Welcome back everyone, I'm really excited today to have Tricia nelson with us know Tricia for quite a few years now we do a mindshare and mastermind thing together and I think like me, she's a true leader in the field and the whole purpose of this event is to provide leadership for the health coaching industry. So I'm introducing you to another great one today, Tricia nelson, her story is very interesting.

I'm gonna let her tell it, but I'll just give you a little tip here. She lost £50 by identifying and healing the underlying causes of her emotional eating. So we're gonna talk a lot about that today and Tricia's gonna answer some questions, but she spent over 30 years researching the hidden causes of the addictive personality, you know, and as coaches, what's our job, we're supposed to change people's habits right?

So this is really a tremendous subject and I recommend Tricia's book, it's called emotional eating expert. Uh well no, she is an emotional eating expert, she's the author of the number one best selling book heal your hunger seven simple steps to end emotional eating.

Now, now she also check this out, she certifies health coaches so they can get better results, more referrals and more revenue by helping the clients overcome the emotional part of their eating. And so she's the host of a very popular podcast, I think I've been on a the hell Your hunger show and is a highly regarded speaker and I think you might find Tricia at our conference this year.

We just talked about that and she has been featured on NBC CBS, K T L A Fox and Discovery health Tricia, I'm so happy that here today and I know the health coaches, our audience is gonna love hearing from you because this is an incredibly important topic. Why don't you say hello and tell us about your journey? You bet.

Thanks for having me read. This is an amazing event, I'm so so honored to be a part of it and just love everything that you do and love you. So this is great. Um yeah, my journey started way back when as an emotional eater, so definitely has been a problem and a struggle for me.

I struggled with food and weight for many, many years until I got to the bottom of it by dealing with the underlying causes. So I, you know, I did the usual track of diet and exercise programs and pills and potions and lotions and you name it, I tried it and I was always trying to lose the weight, but you know, and I did from time to time, you know, I'd lose weight, but I always put it back on again and I was really what you call yo yo dieters, so I'd be like down 30 up 20 down 10 up 30 you know, and I had about five different sizes of pants in my closet because I never knew what size I was going to be and I was always holding onto my skinny clothes, you know, there's always, they always had the hope that I was going to get back there, but then I had to go buy fat clothes because I would gain weight.

So such, you know, such a perpetual struggle and so frustrating and you know, I've had a lot of shame about it because I was out of control of food. So um you know, I liked all the ooey, gooey, chewy foods.

I was definitely a sugar addict and you know, once I opened that bag or that carton, you know, that container, it was hard for me to close it. And so I would go overboard as a binge eater and it was just, you know, very shameful for me. I even had moments where, you know, I'd eat so much, I felt totally sick and I throw the rest of the food out and be like, I'm never eating this again. And then later I go back and I'd be like, you know, I know there's cookies still in the package in the garbage and go get them and I'm like, I like nobody in the world has done such horrible things as me turns out, jillions have I actually at one time created a Youtube video reenacting that I called my garbage eating video and I reenacted that whole scenario of going through the garbage to get the food I threw out and I, I got over 60,000 hits of people saying I did that too.

So you know, the problem is all the emotional eaters of the world, think they're the only ones who do the dark, shameful, shameful things that they do with food and that's what I believed and you know, we're all in good company and there's many out there. So, you know, what happened for me is um none of the stuff I tried work, I even went to 12 step programs and did eating disorders therapy and I really was at my wits end when I read realized, you know, if I don't do something drastically different, I was basically consigned to a life of of this, you know, the yo yoing and so what happened for me is I met somebody who mentored me and showed me a way to really go deeper and deal with those underlying causes and that, you know, that turned everything around for me and I was able to lose the weight £50 and keep it off. It's been decades now, thank God.

Um and based on that experience and working with him to help others for decades. Um more recently I found it heal your hunger and I have a very specific step by step process for overcoming emotional eating that I do, that keeps me free and happy. And then, um and it's what my clients do and and as you mentioned, I also train other coaches um to use this same process so that their clients can break free from the emotional eating cycle, because if they don't, no matter what they know about nutrition, they can't follow through on it.

That's fantastic. You know, and I've I've known you for a long time and you've always been, you know, this is so dating me, you've always been one of the skinny chicks, you know, That's probably not, that's probably not. Yeah, but yeah, I mean, you know, well, it's a huge compliment. I'll take it, I'll tell you haven't been fat for so long. Yeah, it's amazing to me, but I'm very grateful. Yeah. Yeah. And so it's amazing that you've done it and then you found a way to keep it. I mean, that's that's the whole trick, right? Because that yo yo thing will, will kill you eventually. Uh and so I'm glad that you found this way and that you're teaching others and I know you have a huge uh consumer based business as well, that you're very successful with your with your program.

And now you are teaching coaches how to do it too, because we all need, you know, we need something like that. We're always going to come across the client who has the emotional eating thing right before I ask you the next question, um you said you were a sugar addict. I know people who are salt addicts, they're they're like, they open a bag of pretzels and they can't stop till the and they're eating the salt at the bottom of the bag a half hour later, you know? So it's the same thing right there both, whether it's sugar or you know, it's the same thing, right?

Yeah, I mean for me, well it just I mean they might have an adrenal deficiency and that's why I need more salt. But yeah, everybody, you know, everybody has their poison. I mean I'm you know, sugar was it for me? But I you know, I always if I was eating sugar, I always had to have salt, you know, you gotta have the sugar with the salt.

You know, they kind of go together the Dorito, the Doritos with the Ben and jerry's right, they go together. But yeah, it's you know, whatever gets it to people, you know, turns people on and and that they become addicted to, you know, if they're overeating, if they're eating more food than their body can metabolize, you know, that's the that's why where the problem is, you know, and that's how we gain weight is we just we eat more than our body needs for fuel and you that's usually for going overboard. It's for emotional reasons that that leads me to the next question, which is besides someone being overweight, you know, you could be overweight for different reasons, How do you know when it's emotional eating or like a food addiction or something totally um you know, it's amazing to me and this is over 30 years later, it's amazing to me how, how, how close emotional hunger feels to physical hunger.

So I could be working along and have this hunger pain and be like, I'm so hungry and then I'll be like, wait a minute, you know, you had breakfast a couple hours and you're probably not starving.

And so they're very closely related and I, I have a quiz on my website that people can take um to determine if they're an emotional eater. Um but you know, the emotional hunger comes from emotions that are uncomfortable that we want to distract from. And so, um that's that typically for me is how I get to the bottom of things. As I asked myself, you know, when I say, oh, I just ate breakfast a couple hours ago, you know, eating regularly, like three times a day with nothing in between.

I call it three meal magic and that's what I teach my clients. Um it's like the sanest most, you know, physically grounding way to eat. You know, you're giving your body time to digest in between meals and you're also on a regular schedule of meals. And typically emotional eaters are snackers, you know, they're snacking all day long, they're just munching unconsciously.

Um their body has no time to digest because it's just like a constant feeding, um or they're starving themselves, thinking they're gonna hack the system and lose weight by skipping meals and they always compensate for it later overcompensate at the end of the day with nighttime eating. So, you know, the regularity of three meals a day, um, without snacking is a good way to start actually identifying emotional hunger.

So that little conversation I had with myself when I like swearing that I'm starving to death, um of, you know, gi breakfast at eight and probably not starving and I can probably last till noon, you know, noon or one o'clock at lunchtime.

Um, you know, that's a good way. You know, that steady plan of eating is a good way to start really, you know, having that conversation with your hungry self and determining whether it's physical or emotional when I know I've eaten and I'm probably not starving them. I asked the question, what's really going on and typically read, you know, there's some uncomfortable emotion there.

You know, I don't want to make a phone call that I have to make, I don't want to do my taxes. You know, there's some some something rumbling that I don't want to deal with and I want to distract by eating.

So that's to me that a study plan of eating actually helps me start to tune in to when it's emotional and because it's pretty clear when it's emotional and when it's physical based on the fact that I am eating and I'm probably not starving.

So I mean that explains a lot. Um, it raises my question, I think of, well, how you said you had the conversation with yourself. Do you teach clients to have a conversation with yourself, are they that you have to raise their uh their awareness, uh self awareness and things like that. Like, like some people just do it.

They don't know they're doing it, you know, they let's say they don't like they actually think they're hungry. How how do you how do you differentiate uh or get them to take that? Put that little space between their where they ask themselves that question.

Well, when I teach people the three male magic plan that immediately gets them to sort of become hip to their emotional eating because because their such snackers and unconscious eaters, you tell them to eat three meals a day and not to snack all of a sudden, they're like, oh my God, like I'd be normally reaching for food right now or this situation, you know, driving my daughter to skate her skating, you know, rank um in between, you know, waiting for her to be done with their class.

I'm going to the store and buying stuff. So, so people are just just by that, like, just putting some boundaries around each meal, they're starting to wake up to the fact that there's so much unconscious eating they are typically doing.

Um but beyond that, um you know, I do, I mean so much of what I teach is really about the emotional underpinnings. You know, my experience is most p people who have been struggling with food and weight for any length of time are very educated, they've taken courses, they've read books, they've become health coaches, you know, they they've been, they've been on the case for a while of why am I doing this, like why can't I lose weight? So they're highly educated about nutrition, you know, and meal different kinds of meal plans and ways of eating and you know, keto and paleo and vegan and they, you know, a lot, so what they know is not, you know, getting them where they need to go because of this emotional piece.

This is the gap between what they know and being able to follow through on what they know. So it's um you know, I think, you know teaching people why they keep going the refrigerator time and time again when they know they're not actually hungry.

That's really the training people are missing is really is the emotional intelligence piece of it, like, like what is going on? And I'd love to talk to you about the three primary emotions that do drive emotional eating, so that if somebody is starting to stop starting, like to ask themselves what's really going on, instead of going to the refrigerator, they can identify three emotions.

And so this is what I call the pep test. So this is kind of a way this is sort of a foray into starting to understand what might going on and why it might be emotional hunger versus physical hunger. The pep test is a way people can just kind of do a little checking with themselves and um and and this is the three primary emotions that I've identified over my 30 years of research, the three primary emotions that drive emotional eating. So the p stands for pain killer, because food does a lot for us. We know what food does to us, but it does a lot for us, which is why we're drawn to it, you know, for for emotional reasons, because number one is, it serves to kill pain. Like when we're emotional, when we're feeling uncomfortable, when we're just um you know, going through a breakup in a, you know, in a relationship, when we're in a job that doesn't fit us anymore, we have a tyrant for a boss when we have sick parents, you know, and we're dealing with those struggles or financial struggles, these are all, you know, causes of emotional pain and you know, typically people don't binge on salad. Okay, so typically we're reaching for sugar for carbs, for salty pretzels, you know, why is that?

Because the carbs and the sugar and the fat fatty foods, they deaden our emotions, they literally kill pain. Okay, emotional pain. It's like we feel nothing like we're hanging out eating after binge, like I used to just, I was good, you know, for a little while until so the remorse set in and the self flagellation and all that, why did I do that? I'm such a you know idiot or a loser or you know here I go again. So you know in that moment though it does kill pain. So pain is the first emotion that I feel like it's kind of an umbrella emotion, there's lots underneath it, but just to help people start to wake up to the emotional underpinnings painkiller to kill pain.

The E and Pep stands for escape And I'd say you know the quarantine 15 is a good example of this. You know our reality has become so stark and so scary that you walk out the door and die, you know that Yeah and so yeah and the quarantining being alone and you know if if there ever were a time when we wanted to just escape our reality, it's you know this past year of a pandemic.

So that's why people are stuffing themselves with food because they're just like this is you know a reality. We we are not used to sow fear and worry are really what drive that need to escape. It's like there's so many unknowns, you know this is an unprecedented time. You know, financially people's lives are turned upside down so that fear and worry are big drivers of emotional eating the last p in the pap is punishment okay.

And um and it seems strange because because normally we think of food is a reward right? Like we get our favorite foods like at the end of the work week were like excited to get our you know our favorite flavored ice cream or chocolate or whatever and sit in front of our favorite binge able T.

V. Shows and just kind of have at it. Um so it seems like a reward and we do we reward ourselves with food but for those who go overboard right, those who they eat the yummy chocolate, but then they need that salty thing, so they're looking for the chips, you know, and then after that you know you got to have ice cream so it's like it it takes on a life of its own and turns into a big binge right? Like then it's like we were stuffed, we feel sick, we hate ourselves, we don't fit in our pants, we don't want anything to do with anybody the next day because we're just kind of hiding under the covers, recovering you know from our sugar coma. That is not a reward, right? That's that is punishment.

Like we've done that to ourselves. So it begs the question why would we do such a thing, like why would we why would we literally abuse ourselves with food?

And that was what I was doing, Read I was abusing my body, you know I was myself, I was taking myself down, I was sabotaging my success, my happiness, my relationships, everything with my binges.

And you know the reason for that in my experience is guilt, Okay, emotional eaters are sensitive, we feel deeply and we feel guilt super easily, I think more than your average person, because we're so sensitive and emotional eaters are emotional, so, you know, we beat ourselves up, why did I do that?

Why did I say that? You know, I shouldn't have taken that job or you know, I screwed up my kids, I mean that it's like, we just are like relentlessly beating on ourselves, you know, just per separating on all the mistakes we've made, and so that underlying guilt causes us to sabotage ourselves and so that's, you know, an example of three very strong emotions, you know, and there are kind of offshoots of those emotions, but three primary the pain, fear and guilt, these are things that are driving our need to eat, and a lot of people are like, you know, they might not be in touch with these things, but I love that little pep test because that helps people at least start to tune in.

So, when I go back and have that conversation with myself, like, are you really hungry, just ate two hours ago? Probably not. What's really going on? Is there something I'm uncomfortable or feeling some pain around, you know, was there a conversation yesterday that didn't go well that I'm kind of like, feeling heavy about, you know, is there a phone call, I'm afraid to make, or a task, I'm afraid to do, you know, or am I just heavy with remorse about something that, you know, a relationship that went sour, so, so it's like, you know, these are questions I can start to ask and that I just like using those three primary emotions as ways to start checking in and tuning into what might be going on underneath that just immediately impulsive, I have to have some chocolate, Gosh, I have, I have a lot, I have questions, but it makes sense.

So is that why diets fail? Because people, you know, they try when they try and they try to and they just sabotage themselves, that the the pain they escaped from inferior were and and then they're really punish them so that they're guilty of something or they think they're so so is that self conversation, but you could answer the question about is that way?

Yeah, but yeah, Let's talk about diet. So 98% of all diets fail. That is an abysmal statistic when you consider, you know, that billions of dollars are spent every year on diets and literally 98% are being, you know, that's that's billions of dollars being flushed down the toilet every single year, you know, unfruitful, fruitless attempts to lose weight.

So the reason, in my experience diets fail is because of this emotional eating gap you know, diets address the symptom of food and weight, but overweight is a symptom of overeating and overeating is a symptom of what's eating me okay, And so the idea that I'm just gonna, you know, stop eating all these yummy foods and go on a super strict calorie diet is really insane, in light of the fact that first of all, anybody who diets is probably dieted before, and if they're dieting again, it means the first it didn't really work, you know, or the 1st 20 diets didn't work, but we get, you know, seduced into thinking there's a quick fix, you know, emotional eaters love quick fixes, the idea, you know, when your house is on fire, you just want to get out of the house as fast as you can, you know, and I've had the experience way too many times of gaining weight and just being like, like I just have to get this weight off and so it lends itself to the quick fix mentality of just, you know, I'm just gonna do that, you know, that key to I'm I'm just gonna do that diet, you know, that's on the magazine, you know, as I check out at the supermarket, because, you know, and people always say to me, I know, diets don't work and there is a but but you know, and the but is I have to get this weight off right now, so it's sort of trans, you know, transfixes people into this idea that this, I'm just gonna do this and it's gonna work, but they don't they don't look at their history of dieting, which is could be decades of dieting, you know, and they don't look at the facts that, you know, the food is a symptom, like overeating is a symptom. And so I'm glad we're having this conversation because I think, you know, it can help people wake up to that, but you know, you can't address the symptom, you have to go deeper.

And if you do go deeper, if you do address the emotional connection to food and why we turn to food for emotional reasons, then you will automatically lose weight.

Like if you stop emotionally eating, you're gonna stop overeating, you're gonna eat for your bodies, you know, nutritional needs and enjoyment. Like we get to still enjoy food. Um but you're not gonna be stuffing yourself, you're not gonna be like breaking out in a binge or consoling yourself, you know over the last relationship with ice cream, you know, your favorite relationship Ben and jerry's, you know, you're not gonna be doing that and then the weight loss is a side effect of that. Instead of making it the primary goal when there's all this stuff going on underneath. I mean, people lose weight read and then if they just focus on food and lose weight by focusing on food and weight. They have not built a new set of tools to deal with the emotional emotions underneath. You know, I use food to push feelings down if I take the food away, those feelings come up, if I don't have a way to deal with those feelings that come up and they go way back, you know, I mean they go way back, I was stuffing myself at age five, you know, I had you know, I had stuff going on that was not cool, like sexual abuse, you know, and I was just stuffing it all down and if I don't have real tools to deal with that, you know, that my emotional self um which I do Didn't have because food was my main tool. If I have not built a new, you know, tool kit of tools, it's a foregone conclusion, I will put the weight back on again.

Hence the abysmal statistic of 98% of all diets failing. It's amazing how how much money is being spent and when you said flushed down the toilet, I took it literally like yeah, literally, like, like you, but anyway, right, or pooping it out, it all goes down the toilet eventually. So now um is there a difference between, say someone who eats all day long, you know, emotionally or someone who binges because I think there's both, I don't know, but it just seems to me like there's those that just never stop eating and others like they're okay, but then they got to have that gallon of ice cream or something like that, why why do people, I think it's different for each person.

And um you know, I have people tell me whenever I tell someone an emotional eating expert, you know, I have people tell me their stories, everybody wants to tell me their, you know what their deal with food is. And so I have a lot of people say to me who are overweight, oh, I'm not an emotional eater because I don't binge.

And so there's an assumption that you have to be a binger to be an emotional eater and that's not true, a snacker and all day grazer is definitely an emotional eater.

Most likely if if they can't stop it on a dime, if they can't, you know, just do a course correction. Um they're likely an emotional eater. Um You know, and somebody who binges, I mean, obviously they I would say are definitely an emotional eater because they're abusing themselves with food.

Um you know, they're eating, they're snacking is getting out of control. I was a definite binger. Um but everybody is different and and even somebody who just eats three meals, if the meals they eat are laden with carbs, you know, if if they are always eating pasta, you know, their choice on the menu is pasta every time. It's probably for emotional reasons, you know, like they don't want veggies, veggies don't kill emotions like veggies, let you still feel your emotions. So if somebody is a pa pasta and a bread eater constantly, you know, the heavier start your foods are doing the job of snuffing out emotions. So even if it's not a vendor or even a grazer, if they're potato meat and potatoes, pasta bread eaters, you know, my experience, they're still looking for that emotional comfort and that blanket that food provides.

Yeah, I can see that. So, so there's grazers and there's been Jersey and they're both doing emotionally, you know, pain escape, uh, punishing that kind of a thing. Um, well now, um, tell us a little bit more about your work, your course and things like that.

Uh, the, the anatomy of emotional eating. I know you call it that. Yeah, so I teach, yeah, I teach my clients, um, whether it's my coaching clients or, or, you know, my regular customers, I teach them about the anatomy of the emotional eater.

And this is vital information. Um, this is from my, you know, decades of research. These are personality traits that make up the emotional eaters, personality, emotional eater is not like all people, my experiences, we do have certain unique traits, they aren't unique to us and that other people don't have them. It's just a composite of traits that lead to emotional eating and that's why the whole idea of diets will never get somebody where they need to go because if they don't deal with these traits and what they're doing in their life there never going to stop the cravings, you know, and people think that cravings just happen. Like I'm just struck by a craving, you know, for ice cream, struck by craving for chocolate, it seems that way.

But my experience is we play a part in those cravings coming about. You know, those cravings are a call for relief. Like we want food as a relief, you know, valve basically for stress. Okay, so like we're stressed out, we're we've got a lot on our plate. We just want to check out again that escape factor with food. But the fact is, you know, we have to address that stress, you know, and what's going on that makes us need relief from food.

And the fact that we are creating our cravings to me is fantastic news because if we're creating it, we can un create it okay if it's just hitting us, you know, hitting us like random lightning or screwed.

But if we are playing a part in it, in those cravings even happening, we can make new choices. So I often say, you know to clients, you don't have an eating problem, you have a living problem.

And I know you're gonna relate to this with your, you know, your dress protocols. So we have to start living differently. And so the emotionally, the anatomy of the emotional eater are twice for personality traits. People can start honing in on to see what's going on and how they're living and what changes they can make.

And I'll give you an example of this. The number one trait of an emotional eater is being a people pleaser. So, and yeah, like I've never met an emotional eater who's not a people pleaser and the way that this trait kind of comes into our lives is usually early on in our lives, you know, so many people who overeat or are obese um they have trauma from their past or at least some serious dysfunction, I know I did and so, you know, they either have alcoholism in their family or somebody with mental illness or sexual abuse, physical abuse, there's some awry and and they're not getting a really solid and this isn't everybody okay. I understand some people might not, this might not apply to, but tip typically my experience is this is the case, so there's something going on, they're not getting a strong foundation of self esteem and I didn't, I mean I had great parents, but they, you know, they were lacking in the self esteem department and so I didn't get this foundation self esteem, they were also people pleasers. And so uh so what happened is is I learned to get my sense of self from outside of myself and this is very typical for emotional eaters, you know, and and also somebody who grows up with dysfunction or alcoholism or some kind of addiction is that, you know, you're on high alert to know how you can please the dysfunctional person in your family because they're raging or they're erratic in their emotions or their harsh and critical whatever. And so we get very good at kind of having a radar out of how, how we can, you know, mutate ourselves to fit a situation like where we learned very early on, not early on, not to be ourselves, not to stand for ourselves, but to basically be chameleons.

And so we bring this trait, you know, what was once a survival skill in our childhood, it worked okay having a writer out for what dad's mood is when he comes home, so we don't get our butts kicked, you know, because he's drunk, that's a survival skill as a child, but coming into adulthood it's really, it's it's a coping mechanism that's, you know, not helping us anymore and it's turning on us so when we're people pleasers in our adult life, you know, most leaders are so nice and we smile so much and we're so accommodating, you know, because when we are, we get, you know, we get the added girls, you know, the Atta boys, like it feeds our ego, it makes us feel like we're worthy.

And so again, it's, you know, we're looking outside of ourselves for that sense of esteem and the problem with being a people pleaser or read is that, you know, we knock ourselves out, doing more than our fair share we're always saying yes, we're always volunteering to do the extra credit work, we're always hosting the parties, you know, we are running ourselves ragged, you know over doing, you know, because it's gonna feed our sense of worth, but and the problem is not only that we're knocking ourselves out and taxing our adrenals and are fatigued, you know, and and and tired all the time and probably grumpy, but on top of it were piste off because nobody ever is pleased.

You know the way we think they're gonna be right, like people end up just taking us for granted, like give it to Tricia, she'll do it like she's a sucker, you know, so so as people pleasers were, we're tired, we're exhausted and we're also resentful because it never plays out the way we think it will and that's the perfect prescription to go home and have the, I deserve it binge. Like nobody else is appreciating me, Me damn it. I'm gonna reward myself with my favorite foods and my favorite tv show and whatever else. And so that's an example to me, a very apt example of how I'm doing it. Like I'm causing that binge by over extending myself by not having boundaries on my time but not, you know, saying no once in a while and so the good news is I can turn that ship around, I can start saying, you know, all you know, whatever added girls I get are not worth it considering the price I'm paying, you know, 15 extra pounds, 20 extra pounds from over doing every day and being exhausted and resentful.

So you know it I'm excited about the fact that we can change our lives the way we're living and it can directly impact the way that we're eating and it's but it's not the reverse, you know, we have to live our way into a new life, you know, we can't think our way and but the and the nice thing is is when people start, you know making changes in these personality traits, you know, caregiving is another one, you know over thinking, you know having a racing mind is another trait of an emotional eater constantly overthinking.

What did she mean by that? Like like why why are they talking, are they talking about me? You know, it's like why did I do that wrong? Like I should should have done it better. You know it's like incessant, you know and that's where other tools like meditation and prayer and things, you know, you know things that can settle us down and bring our minds down, you know a couple of 1000 miles an hour, you know that's gonna help us, you know have common piece but these are all living skills, they're directly going to impact our eating behaviors.

Thank you so much. I i it's you know critical to know that there's there's a lot to it. Um I think of um well with this help with other addictions, you know, like you specialize I guess and the the food thing, but I kept thinking about people who uh and I have neighbors, you know, and they just as soon as they get off from work, it's six beers, you know, they just are, they're doing all these things, they're killing pain, they're escaping from whatever it is and they might be punishing themselves or you know, they might have guilt for something like that.

But this is the same thing you think apply to some of these other bad habits. No question about it. Yeah, that's why, you know, this process, I mean, I've really built a step by step process for overcoming emotional eating, but this process will transform somebody's life and that's the point, you know, people are unhappy because they're eating, but they're really eating because they're unhappy, you know? And so it's this is a way for just uplevel in your life and you know, the things that I teach, especially in the self care, I teach something called the six self care success secrets.

Yeah, anybody who does this is going to have a better life automatically. And it definitely, you know, that's the same root causes will cause, you know, some people are overeaters, some people are over drinkers, some people are over, you know, sex addicts or whatever, you know, shoppers spenders, I mean there's so many different things you can overdo, you know, and if you have an addictive personality, why stop at one.

So most people who have an addictive personality overdo more than one thing. But yeah, fundamentally this process absolutely will, will transform somebody's life and make it so that they don't have to be seeking escape, seeking relief in unhealthy habits.

You know, I appreciate that. I think you've been a fantastic guest because you know, our audiences, health coaches or people who would like to be health coaches or learn more about the profession. It's an amazing profession because you get to do a lot of good in the world and get paid for it.

You know, it's a profession, it's not a hobby for us, it's it's fine if it's your hobby, but for me, my hobbies cost me money, you know, motorcycles and gardening at the, so my profession, what I do for a living, I do, it's it's my business, you know, so you get to do something you love, you get to model the behavior uh it's relatively stress free if you have a good business model and again, you get to help people.

So, um, but one thing I noticed about a lot of coaches is they, they think they have to be perfect in order to help others. So you know, that's something I've been asking some of the guests like tell us how that's not true totally. You know, um I think the best people that I've trained as hell, your hunger, emotional eating coaches are the ones who are actually emotional eaters, you know, because we know what it's like, we we know the experience and every person who goes through my certification training goes through my training that I do for clients, okay. So that they can up, you know, whatever whatever coaches, you know, or coach wannabes relationship with food is, it can always be up level. Let's face it, we could all up love our relationship with food, you know, whether we're food addicts or emotional eaters or somewhere in between. So, um, so that's what I do is I teach them my program by having them go through it with their client had on first so they can personally benefit from it, you know, and all of them do, even people who, you know, didn't relate to being an emotion either.

You know, after they go through a few modules in my program, they're like, whoa, like I had no idea. I was so disconnected to the fact that that there's so much, you know, emotional connection between me and my food choices.

So, so everybody personally benefits from it and then, and they make the best teachers because they can bring their personal experience into their work and yeah, so much of the time, you know, health coaches who are emotional eaters, they have shame arr around it, you know, it's sort of like they're telling other people how to eat, but they're not following their own advice.

And so there's this imposter syndrome, like they feel like I'm not worthy, you know, not worthy as a coach and you know, and I totally get that and it's just really important. First of all, you know, you can uplevel your own relationship with food to where you feel more worthy and I think that's important to like to not feel like an imposter, but you don't have to eat perf you don't have to have figured it all out in order to be of service to somebody who's struggling with this problem and your personal experience. I talked, you know, have a podcast and I talked all about stuff going on with me personally, I literally just did it the other day in my facebook group as I talked about some personal thing I was going through, I always bring my personal experiences into my work because it's relatable. It's interesting to people who are listening, it's not for from my head, it's from my heart. And so I'm all about, you know, my coaches bringing their personal struggles with emotional eating into their work, you know, and this is the solution that they're learning through my training, but it's like, you don't have to be there and be perfect before you start helping people, people want real more than ever now they want real, they want somebody who knows what it's like to struggle so that they can meet them at that place and and and you know, the more heart the better, as far as I'm concerned because emotionally eaters honestly read they're starving, okay, emotional eaters are starving for connection.

That's what that real hunt is. It's not for food, you know, it is for connection, it's for, you know, just feeling like somebody understands. Um, and it's for, you know, really an opportunity to walk side by side, someone on a healing journey.

It really is. Yeah. And I think the key to any successful coaching program should be walk the talk, you know, and trying to set an example, but it doesn't mean you have to reach, you know, the top because there's no one at the top.

I've said that on almost every one of these interviews, there's no perfect health person. I've been searching for 20 years and uh, everyone's got some steps left to take.

Now. Some people have a lot more steps and that's what we're in business for us to help them up and take their steps. So we're gonna put thank you so much for that. I still have another question for you, but I want everyone to know. We're gonna put in the show notes, all the information you need to get in touch with Tricia and check her course out.

And I know it's a six month course and that's for health coaches who want to focus obviously on emotional eating and any other goals of the certification, um, that once you keep in mind or Yeah, I mean, the bottom line is there is a step by step formula for overcoming emotional eating and that's what I'm so excited about is this is personally what I did to lose £50 and stay on this path of, you know, not emotionally eating and living in a thin body and free from food obsession, probably the most important part of all. Um, but there's a step by step away to get there and I lay that out and I give that to the coaches.

So they have that same plan to share with their clients. And it really makes the difference because they may have amazing nutritional information to share with them our amazing protocols, but if their clients can't follow through on it, they can't reach that they can't help them get over the finish line, you know, of reaching their health goals and so this piece is so, so important and I just really want to emphasize that it's not, you know, it's not hit or miss and so much of the time when we talk about eating, you know, there's the idea intuitive eating and mindful eating and you know, those are nice, but they're kind of mushy okay, like they don't tell you what to do and so what I wanted and what I have and what I give to other people as you know, the tools for helping their clients is a step by step plan and you know, it takes the mushiness out of it. It's like do this and you will have freedom from emotionally eating, you know, not cured, You know, it's a day at a time, I'm still an emotional eater.

Um, but I need, I don't emotionally eat one day at a time, so it's a really amazing process, but it takes the mystery out of it, takes the guesswork out of it. And I think that's what's so exciting about it.

You're a true leader in the field, Tricia and I'm so glad that you agreed to be on this event and in this event and participate in everything like that.

Uh and as leaders, you know, we have to think about where is it going from here. So what else do you think we could be doing as in the health coaching industry to support each other and to raise, get more people in because the world is, it's short a few health coaches, like my estimates, probably about a half a million health coaches are needed to just meet the needs of people.

You know, it's an under, we have underserved population and health coaches can really feel a huge gap. You know, people don't want drugs. I mean, if you need them, that's great and we have plenty of wonderful doctors out there, we've got, you know, I think there's now about 1500 different drugs on the market you could take. So there's no shortage of drugs, there's a real shortage of, you know, the correct training and knowledge that step by step process and things like that. What else can we do besides have summits as health coaches to get the word out and be real leaders?

Well I think it's so important supporting each other, you know podcast, I do a lot of podcast interviews and I have a podcast you know just really talking, talking about health you know, talking about health, talking about alternatives to drugs you know and and ways that we can you know it really we have to empower ourselves to hell.

There is no magic wand. There is no magic bullet like it really comes down to us taking action to care for for ourselves in self care, you know, and I think any message that has to do with self care and really putting our health first before we go out and save the world, I think that's an important message for health coaches is you know, definitely focus on doing it yourself and getting getting help for yourself so that you can then shine your light brighter and being a guide for other people.

I think that's so so important. Beautiful. I think we can just end there and with that great advice on uh supporting each other and building the whole thing up.

Thanks trisha. It's been a real pleasure and I want everyone to know you can go out and get that V. I. P. Passed all the recordings right now uh and it won't be for much longer that they're even available.

So don't miss your opportunity to go out there and look at the show notes and look up Tricia. But get your V. I. P. Pass so you can come back and and on the recordings. And with that, we'll just say thanks again and look forward to seeing you in the fall. Great job, you bet. Thanks so much freed.

Take good care. You're welcome.

Emotional Eating Coach Training

Reed Davis, HHP, CNT

Tricia Nelson

Comments