NB: What did your diet look like before you started this journey?


Jeff: Honestly, all along, I thought I was being healthy, but in all actuality I was still into the flour and sugar products. I didn’t appreciate the effects those foods had on my body and on my brain; how having it in my system perpetuated uncontrollable cravings. I was pretty much addicted to sugar and flour. After I completely removed them from my diet, the cravings dissipated right away. I was amazed and grateful.


NB: What other non-diet tools do you feel are essential to your success? Do you think stress management plays a role in your success?


Jeff: I have a mindfulness meditation practice that helps me a lot. Mindfulness really helps to disrupt old thinking patterns and cultivates awareness around what had been absent-minded choices. Once I could get perspective on the nature of my poor habits and choices, I was able to see how destructive they were to my mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. I sought out a community of people who supported my efforts. I wasn’t all that social before so engaging in that community helped me work on my insecurity, lack of confidence, and social anxiety. In a previous time in my life, I would use food to help deal with these negative feelings. I never really dealt with them in a posi- tive manner. And one other important tool was that I sought out ways in which I could be of service to others; getting out of my own head and being available to others.


NB: Your personal growth and your success with maintaining a healthy weight is both inspiring and unusual. What keeps you motivated after 16 years?


Jeff: I started my journey to lose the weight. But more important- ly, this newfound relationship with food helps me significantly reduce stress and anxiety allowing for a more joy-filled, pur- poseful life. The noise of fear, doubt, and insecurity is quieted down. I get excellent sleep. My life has a sense of structure and a sense of deliberateness. Before, it was so whimsical in a way that led to bad choices and unrealized goals. Now, I make food choices based on what my body needs for practical nourish- ment and less on what I think I need.


NB: Jeff, thank you so much for sharing your story; an inspiration to us all.


For Jeff, he roots his long-term success in two distinct ways.


First, he stays devoted to a simple, whole foods diet with a clear understanding of what his body requires for quantity. Secondly, he stays connected, aided by a mindfulness meditation practice, to the deeper emotional and spiritual reasons that motivate his choices.


The very same principles that work for Jeff are the founda-


tion of my health coaching model. If you feel baffled and stuck in your effort to lose weight, perhaps these principles can work in your life, too.


As a certified health coach through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, Nick Bloom offers individualized coaching with an emphasis on real food in balance with exercise as the core to life-long health and well- ness. As an advocate for better health, Nick provides workshops and coaching to individuals, small groups,


couples and families in the Greater Portland area. To learn more, contact me at www.nicolausbloom.com. See ad on page 8.


Dr. Aieta & Dr. Hayden Help You Break Through Fat Loss Blocks Who This Ebook is For:


• People who have fought fad diets, only to be disappointed


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This Ebook helps you: • Decipher the culprits that are blocking your progress so you can reach the balance YOUR body needs to drop fat, raise energy levels, and handle stress


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Authors Dr. Frank Aieta, ND & Dr. Diane Hayden, PhD


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• Piece your own puzzle together without expensive doctor visits that insurance doesn’t cover


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Buy for $14.95 at http://weightlosspuzzlesolved.com/ 28 ELM® Maine - January/February 2020


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