Susan's Story

Susan came to our service following a GP referral. Already very active, she was keen to focus on her lifestyle habits around food. Her overall goal was to be healthier and get to a healthy BMI. Susan was on chemotherapy at the time of our coaching and this had a significant impact on her stress levels – a trigger for her emotional eating. Other barriers included past trauma (also contributing to stress eating), a love of chocolate and her keen enjoyment of baking (which was creating a lot of temptation).

We explored the concept of Mindfulness and Mindful eating when it came to chocolate and also talked about how to manage cravings (she watched our virtual cravings video and found this very helpful). We discussed how she might use her love of baking to get creative and challenge herself to find healthy alternatives. Susan found these approaches helpful and she began to appreciate her treats more and not take them for granted thus having them less.  

We discussed in some depth how to find Sue’s 'why' (intrinsic motivation for change)- these ‘whys’ were:  to break the yo-yo dieting cycle thus making her healthier- this would mean being able to live life to the fullest – we explored what image represents this for her (playing with her Grandchildren). We then fast forwarded 5/10 years - what image could she see if she has been healthier all that time. Then she had to imagine the opposite and what image represented this in 5/10 years. Susan then compared the two and started calling on those images to remind herself that she has a choice when faced with temptation.  

"I feel in such a good head space now and really feel I have broken that yo-yo diet cycle I was in. I feel my perspective has changed and the word moderation actually means something”.

Susan continued to make progress and really changed her perspective from ‘dieting’ to ‘healthy living’. This meant that when she did allow herself treats she no longer felt shame which would trigger her to eat more. She now feels she makes compromises rather than sacrifices.

"Thank you for all your support and positivity, you have been so beneficial and I would recommend the service to anyone".