Have you heard of The Food Psychology Clinic? If not, you should hurry and read the Uxshely’s interview. They help people to settle their bad eating habits with a different approach. Say bye to traditional diets and Hi to a new healthy lifestyle!
Attitude Organic: “Tell us how your approach of “diet” is different?”
Uxshely: “The Food Psychology Clinic’s approach is different to any other hypnotherapist/psychotherapist/nutritionist out there because we won’t just recommend that you eat less and exercise more – we know that you already know that you need to eat less and exercise more. In fact, our approach is one which encourages you to enjoy food and to make changes to your lifestyle which won’t leave you feeling miserable and deprived. We have done years of research into what drives people to over-eat or adopt disordered eating habits and we understand both the psychology of these patterns as well as which nutritional changes are optimum for achieving lasting results. Most therapists don’t understand nutrition and most nutritionists don’t understand psychology – but we bring you the best information from a range of different techniques that you won’t find elsewhere.
?Most people know what they should be eating. Most people know what foods are healthy and what foods are bad for their bodies and most people know just how much they should be eating – and yet, despite this knowledge, very few people actually eat the foods that would enable them to feel great and look their best.
?Most people cannot follow nutritional advice alone because our food choices are very heavily influenced by our mental and emotional well-being. Very often eating disorders are born out of a need for control. Very often weight gain comes when an individual tries to find comfort in food or uses food to deal with trauma or stressful situations. We do not just look at food as nourishment – food very often means a whole lot more. This is why, in order to change the way we eat, we have to address the psychological drivers for our food choices.
Diets or meal plans may assist an individual to lose weight or to regulate their eating patterns in the short-term but unless that individual also addresses the psychological drivers for their food choices, they will just return to their bad habits as soon as the diet is over. We all have certain food-related habits that a diet or meal plan alone cannot change. To change these habits requires an understanding of why and when the habit came into existence and how it can be altered for good. The Food Psychology Clinic helps you to understand why you have developed your food-related habits and then to change these so that you can lead a healthy and happy life, without having to worry about making bad food choices ever again.”
Attitude Organic: “How did you get the idea to start the business?”
Uxshely: “The idea to start the business came from my own journey with food. I had myself suffered with a range of eating disorders throughout my teens and then into my 20s and could not find anything to help me to fix my relationship with food. I think found a powerful solution in combining several different practices and was able to completely change my relationship with food, stop obsessing over food and just enjoy my life. As I had struggled for so long searching for a solution to my food-related issues I am really passionate to help others with similar problems and show them that there is a much easier and more fun way.”
Attitude Organic: “What would you call a healthy relationship with food and healthy eating habits?”
Uxshely: “A healthy relationship with food is one where you don’t obsess about food – where you are free to enjoy food without feeling guilty and where food does not control your life. A healthy relationship with food also involves freeing yourself from using food as a coping mechanism. So many of my clients know what they should be eating but use food in times of stress, sadness, boredom or tiredness. Freeing yourself from using food to cope, and comfort-eating, really empowers you to start making better choices about the food you put into your body.”
Attitude Organic: “What do most of the customers ask for? What type of issue, packages and what type of sessions?”
Uxshely: “Many of my clients come to me suffering with binge-eating or because they want to lose weight. Within 2 or 3 sessions we are able to get to the root cause of the issue and find out why they are really over-eating. Sometimes it is a way of coping with a trauma or stressful situation in their current life, sometimes it goes back to old habits they learnt when they were a child and often it is because they keep yo-yo dieting and binge-eating. I also work with clients who have anorexia, orthorexia and eating disorders. Whilst all of these conditions are very different they all have something psychological at their root.”
Attitude Organic: “How many success stories so far?”
Uxshely: “I have had hundreds of success stories and most clients are able to see their issues significantly improved within 3 sessions.”
Attitude Organic: “You call yourself “clinic”. Does that mean you actually work with doctors?”
Uxshely: “I do refer patients to doctors where appropriate, however the name clinic comes from the fact that I and any other therapist working with the clinic, is appropriately qualified and registered with several bodies. I personally have trained in a range of disciplines including nutrition for public health, psychotherapy, hypnotherapy, mindfulness and neuro-linguistic programming.”
Attitude Organic: “You talk about hot topics such as anorexia. How is that accepted by your audience? Do you actually manage to help those ill people?”
Uxshely: “I think it is very important to get people to start feeling comfortable talking about their mental health and in particular their mental health when it comes to food related issues. For so many people that I work with thoughts about food and their weight dominate their days and yet very few people feel comfortable admitting this. The first step in being able to treat issues such as anorexia is encouraging individuals to be open about what is going on in their minds. I find that many people that I speak to are actually relieved to finally be able to share the issues that have been troubling them for so long.”
Attitude Organic: “You do Hypnotherapy. How is that working? What does a session look like? How are the results? What type of eating disorders can it treat?”
Uxshely: “Hypnotherapy is a tool which enables individuals to alter subconscious behaviours. Anyone that drives or dances will know that they do not perform these actions through conscious thinking – these activities are often performed in auto-pilot mode, once an individual has had enough practice. Much in the same way a lot of people’s eating habits are just behaviours they perform in auto-pilot mode. Reaching for biscuits when you are stressed or ice-cream when you are sad, is just an automatic subconscious response. Hypnotherapy can be used to change these subconscious behaviours so that you can regain control over your decisions around food.
Hypnotherapy is a very powerful tool for working with people that have issues around food but it is important that the person delivering the hypnotherapy also understands nutrition and gives the right advice and suggestions.”
Attitude Organic: “One advice you can share with our readers to have a peaceful and healthy relationship with food.”
Uxshely: “Stop focusing on your weight and start focusing on your health instead. Do you eat to be skinny or do you eat to be healthy?
Do you eat to make sure you are thin or to make sure that your body has all of the great nutrition that it needs? Do you count calories rather than looking at what great vitamins, minerals and nutrients you are getting from your food? Are you a slave to the number on the scales or do you make food choices based on whether they make you feel good on a daily basis? Do you choose the fat-free dessert over the avocado just because it contains less calories? Do you choose to exercise because you know it will burn off some of the food you have eaten or because it makes you feel great and happy?
Is your relationship with food and your body about making sure you stay thin or about making sure you stay healthy and happy?
So many of the people that I work with confess to me that they have spent many years counting calories or points – just to make sure that they stay in shape. They worry about how much they are eating because they want to be thin – and not because they want to be HEALTHY.
It is great to want to take care of yourself and your appearance – however by focusing just on being “thin” you may miss a great opportunity to look your best. For example, refined sugar is a huge contributor to skin ageing and can play a significant role in the formation of wrinkles. Equally healthy fats such as avocado and olive oil are essential for the health of your skin (even though they are high in calories). So if you want to age well and take care of your skin, you are much better off choosing the 350-calorie avocado than the 150-calorie fat-free dessert.
Of course, beyond our appearance, eating well is essential for the health of our bodies. By eating nutritious food we can make sure that we avoid chronic diseases such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease. Many scientists and nutritionists now talk of a concept called “TOFI” which talks about someone that is thin on the outside but fat on the inside – or in other words, they may look thin and have a healthy body weight, but due to the nutritionally-poor food they are choosing, they are still at high risk of developing chronic diseases such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This is yet another reason to choose the 200-calorie olive-oil rather than the 50-calorie fat-free dressing.
A really important part of making food choices because you want to be healthy rather than because you want to be skinny is that it completely changes your relationship with food. Eating to be healthy actually encourages you to EAT LOTS of the foods that are good for you e.g. vegetables. Whereas eating to be skinny encourages you TO AVOID “naughty”, “bad” or “high calorie” foods, which leaves you feeling deprived. As humans we always want what we can’t have – so those people telling themselves that they can’t have lots of things will just want all of those “naughty” treats much more. Whereas those people eating foods that they know are good for their bodies will just naturally crowd out all of the unhealthy foods with great, nutritious food.
So go on – try it – for just one week. Make choices that you know will leave your body healthier rather than focusing on how much you are eating or depriving yourself – eat plenty of vegetables, some berries, healthy fats (olive oil, nuts, avocado), protein (e.g. oily fish), all of those things that you know instinctively are good for your body – and you will probably find that naturally any excess weight that you were carrying will just drop off without you even trying!
Choose self-love rather than self-hate – choose to eat because you want to nurture your body not because you want to punish it for not being thin enough. Choose compassion rather than torture – take care of your body, celebrate it, love it and treat it with the respect that it deserves! HEALTHY IS THE NEW SKINNY. ”
Thanks again for this amazing interview Uxshely! We loved your answers and we are totally in line with you. What about you girls?
If you enjoy that approach and feel like you wanna give a go to this approach to change your eating habits, go visit The Food Psychology Clinic’s Website!
You can also read our healthy food blog posts!
