Weight Solution

Let me tell you all a story, a story of myself and a shrink who just couldn’t understand… wait, let me take a step back.

I was born into therapy, the fact that there wasn’t a small couch and a waiting room for me to sit in while they cut the umbilical cord is mind boggling.  More or less my entire family believed in therapy and thought/thinks every person should be in therapy.

So, fast forward thirty-something years.  Here I am in a newish therapists office and she is OBSESSED with the fact that I am nearly incapable of keeping a food journal.  The truth is, she was a terrible therapist.  Would constantly double book, would get up mid-session in the middle of something very serious to refill her tea cup… in another room, I walked in one day and there was an 80 lb dog in the room.  I mean you can’t make this shit up.

So, she asked me to keep a food journal and I asked a few questions.  Not insane questions, but questions like “can I use an online tracker or should I go old school and do pen to paper’ then I said I’ve always had problems keeping up with them can you work with me if I don’t stay consistent.

It was like I asked her to give me her first born.  For the next month, regardless of what I wanted to talk about, she wanted to talk about my impossibility to keep a food journal AND she wanted to write about it for Psychology Today (how it could possibly be that interesting I will never understand).  Like the root to every problem I ever had was because of something that had to do with this issue of food journaling.  I will be the first to admit, there are issues I have that certainly go all the way back to my childhood, my inability to food journal, is just not one of them.

Needless to say, I left the tea consuming, dog petting, obsessed with my food journaling therapist.  This was a little over a year ago.

I sometimes feel like people who don’t have food issues just simply don’t get food issues, it is all text book to them.

In walks The Beacon Group to my life.  I was introduced to Molly Carmel through a mutual friend who thought her group would mesh well with what I was doing for FJ.  She was right, what Molly does is something many readers would be interested in.  That being said, I never really understood how I could go about writing about what she does.  So, after hearing a friend’s amazing experience with The Beacon Group, I decided to jump in and check it out myself.

What is The Beacon Group?  The Beacon Group is an incredible team of coaches with incredibly impressive credentials (you can check them out by clicking here).  They focus on sustainable solutions to your weight problems and they do it from an intense and realistic approach.

I decided to start with their eight week intensive group program.  I was a little worried at first, I’ve been to other group programs and it was never my thing.  A group of people complaining with no solution and a whole lot of self pitying is sort of my personal hell.  I am more of a ‘if there is a problem then either do something or don’t complain about it’ sort of gal.  But, having met Molly – who is a tried and true no bull shit, call it as she sees it sort of woman – I was intrigued as to what this program could offer.

Tuesday was the first night, there were six of us in the group, now obviously I will not go into what happened in that room beyond what I went through, but it was pretty awesome and it was certainly nothing like my personal hell I described above.

The basis for this program is realistic solutions to weight loss.  It is actually understanding who we are as people, not what the text books say who we are.  The program is three hours, once a week and then you meet privately with your coach once/week.  Molly went through a lot of behavioral explanations of why we are how we are and explained how a lot of food issues are behavioral issues.  This program isn’t about the why you have the issues, it is about giving new tools and new ways to handle cravings, food freak outs and your life surrounding these issues.  And, if something doesn’t work, they will work with you until it does, period.

At the end of the session, we had to write our goals for the week and when it came to things like food journaling, Molly made it a point to say she doesn’t expect it every day.  She knows how tough it can be and that she just wants us to try it a few times for the week. What???  No Psychology Today write up about why it might be difficult?  No hours and hours of trying to figure out why?  Just a simple understanding of this may not be that easy… whoa!  Thank you, Molly.

So, yes, I am doing this eight week intensive program.  I think it will be amazing, I am ready for it.  I am open to it and the tools that it will give me and I am excited to be completely open and engaging in everything they throw at me.

If you want more info on The Beacon Program, click here.  I promise you, you won’t regret it 😀

xx

Julia

#earnit

#deserveit

#FitJ