Tess felt trapped in a cycle of heavy dieting followed by episodes of overeating. She felt unhappy with her weight but was keen to break free from dieting and find a more sustainable approach. She just wanted to live and eat simply and freely. She wanted to feel normal.
Tess had always relied on calorie counting and using an App tracker, to manage her weight. Working in the fitness industry she felt the pressure to look a certain way. She found that the focus on achieving weight loss was becoming obsessive and didn’t allow for real life with her family and friends. She felt unable to break free from these behaviours for fear of gaining more weight. Tess wanted to understand the reasons for her episodes of overeating and why her emotions seemed to play such a big part.
It was at this point that Tess reached out to me for support.
After our discovery call Tess wanted to commit to working with me long term. This allowed us to work together so that I could guide her through the science of weight loss, empower her to manage her food choices and lifestyle with confidence, support her to build a healthier relationship with food and guide her to make lasting changes.
As a busy mum of 3 small children and running her own business it was important to me to make sure I understood and guided her in a way that would fit with her busy life. I gathered information before and during our first meeting, on her current food choices and eating habits as well as any symptoms she had, past medical history, lifestyle and daily routines.
To begin with we had to set the day up right, ensuring there was sufficient nourishment to get her through the day. I encouraged her to move away from recording her food intake on her App and to stop counting calories and macros. This was challenging for Tess as she’d had such a strong reliance on this method in the past. However, after a short time, she felt able to tune into what her body needed and trust her body to know when it was satisfied.
We talked about past dieting experiences, what had worked, what hadn’t. We considered her emotional reactions to foods and triggers for these. When it felt right, we unpicked these thoughts and feelings, challenging them, rephrasing them and working out ways for her to move forward.
We covered topics such as recognising hunger versus cravings, understanding what other triggers there are for hunger beyond physical urges. We also explored mindful eating practices.
Whilst Tess was keen to lose weight long term, the focus of our sessions was to heal her relationship with food and rid the past dieting behaviour. Tess worked hard in between appointments establishing new routines, trying new foods and setting goals. All, with a good helping of self-compassion.
Eventually, once she felt more in control, we optimised her nutrition so she could excel in her power lifting goals.
Here’s what Tess had to say about our time together.
‘I reached out to Lydia in January 2021 after finding myself trapped in a cycle of heavy dieting followed by regular binge eating. I was steadily gaining weight and felt I was losing control of the situation.
Working within the fitness industry, I felt I had a good understanding of nutrition, but Lydia was able to dispel several of the nutrition ‘myths’ that I had been living by.
Lydia has successfully coached me into understanding how to achieve proper balance, both on my plate and in life. Her knowledge and guidance about food and the emotions or events directly connected to eating is second to none and her delivery of this is fantastic. Lydia is professional but light-hearted and really took the time to understand my needs before prescribing advice for change.
I have spent 12 weeks focusing gently on adjusting my eating habits according to Lydia’s advice and have seen a significant weight loss and a change of around 40cm in measurements around the body, but more than that I have enjoyed a more balanced mood, less (to no) guilt around food choices, better sleep patterns and better recovery after exercise.
I would recommend Lydia’s services to anyone who is ready to remove ‘diets’ from their lifestyle long term and live in a way that feels truly balanced and sustainable. Thank you, Lydia.’
Each of my clients has their own unique story and set of circumstances. This is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach. It’s based on years of experience and a toolkit of strategies, backed by science.
If you’d like to talk more about working with me then I’d love to hear from you.
