Ep # 295: Binge Eating Success Story – Nicole

Hello! Today on the podcast you are going to hear a binge eating success story from one of my former group members, Nicole, and she is such an inspiration.

She and I began working together in The Stop Binge Eating Program in January of 2023 and then one year later, several months after our program had finished, she emailed me with an update.

Not only was she still binge-free but, she and her life had improved immensely. And this was especially amazing because back in the fall of 2022, she had started having a major health issue, which she will tell you about, and she never let that stop her from doing this work. In fact, it fueled her to do this work. It made it that much more important that she did it. And she did.

So once I got her email update, I had to bring her on here to share it with you too.

Not only are you going to hear about how she went from being on the brink of being disabled, to being functional, she’s also going to share some really helpful nuggets for you along the way.

So, without further ado, here we go. Here’s my conversation with Nicole.

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Kirstin:
Hello Nicole. It is so good to have you here. I’m so excited to talk with you.

Nicole:
Yes, I’m so excited to talk with you as well. Thank you for having me.

Kirstin:
Yes, of course. So to begin, I want you to just tell us a little bit about yourself, your background with food, eating, your weight, just all the things that you want to share.

Nicole:
Alright, so just a little bit about me. I am a 43-year-old mother of a 21-year-old son. I am a school teacher and I also do sales for a living and I have battled with weight pretty much my entire life. I can think back to when I was younger, food’s always been the top of my mind no matter where I am, how old I am, food has taken so much energy, away for me just because everything has been about food my entire life. Whether it was not having enough food or having food available that you just want to eat it all because you never know that next time you’re going to have food available. So it’s almost like I think that I basically eat for survival, whether that’s to keep me going and moving forward just to keep my day going, to keep me awake or it could be, I just don’t know when that next meal is.
And I’ve always had that thought of when is my next meal going to be? When is it going to be, when is it going to be? I wake up in the morning and it’s like, what’s for dinner? It’s crazy. It’s like I haven’t even had my morning coffee and I’m already contemplating what is the next thing later on for dinner. So I’ve always struggled with it. I’ve tried many different things, all of which I’ve made successful, but it never took the energy away from the focus on food. I’ve always had the focus on food, so I used to do fitness competitions and absolutely loved them. Did great. After the fitness competitions, obviously that had a lot of meal prepping and stuff, say during it was okay, it was completely fine. I had no problem. I found it easy because I wasn’t actually thinking so much about food.
It was only a certain amount of food, a certain kind of food that I could eat. So it kind of took the energy away from just the focus on the food. It was just making sure you were eating enough at what time and et cetera, et cetera. So I have done the fitness route, fitness competition route. I’ve done the Weight Watchers route. I am a true weight watcher, flunk out. I tell everybody I’ve been going to Weight Watchers I think since I was like 16 and have flunked out every time I’ve been successful on it and then just flunked out. I’m looking at cheese balls on top of my refrigerator right now, and I remember being in college and trying to stay awake in the middle of the night and be like, all right, I can have 16 cheese balls for four points and then I count out and then before you know it because I’m trying to keep awake, it’s like it doesn’t even matter the points and you just keep digging in.
I’ve also done the 17 day diet, which was extremely successful, and that’s a 17 day, it’s four cycles of 17 days of just different eating habits, which I was featured in the Women’s World Magazine for it, which is hysterical. Part of it is, I think in the article I noted that I could eat asparagus like french fries, and because I was so trained to love asparagus and when I was meal prepping, so it, it became a thing like asparagus and mustard was the thing I ate as french fries. Then we got past that stage and I was really pretty much able to kind of back off of so much the focus on food and really just try to get into doing things that I like as far as activity, and that seemed to help a lot and take some focus off the food. But I could still tell that my weight was creeping up and I did great for so long.
When I say great, I stayed fairly consistent within a few pounds, but food was always my thought, always, always on my mind. My mother is ,I’m Italian. My mother always had these big meals and she’d come over here and I’d have Turkey burger, and she’s like, what the hell? I’m not eating that. And she’s the cook all the time, and I wouldn’t eat as much or I wouldn’t have any of it because I was so trained into it being bad food. My mother’s cooking, who cares? I should have ate it. And then after some time had passed, my mother was diagnosed with cancer and during that time, which is three years ago, four years ago I should say, and during that time she couldn’t eat. She obviously wasn’t cooking her food, like she used to, and she couldn’t eat a lot of things because of the chemo and the radiation.
And I thought, you know what? If my mom’s going to go ahead and have a coffee shake, I’m going to have a coffee shake. Whatever she’s going to have, I’m going to have it with her and I’m not going to have any guilt with it. I’m just going to enjoy it, enjoying having food with my mother. This is it. Just suck it up. And I did that. And then my mother passed and I still had that thought in my head, eat the food. It’s there. You’ve missed out on all your mother’s cooking and everything else because you were so into a certain way of eating and now she’s no longer here, so just go ahead, eat, whatever. So pandemic all that took place and I put on 20 pounds, 30 pounds, 40 pounds, 50 pounds and pricing that because I had worked so hard over the years to get myself to be healthy.
And that was all a result of just basically you live once, enjoy everything, enjoy it, enjoy it, enjoy it. But what was happening was my health, I was starting to feel like I was having health problems. I was having heart problems. They didn’t know what it was from. And me, I was like, well, I’m 50 pounds heavier, my body is all this extra weight on me can’t possibly be good for me. My feet were hurting. I was like, I had arthritis, I had this, I had that. All these different things. And I was like, I really, really, really have to do something. And I had been listening to your podcast for quite some time, I’d say about maybe eight months or so, consistently listening to your podcast and when you had the binge eating program come up, I kind of knew I was a binge eater, but didn’t really, could that really be, am I really one of those people?
And then there was a couple times where my son, I’d have ice cream at night and I’m or an ice cream pop. And I’m like, this is so good. I can’t wait to eat ’em all. And he is like, eat ’em all? Why is that even a motivation of yours? Why would you even think that? And I’m like, why not? You just eat ’em all. You have ’em all. You eat ’em all. So that kind of took me back a little bit and then I ended up deciding to join your program. And then in that September when it started, I obviously had huge health problems and you thankfully had let me hold off and I knew I had to pick back up come the following January. And it had literally, it has been a lifesaver. And I don’t want to get emotional, but I know I’m going to get emotional because I was diagnosed with FND, which is Functional Neurological Disorder, and there’s no cure for it.
It’s like four out of 10 people, four to 10 people out of every hundred thousand have this previously known as the conversion disorder. But basically your mind and your body does not connect and there’s nothing you can do for it. But after doing a lot of research and going through the program was so helpful because I didn’t feel like I was beating myself up every time I was answering questions. I was learning about myself in ways to think about food and I didn’t have the energy to focus on food. I needed that energy to keep me going for my body, my body needed it. I needed to figure out a way to connect my mind with my body. And it wasn’t happening and it was doing so many different things where I would freeze. It still happens, but less on some meds now, that kind of help.
But overall, I really feel like my health has changed seriously because of this program, because it kept me consistent. And it was just the way you said things. Why can’t you have that? I’m like, oh, why can’t I have that? You know what I mean? Why can’t I have it? And you said something to me one time about why do you need to keep on eating? And I says, to keep going. And you’re like, well, why don’t you just stop? And I’m like, who stops? Nobody stops. I go from the minute I wake up to the minute I go to bed, and it’s last February, almost a year ago was February vacation. And you had mentioned to me, just try taking a 20 minute nap or something just to reset. And I was like, she is off her rocker. But I made it a point to do it every day at a certain time for 20 minutes to take that nap.
And then from there it was these little baby steps. And then it turned into the focus was no longer on food at all. It was on these next steps to keep helping me connect my mind with my body and implying my energy towards that and making myself feel good rather than focus on food. So I hadn’t stepped on the scale probably once. I didn’t worry about the scale. I don’t worry about my food. I eat whatever the heck I want, whenever the heck I want and however much I want. And I have no issues as far as food goes. It’s weird. It’s like I don’t even think about it anymore. And it’s been, I put that reminder in my phone that I shared with you, did I do a full year? And I was like, I actually did a full year. This is my lifestyle now.
I don’t even focus on food. It’s like I can show up anywhere and be like, do I want cake? Sure, have it. Great. I’m done with it. I had my fix, I’m done with it. Or do I want to have multiple fudgesicles? Sure, go ahead. Have them. If you want to have ’em, go ahead. Have them. Sure. So it allowed me to take the focus off of food and go right into taking care of me, which then continued to lead into more yoga, more Pilates, more barre and these things that I can do virtually from home. I had hoped to lose weight, but that wasn’t the goal. The goal was to get myself healthier because back in July, the doctor had told me if he doesn’t see progression with me, he is going to put me out in disability. And I had said, please give me until August to do this.
Please give me me until August. And he gave me until August. And I went back and he was impressed. He still said I was optimistic. He actually said I was optimistic. I’m still, the FND is still kicking my butt, but my outlook on it is great. So I was like, Hey, I’ll take it. And then I never really factored in the weight loss. That wasn’t really my thing. It was more of just stopping that binge part. And then I realized the weight was coming off, but I wasn’t doing anything. I wasn’t counting points. I wasn’t counting calories, I wasn’t listening to anybody. I wasn’t leaving notes everywhere, nothing and weight was falling off. And it continued to fall off. And as of today, over 60 pounds has come off. I’ve been put on medication that’s known to gain weight, two of them. And I’m losing weight and I’m not doing anything other than just my daily routine of these habits that I’ve created through the program. And trying these little baby steps and learning how to retrain your voice comes through my head quite often. Just the training and the thought process behind how much food can take so much control of your life. And it did. It controlled my life and it no longer does.

Kirstin:
Why do you think it did? Why do you think that you were so focused on food for such a long time?

Nicole:
Comfort. Food is comfort in my emotions. So if I’m happy, I eat, if I’m sad, I eat. If I’m depressed, I eat. If I’m not feeling good, I eat. If I ate something that I thought was bad, I would eat something to try to make myself feel better. And then I tried to balance it off. So you have your sweet, and then you have your salt, and then you have your sweet and your salt, and then you feel sick, and then you try to have a dinner after it because you feel like maybe you should eat a salad or something. And then it’s like, well, you need the sweet on top of it. It’s like this ridiculous vicious cycle that just keeps on going.

Kirstin:
How do you think that all of this was affecting your life? How was this these obsessive focusing on food? How was that affecting your life and how were you showing up in life because of it?

Nicole:
So it was negatively affecting my life, just of self-esteem, the energy, the confidence. I always feel really good to have fun around people, but I was also noticing that I was shying away from going out. It got to the point where I was eating so much. It’d be like, all right, I’ll go, what food do you have there? You know what I mean? Thinking about what kind of yummy food can I get? I’ll get rewarded. I really don’t want to go, but I get rewarded with food if I go, it feels so good not to be there in that place.

Kirstin:
Yeah. So when you were in that place, what were you trying in order to stop being that way?

Nicole:
I’ve tried things that I’ve tried before that worked, and why aren’t they working? They worked before. I’ve done this before. Why is this not working? Okay, I am a failure. And it’s like, okay, well, you’re not all trying all those things were not working. But this worked, connecting with the group. I had one of the mini group sessions. I wasn’t alone. There’s other people around. I’ve tried binge eating anonymous, all these things and trying to be like, okay, well let’s think of this as if I was an alcoholic. Maybe if I give myself a coin at the end of the month, you know what I mean? It’s just all these weird thoughts or let’s pretend we’re going to go up the hill with magnets. Instead of looking at it as going down in weight, let’s look at it going up, try to put all these different spins and everything failed. And the timing just had to be just so, and it’s worked out well.

Kirstin:
Yeah. Why do you think you decided to sign up for the coaching program when you did? Why then?

Nicole:
It was in August, and I was on the boat, and I remember specifically being on the boat listening to your podcast and your upcoming program. And I contemplated it and I contemplated and I listened over and over and I was thinking back to times when I was on the boat and times I was comfortable in my body and in my skin and here I am fully covered up. I’m downstairs, I’m not upstairs. I’m not having conversations with people. I don’t feel comfortable. I feel like everybody’s looking at me. My face was like a tomato. My self-esteem and my confidence were just in the tubes and my health before the FND I had heart issues, which is probably related to the FND now, but that was the other thing. I had to have a heart monitor, put it in, and I’m like, my gosh, I have all these things. I didn’t have these problems when I was lighter. This weight has got to be contributing to how it’s contributing to how I feel, but it’s contributing to my health and I want to be able to run around with grandkids someday. I want to still have that speed and run and go hiking and all this other stuff. But at that time, I was out of breath. I just wasn’t there. So it was time for a change and I signed up and I’m so happy I did.

Kirstin:
Yeah, I’m happy you did too. And why do you think that you were so committed? Because there’s a lot of people that also have very compelling to do this work just like you had, but they’re not as committed. So what do you think it was for you that made you so committed?

Nicole:
I think I definitely had built up a connection with you through the podcast. So I had that going. So I already had that trust and rapport with you, and I’ve had great coaches in the past, but for different reasons, for fitness competitions and so forth. But when we had these meetings together, you weren’t alone. The people within the group, everybody was the same. We were all the same. We were all going through the same struggles. And I think this stuck with me because I continued to show up, and every day I showed up every day I possibly can. I had the workbook and I listened, and I did the channel that you had that worked out great, because even if you weren’t saying anything, somebody else was saying it for you and then you were answering it. So that was another way of just continuing these voices of saying, you got this, you can do this.
And the joy eating workshop that we did, I think I had something that I can actually, I remember what it was. It was the General Tsao’s Chicken from Trader Joe’s, and I love it. And I had it with rice, and that was my joy food, just because I didn’t have a chance to get ice cream. And I remember looking at it after so long, I don’t even, why is this? I don’t even want this. I’m not even hungry. What is going on? And that really threw me off that joy food. So I kind of keep that in mind, really enjoy the food that you have, enjoy it, and you don’t have to enjoy it in a way where you have to binge on it to make yourself sick, but enjoy it in a way that you’ve had enough, you fulfilled and you carry on, but you’re not thinking about it all the time.
It’s like, carry on. There’s delicious bagels downstairs and at school. And I could get one every day. I could get dessert every day if I wanted to, but I don’t want to. But some days I do get the breakfast pizza and I don’t feel there’s no guilt at all. No guilt. It’s like, enjoy it. Have half of it if you want. Have all of it. It’s so crazy to me. And I don’t know if you, I am sure you have others that feel this way, but it’s just so weird to me because it has just been such a huge energy. It literally sucked the life out of me for so long. And if I hadn’t made a change with this program, don’t think I would be, I’d seriously be disabled right now. And I cry saying that because I really feel like this program has kept me even after it ended just on that page, to just keep moving forward. And I force myself and I do the best I can. So if I can’t complete a whole yoga, it’s okay. If I have a migraine, it’s okay. My body’s moving. I’m still doing something. And that continuous daily day-to-day action has brought me here.

Kirstin:
Yes, yes, you are where you are now because you committed yourself and you even committed yourself after the program had finished. When you emailed me and you told me that you had committed for an entire year, so we started a little over a year ago, and you’re still doing it. You didn’t just finish the program and be like, I’m cured, I’m great. Nope.

Nicole:
And I never….

Kirstin:
Even, I’m just not even try anymore.

Nicole:
And I never even thought about it. I never thought of it because it just became part of who I am. I didn’t have a weight goal. My goal basically was to keep myself from being disabled. That was my goal, that I could go back to my doctor’s and I could be like, here I am. I’m doing everything that I can. I’m doing the best that I can. My weight is not a factor. The last time I went to my doctor, he had said, your weight, you’re a little bit obese. And I was like, yeah, yeah, I know I’ve had issues, blah, blah, blah. And he says, well, by your next physical, I’d like you to lose two pounds. He may not even recognize me at that next physical because I didn’t lose two pounds. I lost 60.2 pounds. So it might throw him off a little bit. But that wasn’t my goal. My goal was just to survive daily every day and just make the best of it.

Kirstin:
That is why you were so committed, because you had this really important, compelling reason to show up for yourself every day and be conscious of what you’re doing and pay attention to yourself and manage your thinking and do all of the things that you have learned to do.

Nicole:
And I’m excited about it. I’m not meal prepping, I’m not counting calories. I’m not doing any of that. I counted calories in the beginning when I started because I was afraid I wasn’t eating enough. And you had said another thing, do you eat when you’re hungry or do you just eat to eat? And now I eat when I’m hungry.

Kirstin:
That’s so awesome. Yeah. So what did you find to be the most challenging part of this work?

Nicole:
I would say as much as I showed it up, that was the most challenging, was showing up. Some days my body doesn’t move. I can’t move or it freezes or it shakes or whatever. And I continued to show up regardless. I continued to make sure that I was getting myself at least 10,000 steps a day, even if it was in little baby increments, because that’s all I could do for that time. That was enough, do the best that I can. And all that was enough. I accepted that whatever I was doing was enough and I didn’t need to do any more. This was enough. It was basic enough.

Kirstin:
And I think that that’s something that stops a lot of people from showing up for themselves, is having these huge expectations for themselves or have these goals that are just not doable day to day. And so if you can’t do all of it, if you can’t be perfect, then it’s not worth doing it at all. But you got through the challenge of showing up for yourself by allowing yourself to just show up in whatever small way you possibly could.

Nicole:
And that’s what got me through. And I didn’t realize it until that reminder came up on my phone and I was like, oh my gosh, a whole year. I was like, I have to reach out to her again. I was like, I cannot believe I’ve done something for a whole year without even trying to do it. But subconsciously it’s ingrained in. It’s me.

Kirstin:
Yeah. Yes. So what do you think was the most impactful change that you made?

Nicole:
I think being diligent, really choosing what’s important. You’ve actually not only helped me with the eating of binge eating, but you’ve also impact of slow down, stop take in your surroundings, enjoy other things. It doesn’t always have to be food. It can be the beautiful white snow outside. It could be a sunset. It could be just I stare up at the stars all the time and just stare and thank the heavens and say hello to mom. And just being able to appreciate everything around me without it being food related. I tell you, I do appreciate food. When it does come around, it is like, oh, that’s really good. And then there’s something I’m just not even into anymore. I’m just like, I don’t even want that. I don’t feel like I even need to eat this. I’ll have a little bit. But…

Kirstin:
Yeah. Yes. So how do you think your relationship with yourself has changed through this process?

Nicole:
I love me. I do. I really, really do. I’m proud of myself in so many different ways. I’m proud of the fact that 2023 was a imperfectionist year, and I was able to do it. I showed up every day for myself and that all the symptoms and issues that I was having have lessened more and more. And I think that’s contributed to me feeling good. I am so happy and proud of myself and love myself, genuinely love myself. And people obviously can see it. But with that, if you think back to the boat, I wasn’t getting visible and I wasn’t getting out there. And now if somebody calls me up and if I can do it, I most certainly will go out and there’s no hesitation. I don’t worry about what I’m wearing. I don’t fight with my clothes. Just overall, I’m just so happy with where I’m at and where I continue to go.
But it feels effortless. And it’s so strange to me. Everything just seems effortless. Where before all my energy was so focused on my next meal and my food, and gosh, I eat like I’m going to be put out in the woods for months, and why do I eat like this? And my family has a bad health history. And as you get older, your body changes, health problems come on. And that’s the last thing I want to have on me, is to know that I didn’t take care of my health and my problem, and now I am losing years off my life that I won’t have down the road. Just different things like that. It’s like if you think future-wise, this gave me longevity. I mean, really longevity, it’s helped me keep a job. It’s kept me from being disabled. I’m not running down to the disability office trying to figure out how I’m going to pay my bills.
This has given me so much that I can’t from the bottom of my heart, this program that you have put together has been so impactful on my life. Nobody has a cure for FND, but Kirstin, you, my friend, have made me fricking function. I can’t even express it. I don’t even know if I could just give you a big hug just because if I had continued down that road of binge eating with these health problems, there’s times I can’t move. If I continue to eat and somebody’s got to move me, I’m putting that on my family. And when somebody’s body is completely frozen and their muscles are tightened up, they’re stiff is a rock. You can barely move them as it is. So having all that weight on me wasn’t any help to that at all. And I don’t know if my symptoms have lessened because of a medication or if they lessened because I’m 60 pounds less, I don’t know. And I don’t care. They’ve lessened. I’m not disabled. I don’t worry about food. I’m continuously active. I get between 10 and 20,000 steps in a day. I don’t even know how to thank you, really, because it’s just been amazing. It really, really has. So thank you.

Kirstin:
You’re welcome. And make sure you thank yourself as well, because as we’ve said, you are the one that showed up and did the work. And you say that it’s like you’re not even doing work and it’s effortless. And this is because you did the work.
Things become effortless because you repeat them and you practice them and you do them. And also because you worked on changing your mind, your thoughts. And when you change your thoughts, the actions just fall in line. And I’m sure for so many years, just like most of us, you’re just trying to do the actions and change the behaviors and not actually working on what’s happening in your head. And that’s really where the work needs to be done.

Nicole:
Big time. The negative flaws. I was just thinking the other day, I got on the scale and I forgot, I had pasta I think the night before or whatever, and I was like, I’ll just get on the scale to see where I’m at. This is kind of fun now. And I got on the scale and I was like, oh, up cool. And I walked away and I laughed about it and I was like, well, why would you even get on the scale? You had a big pasta meal with garlic bread, you had all that. And I think I had ice cream on top of it. And I was like, why would you even do it? Who cares? There would’ve been a difference before. Because if I got on that scale and it was up, I would’ve been like, well, that’s because I ate this last night. What was I thinking? And then you go through feeling like crap, and you start your entire day off like that. So it is totally thought process because now I laugh at the scale, no big deal. I’ll step on it. Sure, I’ll step on it. I don’t care. It’s a number I really don’t even care because it, it’s not going to dictate how I’m going to feel today.

Kirstin:
Yes. And it’s also not a big deal if you eat pasta and garlic bread.

Nicole:
And ice cream.

Kirstin:
And ice cream. So that being said, how do you think your relationship with food has changed? I mean, it clearly has changed a lot.

Nicole:
Because I don’t constantly binge. I don’t constantly crave. So I don’t constantly need, which I constantly don’t buy, which I constantly don’t think about. So it’s not even a problem, really. That’s what it comes down to is it’s not even. It’s like whatever.

Kirstin:
How do you think that shift happened?

Nicole:
When you made the comment to me about eat when you’re hungry, only eat when you’re hungry. And I was like, isn’t that what we do all the time? You only only eat when we’re hungry. But that wasn’t the case.

Kirstin:
Well, not only eat when you’re hungry, right? Because we want to eat when we’re hungry. But also we want to have ice cream after dinner when we’re not hungry sometimes.

Nicole:
Yes, yes.

Kirstin:
Just to clarify.

Nicole:
But that comment of eating, eating when

Kirstin:
You’re hungry, instead of just eating because it’s time to eat or eating just because. Yes. So waiting for hunger.

Nicole:
So that was it is, I couldn’t tell at first when I was actually hungry or not, because I just ate nonstop. So it was more of a, it was like, alright, I’m eating now. I’m eating now. I don’t know when I’m supposed to eat because I can’t tell if I’m hungry or not, because again, I eat. I’m built for the woods for survival. So I think at that point of backing up and eating when I felt hungry, after so long of slowing down, cutting back on the binge eating, going through the program, being okay, if I did have a binge, it was totally okay how I felt after it, noticing how I felt after it. And then I think because of that is why it just like, okay, so now I just eat whenever, basically when I want, but not when I want because I’m so stressed out right now, and I’ve got to have something. If I get like that, I go outside and go for a walk, it gives me the same feeling. You know what I mean? It’s like, alright, if you want a can of Coke or whatever, go ahead, have it. If that’s what’s going to satisfy you right now, have it. It’s okay. So I don’t have those constant need of like, give me, give me, give me, because I can have it.

Kirstin:
And there’s a difference between eating just because you have this desire for a soda or a desire for something versus like you said, I need it because I need to get out of this feeling.

Nicole:
Yes. Right. And a lot of that was, I need to get out of this feeling. It was comfort. It was constant. Comfort. Comfort, comfort, comfort. And then comfort for the feeling, like crap, comfort. Just again, that cycle and breaking that was just huge, huge. Again, I’m just proud, happy. And I have this big sile on my face, effortless to me now. And I know it’s like show up, show up, show up. But it’s just like, here I am. This is what I’m doing. This is my life. This is how I function, this is how my body works. This is what we do. We get up, we go, we do this. You can do it in the morning, great. But you always make sure that you have this in because this is what makes your body go. And as long as I do that, my body continues to behave, and it’s all about my mind connecting to my body. Yeah.

Kirstin:
So what would you say to someone else who’s been bingeing for a long time, doing it a lot, and maybe they have a lot of doubt about whether they could stop. What would you want to say to them?

Nicole:
Invest in yourself. You’re worth it. You’re totally worth it. Your family’s worth it. You’re worth it. I remember thinking about should I spend this money and contemplating. And I’m like, you know what? It’s like therapy. I pay money to go to therapy. If I was going to go to therapy, it’d be $75 or whatever the heck it is. And it’s like the same thing. If I can work this program and work with who I was partnered up with and grouped with, and I can make this work, I’m not guilty for spending that money on myself. And if you ask me now about the money that I spent on it, I would’ve spent so much more, seriously, much so much more if I knew what this was going to give me. Because it literally has been my medicine. This has been my medicine for me, and it’s given my life back, literally given me my life back in so many ways.
So for anybody out there that is contemplating doing the program, if anybody is hesitant in doing this, just invest in yourself. It’s totally worth it. Totally worth it. How can you not say it’s worth it when look at me. It’s so worth it. You basically have taken a person, a handicapped person, and over the year has transformed into a person that is functional. And I can fricking function. And now I can say, I had a binge eating disorder. I had. I fixed it. It’s gone. I don’t have it anymore. I can literally say that because I truly believe that this problem is not a problem anymore. It’s not. It’s just not a problem. I’m not worried. I can’t say enough about it. I really can’t. It’s done wonders for me and to be here, I am extremely grateful for the program.

Kirstin:
Any other words of wisdom that you would like to share that you haven’t already?

Nicole:
Don’t be a perfectionist. That’s it. Don’t be a perfectionist and just do the best that you can and make it a point, make yourself a priority. You have to make yourself a priority, whether it’s food or exercise. Nobody can take care of you better than you. And if you can’t take care of yourself, you can’t take care of others and just don’t be a perfectionist. Just focus on the little things at a time. And eventually those little things will mound up to something like loving yourself. And that’s a pretty awesome feeling.

Kirstin:
And I think it goes along with what you said before, you deserve to be a priority and you deserve to take care of yourself.

Nicole:
Absolutely. Yep. But it’s hard. It’s hard to make yourself a number one priority. It’s hard when you have people pulling you in every direction and you think everything else is priority. But once you make yourself a priority, once you get that down, it’s easy to say no to people. It’s so easy to say no to people. Just be real and be honest and show up. Just don’t be a perfectionist. I think that in all these years, I think being a perfectionist has really crippled me, and I don’t want to say that as in crippled me with the FND, but literally just crippled me and taking so much energy out of me just to focus on food. But yeah, that’s what I would have for words of wisdom, basically. Just don’t be a perfectionist and show up for yourself. Make yourself a number one priority.

Kirstin:
I love it. Very wise.

Nicole:
Yeah.

Kirstin:
So good. Yeah. Thank you. Well, thank you, Nicole, for being here, for sharing everything that you’ve shared, for sharing your story, for sharing all of it. You’re amazing. Thank you very much. And I know you already are, but be so proud of yourself.

Nicole:
Thank you. I am. And thank you so, so much. And I know you have so many successful stories, but from the bottom of my heart, thank you for what you’ve put together for people out there to become different and to give them another chance at life. It really is. Even with or without a disability, it is another opportunity to have life in a whole different perspective without feeling the guilt of food and beating up yourself. Living that way is just not, it’s not fair. We go through enough stuff and just, yeah. Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And I will definitely keep in touch for sure, and I’m listening to your podcast and sharing and so forth, because it’s just really been a wonderful journey that I plan to continue on, even though it seems very effortless, but hey, I’m all for it. I’m game for it.

Kirstin:
I mean if it’s effortless, why not do it?

Nicole:
Right? Here I am. Yeah.

Kirstin:
Oh, awesome.

——-

Wow, right? After going through a roller coaster with her eating for all those years, and then being diagnosed with FND, she then prioritized herself and worked on herself to completely change her eating habits and as an added bonus, lost 60lbs. Incredible.

She really is such an inspiration and I hope she has helped you to believe in yourself more and believe that not only can you do this too but, you deserve to. You really do.

She is such an amazing example of what is possible when you prioritize yourself and commit to yourself and I really hope you do that for yourself too.

And if you want to go through the same process she did in The Stop Binge Eating Program and get the same help she did, registration for the next round will be opening on May 22nd of 2024 so mark it on your calendar and get on the waitlist now by going to coachkir.com/group and you can find all the details about the program on that page as well.

But after reading through that page, if you have any questions, feel free to email them info@coachkir.com.

Be like Nicole. Make yourself a priority, invest in yourself, and become a changed person.

Alright, I’ll talk to you again soon. Bye bye.