I’m in your corner!
My heart is helping you find & keep the balanced and enjoyable food-life you want…
And you can.
What kind of life do you want? What kind of energy, freedom, peace, stamina? Helping you make that happen is my greatest joy!
Living our lives constantly side-tracked by obsessive food thoughts, weight anxiety and harsh self-criticism is absolutely exhausting.
It took me way too many years to find the real and lasting freedom I craved. Now there’s nothing I enjoy more than helping others find the freedom they want, without wasting years doing it.
This can happen for you in the safe framework of Community - with a coach and a group of lovely people who understand your struggle because it has been ours as well.
Here’s a little bit of my story…
and I hope to hear yours soon.
MY CRAZY FOOD LIFE: I now have over six decades of eating experience, but for half of those years, food was my drug of choice. I was in bondage to food. I loved it, and I hated it.
I craved it, and I feared it.
I couldn't wait to eat it, and then hated myself for eating too much.
I tried every new diet that came along, lost weight on some, and then eventually gained it all back, plus some. Every. Single. Time.
In my mid-forties I simply gave up in defeat. I determined never to diet again even if I kept gaining weight till I died.
To my amazement, freedom found me. When I stopped micro-managing, restricting, and judging myself and every bite I took, eventually my body’s innate wisdom had enough space to come back online.
In time, I found myself enjoying food for what it was - nothing more and nothing less. After about five years of relative food-sanity, I began to wonder how this had happened. How had I come to see food as a gift rather than the enemy, as something to be contentedly savored rather than ravenously devoured in secret?
UNEXPECTED DISCOVERY: That was the beginning of an eye-opening time of research and revelation. It slowly became clear that dieting had been a dangerous path all along. There are identifiable biological and psychological principles of living well with food that work - and breaking them brings tragic consequences.
I realized that freedom and peace are really possible – for anyone – and I couldn’t keep it to myself! The more people I told, the more they began to experience the same liberating changes in their lives.
I left the classroom, which I dearly loved, and earned my coaching certification. I began to lead small groups through the steps that had taken me so long to understand.
This was a thrilling time! Each group became a unique fellowship. People came through Workshop with new behaviors and new found freedoms in place. Many of the stories in my book, The Liberated Eater, come from those small groups of very special people.
ANOTHER UNEXPECTED DISCOVERY: After several years I saw a pattern that changed my coaching practice completely.
It was clear that the people who stayed connected after Workshop continued to grow, steadily gaining strength and freedom. But many of those who didn’t actively stay connected after “graduation” eventually began drifting back into old patterns. This made perfect sense because their old patterns had been in place much longer than their new ones.
WOW! That’s when I realized that we need each other as much as we need steps, knowledge and tools.
Now I’m excited to be coaching within the context of our Community. Everyday we’re helping each other strengthen and enjoy our liberation!
STUFF I ENJOY:
Being outside is my happy place. I’m a little more sane out there when I get to kayak, hike or ride my bike. Bob and I have three grown kiddos and three grand-littles now. They have our hearts.
I am fierce about passing along a vibrant food-life and genuine body appreciation to these kiddos and the next generation.
This is the strong and priceless legacy we can leave to those who come behind us. It has never been more needed.
My mission:
To help others move from addictive behavior to freedom, from shame to loving acceptance, from despair to hope, and from unhealthy patterns to a sustainable healthy lifestyle;
To create a compassionate coaching environment so people have the safe space they need to make the changes they want to make;
To build an encouraging Community so no one has to be alone on this journey – and so we can have some FUN along the way!
To offer effective, affordable, on-going support through membership as long as it’s needed;
To build a culture in our community that reaches out to help others find their way to the freedom we now enjoy; and
To intentionally and lovingly model body appreciation and peaceful food-sanity for the generations that come behind us. To help reverse their fear of aging by genuinely thriving. To refuse to continue to agree with, or pass on, the harmful cultural messages that we have had to overcome. It stops with us. This can be our legacy - and privilege.
TRAINING: I’m an Auburn graduate and received my wellness coaching certification through ©Wellcoaches School of Coaching affiliated with The American College of Sports Medicine.
Coaching is an exciting and powerful process. I continue to hone my skills each year.