This isn't a diet. I spent 30 years trying diets, and they all failed me:  

• Calorie Restriction / Food Tracking programs (like Weight Watchers) made me obsessed with food and rewarded me for choosing low-calorie additive-laden food alternatives. I started hoarding my points/calories, leading me to disordered eating and binging
• Low-Carbohydrate Programs (like Atkins) worked for a while, but eventually all that white-knuckle resisting led to overwhelming cravings and giving up. It changed the foods I was eating, but didn't get to the root of the problem. I was just binging different foods!
• Weight loss supplements didn't work long-term. They may or may not work for a few weeks but my body soon adjusted and the end results were minimal. Granted, I have never tried the new GLP-1 medications, but research shows as soon as you stop taking them, the weight comes back.

The problem is diets rely on willpower. Eventually, you hit a stressful week or have a fight with your partner, and suddenly you're eating an entire box of crackers. Diets focus on what you eat, but ignore the deeper why.

Craving Alchemy goes underneath to the underlying reasons you're eating. The food piece is maybe 20% of what we do. The rest is teaching you how to feel safe, handle emotions without eating them, and fill the hungers that have nothing to do with the physical. When those pieces are in place, the food stuff gets easy. Here's some of what we do:

• Heal current and generational fears, such as ancient fears of starvation, wasting food, being seen, and feeling emotions
• Heal energetic blocks, both emotional such as not feeling good enough and physical like appetite and metabolism
• Integrate conflicting parts because almost always there is one part of you wants to lose weight and another doesn't (or you wouldn't be here!)
• Heal self sabotaging behaviors like all or nothing thinking, being too busy, or giving up
  Work with your inner child, inner critic and inner Queen to create the most empowering version of you
• Discover personal food addictions that are hijacking your brain, causing you to obsess about food and make poor choices
• Learn how to enter the fat burning state of ketosis easily and how to cycle, so you have tools to get back on track whenever needed
• And much more...

Through these changes, your metabolism resets so you can actually access stored calories instead of fighting constant hunger. And you end up with a whole arsenal of tools to help you feel satisfied, handle challenges, and fill yourself with love so you feel empowered. Not just while you are going through the program, but forever.  

I get it. I tried everything too. I was a registered dietitian with a master's degree in nutritional biochemistry, and I still couldn't figure out my own eating. Because it's not about food or more willpower.

The reason you've gained it back before is because you were relying on willpower and restriction. Eventually, you hit a stressful period and the willpower runs out.

This program is about changing the conditions that made you overeat in the first place. When you're not using food to cope with stress, when your body isn't in constant crisis mode, when you have actual support systems, the weight stays off because you're not fighting yourself anymore.

Your doctor is managing the medication. They work beautifully together.

The medications are tools, and they can be helpful tools. They quiet the food noise, which gives you space to do the inner work.

But if you haven't addressed the underlying reasons you were overeating, the weight comes back when you stop taking them. The research is showing this clearly.

This program gives you what the medications can't: understanding of why you were eating (emotional eating, stress patterns, subconscious programming, lifestyle habits) and gives you tools and support for handling stress, emotions, and building a life where food isn't your main source of comfort.

The biological and psychological dynamics of emotional eating are different for women: the way our bodies respond to stress, the hormonal shifts we go through, the cultural pressures we face, the way we're conditioned around food and our bodies.

I could teach a co-ed program, but it wouldn't be as effective. Women need space to talk about things they might not feel comfortable discussing in front of men. They need to be witnessed by other women who get it. This is a healing journey, not just a weight loss program. That requires a specific container.

I lost 100 pounds. I know what it's like to feel like the problem is too big. But the amount of weight you need to lose has nothing to do with whether this approach works. The mechanisms are the same whether you have 20 pounds to lose or 200.

Your body is overweight because it's been in survival mode. Because stress hormones have been telling it to store every calorie. Because you've been using food to cope with emotions you didn't know how to handle. Because inflammation has been dysregulating your hunger signals.

When we address those things, your body starts releasing weight naturally. The journey might take longer with more weight to lose, but the transformation is the same.

We have been taught that calories are what matters, yet food is actually so much more. We all need to eat the most nutritious diet we can, and this STILL may not be enough. Food is less nutritious than ever. In the last 100 years, we have changed how we grow, transport, and store food, and even the atmospheric conditions where it is grown. Our food shows declines in protein, vitamin C, vitamin B2, calcium, iron, magnesium, copper, and more. In the 1942 food tables, 100 grams of cooked broccoli shows 160 mg calcium and 1.5 mg iron compared to just 46 mg calcium and 0.8 mg iron in the 1998 food tables.

For people on weight loss diets or less active with lower calorie needs, there is just no way to get the basics with food alone. Lower levels of several nutrients have been related to food cravings, metabolism, mood and appetite. When people on weight loss diets eat more protein or take a multivitamin, they feel better and are less hungry. I want you to have the best chance at never thinking about food again, so we have to make sure your body has the nutrients it needs.

This depends on the specific restriction. The nutrition framework in this program emphasizes quality protein, healthy fats, and vegetables. For most people struggling with food cravings and weight, we need to eliminate sugar and processed foods, and significantly reduce carbohydrates to reset the system.

This program works well for:

• Gluten-free, dairy-free, or grain-free diets
• People managing autoimmune conditions, diabetes, PCOS, or metabolic issues
• Anyone who can eat animal protein (meat, fish, eggs) along with vegetables and healthy fats

This program is NOT appropriate for:

• Vegans or vegetarians (the protein requirements are difficult to meet on plant-based diets without relying on processed foods or high-carb options that trigger cravings)
• People with active eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder requiring clinical treatment)
• Anyone with active substance addiction

If you have a medical condition, I encourage you to work with your doctor alongside this program. I'm a registered dietitian and can work within medical recommendations, but I'm not replacing your medical care.

The elimination phase requires giving up certain foods completely for a few weeks. If you're not willing or able to do that, this program won't work for you. The food reset is what quiets the cravings, and without that foundation, the rest of the tools won't be as effective.

If you're unsure whether your situation is a good fit, email me and we can talk through your specific needs.

No. And I can prove it because that approach has failed you every time you've tried it.

Think about The Biggest Loser. They regained the weight, and even worse their metabolisms were permanently damaged. Their bodies learned that aggressive weight loss equals famine, so they started hoarding every calorie even more efficiently than before.

When you approach weight loss from self-hatred, your nervous system interprets it as an attack. Your body goes into protection mode. It holds onto weight. It cranks up hunger signals. It slows your metabolism. You're literally fighting your own biology.

My program works differently. We help your mind and body feel safe enough to release weight. We change habits gently, with love, giving you tools that last. This means being gentle and remembering WHY you're doing this. Because you love yourself and want to be healthy. Not because you need to be fixed. If you don't love yourself yet, we start there. Because self-love doesn't magically appear once you're thin. If you hate yourself at 250 pounds, you'll find things to hate at 150 pounds too. The weight is never the real problem.

Your body releases weight when it trusts you're taking care of it, not attacking it. The weight comes off as a side effect of finally treating yourself well. When you treat your body with care, when you nourish it with good food because it deserves to feel good, when you move it because movement feels amazing, when you give yourself rest and comfort and support. That's the transformation.