I blended up the most amazing substitute for half & half! Like, SERIOUSLY credible replacement for hardcore dairy addict!s Not only was it a credible replacement for cream, it was AMAZING. It was delicious! It was coffee lover’s nirvana.
Can you tell which is cashew cream and which is half & half?
Soak 3/4 cup cashews in filtered water for three hours or longer (the longer they soak, the creamier it is), then drain, put them in a blender and add 1 cup of nut milk. That’s it! Pulverize until creamy and you’re done. So super simple, and I can’t even convey the JOY, satisfaction, and pleasure of my morning coffee with no effects of dairy, and no cheater’s guilt! This was the bridge that sealed my commitment to living dairy-free!
Life changing.
I am not claiming to have invented cashew cream, I am simply extolling the virtues of having discovered that there is life beyond dairy! I went from “NOTHING can replace the cream in my coffee!” to a cashew cream convert in two cups.
Changing what we eat for health reasons can FEEL like we have no choice. But having no choice makes us feel powerless! We do have choice. We always have choice! We choose to honor our body’s individual nutritional needs, or we choose the suffering, inflammation, and health problems that come with eating allergy foods.
Follow this link to an elimination diet to discover which foods cause your inflammation and allergy symptoms, or talk to your naturopath, or call mine! Dr.Sarah Thyr is AWESOME!
Whatever YOUR must-have, ‘can’t ever give it up’ item is, I’m willing to bet you can find something you enjoy just as much when you decide to get passionate about your healthy intentions.
