KATHRYN
I came to Elizabeth full of frustration and fear. I knew diets didn't work for me, but I had no idea what to do next. She introduced me to body trust and intuitive eating. My life was transformed. I came out from underneath the weight of 40 years of dieting, diet culture, shame, and fatphobia. I even found my activist voice and started sharing the good news with my community. I'm free. I needed permission from someone who knew more than me, and I got it. Elizabeth made space for a lot of tears, self hatred, doubt, and ultimately, emergence. I will be forever grateful to her.
Kathryn Hecht, Executive Director, Alexander Valley Film Society
JULIE
What I love about working with Elizabeth is the sense of safety she creates in the client-coach relationship. Sharing insecurities and vulnerabilities is never easy, but I always feel completely understood in the circle of confidentiality between us. Elizabeth's evolving philosophy around body image/issues brings me a sense of sanity. She asks questions that make me realize how brainwashed we are as a society that worships thinness. Bottom line: I am OK exactly the way I am. Paradoxically, change happens when I accept and love myself -- not because I look a certain way but because of who I am. Elizabeth's guidance, based in her own experience, led me to this place of freedom.
Julie Montinieri, Energy Medicine Practitioner, Blue Heron Healing
SR
Before coaching I was exhausted from thinking about food and my body all the time. My eating was feeling out of control, and I was full of self-critical thoughts about myself and my body. I wanted to experience more peace and joy in my daily life. I mostly just wanted relief from my fight with food, but I was hopeful that some of the other areas of my life might also benefit.
Now my relationship with food is so much quieter and peaceful to the extent that I have to really think to remember how much I tortured myself about food and my body. As I write this, I remember that every morning I used to wake up and inventory my eating from the day before and decide whether or not it was a good or bad day, and that would have a huge impact on how I started the day. Now I just get out of bed and start my day.
I am not worrying about what I will or will not eat, nor using food to get through the day. I am able to be in my body with more acceptance and self-love and appreciate my body for all it does for me. I choose what exercise feels good, not what I think I should choose, and I find joy in movement. I am much less self-critical, and I'm better able to identify my difficult feelings and sit with them in order to move toward acceptance and relief, instead of just using food or other distractions to try to push the feelings away. This skill is making me a better leader and more effective at my job as well.
I wish everyone I knew had the opportunity to have a guide like Elizabeth to help them become more authentically themselves. This work has been such a gift, and I will forever be grateful.
Nancy
I’m feeling more at peace. I’m learning to advocate for myself and say when I’m hungry and when I’m not. I can have sweets in the house and I don’t eat them compulsively. Thinking about what I can and can’t have is not taking up real estate in my brain. I’m realizing how much more effective I could have been in my life if I wasn’t thinking about food and my body all the time! I feel lighter. I’m more focused on living and less on food. Something has shifted, I don’t feel like I have to work as hard to make things happen.
LZ
Before coaching I was feeling stuck. Frustrated. Disillusioned. I didn't want to keep dieting and weight cycling, but I wasn't having success with mindfulness and intuitive eating either. I was defining success and solution in terms of changing my body and my eating, and my relationship with food. I was pretty desperate for some help and some new strategies.
After coaching, I'm more aware of what I'm doing, even if I'm still doing it and don't want to be. I have eased up on myself in some ways and let go of some structures that kept me stuck (tracking, for example) and I'm not restricting what I eat or imposing inflexible exercise routines/expectations.
I have learned a lot about diet culture, HAES, the body positive movement, etc. and gone through some different phases of embracing it all, participating, pulling back, and trying ideas on for size. I'm a lot more tuned into how my own thinking impacts how I feel about things, people, experiences, and about myself.
This work is not for the faint of heart but Elizabeth is a tremendous resource and support. She is an incredible listener who has a ton of compassion and empathy and skill in identifying which threads to pursue at different times and creating safe space for total honestly. The balance between reflection and resources have been spot on and given me lots of space to explore and shape my own learning and progress and skill building.
LC
I decided to work with Elizabeth because I was intrigued by the concept of Intuitive Eating and wanted to learn more. Over the years, I have tried what feels like just about every diet out there. I was tired of feeling like a failure, a loser, at not being able to lose weight!
Since working with Elizabeth, the biggest change that I have made in my relationship with food is being able to eat something that I really want to eat and enjoy it, knowing that it is okay to do that. Elizabeth is a knowledgeable and compassionate coach, mentor and educator. She is passionate about intuitive eating and body acceptance and sharing this non-diet approach with women so they can learn to be kind to and accepting of themselves. Elizabeth is the real deal…she walks the talk.
This was a totally new experience for me…no more counting calories, tracking points, recording every bite…and it was very scary. Having Elizabeth there to coach me through this process was so helpful in learning to really look at myself and my relationship with food differently. My biggest takeaway from this experience is self-acceptance. I have learned that I am enough and that I am okay, even if I eat a piece of carrot cake, or a waffle cone filled with my favorite ice cream (or a salad or grilled veggies with goat cheese)! Food doesn’t define who I am and I no longer feel the shame that I once associated with eating “forbidden” foods. I deserve to eat whatever foods my body enjoys and feel good about it. I have learned to trust my body and trust myself.
JESS
During our work together (Elizabeth) helped me gain insight and perspective on what was holding me back and provided me with the tools to do something about it. We mainly focused on the principles of intuitive eating and how my personal life was affecting a lot of what I was going through. I appreciated that Elizabeth always offered several different ways of going about change and recommended a wide variety of resources to supplement our meetings. I would recommend others to seek services from Elizabeth because she created a safe, trusting, educational, and supportive environment.
AILEEN
When I started working with Elizabeth, I was torn between wanting to love my body and hating my body. I didn’t realize how much I talked negatively about my body until Elizabeth asked me to pay attention to it. I learned that I have to be nicer to myself. I learned to listen to my body more carefully. I am looking forward to digging in deeper with what has already come to the surface. I would recommend anyone who is feeling torn or hopeless with their bodies to try working with Elizabeth.
JB
It's been a year in July since I 'binged'. I have eaten exactly what I want, when I want and have been accepting what is. I can't tell you how far I feel I've come, the freedom that I have never experienced.
ALEX
I just finished reading your article and wanted to let you know what an INSPIRATION it is!!! You clued into so many truths and expressed them in a way that feels accessible and easy. Your words took me to that place inside of myself that knows I'm so much more than just my story, that I'm a magical and limitless manifestation of consciousness. What a gift. Thank you!
MT
Your calm and logical sharing of a new perspective on diet and body image has really had an impact on me as a parent and I want to thank you for that. The general reconsideration of the pressure we put on ourselves and on our daughters and, perhaps more importantly, why we do this, is constantly in my consideration set as my kids develop and grow. You're like the angel on my shoulder hopefully enabling me to approach body image in a less damaging way for my daughter than was done for me. You've made me aware of myself, too. I definitely beat myself up a lot less and I'm a lot less willing to trade life's experiences for the sake of being thin. Thanks for your influence and for the level-headed patient manner in which you share what are, for some, pretty radical ideas. You are really doing important work.