“I’m a comfort eater and my weight represents my ability to control my eating at any given time. I’m increasingly finding that a bad day can often turn into a bad week, month or even year, which I can’t understand when I desperately want to be slim. Why would I do that? Why can’t I have a normal relationship with food?
Having attended the first weekend session on the Shrinking Thinking course, I came away with a far deeper understanding of how my poor brain copes with the constant barrage of instructions it receives, and some of the reasons why, for me, tackling the root cause of my relationship with food is the only way I will gain a sense of normality and control.
Caroline and Martin create an incredibly safe and friendly environment to explore some of these things and having met some wonderful people on the course, I know there is a ready-made support group I can call on if I need to. I’m delighted that I’ve taken an important first step and have already freed up a huge amount of time and energy that I’d spent stressing about food. I would thoroughly recommend the course to anyone who is wondering why they are the way they are and is keen to explore a different approach to their weight.”
Claire (working mum, Dunfermline)
“Since signing up for Shrinking Thinking in September, I have seen a great improvement in my addictive eating. I even have a name for it! Before the changes that Shrinking Thinking has brought about in my outlook, I felt powerless. A 44 year old sinking ship! Couldn’t get myself and my health on my own agenda – I put my kids, husband, family, friends, the pets, the house ….first. I think I might even have been waiting for someone to do it for me! That’s a bit crazy, but it’s almost what the investment in Shrinking Thinking has meant.
I have two dedicated experts in Caroline & Martin who really have convinced me I can find my motivation, identify my dreams, define the steps to get there – and I’ve started! It wasn’t painful. It’s not been a struggle. The self discipline is gradually building, and I am aware of my problems now in a new way. It would be harder now to act like the old ‘pre-shrinking thinking’ Anna than as the enlightened Anna. And I’m physically lighter! Fewer biscuit binges has led to weight loss. My target is to rediscover a healthy appetite for nutritious foods – to have eating behaviour optimal for my body needs – not because of cravings and external events and inner emotional turmoil!
For me, Shrinking Thinking has been brilliant so far. I met the loveliest and most genuine people at the 1 day workshop. I think of them and know I’m certainly not alone. I am recommending this to all my friends. I don’t regret a penny I have spent – the way I feel now, I am convinced it’s been the most worthwhile thing I have done for myself. I have had this sugar addiction behaviour for over 20 years! It’s quite an incredible change. I can’t thank them enough for coming up with the concept. I urge you to give it a go.”
Anna
“It was really the title of the course that drew me to come along (felt very apt) and also my curiosity about just what NLP could offer. I was fed up of dieting and failing to sustain a healthy weight and aware at some level that I hold my own key but I was having trouble connecting it to the lock! Since our initial contact “Shrinking Thinking” has been buzzing around in my head at some level but since completing the initial day these words are never far from conscious thought. My thoughts are expanding and I now feel more hopeful of my waistline shrinking; that’s only part of it for me though, to identify and address my emotional relationship with food underpins my success.
It was certainly a full day and it felt like we covered a lot of ground, stimulating my thoughts and connections with myself; this starting off a process that for me very quickly raised my conscious thoughts, noticing and questioning the constructs of my value and belief systems. The experiential exercises were challenging but powerful tools in this process supported by the gentle guidance of both Martin and Caroline.
I feel more conscious and have noticed that I am more in control of what I eat. I seem to be making more conscious choices even although they may not be the ideal choices. The “must haves” have reduced greatly and even when it all gets too much a small amount seems to be all I need. I am noticing more when I am full and amazingly did not want to finish my dinner one night; no child starved and I had tasty leftovers for lunch the next day. Portion size is an issue for me so I’d like to and actually intend to do this again and again until I can adjust it on dishing up. This all feels very positive but I know it’s early days and part of a programme of change…or should I say re-programme by the sounds of the first coaching session!”
“It is difficult to find the exact words to describe my experience of the second coaching session other than profound! I certainly did not expect the timeline therapy session to help me track and weed kill the roots of my distorted thinking.
The incredible sense of inner peace struck me right away and I guess that I still feel a bit stunned by the power of that experience. I have not felt that inner peace for many years, although on a conscious level it was something I had learned to live without..or so I thought.
What I hadn’t appreciated was the knock on impact that it was having on my relationship with food. I wondered just how long this new sense of peace would last but I decided to enjoy it and not spoil the moment. Six weeks on it still remains robust through some emotionally difficult challenges of ‘loss’.
My eating remains conscious but not yet where I would like it to be. On previous attempts to address my weight issues I would have been ‘beating myself up’ by this point as my weight loss is slow, yet I have come to realise that I will start losing weight steadily when my emotional process is at the right place! I feel that this part of the programme is helping me prepare for a life time of change and it’s not all about weight loss.
In fact the biggest part of it for me I think is NOT about weight loss but about the emotional responses which I have stuffed away in the past and which later resurrect themselves in a different form. I am on a journey seeking a healthier lifestyle and I’ll know that I am well on the way when I start to control my eating in a consciously competent way, also evidenced by a healthier weight.
I am trying to be conscious, patient and understanding of myself; this I think is my initial challenge to myself. The evening session felt as though it “plugged me back in to source”, allowing me to catch up with my fellow ‘shrinkers’, and start to look at “okay what do I need to do to progress this”. Now I’m open and ready to identify and address the next bit of the journey although I have a feeling that this will be every bit as challenging and powerful as the first stage!”
Linda
