Too Much on Her Plate

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Overeating, Emotional Eating and Weight Struggles: Do they limit your professional success?

January 11th, 2010, No Comments »

I wanted to share this post from the Solo Entrepreneur blog (Solo-e) on how overeating and weight struggles can keep you from being your best self and the tools busy women need to create lasting changes.

Do your weight loss battles keep you from shining or playing as big as you’d like to? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Take good care,

Do You Have The Time To Stop Overeating?

September 11th, 2009, No Comments »

Do you have the time to stop overeating? To take control of emotional eating? To get on track with your healthy lifestyle goals?  Lately I’ve been encountering many women who tell me they don’t. I’ve been hearing from women who are incredibly frustrated with their eating habits, their weight gain, their lack of progress on important health goals.  I’ve talked to women who fear their family history of diabetes or heart disease. I’ve talked to women who’ve even had weight loss surgery and are terrified because they are seeing the weight they’ve lost start to creep back.  I’ve also talked with too many women who have put some aspect of their life “on hold” until they can start losing weight. Their struggles with food and emotional eating or overeating are something they think about every day.

But they aren’t moving forward.

They aren’t moving forward because they are using a faulty recipe for success.  These busy woman are trying to make a positive change by cutting back; taking things (food) away and doing with less.  But they aren’t adding anything else in—because they don’t have time.  They don’t have time to feed their spirit, their soul, their passion in non-food ways.  They don’t have time to go to the groups, the seminars, the inspiring places or activities that could keep them on track.  They don’t have time for themselves.

Really, we all have time. The truth is, we choose how we spend it.

Struggles with food are created in many ways.  Struggles with food end when we learn how to really truly feed ourselves the things we need (these are different for everyone) and this can only happen when we take the time to listen and hear ourselves, sort it all out, and respond.  Ending emotional eating, overeating, and weight struggles requires us to take the time—to spend a portion of our time on ourselves.  It doesn’t necessarily need to be a lot of time, but it does have to be dedicated time we allot for ourselves and our needs.  It’s not food-focused time, but it’s time that helps us become less focused on the food.  It’s essential. There really are no short cuts with this step.

Take good care,

Melissa

Personal Health Care Reform

September 3rd, 2009, No Comments »

Okay readers,

It’s September and we’re approaching Labor Day weekend.  If you’ve been telling yourself all summer that you’re “waiting ‘til September” to take better care of yourself . . . you’ve just run out of excuses.

I know–summer does have a different rhythm to it, and many of us look to September as the start of a new chapter in our lives and a return of more structure and planning.

So now that it’s here, what are you going to do?  What one step will you commit to to undertake your own personal health care reform?

Do you need to clean up your eating?  Find a better way to cope with stress and overwhelm and exhaustion?  Make a commitment to getting more activity?  Create more space and time for yourself?  Grow a stronger support system?  It’s time for that next step. Set your intention, create a goal and then answer the following question:

How can the world support you?  What do you need to ask for, do, or say no to in order to be effective?

It’s September ladies.  Time to take a stand.  Time to reform YOUR health care. What’s it going to be?

Want to be bold? Share your commitment in a comment.

Take good care,

Melissa

PS:  If you could benefit from some extra tools and support to propel you forward, the good news is that there are still a few spots left in the fall Emotional Eating Toolbox™ Smart Women’s Group and the Emotional Eating Toolbox™ Group for Weight Loss Surgery Patients (both held by phone).  Take advantage of our fall sale on this and other resources until  9/13/09 or supplies run out.

Emotional Eating Toolbox™ Group Program

March 11th, 2009, No Comments »

Emotional Eating Toolbox™ Six Week Tele-Groups, including a specialized program for weight loss surgery patients, begin next week.

Designed to enhance and expand the Emotional Eating Toolbox™ 28 Day Self-guided Program, these small groups have received great reviews. The groups have been newly updated (I’ve added on two additional weeks) and now contain new upgraded activities and exercises.

Learn how to:

• Identify emotional eating
• Learn what you are REALLY hungry for (when it isn’t food)
• Develop tools and strategies you can use INSTEAD of eating
• Reduce anxiety and stress in your life
• Identify strategies and mindsets that sabotage you and begin to eliminate them
• Set goals that are designed to be successful and motivating
• Address perfectionism, negative thinking and self blame

Groups are limited in size to ensure plenty of time for individualized coaching, feedback, and discussion. There are still spots remaining in the traditional Six Week Emotional Eating Toolbox Program™ as well as in the specialized Emotional Eating Toolbox™ Program for Women Who Have Had Weight Loss Surgery.

Both groups begin 3/17/09 and will be held by telephone on six consecutive Tuesdays. Specific times and dates and registration information can be found here. Registration fees for the group include a copy of the Emotional Eating Toolbox™ 28 Day program ($139 value).

Take good care,

Emotional Eating Toolbox for Weight Loss Surgery Patients

February 20th, 2009, No Comments »

Smart, savvy women who’ve chosen to have weight loss surgery know that while surgery is a powerful tool, it is not the only tool necessary to achieve lasting success with weight loss. As I hear weight loss surgery patients tell me often, “It’s not brain surgery—I still have to deal with how I think and feel about eating and food.”

Emotional eating continues to be an issue for many bariatric surgery patients. For some, the struggles with emotional or stress eating don’t end with the surgery. For others, urges to use food to cope with emotions might disappear in the short term, only to reappear months or years following surgery.

The Emotional Eating Toolbox™ 28 Day Program has been a helpful tool for many weight loss surgery patients and I am excited to be working on a new, expanded version, specifically geared towards individuals who have had or who are planning to have bariatric surgery.

If you would like to be informed about development and release details, make sure you have subscribed to my newsletter (you’ll also receive a nifty audio ecourse on life balance when you sign up—my compliments). If you are interested in current specialized offerings for weight loss surgery patients, you can go here.

Take good care,

Melissa

Weight loss surgery patients: will you join me on the radio?

November 9th, 2008, Comments Off

Will you join me on the radio? Come join the conversation about emotional eating, staying on track with weight loss, and staying out of overwhelm during the holiday season and into the New Year.

I’m going to be a guest on “The New You” Radio show, the radio show that’s all about empowering weight loss surgery patients–both before and after surgery. We’ll be talking about staying on track with weight loss–especially during the holiday season.

Join me–Wednesday, November 12 at 8pm Eastern, 7pm Central, 6pm Mountain and 5pm Pacific. You can tune in during the show, call in and ask questions, participate in the live interactive chat room, or listen via the podcast that will be available after the show. I would love to hear from readers and clients during the show! For more information, go here.

Take good care,

Melissa

Emotional Eating and Overeating After Weight Loss Surgery

September 8th, 2008, Comments Off

Last week, over one hundred weight loss surgery patients registered for my free teleclass on taking charge of overeating and emotional eating after bariatric surgery. The class consisted entirely of addressing questions submitted by class members. It was an amazing hour. We didn’t begin to get through everyone’s questions, but we covered some very important topics.

If you missed the class, and would like to hear more of what we covered, it’s not too late. The class was recorded and you can go here to listen in:
http://enduringchange.com/Septemberrecordingsignup.htm
Don’t miss the special bonuses and the discount that is mentioned near the end of the call!

Take good care,

Melissa

Free Teleclass Coming Your Way!

August 13th, 2008, 2 Comments »

After taking a summer break, I’m happy to announce that my free teleclass series is starting up again in September. The next free teleclass is on a specialized topic: Emotional Eating, Overeating, and Success After Weight Loss Surgery. If you are someone who has had weight loss surgery or is considering it, this call is for you.

The teleclass takes place Wednesday September 3, 2008 at
3 pm Eastern, 2 pm Central, 1 pm Mountain, and noon Pacific time.

If you can’t attend, don’t let that stop you from registering. The call will be recorded and registered participants will receive access to the class recording after the call. If you’ve never attended a teleclass before, they’re easy. You’ll just dial in on the phone number you will receive when you register (you are responsible for any long distance charges) and when prompted you’ll be given an access code to enter.

You can go here to register and when you do, you’ll have an opportunity to submit a question that you would like addressed. I’ll try to get to as many as I can on the call. Hope to “see” you in class!

Take good care,

Melissa

“Melissa, Why do you work with bariatric surgery patients?”

June 9th, 2008, No Comments »

I’m often asked this. Clients and readers are often curious because I’m not a weight loss surgery patient myself and because I don’t have a “weight loss story.” Except that I do. My story has emerged from the stories of others.

The truth is, I founded Enduring Change Coaching after years of practicing as a Clinical Psychologist. As a Clinical Psychologist, one area of expertise has been helping people with food and weight issues. Since 1995, I have worked with just about every kind of eating disorder, weight issue, and food issue an adult can have. I’ve witnessed peoples’ pain, struggles and desperation, and I’ve had the honor of sharing in their experiences of transformation (and I’m not just talking about weight)—as they found their own paths to making peace with food, resolving weight issues, putting eating and food in a much smaller place in their lives, and moving on to focusing on more enjoyable and empowering things.

I developed the Emotional Eating Toolbox™ and run the bariatric surgery coaching programs at Enduring Change because I saw people struggling with their weight and feeling hopeless and I knew the tools and strategies that I have developed with my clients can make a profound difference. I’ve met too many people who believe that taking control of their weight and their relationship with food isn’t possible and who believe that they must resign themselves to fighting—and losing—battles with weight forever.

I’ve known and worked with too many bariatric surgery patients who are stuck in a mode of self-blame. They believe they should be able to succeed with weight loss and with weight loss surgery without help or support and they blame themselves when they struggle.

I’ve known other weight loss surgery patients who were never told that there are other essential tools they need to acquire and use with weight loss surgery. (Thankfully, I’m seeing less of this.) They too feel like failures when they find themselves struggling with emotional eating, overeating and weight gain after surgery.

And I’ve worked with plenty of people who have had weight loss surgery, who know darned well that the procedure they had is only one tool. They know that they have other challenging work ahead of them, and other tools they will need to acquire to get where they want to go. The problem is, they aren’t sure where to get those tools. There are (in many areas) too few support groups (especially for individuals who are 12 months or more post-surgery) and not enough information about good resources. There is not enough information about overeating and emotional eating. People are quick to tell you not to overeat, not to use food to fill an “emotional hole,” and not to eat to cope with stress or boredom or loneliness. But there is not enough quality information and help out there about what to do instead.

That’s been my experience. And that’s why I coach individuals and hold special coaching programs and conferences for people who have had bariatric surgery—by telephone—so anyone can attend. It’s why I periodically offer free teleclasses. Most importantly, it was one of my motivations for creating the Emotional Eating Toolbox™ Self-guided Program. Because there is too much shame and self-blame out there. And because we all are a lot more likely to succeed when we have the right tools.

Take good care,

Melissa

Emotional Eating Program for Weight Loss Surgery Patients

April 12th, 2008, No Comments »

People sometimes mistakenly think that weight loss surgery is a quick fix. Not true. Bariatric or weight loss surgery is a tool that is sometimes helpful in helping people take control of obesity and lose a significant amount of weight. However, as all weight loss surgery patients learn, the surgery is only one tool of several they will need to lose weight, keep the weight off, and live the life that they truly want to live. One of the areas I specialize in is helping weight loss surgery patients acquire the other tools they need to make weight loss permanent.

Many weight loss surgery patients continue to struggle with emotional eating after surgery. Sometimes this is an issue immediately, but often it is over time that the emotional eating habits (and the weight) start to come back.

The Emotional Eating Toolbox (TM) 28-day program is a self-guided program that is very adaptable for weight loss surgery patients and that bariatric surgery patients have used successfully to take control of their eating and maximize their success with bariatric surgery. In fact, Bariatric Support Centers International (BSCI) reviewed the program and now features it on their website for members.

The Emotional Eating Toolbox(TM) Deluxe Program for Weight Loss Surgery Patients was designed for weight loss surgery patients who want to use the Toolbox program but would like more personalized support, accountability and coaching through the process. This deluxe program includes the Emotional Eating Toolbox(TM) 28-day program, four weekly hour-long coaching groups led by me and attended by other weight loss surgery patients (these small groups are held by phone so that you can participate from anywhere you are), and an individual coaching session with me to help you really fine-tune and customize your work on the program.

Sessions of this special program begin on April 17 and on May 29. The deadline for the April group is approaching quickly, but if you sign up by April 16 (assuming space is available), we can get you your materials in time for the first group meeting.

Take good care,

Melissa