Are you using food to feel better or to zone out?
- You know exactly what you “should” be doing when it comes to food but you’re frustrated because you can’t muster the willpower and self-control you feel you need.
- You’re exhausted by your obsession with food and your body.
- You’re sick of feeling guilty every time you indulge.
- You fear the impact your seemingly out-of-control eating will have on your weight and your health.
Are you confused because you’re a capable woman in every other area of your life, but for some reason, you can’t figure out eating?
You’re worried there is something wrong with you that you can’t stay in control around food. You blame yourself and desperately wish you could do better.
It’s not your fault you’re still struggling with food, the real culprit for feeling out of control around food is All or Nothing Dieting.
- All or Nothing Dieting has taught you that you either need to follow a diet “perfectly”, or “what’s the point?”
- If you eat one cookie, why not finish the package?
- If you go over your calorie goal, then you may as well give up and restart again next week, month, or year.
This black and white viewpoint stops you from being able to maintain any new habits long-term.
All or Nothing Dieting leads to emotional eating so you turn to food to comfort or zone out.
- All or Nothing Dieting causes your brain to send out reward and pleasure signals to your body after eating foods that are off-limits.
- Eating feels better than emotional discomfort, so the body naturally starts to use food to cope and numb, creating a seemingly endless cycle of emotional eating and then strict All or Nothing Dieting.
All or Nothing Dieting erodes your trust in yourself and your body.
You start to feel that you…
- Can’t trust your body to tell you when you’re hungry or full because All or Nothing Dieting encourages you to rely on external cues like tracking, meal plans and scales to determine your intake.
- Can’t trust yourself around indulgent food because the increased stress hormones from All or Nothing Dieting have led to intense, primal cravings that are impossible to stop with willpower alone.
- Can’t trust that your body is good because All or Nothing Dieting has made you believe that you have to achieve the thin, young, ideal in order to accept yourself.
Worse still, All or Nothing Dieting blames YOUR lack of willpower and self-control when it doesn’t work, leading to self-blame and shame.
You can overcome All or Nothing Dieting by cultivating the Courage to Trust.
The Courage to Trust that:
- Food isn’t the problem (and neither are you).
- You can hear and respond to the cues your body is giving you, instead of eating to numb or restricting for control.
- You can mindfully indulge AND consistently make nourishing choices.
- You are worthy of care and love, just as you are, even while pursuing weight loss.
You can create a supportive relationship with food, your body, and your health so that you eat with joy instead of eating to seek joy.
By cultivating the courage to trust, you learn that turning to food to meet your emotional needs isn’t a personal moral failing, and there are lessons to be learned about how to care for your needs without indulging when you can unlearn the self-blame imposed by All or Nothing Dieting.
You can love what you see in the mirror, whatever happens with the scale.
“Now I can look at myself in the mirror, with or without clothes, and not feel any self-hatred, shame, or disgust.”
Annette reached out to me after gaining back 40 pounds in 6 months of the 60 pounds she had previously lost in a “sensible health maintenance program”. She went through a hard time which she describes as feeling:
“Useless and depressed, sadness, stress, anxiety, hopelessness [it] weighed so heavily on me that food was my only comfort most days.”
This is not unusual, so many people have success on a sensible program but gain the weight back because they haven’t dealt with the harm of past All or Nothing Dieting or the underlying emotional eating.
But she wanted to retire at the end of the year, so she knew she needed to make changes so she could have the energy for a happy retirement.
After working together, Annette reports:
- No longer managing her stress/emotions with late-night “I don’t care” binging
- Handles stress better – no longer needs her “as needed” anxiety medicine that she took most days
- Family and friends note that she has more joy
- Lost 7 pounds in 14 weeks
Now, Annette says:
“Now I can look at myself in the mirror, with or without clothes, and not feel any self-hatred, shame, or disgust. I can accept me for who I am in the moment. I am beautiful and I matter. I smile more and cry less.”
What about losing weight?
I can help you lose weight …and so much more.
Most of my clients want to lose weight, and while weight loss can never be guaranteed with any method, many lose weight while cultivating the Courage to Trust.
For those whose bodies don’t naturally shed the weight even after healing your relationship with food and impacts of dieting, we can usually identify a deeper issue (like underlying inflammation or digestive issues) and work to address it so weight loss comes easier.
And yet, while working towards self-acceptance and healing your relationship with food, many women find their anxieties about losing weight disappear and they can focus instead on the behaviors that lead to healthier lives and bodies over time.
I’m Cassie Christopher, a Registered Dietitian and former emotional eater.
I struggled all throughout nutrition grad school with following the diets that were supposed to make me healthier, but I couldn’t seem to resist the siren call of my daily chocolate bar when stress was high. With All or Nothing Dieting, I gained more weight than I ever lost and realized the focus on restriction was stealing my joy.
I developed the Courage to Trust Method based on the latest research into sustainable behavior change and the specific methods I used to heal my own emotional eating. I’ve now helped over 100 women heal their relationships to food and body, and I truly believe healing is possible for you, too.
“[I loved] working with an RD that did not make me feel judged and like a failure!”
“Cassie’s approach is SO refreshing. If you want to eat something, eat it and really enjoy it! Wow! That is completely freeing. Absence of judgment and deprivation work so well for my well-being!!
Cassie’s style is relaxed and understanding and she’s been there so has the personal understanding, but also the credentials to help. But she is unlike any other RD I have ever met and that made a huge difference to me. The structure of the program combined with the calls as well as the group just covered all bases. It’s like coming at this struggle from all angles with an amazing guide.” -J
The Courage to Trust Method covers 4 Key Pillars:
❦ Calming Your Nervous System – All or Nothing Dieting and daily life keep your body craving comfort foods by increasing key stress hormones. Calming your nervous system with nutritional and lifestyle approaches helps to stop food obsession and creates the mental clarity needed to identify and care for yourself apart from indulgent eating.
❦ Self-Compassion – Debriefing eating events with self-compassion and using specific tools to practice self-compassion in your daily life allow you to stop the self-criticism that keeps you stuck in the cycle of success and failure and create a feeling of safety in your body that allows you to address your emotions.
❦ Listening to Self – If the harm of dieting comes from the disconnection to yourself, learning to listen to and heed your body’s cues for care is paramount to healing. You will get help to overcome any barriers to self-care and learn specific methods for connecting with your needs.
❦ Metabolism Boosting – Healing metabolism declines caused independently by dieting, aging and menopause is possible without resorting to restriction or feeling deprived. We focus on the abundance of foods and strategies that help you feel good in your body and boost metabolism while also working towards body acceptance and a healthy relationship with food.
Work with Me:
Courage to Trust Method 6-month Private Intensive
You don’t want a list of rules to follow because you already know what you “should” be doing. Instead, you are ready to use the Courage to Trust Method and my guidance to reconnect with your physical and emotional needs and overcome the barriers that have been holding you back from consistent healthy behaviors. You want to discover what you need at this point in your life to create a supportive relationship with food, your body and your health.
✔️ 15, 45-minute telephone or Zoom consultations with me.
✔️ Personalized education and action tasks based on goals.
✔️ Between-session messaging support from me via a secure messaging system.
✔️ Access to session notes and additional resources via a secure messaging system.
Investment: $4200 or $725/mo for 6 months
(Only available in specific areas, book a call to find out about availability)
Now Enrolling!
I have fewer knee jerk reactions that catapult me into the kitchen.
“I vowed to myself that I will never again pay even a cent for another program and that I was a wealth of knowledge and could probably write my own book about how to lose weight….I JUST COULDN’T FOLLOW AND STICK WITH ANY OF THE GUIDELINES I HAD LEARNED ABOUT!!!!! ….because NONE of these programs dug into EMOTIONAL EATING!!!
In 12 weeks I have lost about 8 pounds and the swelling in my ankles and legs has been significantly less. Also, I use my asthma inhaler less frequently. Emotionally, I have fewer knee jerk reactions catapulting me into the kitchen to find something to eat when I am feeling stressed. I’m generally calmer and think less often about what lies behind the cabinet or refrigerator doors that I can get into at all times of the day and night. “
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
How do I know if I’m ready for this work?
- You are ready for this work when you are ready to feel good in your body and feel good about food. Weight loss may be a part of that goal for you, but it doesn’t trump feeling good.
- Clients have told me they feel a mixture of things when deciding to work together: hope that healing is possible, fear that maybe it won’t be possible for them, and pride that they are choosing to take a big step to care for themselves. It takes COURAGE to choose to do things differently.
Do you offer payment plans?
- Yes!
Do you take insurance?
- I am not in-network for any insurance plans but I can provide a superbill for private sessions for you to submit to your insurance company for out-of-network coverage. You may also be able to use HSA/FSA funds to work with me. You are responsible for determining benefits and reimbursement, I make no claims regarding coverage.
What’s the weekly time commitment?
- 6 Month Intensive: 45-minute call every 2 weeks plus 30-60 minutes for weekly educational content and implementation.
Are there opportunities for ongoing support?
- Yes! Once you have successfully walked through the entire Courage to Trust Method, there are options for ongoing support depending on your needs and goals.
Will I lose weight?
- While weight loss can never be guaranteed with any method, many lose weight while cultivating the Courage to Trust.
For those whose bodies don’t naturally shed the weight even after healing your relationship with food and impacts of dieting, we can usually identify a deeper issue (like underlying inflammation or digestive issues) and work to address it so weight loss comes easier.
And yet, while working towards self-acceptance and healing your relationship with food, many women find their anxieties about losing weight disappear and they can focus instead on the behaviors that lead to healthier lives and bodies over time.
“Is this just another hype that has no real foundation for success? Is it worth the money, or am I just throwing money down the toilet? Can I really change?”
Deciding to cultivate the Courage to Trust may come with it’s share of fears and concerns. If you’ve read this far, you’ve probably got a few questions floating through your mind, and if you do I encourage you to book a call.
Cultivating the Courage to Trust may intuitively makes sense, but you’ve been burned before, and your skepticism is earned. I assure you this is normal, and you aren’t alone.
Let me say it again: The failure of All or Nothing Dieting is not your failure.
There is hope to create a supportive relationship with food, your body and your health so you can eat with joy instead of eating to seek joy.
To find out if working with me is the route for you to create that supportive relationship: