Shapeshifting 2020

90 Days, 2 x 45 min group calls a week

Starts Monday 6th January. Prep materials available from 1st January. There will be group calls on 2nd and 5th January.

Regular online content

Check ins and one-to-one sessions are available as add ons

The Four Pillars of Shapeshifting

#1 Improve your nutrition

Eat better rather than count calories or follow a set paleo diet for example. Experiment with different foods. Use guidelines to tailor your own perfect-for-YOU eating plan. Learn to trust yourself again with food. Get help and accountability with meal planning and making time to prepare and cook food.

#2 Improve How You Eat

What you think of as how you eat is about the food you put in your mouth. Not so in Shapeshifting - this refers to what happens once you have chosen those foodstuffs.

Learn for example to eat more slowly using fun games, plus other strategies for a better how when it comes to meals. Learn to accept the inherent imperfectionism of this. Unless you live atop a mountain in Tibet, this will always be a practise - not a perfect.

#3 Active Resilience

Ditch the be less or be musclebound in extremis of the diet industry. Instead, reframe exercise as a way to deal with life. Those feel-good endorphins are the givers of greater physical, mental and emotional resilience. Cue no need to comfort/emotionally/stress eat. This does not happen overnight, but I will give you the tools to get consistently more active.

#4 The Psychology of Change

This goes beyond the quick fixes and soundbites of people who have never had to face the resistance to change you feel. Well, I have and I am excited to bring you a whole toolbox of ideas and practical strategies that work in the real world, whatever your track record of self-sabotage is. For example: The power of strategic lack of commitment, neutralising guilt over one unhealthy choice, how to get under the radar of your conscious mind to turn food prep or exercise into automatic choices, and what The Effortless Tipping point is.

Important!

What Is Required Of You 

Perfection is NOT required: we do not want to give your inner food rebel anything to rebel against. I will provide you with tools and techniques to calm that rebel energy and also deal with days when you make not-so-great decisions; to be more neutral about falling off the wagon on a Tuesday lunchtime so it does not turn into a 3 hour binge.

Instead, what I require is a commitment to make time for certain activities and practices that are essential for shapeshifting. These are:

#1 A commitment to do thorough meal planning, grocery shopping planning and food prep /cooking

This is something recovering compulsives often fight. It is still a conscious effort for me. I will help you meal plan and prioritise cooking time as appropriate.

Time commitment: 1 - 3 hours initially (do only once!) to create a rolling menu, and try out the meal planner app if appropriate. Once this is done, a weekly commitment of 2 -4 hours depending on your personal situation. To discuss.

#2 A commitment to physical activity

Time needed: will depend on you. If you do no exercise at present, starting off with 3 x 30 min sessions of speed walking weekly for example is a great goal for January. If you already do that, then you need to look at increasing the time you spend exercising and/or the intensity of the activity.

To discuss.

#3 A commitment to do certain practices to retrain your brain to accept these lifestyle changes.

Time commitment: between 15 and 30 min a day.

#4 A commitment to NOT weigh or measure yourself regularly

Regular external checks on your progress can lead to massive self-sabotage. I have seen this time and again. If you want to weigh yourself or preferably measure your chest, waist and hips at the start, that is fine. Your body and clothes will give you feedback  (not to mention the increased feeling of wellbeing) as you progress, but the hard and fast nature of numbers is a disaster, especially for women. I will not permit members of the group to share any details of pounds or inches lost during the 90 days. Instead I encourage you to talk about behavioural change, your clothes getting looser, fitness levels increased (numbers are Ok for this!), and how you feel.

I encourage you to take a full length picture of yourself at the start. I will be offering participation rewards for permission to use before and after photos on my website, so this could prove very well worth your time!

#5 A Commitment to Stop Calorie Counting 

Calorie counting is so counterproductive for many people. It puts you in a child position, with the diet you are following as the adult. There is no learning about what your body actually wants; everything is subservient to how many calories you are consuming each day. Calorie counting also makes you feel deprived and riles up your inner food rebel - a disastrous combination that leads to endless cycles of binge-starve misery.

In this programme you will learn to make the best food choices for you and trust yourself as an adult. Calorie counting has no place in Shapeshifting.

You may be interested in this podcast episode on this subject.

#6 A Commitment To Create Your Own Eating Plan

This programme is absolutely not some kind of add-on to another diet or weight loss package, where I give you tactics and mind tricks to help you stick to their rules. The fact is that half the time it is the diets themselves that create the conditions for sabotage!

There are ways of eating and dietary principles that may work well alongside what we are doing here. If in doubt, apply anyway and we can discuss it.

Questions:

How will you make time for these commitments?

What has to go?

What and Who are you prepared to say no to?