I started working with Chris at the beginning of this year, and our work together has transformed my relationship with my body and how I feel about myself.

I first reached out to Chris because I had a lot of anxiety around my health, and I started to feel that I could only eat things that were very healthy for my body, otherwise, I would be putting myself at risk of all kinds of diseases.

I had completely lost the connection that allowed me to listen to my body and what it needed.

I mainly ate things that I had categorised as ‘good’, regardless of how these things made me feel. I tried to cut out many different food groups, but nothing properly stuck as it just felt unrealistic. I also had periods of intense sugar cravings that were impossible to shake off unless I indulged them. I became a vegetarian about 6 months before starting our work together, which made me even more anxious about getting what I needed from my diet. It felt like a no-win situation.

I have suffered from disordered eating and exercising in the past, however, when I started working with Chris I felt that I had arrived at a place where I was more accepting of my body and had a relatively good relationship with my weight. As we started exploring how I felt about these areas it became clear that this was not the case.

Even though my relationship with my body and exercise had improved, I still had latent feelings of low self-worth around the way I looked. Our work together also made me realise I was having some digestive issues, which previously I had thought was normal.

I was at a stage where I felt lost. I found it difficult to make any decisions about what I ate, which increased my anxiety and led to me eating a very repetitive diet that wasn’t nourishing my body at all, I still felt uneasy about my weight and I would sometimes freak out before attending a wedding or another event because I felt that I didn’t look good enough.

I knew I wanted to change the way I treated myself and my body, and when I started working with Chris I very quickly felt relieved. I didn’t have to do it all on my own and I had someone that I trusted who could guide me through the journey.

I always really looked forward to our conversations, Chris is interesting and funny, and he always had a great podcast or documentary recommendation for me. One of the most important things is that Chris doesn’t just tell you what to do to get better (although I desperately wanted him to at the start!), he helps you to make changes yourself, so you have the tools you need for the rest of your life. I now feel confident in experimenting with new things and listening to how my body feels.

For me, the writing exercises were transformative. I realised that I needed to properly listen to my body and look after it and that the most important thing for me was how I felt rather than what I looked like. I needed to have the energy to be able to live my life the way I wanted, and I wouldn’t have this if I was constantly worried about what I was eating and being skinny.

It also made me reflect on how I have felt in the past when I weighed less, and these were always the times when I was hardest on myself.

I now feel so differently about how I look, it’s not like the critical thoughts never cross my mind, but I am able to see them for what they are and let them go more easily, and realise that how I look isn’t what is most important to me, it’s how I feel.

I started to introduce different foods back into my diet so that I was getting the nutrients I needed. We discussed introducing meat and fish back into my diet a few times a week. I didn’t feel great about this to begin with, but the more we spoke about it the more it became clear that I wasn’t putting my health first. I thought about it and decided to start eating fish rather than meat, and this has made a big difference.

I’m not constantly worrying that my body isn’t getting what it needs and it adds some much-needed variety. I also started to try and eat more satisfying meals, as it turned out I was eating quite ’empty’ food and that unconsciously under fueling might be contributing to my sugar cravings. This also had a really positive effect, and I’m much less inclined to reach for the Lindt after a meal now!

My digestion improved a lot as well. Chris helped me to understand that whatever I’m eating will have very little effect if I’m not properly digesting my food. We spoke a lot about foods that are easier to digest and how to incorporate these into my diet. There has been a massive improvement in my digestion by doing these things.

I also now understand that food isn’t the only thing that impacts digestion, stress also has a lot to do with it, and that during a slightly unstable period in my life it was more likely that I was going to have some digestion issues.

Working with Chris also had a really positive impact on other areas of my life.

When we started working together I was unemployed and was having massive issues with deciding where to go next. As time went on I started to find it easier to make what previously seemed like very daunting decisions.

I am now about to train to be a yoga teacher before starting a new job in the public sector. I feel like I can trust my own decisions and have so much more clarity on how I want to live my life. A huge part of this is down to the support and guidance I received from Chris, and I can’t thank him enough!