The therapy you never knew you needed

Everyone I work with has their own story. Through The Anchor Programme, we figure out your own food and weight story and help you move forward, with more clarity, confidence and health. The Anchor Programme has been known to be recognised as the therapy you never knew you needed.

It is hard to put into words, the progress that you can make, in a relatively short space of time, so I am grateful to this client for doing it for me. This is her story…

I had been overweight on and off all my life and was ALWAYS thinking about food. I had tried various diets, plans over the years – Weight Watchers, Slimming World etc. but although I was good at staying on plan, I ALWAYS put the weight back on, normally with some more as a bonus thrown in. This always coincided with a life event – after getting married, husband working abroad, having my first child, my second child, my twins, getting a promotion at work…. you get the picture. There was always the reason, the excuse as to why I had put it back on again. And then I would try again. In 2017, I took control of it myself and was so proud that I lost 60 pounds and not only that I kept the weight off – no diet culture rules or fads, just me, on my own, working it out… something I had wanted to do for as long as I could remember. Finally, I felt like a normal eating person…or so I thought.

In 2019, I took up running. I caught the running bug. The more I did it, the more I loved it. It became something else to be addicted to. It was fabulous in so many ways! It helped me through the dark and difficult days of navigating through Covid as a Mum of 4 young children, a secondary school teacher and the complete unknown and lack of control that Covid introduced into our lives. Running saved me. Being part of a running club saved me. It was my go-to. My one thing I could rely on not changing at the time.

By 2021, I had upped my running and thanks to the wonderful and amazing people I met through the running club, I was completing various weird and wonderful running challenges. I really did love it. Except for one thing. The more I ran, the more I put weight on. I have always been obsessive about knowing what I weighed, and this became even more of a habit. I weighed myself before a run. After a run. In the morning. In the evening. I am not sure what I expected to see but it was an element that I could control. The putting on the pounds (and it was only a few but felt like a lot), started to impact on my running or so I thought. I blamed a decrease in my fitness, my pace, my ability to run up a hill, ability to run down a hill, ability to run at all, all on my weight. I needed to gain control, otherwise, I was spiralling back to the 60 pounds back on and some. I knew I couldn’t go there. So many times, I started to count calories again. On days when I ran (most days!), I would allow myself extra calories to fuel for the run. It just didn’t work. I felt like, no matter what I did, it just didn’t help budge those few pounds I had gained. I was fixated but without a strategy of what to do. I felt like a failure. Pathetic and ridiculous for not being able to work it out. In some moments, I felt like a lesser being than others. I am an intelligent person and great at problem solving, and yet I couldn’t solve what felt like should be the simplest problem to solve. How stupid could I be?

What changed?

Enter Laura. I approached Laura hoping to learn more about how to refuel after running. I thought that if I learnt that, then my weight would be back under control. I thought that was what I needed. What I wanted and then it would be solved. How wrong I was on so many levels. The reality of what I needed was so very different and I signed up to her Anchor Programme.

It is hard to describe what has changed and how it has changed. The messages I kept repeating throughout these months have been ‘Be Kind’, ‘Be Curious’, ‘Why?’. I changed my mantra, I changed my ways, I changed me. For the better. I went in hoping to learn a bit more about how best to put food together to ensure you have enough fuel on board for what you need. I came away with every aspect of me in such a better place. Laura has made that happen like magic. Even more so as I hadn’t realised that needed to happen or that it was happening at the time.

The work with Laura has allowed me to consider who I want to be, who I can be and who I am. It has allowed me the freedom and permission to not only love food and enjoy what I want to eat, when I want to eat it, but also know that it no longer has a hold over me. How incredible is that. Food no longer has a hold over me.

It has also helped me achieve the following things, most of which I didn’t even know needed to be achieved or that I could achieve them:

• The scales have no hold. I have weighed myself every day for as long as I can remember. I can’t remember the last time I weighed myself. Do I want to? No. I genuinely and honestly don’t.
• Eating what I want, when I want it is fine. It is more than fine, it is fabulous.
• To be kind to myself. I have a right to consider me and my feelings. I have a right to be the best version of me.
• To be curious about everything
  – My feelings
  – My thoughts
  – My actions
• To not judge myself EVER.
• To treat myself how I treat others.
• To be more compassionate towards others, as I become more compassionate towards myself.
• To not think that being self-compassionate is synonymous with laziness, selfishness, weakness, pathetic or any of those other words I used to describe myself as when something didn’t go to plan, didn’t go right, didn’t happen.
• To be happier, more level-headed, more pragmatic. All things I had achieved at work but NEVER felt l ever achieved in my home life. Never realised that I could or maybe even needed to.
• To realise that by being all of this allows me to be kinder, more compassionate towards others. Quite the opposite to what I thought it would. I thought I would feel selfish, uncaring and unfeeling.

On reflection

When I reflect on this, 3 months later, I feel like this is a secret way of living that everyone needs to know about. I don’t write that in a smug way but in a kind and compassionate way that I would love everyone to benefit from it. It is so hard to articulate the work that Laura has done with me. I didn’t realise that I was weighed down by the diet industry; I thought I had cracked that years ago. I didn’t feel I had a weight problem. I didn’t feel I had a problem with anything. I thought I needed to learn to refuel to improve my running. That was what I sought and what I thought would solve the running issue.

There are aspects I am still working on. Aren’t we all? But I now feel empowered that I have the tools to allow me to work through these aspects with a kind, non-judgemental and curious approach. One that works. One that sticks. One that doesn’t need working at. It just is there. Part of you. Who you are.

I will forever be grateful to Laura for supporting me to realise what the best version of me can be. Not perfect because who is? And to be happy and accepting of that. I came away with every aspect of my life improved, changed and so much better. Laura is the therapy for the whole mind, body, and soul that I never knew I needed. Thank you from the bottom of my heart Laura, you will probably never realise, just how much you have saved me.

To find out how The Anchor Programme could help you, simply click here to find out more.