Ep #286: Binge Eating Success Stories – Amanda, Lisa, & Samantha

Hi! Before we get into today’s episode, which I’m so excited for you to hear, I want to remind you that registration for the next round of The Stop Binge Eating Group Coaching Program is opening this Thursday, January 25^th of 2024.

This could be your chance to make huge changes with your eating, along with huge changes in yourself, in how you feel, and how much time and energy you waste obsessing about food and recovering from binges.

Don’t pass up this opportunity if you’re so tired of bingeing and know that a life without it would be exponentially better for you in so many ways. For most people, it is, and you can become one of those people.

So if you’re listening to this before registration opens you can join the waitlist, or if it’s open as you’re listening, you can register now at coachkir.com/group.

There’s also a ton of information about the program on that page so read it through and if you have any questions that aren’t answered there, send them to info@coachkir.com.

And now, today’s episode.

For the first time ever, I did a group interview for the podcast and you’ll be hearing from three people who were all a part of the same Stop Binge Eating Group.

Binge eating can be such an isolating problem to have, and I bet all of us at one time or another have felt really alone in the struggle. But doing this work in a group setting can have such a positive impact and can create camaraderie and support that is invaluable as you do this work.

And this group they were in was a great example of that.

So not only are you going to hear about their experiences with working on this together but, they’re also going to share their biggest obstacles that they overcame and some helpful insights that they had along the way.

They are all wonderful people that I loved working with so much and all of them had incredible transformations.

And as they did with each other, I have no doubt that you will resonate with and relate to them and learn something from them as well.

So without further ado, let’s jump into the interview! Here we go!

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Kirstin: Welcome to all of you. We have today Amanda and Samantha and Lisa, who were all part of the same stop binge-eating group, and I’m so excited to have all of you here. So to get started, I just want each of you to tell me a little bit about yourself or tell us, the listeners, a little bit about yourself, a little bit about your history with eating and with binge-eating. So Lisa, we’ll start with you.

Lisa: Okay. So good to see you, guys. Good to be here. It’s reminiscent of our time together. So I’m Lisa. I’m 66 years old. I would say that my relationship with sweet, which has always been my big go-to binge thing has been since I was a child. It’s just something that I did. I would go down to the 7/11 on my bike and get a whole penny candy bag of candy. I guess candy was 1 cent a piece. You could get a lot of candy. I would eat it all by myself. I don’t think I even like to share my sweets back then, and I still don’t like to share my sweets. I want them for myself.

We didn’t have a lot of sweets in our household. Growing up in the ’50s and the ’60s, it was a different kind of food then. Now I think it’s much more common for there to be lots of processed foods and that kind of thing. It wasn’t like that for our family. So that through my whole life has been my go-to binge food. I mean, there have been other things, but nothing compares to the relationship that I’ve had with sugar. It could be M&Ms, any kind of crappy chocolate from the grocery store, love cake, anything. It doesn’t really matter what it is. We’ve had a very long intimate relationship with sugar for my whole life, pretty much.

Kirstin: Yeah. So what has the relationship been like?

Lisa: It’s been fraught with, I would say, turmoil and it’s not a good relationship. It’s a relationship that we should have been divorced a long time ago because there was a lot of suffering involved with it. It would make me feel really bad about myself. I would make me feel really bad physically, which is always I think the most important thing. It would make me depressed also, which is not great. It would make me feel horrible the day after when I would wake up. I mean, there’s really nothing in the past that was good about my relationship with sweets. I didn’t really have a lot of control. Weight was never my big… I mean, I’ve been overweight in my life, but not massively. For me, it was just how crappy I felt physically, emotionally, and mentally. It just really affected me so much in my life in a bad way.

Kirstin: Why do you think you kept doing it?

Lisa: Because I think there was comfort in it for me. It was familiar. It was something I knew. It was comfort on some really kind of sick way, if you think about it, because really I think maybe we can all maybe relate to this, the only time it really felt like comfort was when in the moment of eating it, right? The taste of it, the smell of it, the feel of it in my mouth. But then after that, it was a plummeting downhill into the depths of darkness really a lot of the time for me.

Kirstin: And this has changed quite a bit?

Lisa: It really, really has.

Kirstin: Yes. We’ll talk more about that in just a moment. Awesome. Thank you, Lisa, for sharing that.

Lisa: Okay.

Kirstin: All right, Samantha, let’s hear from you. Tell us a little bit about yourself and your history with eating and with binge-eating.

Samantha: My name’s Samantha and I’m 42. I think I’ve had it off and on for periods of my life. The binge-eating became more as I went on a fitness journey, and I wanted to feel like I was in control and I didn’t feel like I had control over the consumption of my food, which was something that destroyed me, destroyed my confidence and my self-esteem, because I was like, “This is such a simple thing, yet it feels so difficult for me.” And I kept having that narrative, which I exasperated it. So I learned that I was telling myself a story and lying to myself because I was saying I’m out of control, and I was judging myself, and yeah.

Kirstin: So why do you think you kept going to it? Why do you think you kept falling into binge-eating?

Samantha: Because I didn’t know how to do anything different. And I think learning sometimes the simple things are the most difficult, and I just didn’t really have that understanding of how to think differently, how to speak to myself differently, how to just make changes.

Kirstin: I think so many other people struggle with that as well. I think what you experienced was really common.

Samantha: Yeah, unfortunately.

Kirstin: But Lisa, this has changed and we’ll talk more about it in just a moment, right?

Samantha: Right.

Kirstin: Yes, awesome. Thank you, Samantha. All right. Amanda, who are you? What’s your history? What you got?

Amanda: Hi, I’m Amanda. I’m 51. I feel like Lisa is my sister from another mister right here, because mine goes back to childhood as well. When I think about Easter as a little kid or Halloween as a little kid, I would eat all of my good candy the very first day. My sisters would save theirs for weeks, and I’d look at them like, “How do you do this?” And same thing. We didn’t have a lot of sweets in the house, but if mom bought a great box of cereal, oh man, I had to have that right away.

So I feel like I always struggled with it a bit. As an adult, it really became amplified. I would say about five years ago, there was a betrayal in my marriage and got divorced, and I did see a therapist about binge-eating and my depression, and she helped me work through a lot of my grief. But I still… That binge-eating, I just couldn’t stop it. I would eat so much that I’d be in physical pain every night. I’d have to sleep sitting up. And then you wake up in the morning and go through the whole guilt and shame cycle. So it really just brought me on a downward spiral for years.

And I think now looking back, I was just using it for comfort. I was trying to make myself feel better. And like Lisa said, it felt so good in the moment. It was just what I needed. It was just what I wanted. It was what I looked forward to all day. I would think about that treat at night. It was just that little something, and turned out to be a lot of something, that was going to make me feel better at the end of the day. Thankfully, I don’t think about it that way anymore.

Kirstin: Yeah. So what was it that was the last straw that made you decide to sign up for the program and get help with this?

Amanda: Yeah. So I had listened to your podcast for quite some time. I loved it because I’m like, “Gosh, this is just such practical advice. All I have to do is listen to her. And I got this.” And then I would just slip out of it. There was just one more night of eating to where I was just in so much pain, and I’m like, “Why am I doing this to myself?” And the next day, I got your email about your program. I had toyed with signing up I don’t know how many times before that. And this time I was like, “Amanda, you just have to. What do you have to lose? You’ve tried all these programs.” I don’t know how many books I have on my shelf that were to stop binge-eating and the therapist and all that kind of stuff. I said, “What do I have to lose? Nothing. Just try it.” Worst you can say is, “Nope, it didn’t work for me.” But I was like, “That’s it. I have to try something at that point.”

Kirstin: Yep, yep. And I’m so glad you did.

Amanda: Oh, me too. Me too.

Kirstin: So tell me, Amanda, what was the biggest obstacle that you overcame that was related to your binge-eating and how did you do it?

Amanda: Yeah, so I think my biggest thing, and this again goes back to being that kid and feeling like I had to beat my siblings to the good stuff, but I think it was in at least one individual coaching session and probably two group coaching sessions where when we were talking about my eating, I said something like, “I’d feel like I’d be missing out.” And it was just like, “Wait, what? And you said missing out on what?” And I’m like, “I don’t even know. What am I missing out?” The food’s going to be there tomorrow. There’s no competition for the food. Nobody else is racing me to the lucky charms.

And so it was kind of that realization, and I would tell myself that like, “Hey, I can buy a dozen donuts and not eat them all in two days. If I have one, there’s going to be more tomorrow and the next day. And guess what? When I get rid of that box, I could go buy more.” And I think such an obvious statement to somebody who doesn’t binge-eat, they’re probably like, “Well, no crap. Of course it’s going to be there tomorrow.” But for me, I feel like through those coaching calls, it finally sunk in like, “There isn’t this urgency, Amanda. It’s going to be there tomorrow.” And all of a sudden it felt like that clicked. I think that was the biggest thing, because thinking back again to when I was a kid, I had to have it before it was gone. And I think that just carried through adulthood with me.

So again, it’s nice. I’ve had donuts sitting in my freezer individually wrapped since we had a joy food workshop. So what’s that? Two months? They’re still sitting in my freezer. So it’s just one of those things like, “Wow, that would never have happened before. Ever.’

Kirstin: Yes. Yeah. So before, you had this scarcity mindset, it’s fear of it going away that you weren’t going to be able to get what you wanted, and you realize that it’s not going anywhere and you can have it again. So there’s no rush. There’s no urgency to try and get it all in now.

Amanda: Exactly. Yep. And it’s such a different mindset than I’ve ever had in my life. I even remember when I would travel for work, I had to make sure I had snacks at the airport just in case the hotel didn’t have them. Or I’d buy two of everything. Just in case I ate one, I would still have one in the cupboard. Just when I think of all the years I spent thinking about making sure I have that snack, making sure I have something ready, it’s so crazy to look back at now and see that thinking.

Kirstin: Well, what’s it like now?

Amanda: Oh my gosh. It’s wonderful. I don’t think about it. It’s like if I want to have a donut, I forget those are in my freezer. I’ve gone to Dunkin’ Donuts and grabbed a donut because I forgot there’s some in my freezer. But I don’t think about it. It’s crazy. It’s just so different. It’s hard to describe.

Kirstin: Yeah, it’s awesome though. That’s so awesome.

Amanda: It is.

Kirstin: What a really cool shift that you made.

Amanda: Oh my gosh, totally. Totally.

Kirstin: Yes. Awesome. Thank you for sharing that.

Amanda: Yeah, thank you.

Kirstin: Great. Lisa, tell me about your biggest obstacle.

Lisa: So I would say my biggest obstacle was learning to let the urges be there. And that was really a challenge for me, is to being okay with discomfort and knowing that the urges are not going to be there forever. They’re just sort of a passing thought really like everything else that we think about in our minds. And that’s really changed a lot, because as we all know, my mother died in the middle of the program. And for the part that after she fell and she was progressively dying and then dying, then I was alone and life was very, very different. So now I’m back to where I was before my mother died. So the fact that I was able to deal with all that, her dying… I mean, I ate more than I would’ve liked to, but I didn’t really go off the rails like I would have before I started the program. There’s 100% it was very, very different. But that was definitely…

And so lately I’ve just been more, “This is just an urge, allow it.” And on one of your podcasts I listened to recently, you talked about just allowing the urges. Not even resisting. It was a difference between resisting and allowing. And that really resonated with me. So that I would say has been my biggest obstacle. And it’s just working with the tools about our thought, my thoughts, is just remarkable. I’ve used the skills in every area of my life about my thoughts. I mean, it’s really quite revelatory for me. So that’s my biggest obstacle, and I feel like I’m in a really good place with it at the moment.

Kirstin: Yes. And I do want to say something about when your mom died. You handled it extremely well. It was impressive to watch you go through that experience, I have to say, because some people may have just turned to food at that point and just gone back to old habits, and you did not do that. Why do you think that is?

Lisa: I think what they say, knowledge is power. And I think I have more knowledge now. And I also am much more committed to having the kind of self-talk to myself that says, “Well, how are you going to feel if you eat that?” Like how Amanda and I were talking about how we felt from eating sugar, I do not want to feel that way. I now want to feel better. And so that’s really, really stuck with me. And I think that’s just part of the tools that I learned. I mean, they’re just priceless tools, really, honestly, for what it’s helped me in my life.

Kirstin: Well, thank you, Lisa.

Lisa: You’re welcome.

Kirstin: All right. Samantha, tell us about your biggest obstacle and how you overcame it.

Samantha: So I was moving fast when I was eating, and that slowing down for me was huge because I would just eat very fast and just the slowing down got me to eat versus just shoveling food in my mouth. So that was transformative.

I’ve also applied that whole moving fast to a lot of areas of my life. Like in my communication, sometimes I can be rapid fire and then I’ll regret what I said. So it’s the same thing. It’s like, “Oh, I can eat all this food.” And then it’s like, “Oh, now I regret that I ate all this food.” So it’s the same sort of thing, the whole just moving very fast through that. And just slowing down. So I see myself now, I’m like, “Oh, I’m going really fast again.” So I can just slow down. So that was huge.

And then I didn’t realize that I could have my own rules around what would work for me and what wouldn’t work for me. They didn’t have to be the same as somebody else. And I can have struggles with certain things and somebody else might not and they can judge it like, “Oh, well, how come you can’t handle this?” or whatever. Well, maybe I just can’t, or I don’t want to, or this isn’t a struggle that I want to put myself around or I want to be around.

So just also feeling empowered and giving myself permission to have my own rules for myself that don’t align with others was very freeing. And then choosing that I’m making my decisions, because I had a lot of conflict of like, am I being too rigid around just deciding what would work for me? I had a lot of conflict because I’m like, “Am I being too rigid or am I just doing what is right for me?” So having the intention of making my choices for my goals, where others might feel restricted around but for me, my intention is my intention, I felt very conflicted of am I being… Just making those decisions was very difficult.

Kirstin: Yeah, because what one person may think is too restrictive, it might not be for another person because it really is the intention behind it and what you want and what’s best for you. And we’re all different. And this is why we can’t just follow a set of rules that someone created and say, “This is how you are supposed to eat. This is how much you’re supposed to eat,” and all of that when we’re all very different, our bodies are very different. And we need to find that authentic place for ourselves. It sounds like you did such a great job of finding that for you.

Samantha: Yeah, I think just having my own ways and my own rules for myself, and that doesn’t have to be what somebody else has. So that was really powerful. Because I would judge myself like, “How come I am not like that?” Or, “How come I feel differently?” or, “How come that just doesn’t work for me?” So that radical acceptance of my intentions, my needs, and what I like.

Kirstin: Yes. So what would you say was the most helpful insight or the most helpful aha moment that you experienced for yourself?

Samantha: I think with the thoughts, discovering that my thoughts were… They weren’t very supportive for me, meaning I would say to myself like, “Well, I can’t stop and I can stop. So just choosing better thoughts, or “I can do this,” or “I want to do this,” or… Yeah, I mean, there were just so many. There were a lot of aha moments. I even had that narrative that I’m dying throughout the back of my brain periodically.

Kirstin: When you’re feeling an urge or when you’re feeling an emotion?

Samantha: Yeah. Usually when I’m feeling overwhelmed. I would create this thought, “I’m dying,” and then it would just exasperate everything. But the thoughts of “I can’t stop or I’m out of control” were narratives also that I had in my head, and I am in control. I have full control. Even if that is me choosing to eat more than what maybe I should consume, I am still in control and I am capable. So letting go of those thoughts was really, really powerful. I am in control, even if that is eating whatever, and I’m doing it from a place of I’m choosing to, and “Okay, I ate that. I’m going to move on.”

Kirstin: Yes. And that’s how we let go of guilt. That’s how we let go of powerlessness. It’s how we let go of the shame. “There’s something wrong with me.” We have to recognize that. And it’s so awesome that you did. Thank you, Samantha.

Amanda, what was your biggest aha, your biggest helpful insight that you had?

Amanda: Like Samantha said, it’s hard to limit it to just one or two, but I do have a couple. The main one I think was I spent so many years in diet mentality that there were good foods, there were bad foods, there were cheap foods. Getting rid of those labels was so different for me.

I think you and I talked when it was one of the things. I wanted a certain protein bar, but I decided to get this one that only had three ingredients. It’s probably healthier, but it’s not at all what I wanted. And so why did I do that? It’s again because I had labeled this as probably healthier. But I’ve found that as I’ve stripped away the good, the bad, the healthier, the cheat, whatever, all these labels, it’s now I look at it and it’s just food. It’s just food. A salad’s a salad. A cookie’s a cookie. It’s just food. It’s not good. It’s not bad. It’s just food. So that was a real aha, like, “Oh, I don’t have to restrict. If I want a piece of cake, I’ll have a piece of cake. That’s fine.” So that was a big one.

The other one was because I used food as comfort. Why did it always have to be food? Why is food my only comfort? Why not a hot bath? Why not sitting around watching some cheesy movie? Why not going to bed at 7:00 because I feel like it? And so that was another thing like, “Why do I always choose food?” And so I started making those other choices of a bath or something else, something else that I enjoyed. So that was another huge aha.

Kirstin: Yeah. So why do you think you were choosing the food over those other things?

Amanda: I don’t know if it was just easy, it was just there, or I was just used to it. It had become such a habit to just stuff my face with something I enjoyed that I wouldn’t even think of, “Have a bath instead or just go do something or watch something.” So yeah, I think a lot of it was just this habit and I didn’t want to break it because I knew it would give me comfort. I knew it. I didn’t know if a bath would, but I knew a Snickers would, falsely.

Kirstin: Yes.

Amanda: Falsely. It did not really give comfort. But in my brain, that’s totally was my go-to.

Kirstin: Yeah. And now you have new go-tos-

Amanda: Exactly.

Kirstin: … that are not going to ultimately results in a negative consequence.

Amanda: Totally. I don’t have to sleep elevated. I don’t wake up feeling guilty and shameful and horrible about myself because I’m sorry, a cheesy movie is not going to make me feel bad next morning. So yeah, so different.

Kirstin: Yes. Oh my gosh, that’s amazing. Thank you, Amanda. And Lisa, what about you?

Lisa: Well, like Amanda and Samantha, and those names kind of rhyme in my mouth when I’m saying that, Amanda, Samantha. It almost sounds like just one big long name. But I had many aha moments. But my intention for doing the program was to have freedom with my thoughts around food. And as I’ve shared, I was in OA for five years, and it just felt like being on a… You get abstinence and it’s all about counting the days and break the absence. You have to start all over. It just felt really like a massive diet mentality to me, which I do not do well with that.

So I think the biggest takeaway for me today as I think about the program is that I have a deeper acceptance, compassion, kindness toward myself. And in my eating, I came in with that in a way that has been my intention, but it’s gotten so much deeper. And just now I feel like a normal… Normal people overeat sometimes. Sometimes over the holidays, I was full but I didn’t binge. And so I just, in my mind now, I say, “Well, that’s okay, because that’s just what… It’s Christmas. Of course, you’re going to maybe overeat. There was just a lot of good stuff, a lot of people, and it’s okay.” And you move on to the next day. It’s not a big deal. But I realized I haven’t binged in a what? Quite a while it seems like.

So for me, the biggest was feeling more of a depth of acceptance and just self-compassion for the part of me that used sugar as comfort. I have zero judgment about her. I just know she was just trying to find her way in life, and that’s what it was, it’s with sugar. And now she doesn’t do it that much anymore. And I have such a deeper relationship with that part of myself, I think. I just feel like she’s… I don’t know. I like to talk to her and just be gentle. Just be gentle with myself. So I think that’s my biggest. It’s just it’s gotten deeper now from doing the program, for sure.

Kirstin: Yeah. So your relationship with yourself has improved?

Lisa: Oh yeah. I just can’t even handle the way I hear people sometimes talk about food and diets. I think, “Oh my God, I feel so free from…” Like Amanda was just saying, it’s like there’s a neutrality around what I eat that is just so is the most freeing feeling. I cannot tell you, as we all probably know, and Kristin, you too I’m sure, how much thought about what I should eat. I read one of your newsletters recently, like you said, “What should I eat? Should I eat this? How much?” It was constant. It was absolutely exhausting in my brain. And now I just feel more neutral about things and it just is freeing. I have more space in my brain it seems like.

Kirstin: Yes, yes. That’s so awesome. How do you think that being part of a group helped you get here?

Lisa: The group was like having a personal cheerleading squad on my team. It’s like every time we did a win, people are so supportive. In calls, you see people nodding on the Zoom calls. I mean, it’s just like there’s a camaraderie that made me feel like people knew what I was talking about. Maybe our circumstances are different. We each have our own unique habits and ways that we’ve done things, but we all are here for the same reason. And that just felt really, really good to me and really, really comforting. And then I had my little small group with two other people, and that was really lovely. We met most weeks during the whole time. That was great too. It was just like having your buddies on this journey together. The whole entire support was great. It was wonderful.

Kirstin: Yes. And this group was so supportive of each other. It was just so wonderful to watch. Like you said, you’re posting your wins and people are commenting and cheering you on, and it was just so great to see. That’s so good.

Lisa: Yeah, it was really very special, I think. So thanks you guys for being on my team.

Kirstin: Yes. And what about you, Samantha? How do you think that the group helped you progress and helped you get to where you are now?

Samantha: Well, thanks for you all being on my team, too. I am very, very, very grateful. I had an amazing team. I just want to preface that I had a lot of reluctancy on doing the group work primarily because I thought I would be contaminated, that I was going to get worse. I really did think that I was too fragile at the time to be in a group situation that it would potentially make it worse. But I found that everybody, I could just simply really… I could relate so easily to everybody. I was like, “[inaudible 00:28:57] I think that way too. I didn’t even know it.” And I didn’t even know that I had these thoughts. So it was really so helpful because I was like, I could identify. I could be like, “Yes, that is unconsciously going on in the background of my head.” And that was extremely powerful for me because I was like, “Oh, I didn’t even know that I was doing that,” but I was.

So just having that awareness being brought to my conscious level was profound. So yeah, I felt really, really supported way more than what I felt like I gave back, but I just am so grateful for that experience. It was so helpful.

Kirstin: Given what I saw. You definitely gave back plenty. The other women here are shaking their heads as well. You definitely did. I think you bring up such a good point that sometimes we don’t even know what our obstacles are, what our thoughts are, what our feelings are, and then someone else vocalizes it and we’re like, “Oh my gosh, yes, that’s it.” And they say it better than you could have said it.

Samantha: Yeah. I mean, that is extremely powerful. Awareness is… I mean, how do you even know if you have this issue, if you’re not even aware of it? And that is very powerful to identify that, “Oh, I had this thought that this was happening because somebody else shared it. I could relate to myself even on a much deeper level.”

Kirstin: Such a good point. Thank you, Samantha. And Amanda, what do you have? Why did you love the group?

Amanda: Yeah. So I could echo everything Samantha and Lisa just said. The support was tremendous. Whether it was in Slack, whether it was in the group coaching calls, it was just this bond with these people that I didn’t know before the program started, but felt like an instant connection. The group coaching calls were so key for me because Samantha and Lisa said, I wouldn’t even think these things and then somebody would bring them up and I could instantly relate. I’d be like, “Oh my gosh, yes.” And then I got to benefit from your coaching them. So I found that I used that a lot like, “Oh, what would Kirstin say if I were thinking this?” Or, “Oh, what did she say to Lisa that time?” And I found myself making a lot of notes during those group coaching calls.

I also thought, “Well, this hasn’t come up for me yet, but it could. And so how will I tackle this if it does come up?” You think about all those weeks, each session, there were so many different questions that came up. I felt like we had the individual coaching sessions, but then it was like those times 10, because there were so many different people bringing up things. It was so beneficial. My favorite part of the program.

Kirstin: I love it. So good. So good. All right. Well, thank you all for sharing all of your experiences, all of your stories, everything that you have shared with us today. And the last thing I want to do is just open it up to any final words of wisdom, any thoughts that you have, any tips that you have that you think people would benefit from hearing? Yeah, Lisa?

Lisa: I also found you through podcasts like probably it seems like most people do. I was on your newsletter and I thought, “I’m not going to sign up for that. It just felt like too much money,” let’s say in the moment. So I realized, “Well, if I was going to do therapy, which I love therapy, it would be only…” When I found out I could pay on a payment plan, I did the math on how many therapy sessions it would be, and I went, “Oh my God, I’m going to sign up.” And then I went and I realized that I was a little bit past the time cutoff because I’m on the West Coast, I ended up signing up and obviously got in. So I would just say that it is worth every penny that you could possibly… There’s no way to put a price on what I’ve gotten for myself from doing this program. 100%, there’s no way that I could put a price on it. So it was worth every single penny.

Kirstin: I’m so glad you did it.

Lisa: Yeah, me too. Thank you, Kirstin. I’m one of your number one fans. I’m sure you have a lot. I still listen to your podcast. Almost every day I listen when I’m brushing my teeth. It’s still going in my brain.

Kirstin: Yeah, because you’re going to keep working on yourself. Why not?

Lisa: Yeah, absolutely.

Kirstin: If we can still keep improving ourselves and still work on things, why wouldn’t we?

Lisa: I know I will till the end of my life for sure. Just how I am.

Kirstin: Yeah, same. Same. Any other words of wisdom, thoughts, tips that you want to share?

Amanda: Again, I echo everything Lisa just said because I probably didn’t sign up the first few times because I’m like, “Oh, I shouldn’t spend this much money on myself.” But then when I think about all of the books I’ve spent or meal plans I’ve spent, diet things, oh my gosh, it’s like, “Why didn’t I sign up earlier?” But my other thing is in the program, I think one of the biggest things was, have grace with yourself. There were times where I’d get a little flustered like, “I’m not doing the workbook, or I’m not doing my thought downloads, or I’m not doing everything I should be.”

I think you had said that day, “Just focus on the parts that are most beneficial for you, that you are finding the most bang for your buck.” Once I did that, I really feel like I got things moving, because again, I wasn’t guilting and shaming myself over not being perfect. But it really was. I was like, “Okay, let me make sure I listen to the group coaching calls. I have my coaching with you. I do my workbooks. Maybe my thought downloads have to wait. If I get to it, I get to it. If I don’t, great, whatever.” But it was letting myself just focus on what I found most beneficial, because yeah, the last thing you want is more guilt and shame as you’re going through this program. We’ve had enough with the binge-eating. So yeah, just giving yourself that bit of grace and knowing I’m sure we all binged during the program, but it was all just learning from that.

Kirstin: Yes, binges happen, and that’s okay. Look at where you are now.

Amanda: Exactly.

Kirstin: Because you learned from them. That’s how you got here. You learned from the binges, you learned from the overeats. You learned from any mistake you made. And you also didn’t overwhelm yourself by trying to do everything all at once. And that goes for anybody who is working on a goal, working on binge-eating. I mean, this podcast alone has almost 300 episodes at this point. It’s like, just pick something and work on it. We don’t have to work on all of it at one time. We don’t have the capacity for it. And you didn’t have the time to do everything all at once. You had a job transition, you have a life, you have all of these things going on, so you make it work. Like you said, you do what’s most important and most beneficial.

Amanda: The program had so many facets. Like I said, I’ve got a stack of workbooks on my bookshelf. It wasn’t just a workbook. There were so many different pieces of the program that I was able to fit just the things that I could get to that day or that week. If I couldn’t make a group coaching call, I could listen to it the next day or in a couple hours. That was so key because it fit into my life. I didn’t have to turn my life upside down to try to fit the program.

Kirstin: Yes, yes, yes. You made the program fit for you. Awesome. Samantha?

Samantha: I found that it worked really well for me, meaning I worked with a binge-eating coach one-on-one. I did their program work, which was great, it was helpful, but I still felt like there was something missing. There was a disconnect that I still felt as far as where I wanted to be with my relationship with food. I found that I got that through this program. I felt I walked away feeling connected and in control and just understanding what I was doing and how I could think better. That also incorporates times where I am going to overeat or whatever, like that is part of life. If it happens, it happens. I felt like I walked away feeling like I had a deeper understanding of what I wanted for myself with food and feeling in control. I had spent a long time and a lot of energy working towards that, and I received that in your program. So it really worked for me very well.

Kirstin: I am so happy to have spent this time with you. It’s been a little bit since our program ended, so it’s been so nice to see all your faces and talk with you all again. I have no doubt that people are going to resonate with you and feel a connection with you just like you all did in your own group, which is so helpful to just help people see that they’re not alone and that there are people just like you, and now we’re just all helping each other. I think it’s so amazing. So thank you for being here. Thank you for sharing. You are amazing, all of you. And that is it.

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How amazing are they?

They were all so committed to the work, they showed up for themselves, they showed up for each other, and their eating and their lives are better because of it.

They’re so much more relaxed with food, they have a much better relationship with it, and with themselves, and they’re eating how they truly want to be eating.

Now, if you want that too, if you want to have experiences like they had, then come join me in the next round of Stop Binge Eating.

Again, registration is opening this Thursday, January 25^th of 2024 and you get can all the info and register once it opens at coachkir.com/group.

And if you have any questions that aren’t answered on that page, email them to info@coachkir.com.

You can change, you can be like these three wonderful people, you can do this no matter what your past attempts have looked like, and you can be a person that used to binge.

You can be binge-free and I will help you do it.

So I hope to see you in the next round.

Bye bye