Confident Eaters

Client Bob Interview
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Christina: [00:00:00] Welcome back to the confident eaters podcast. Thanks for joining us. Coach Christina here. And on today's episode, I am interviewing one of my former clients. Bob is a veteran of the fitness industry and a functional movement coach in Pennsylvania. And at 52, he realized that he had disordered eating patterns with food. His biggest challenge was not eating enough. This was affecting his quality of life, his sleep, and his training to the point where he knew he needed some support, but not like anything he had tried in the past. A meal plan wasn't going to sort this out for him. But it's also not as simple as just eat more. There were some emotional and mental obstacles that were keeping him from figuring this out. So he reached out for some one-on-one support. Listen in on our conversation to find out how we worked through those challenges and what life looks like for him now.

Georgie: Welcome to the Confident Eaters Podcast, where you get proven methods to end overeating, emotional eating, and stressing [00:01:00] about food. We are heading for harmony between your body, food and feelings, hosted by me, Georgie Fear, and my team at Confident Eaters.

Christina: All right, so today we are here with Bob Postupak, and he is a former client of mine, which I'm really excited to have this conversation and just hear a little bit more about your story and share your journey of our work together and let other people know kind of what it's like in the coaching realm. I first wanted to just ask you to share a little bit about yourself. Like, what is your background with food and dieting and nutrition or any of those things? Just tell us a little bit about yourself, Bob.

Bob: Let's see, I'm in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. I work as a functional movement coach. I also teach Daoist practices, Tai Chi, Qi Gong, things of that nature. You know, as far as I can remember, I think I've always [00:02:00] dieted. I'm now 52, 3 years old. And it's always been Yeah, pretty much a diet from when I was young, you know To now and the biggest issue I always had was not knowing how to eat You know, you see a nutritionist they put you on a plan you eat this at this time of the day this at this time Of the day that kind of thing and that's not really sustainable for life.

Christina: Hmm,

Bob: you know Or you're eating the same foods, you're packaging all your foods And you're bringing all your food with you, things of that nature, which is great, but again, that's not sustainable for long term, and as I look back on it, that in itself is an eating disorder, because you're afraid to eat anything else that's not packaged or weighed out for you. And that's not really how life works.

Christina: Yeah.

Bob: and not only that, you no longer get the nutritional benefit, like if you're eating chicken, broccoli, and brown rice every day, you Well, eventually those foods aren't going to give you the, the nutritional value that they used to because your body's used to it. And learning to eat other foods. And that was the biggest issue with me was constant under eating. You know, [00:03:00] like we had talked, I used to sustain on a thousand calories a day,

Christina: Mhmm

Bob: which isn't sustainable for a 200 pound active person,

Christina: right?

Bob: Like at all . and the other issue I had and still have is not knowing when I'm actually hungry.

It's trying to find those cues that, oh, I am hungry. And so that's kind of why I talked to, actually a colleague referred me to Georgie and she referred me to you to try to help. Figure those things out.

Christina: Yeah, I think it's really interesting what you said And it's something I hear a lot from people who have dieted for a long time is that they don't trust themselves to know How much to eat or what to eat outside of whatever plan. Sure a meal plan simplifies your life because you just this is okay. This is not okay And then it eliminates the guessing game or the mental gymnastics that some people go through. But on the other hand, like you said, it doesn't actually teach you how to be intuitive with your own [00:04:00] hunger signals, your own fullness, and how satisfied are you from your meals? Are you getting enough to support your training? Are you getting enough to get you to your next meal? And so it sounds like for you, that was just your way of life. For a long time.

Bob: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. And growing up, you know, I don't want to say i've always had a problem with my weight, but you know, we can't outrun our genetic makeup, you know, you can diet all you want to, but your, your genetic biomarkers are your genetic biomarkers. That's it, you know? So, know, I've fought my weight my whole life. And even when I was little, it was, Maybe you should stop eating, that kind of thing. So people forget too that a lot of times your weight issues or how you restrain or binge, whichever one you do. it's your emotional issues too.

Christina: Mm hmm.

Bob: so it's been interesting digging around and playing with those too.

Christina: Yeah, it's like that internal dialogue doesn't come from nowhere, you know, from a young age. If you're hearing, well just stop [00:05:00] eating, or even if you're thinking that yourself. As a way to deal with your weight challenges, then it becomes normal for you to have that restrained pattern. But, as you said, it's not sustainable. So, like, what were the challenges that you were facing before we started working together that brought up the conversation with your friend or colleague who recommended you? what was the specific stuff you were going through that made you think, Man, I really need to Figure this out at 50 something years old versus as long as you've been dealing with the challenge

Bob: You know, it just dawned on me that I saw my own performance starting to drop off And I know it wasn't age based I mean we all our performance does drop off as we get older, but it was just I would go to the kitchen And there was food in the house, you know, and I wouldn't know what to make.

Yeah, okay, I could, you know, after a while eating the same things, like, I'm just going to steam some veg and [00:06:00] have some protein. That's great. But after every day, it's no longer satiating. It's just mechanical thing, right?

Christina: Right.

Bob: And I just got to the point where my sleep was being affected because I wasn't eating enough. Because if you don't eat enough, it throws your glucose levels off your everything just sort of gets, your hormones get thrown off. , you know, and I just got to the point where I'm like, I have to figure this out now. 'cause if I don't do it now, when am I gonna do it? You know, here my, here I was at 50, whatever it was.

Well, when are you gonna take the bull by the horns and just do it? You could call another nutritionist, hire another nutritionist who's gonna make a plan for you. But that's not really learning how to eat, that's just learning what they're telling you to eat.

Christina: Mm-Hmm.,

Bob: you know, there's a big difference. So that's kind of what led me to contacting my friend and going.

Who do you recommend? Who do you know?

Christina: Awesome. Well, I'm so glad you came across our, our [00:07:00] path and Georgie's path, and , it's been awesome being able to work with you and process all that with you, cause it is difficult when you have long standing behaviors and habits with the way you eat. Even if You don't really feel like you know what you're doing. It's still an ingrained pattern that you've developed over the years. And yeah, it just sounds like those challenges with your sleep, with your training, it was like enough is enough. I need to figure this out and being in the fitness space yourself. You have connections with people that you trust and you can say, Hey, I could do this meal plan thing again. It could meet with another nutritionist. I've had experiences with that, but looking for something a little bit different and then we started working together in April of 2023 for several months. And started from where you're at, which is what we want to do with coaching because everyone has their own journey and [00:08:00] their own history. And. Now, after a few months of working together, tell me a little bit about what life looks like for you now.

What have you learned, and what has changed for you?

Bob: I Would say the biggest thing is, as funny as it sounds, it's okay to eat foods that might not be, you don't need to have this plan. It's okay to say, you know what, I'm not going to have chicken, it's okay to grab elk, it's okay to grab whatever else, whatever protein you want, and not have to sit there and weigh it out. And saying, hey, you know I'm actually going to add some starch, some, maybe some quinoa or what have you to it because I wouldn't need any of that stuff.

Christina: And, why is that? What were your thoughts about those kinds of food?

Bob: So you get, your brain goes to, well, for the longest time, you know a lot of carbohydrate isn't good for you. You know, besides the fact that I didn't eat grain, that was just more because of how it affected my body. But yeah, because, well, you don't eat those things. You know, you [00:09:00] just get used to hearing, those are good foods, those are bad foods.

Christina: Mm hmm.

Bob: And then I would just read data and go, well, You know, this data shows this and this data shows this, so you just ignore it. You just don't eat them. And then you wonder why, you know, like you start to bonk. You don't have fuel in your brain, in your body for certain times of the day.

Or then there's data that says, well, you should eat a low fat diet, even though your brain is made mostly by fat. So you need fats to fuel your brain. And I just got to a point where I was just, yeah, it was difficult. So I just stopped eating all those things.

Christina: It's almost like too much information can cause challenges because there is some conflicting stuff out there about what to eat. And so it's a little confusing and limiting your choices to very few things feels safer somewhat, but like you said, I remember you saying that on our calls, that sense of bonking in the afternoons. It was just like under fueled and your workouts weren't feeling great and your sleep was [00:10:00] affected negatively.

And definitely underfueling was the challenge that we first tackled, I think, in our work together.

Bob: Oh, yeah. So that was the biggest thing, knowing and actually telling myself that it was okay to eat certain things. That nobody should have to restrict themselves so strictly because that's also not living.

Christina: Right.

Bob: You know, it's like. what good is being jacked and ripped if you can't go out to a luncheon with your wife or with her colleagues because you're afraid of what you can eat?

Christina: Mm hmm.

Bob: yEah, you might look great, but then that dips into a different form of mental health.

Christina: Yeah, yeah, at what cost is looking great, looking shredded?

Bob: Well, right, and there's not a lot of data that says if you're jacked and shredded you can perform better than a person that's, Carrying a little bit more body fat. So, you know, it's kind of an interesting that perspective too It's based on how you move and how you perform not so much on how you look But the health and fitness industry tells you differently that if you don't look a certain way, you're not healthy or [00:11:00] fit. Well, okay You know,

Christina: yeah,

Bob: that's been the biggest thing is just Allowing myself that room to say, well, I can have this, or, hey, I can go out to dinner with my wife and not have to worry about what I'm eating or what I'm ordering because, life is also short and that one time out, you know, not everybody goes out four or five times a week.

So it's that one time out every for us every, like, three months. well that's really, not gonna hurt anything.

Christina: Yeah. And learning how to diversify your food choices, I think was a big one. Understanding that food isn't good or bad. There's the more nutritious options and there's the less nutritious options.

But a lot of times clients that I work with, and I know we've talked about this, have food based on like some kind of morality, but you also had the dynamic of how does this food make me feel? So there were [00:12:00] certain things that you were not eating because of how it made you feel.

You didn't feel great. And so that makes sense. But then there's that psychological satisfaction that was not being met from a lot of what you were eating and just eating food that's delicious. I know you said there's a place you guys love to go to. That's. It's like pizza, or they make great sourdough near you, where you started having some regular goings out.

Bob: Yeah, I mean, it's, well, you're right. I don't consume gluten and grain just because how it makes me feel. But it's ironic that you said that because the luncheon That we went to my with my wife's colleagues yesterday was at that place. Now I didn't indulge in the sourdough based pizza because I just wasn't sure how I was gonna be after post gallbladder surgery,

Christina: right

Bob: but will I end up going back there at some point and trying? Oh, absolutely

Christina: mm hmm

Bob: You know, I know of a couple athletes a couple people out there trainers Who are so rigid with their diet, they won't even indulge in Christmas dinner with their family. [00:13:00] They're making their pre packaged food and that's, you know. Then when you mention to them, Do you ever think you might want to think about that from a perspective of, you might have an eating issue. Well no, I'm just eating healthy. But if you can't eat anything else, that's not really healthy.

Christina: Yeah. Everyone's got to decide what their values are around eating. There's a balance of, you know, indulging and enjoying the company, the people you're with and enjoying the meal, the taste of the food. And it isn't always about the nutrient quality. Sometimes we just eat food because it's delicious. And that's why we have taste buds, because there is a psychological factor involved with being satisfied from our food. But. to your point that you said earlier, you know, how often are you doing that? That's a great way to evaluate, , are you living your life? Like it's brave to try foods that you're not used to trying or in the past you have felt like they are bad foods or you have thought that they are [00:14:00] bad foods.

Now it's like, well, how can I be present? What's the value I'm focused on right now? Being present, enjoying my wife and this company and the taste of this food. And it's not all about. Physical health, like you said,

Bob: right? I mean, it's also going back to this person I know that only eats prepackaged meals. How does that person ever travel that you went to Thailand correct? Well, how, how would you function then? How would a person, you know, if you're not willing to eat the food that's available, you can't get your prepackaged foods there in Thailand.

Christina: Yeah.

Bob: Part of going to Thailand is experiencing their food and their food culture.

Christina: Right. And it is very different. Like coming back, I remember missing protein. I was eating a lot more rice and noodles and things like that over there, which were delicious, but their portions of protein was way smaller than I was used to eating. So coming back here, it was like [00:15:00] relearning or readjusting back to less of that stuff and more of the protein that I'm used to. So definitely.

Bob: Yeah, so I mean there is that thought of if you're stuck on a desert island the only food you had to eat were Pop tarts. Well, guess what? You're gonna probably eat the pop tarts eventually.

Christina: Mm hmm

Bob: because you just want to live,

Christina: right.

Bob: You know it no longer becomes well, man I'm not at 4 percent body fat and you can't see my see my abs as well. You're gonna eat the pop tarts if there's no fruit or anything. You can't find anything else

Christina: Yeah,

Bob: food is there to be enjoyed.

Christina: Yeah, so it sounds like Throughout our work together, there has been a little bit of a shift in how you Relate to food your relationship with food has changed somewhat. There is Less of that. This is bad. This is good and more of I'm going to try this and see how I feel I'm going to eat this because it's delicious and diversify your protein sources and just [00:16:00] learn how to listen to your own body and learn to trust yourself a little bit more with eating. Now I know you have some new challenges with a recent gallbladder surgery and getting some more opportunities to practice those things. Like how do certain foods affect your body now and what used to taste good and be appetizing isn't so much anymore. So you have a foundation of knowing how to do that, so now you get more opportunities to practice that with this new challenge.

Bob: Yes, absolutely. The interesting thing too is, I used to eat really quickly. I used to just, you know, I didn't taste it. I just jammed it down and kept going because my body was always in the point of starvation. And I think we even discussed it wasn't until I ate my meal until I actually, my stomach would start to growl and I'd actually become hungry.

Christina: Right.

Bob: I remember cause we had a talk a few times well, should I eat more? Should I not eat more? And now with the gallbladder removal, it's, I have no [00:17:00] choice but to sit there. And eat really slowly just to let everything, digest slowly and get it, you know, so it's, that's been kind of a blessing in a way.

I mean, it's something I should have learned better pre gallbladder removal, but, you know, Now it's, hey, I could take as much time as I need to eat this meal. Instead of just kind of sucking the meal down and going, Yeah, I'm still hungry. Well,

Christina: yeah. That forced mindfulness with your eating.

Bob: Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Christina: It can be helpful and it does allow us to notice how the food is making us feel and how quickly we get satisfied from that. So, it's not, like, we don't recommend having to get your gallbladder out to learn that.

Bob: No, no, I mean, I prefer people to not have to, to experience that.

That, just, just saying.

Christina: Yeah. And I know another thing we talked about was body image stuff a little bit. So do you mind sharing a little bit about your [00:18:00] journey with that?

Bob: No, I don't mind. You know, it's still a journey, right? It's still something I'm Working on I know as a person who coaches other people and teaches other people in the back of your head It's how you look has virtually nothing to do with how you perform and it's true You know, I'd rather be able to perform Well do the type of training that I do and it's less about how you look It's only when you really start to look at like the health and wellness industry that they're the ones who judge you and teach us That it's wrong to look a certain way, or you need to look a certain way.

So it's still kind of a thing that I deal with. From being an obese guy at one point in my life, to where I'm at now, whatever that is. And it's, yeah, it's still something you have to work on. And I had this thought the other day. Yeah, it's something that isn't discussed, but a lot of guys have eating disorders and issues with how they look and things.

I'm not the only one. And then it dawned on me, too, that it's no different than the person who's constantly judging themselves in a mirror, who's already lean, or who's trying to get even [00:19:00] leaner and even bigger or whatever. It's the same thing, just switched.

Christina: Yeah.

Bob: And we all actually have that then. It's all the same thing. it affects each one of us differently in our own cycle. So it's definitely something I'm still working on. It takes time. You know, I mean, I base now more and more, especially after post surgery, not being able to train for four weeks or so. But it's been winter, so it's kind of, it was kind of nice taking a few breaks, too. It kind of forced me to rest, you know, for those few weeks, especially for the first couple weeks.

Christina: Yeah.

Bob: Yeah, where it's like, yeah, you know what you're doing? Nothing. You can go for a walk today. Okay, I'll go for a walk today. and you know, the whole body image, it's something we all deal with.

Christina: Definitely. It's about how we perceive ourselves. Like you said, even a very lean person can still struggle with their body image because it's, their perception of themselves is still not enough, or it's not what they want to be, or they still see all of the flaws. So it is [00:20:00] definitely a I think we have to be intentional with improving and sometimes that just means being neutral towards our body like this is my body. It's getting me through life. Sometimes it is getting to a point of feeling very positively towards ourselves. Like I'm so thankful that I can recover from this gallbladder surgery and, you know, get back to training eventually, but for now I'm happy I can just go for a walk and do what my body is allowing me to do.

That's a pretty, our bodies are very resilient, pretty amazing, but we have to be intentional about improving the way we perceive ourselves if we have a negative body image.

Bob: We forget that, you know, that our bodies are amazing machines. I mean, like it allow you to do whatever you want. And one of the only things that stops us for doing whatever our bodies want to do is our own perception of what we, our capacity is, but our capacity to do things is way more than we think it [00:21:00] is, you know, like when it was five years ago, I dislocate my, I pulled my right hip out of its socket and my body was still willing to keep going, you know, and it's an amazing thing, like until I got everything put back together, The muscles started to grow kind of around it to hold it in a different way.

And it's like, okay, I'll keep doing what you want me to. And it's an amazing thing, you know, and. It's interesting like with my clients when I get them on stability balls or a slant board Where they're balancing on one foot and I'm throwing things at them, you know, like tennis balls and stuff . They'll look at me go. I didn't think I could do that. Right because we just our brains just get in the way

Christina: Mm hmm,

Bob: and if you can keep testing your brain and your body in certain three dimensional ways of training you build up this worth for your body

Christina: Yeah,

Bob: wow it can do things that other people can't it's doing this it's rotating It's doing all these crazy wonderful moves, and you didn't think you could do them. When you start challenging your body to different things, it becomes less and less about how you look, and you [00:22:00] start to appreciate it more for what it actually can do. You know, you look at some higher end athletes, like, the interaction I've had with a few, they're not worrying about it. Oh my God, what size pants am I wearing? They're caring about, how can I clean up this lift? How can I get a better stroke in my swim? How can I get a better step on my run or my, you know, what have you?

Your body image starts to change when you start to realize your body's capable of doing so many different fun things. I think when you start to experience different things that helps build your body's confidence and your own confidence and what inspires because you start to find out what your body can do.

It's not all about what size you are, it's about finding in that you're going to start to appreciate your body more and more and I think that helps, that helps people a lot, helps myself a lot.

Christina: Yeah, and it's backed up by research too. There's studies that show if we take the focus off of our physique, not that our physique isn't important, we can have aesthetic goals, we can have a desire to have a certain [00:23:00] leanness, nothing wrong with that, it's just that when that becomes the main focus or the thing that drives what we find to be successful in our health, that can kind of throw things off, but if we can take the focus less off of physique and also focus on How happy am I? Like, what's my mental health?

And how is my body functioning day to day? And what can I be grateful for that my body is helping me do to live life and move and perform if you're an athlete or just trying to exercise for health. And you see it just in your own personal life, it sounds like, but also you can see your client's confidence get built up when they're doing these challenging movements and that's one way we can combat the physique is the most important thing, or unless you're 4 percent body fat, then you're not worthy, and that sort of mentality, we can work towards unlearning that, undoing that with our own clients.

Bob: Yeah, mean, absolutely. And the other thing we have [00:24:00] to remember is each one of us has a very distinct genetic makeup. It is our own. And not all bodies are going to look like everybody else's body. Right. I remember going to a place, this was some time ago, when I actually used to train at a gym, and someone just said, don't you really want to look like him?

And I said, why do I want to look like him? I'm not him, I'm me. My genetic makeup won't make me look like him, and his genetic makeup won't make me look like me. So I think that's something too that we'll get this vision in their head, and that's great to have a vision in your head, but it has to be tailored to you.

Christina: Yeah.

Bob: And it skews people's perceptions of what reality is. Like, yeah, you can train great, but you can't have that person's you know, genetic makeup to make you look like you. Be happy with the body you have and work with within your genetic makeup to allow you to become whatever it is that you want your body to be capable of doing.

Christina: Definitely. Let's be fair with ourselves. Like, I'm 5'4 [00:25:00] comparing myself with a 5'10 runway model. It just isn't realistic. You know, I'm not ever going to look like that. And that's okay. I'm just, I don't have the height. I don't have the genes, like you said.

Bob: Well, right. Like I'm 5'8 I'm 200 pounds.

I can train like one of the best basketball players in the world, but I can guarantee you I will not be sinking a basket anytime soon. I can do all the things that they're doing, you know train for months, whatever years like them, but it's not going to happen. It's not within my genetic makeup to do that.

Christina: Yeah.

Bob: And that's okay. I read an article, the average person who's really into working out and stuff trains sometimes upwards twice as hard as a professional athlete with half the rest time. And it goes back to like the eighties way of training of no pain, no gain, push yourself to the limits, And it's surprising because going back to what we were talking about appreciating your body, you should never really burn the candle at both ends, right, to achieve a goal.

Because that, let's [00:26:00] say you get to your, kidding around with 4 percent body fat. Let's, you know, just say that for fun. Let's say you get to that 4 percent body fat. You're going to have to keep up that type of training regimen to maintain that 4 percent body fat. Which is impossible.

Professional athletes don't train like that all year round. You know, MMA fighters go into camps. They'll, they'll train for X amount of months, prep for a fight. But that's their one event. Maybe they'll fight twice a year. People are trying to look a certain way and train a certain way because of how they need their body to look but they're trying to train like that all year round.

Christina: Yeah.

Bob: You know, again, appreciate your body because , we think that if we overtrain, under eat, only eat certain foods all the time, we're going to achieve this goal. And maybe some will and that's great. But the majority of people are just going to burn themselves out and not appreciate their bodies anymore.

Christina: Yeah.

Bob: And that comes back to, you know, trying eating different foods and things and enjoying your body and letting it just experience training different ways and different things. That's why when I see [00:27:00] my clients, we're never working out because it's not a workout.

Workout is one of the worst terms in the world. It's a practice. We're going to go practice. What we want to do is build skill. There's a great quote from guy Brought kettlebells here to the United States Pavel Tatsouli. He's he has a system called strong first

Christina: Mm hmm.

Bob: It's a great great quote. He said what do you think of when somebody says I worked that, worked myself out today? He's like that brings you images of laying on the ground Drenched in sweat possibly vomiting in a bucket.

Christina: Hmm.

Bob: Why would you ever why would you ever do that to your body? Why would you ever put your body through that? You know, there's no there's no word for workout in Russia And this is a guy who's trained all kinds of strength events, coached, soldiers, Olympic lifters.

He's like, no, it's a skill. It's a practice. We should be going to the gym with seeing what our bodies can do today. Not trying to abuse ourselves to burn a bunch of calories.

Christina: It's interesting you say that because that's, it's so in line with the way I think [00:28:00] we approach coaching eating skills. It's skills we need to learn how to listen to your hunger, how to listen to when you're satisfied. You know, there is a little bit of education in what is nutrient dense and what isn't, but you already had that foundation coming into coaching with me. So I'm curious for you, what's different about the work we did together than the work you've done with previous nutritionists?

I know you mentioned meal plans at the beginning of this conversation, but what has been different about coaching compared to other solutions or things you've tried in the past?

Bob: I think the difference is when somebody gives you a meal plan, and there's nothing wrong with that. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with going to nutritionist and having it written down, putting it on your fridge door. This is what I eat this time. And there's nothing wrong with that at all. I've done it. It's helpful. Especially if you're not if you're not totally sure what to be eating, it's nice to have, but the difference is, I think, that doesn't open the door or the window, or whatever you want to phrase it [00:29:00] as, to make you deal with your own shit. It just doesn't, you know it's when you start scratching around in your own back of your head. Why don't you do this? Well, there's a reason why we don't do X or why we do X.

There's a reason why we overeat or we under eat all the time. aNd only when somebody opens a door for you to step in and start digging around in there. Can you actually figure that out? You know, the, the meal plan is great. It works. It helps people. But if you really want to get to the root, you have to dig around and ask yourself, why? Why do I overeat all the time? Why do I undereat all the time? Why am I afraid of this food? Why am I afraid of that food? anD that, and that's the difference, right? Because I remember, I don't remember what it was, a couple times we've had conversations where you've brought a couple things up and I'm like, oh shit, yeah, I never thought of that. You know, that's, that's the difference. It's finding out what it is that's laying underneath the surface, right? Teaching yourself to eat off a meal plan is great, but that peels one layer of the onion, right?

Christina: Yeah.

Bob: there's always another [00:30:00] layer to the onion that's going to be somewhere else. And you peel another layer, and another layer, and another layer, and it's allowing yourself to understand why you make the choices that we choose to make.

Christina: Yeah.

Bob: And I think that's what the difference is. You know, working with yourself and Georgie, it's, it's more of a understanding of what makes you tick.

Christina: Mm hmm.

Bob: And as good as a lot of us are is figuring ourselves out. There's always something we miss. There's always something you can't find for yourself because we bury those things in. So when you would suggest something or bring something up, you don't even realize it because the problem is you, it's something you have and you're carrying and when somebody brings it up, then you go, then you can sit back and go, Oh, Oh yeah. No kidding. I do do that. Yeah, so that, I think that's the difference between a meal plan and doing the hard work. And that's the hard work. This is the hard work.

Christina: Yeah. And you're totally right. Like, getting the meal plan done for you, it helps simplify things

and [00:31:00] for that, that's great. Getting to the root of your overeating, undereating, your food challenges is really at the heart of the kind of coaching I love to do. I've never prescribed meal plans for people or, or really even done like macro stuff too much. I don't like to get too into the nitty gritty with that because if we can figure out, like you said, the reasons for our eating challenges, Then we can have these results for life.

And that's the whole point is like, what's the most sustainable thing to approach our eating challenges and overcome those. And then if you have those skills, you really can coach yourself moving forward. That's the hope is that people can develop these skills, be in tune with themselves, get to know themselves better and understand their tendencies, I would say, because of course we can go back to those tendencies if it's what feels most familiar to us. But if we know what those are, then we won't be surprised when that starts to [00:32:00] creep up again and we can overcome them once again on our own. That's the hope, is that people can really feel empowered and equipped to carry on and not need the meal plan or the long term coaching.

Some people stick around for accountability and I love that, but getting to know those reasons can really help you in the long term. So let me ask you this, Bob, if Someone is on the fence about working with a coach or doing this type of work, like you said, the hard stuff, the getting to the bottom of our eating challenges, what would you say to them? Or what, what parting words of wisdom would you have for our listeners here?

Bob: You know, I'll leave it with the thought that made me reach out to Brian to get referred to Georgie and to you. It was, if not now, when? You know, I understand being in a cycle because, you know, we, we all have a cycle that we do, right? We all have our own personal cycle, whatever [00:33:00] it is, and it's really comfortable there in that cycle, right? bUt if not now, when? Because we're all comfortable in that cycle, but deep down, we're really not comfortable in that cycle.

Christina: Yeah, I love it. And if people want to learn more about the type of work you do how can they find out more about you, Bob?

Bob: They can find me at my Instagram, robertpostupak and a website coming soon.

Christina: Okay.

Bob: Working on that presently.

Christina: Awesome. Well, I appreciate just your story, your journey, being willing to get on here and share with people. And I think it's going to resonate with a lot of people because it's not just women and overeating, sometimes it's men, sometimes it's under eating and under fueling. And I just appreciate you being willing to share about your journey. So thank you so much.

Bob: Oh, you're very welcome. Have a great New Year's.

Christina: Yeah, you too.

Yeah.[00:34:00]

Christina: What did you think about Bob story? What part, if any, resonated with you? As you heard, sometimes we go through life and never really know how to trust ourselves with our eating. But it's never too late to learn some new skills and become a confident, sensible eater. This is the type of work we love to do every day.

If you listened and thought, you know, I could really use some help learning how to trust myself more and overcome my challenges with food. Or if you have a question or topic you'd like for us to cover on our show, send us a message at confidenteaters.com. We hope you have an awesome day and we'll see you in the next episode.