Moving Away From Diets / Intuitive Eating / Counseling Tools

Following is a brief description of each form.

Eating Styles Compared – Chart comparing intuitive eating, deprivation-driven eating and emotional eating to help clients discern between the eating styles and begin to understand steps to heal deprivation-driven eating and emotional eating.

Exercise

Am I Exercise Resistant? – If your client just can’t seem to get moving, use this checklist to help them realize there are many reasons they may not be motivated to exercise.

Motivations to Move – Help your client discover the many reasons a person might want to be physically active besides weight management, then rank motivations and explore how they might use these to become more active. 

Matching Motive to Activity – Uses the motivations to move (from worksheet above) and matches them with activities that will meet those motivations. Expands the concept of exercise and helps clients open to enjoyable physical activity.  

Exercise: Pursuing Pleasure or Avoiding Pain - Most exercisers are congratulated for their commitment to exercise, but sometimes exercise is not a good thing. This form helps your client discern if exercise may be a problem and how to begin to change that. 

How to Easily Walk Away from Food When Done Eating  – Compares how NOT to feel satisfied when you eat to how TO feel satisfied when you eat. Opens up discussion about what the client may be doing that makes it difficult to quit eating when satisfied. Follows up with several tips on how to feel satisfied when done eating which can be specific assignments.

Hunger Scale and Hunger Scale Journal

The Hunger Scale- Visual guideline to help client reconnect with hunger, fullness and satisfaction using a 0-10 scale with descriptions of each number. This provides you and your client a “language” with which to discuss their eating experiences.

My Hunger Scale – A blank Hunger Scale for clients to fill in, exploring their experience of hunger and satiety. A great tool to make sure you and the client are on the same page when discussing each of the levels of hunger and fullness.

Hunger Scale Journal – A classic food journal with a section specifically for charting hunger and fullness ratings. Your client can complete all of it, or specific sections (i.e. if having difficulty identifying hunger/satiety, leave that section blank). Feel free to have your client download this form to their computer from www.EatingWisdom.com, or send me a quick email for permission to upload it to your website for your clients. There are several different versions of this journal.

CEP Hunger Scale Journal – Use this version of the Hunger Scale Journal to help your clients keep track of additional assignments. The journal is set up for two of the most common assignments I give (and also the most difficult) -- asking clients to eat in a Chosen Eating Place (CEP) and do nothing else while eating (No Other Activity). Can help reduce overeating as clients pay more attention to the body. The third column is for additional assignments. Two versions are included.

What Happens When You Restrict Food Intake –Checklist which outlines consequences of food restriction. Often provides an “aha” moment. Helps clients quit blaming themselves for their “failure,” and to see the real culprit—food restriction.

What Stage of Recovery Am I In? - Those working to recover from eating problems often feel much ambivalence and vacillate between stages of recovery. To help your client clarify what their symptoms mean in terms of recovery, have them complete this checklist. This form can be used over time to help clarify your client’s ambivalence, or readiness to change.

Theory of Expando Thighs (2 pages)  – I developed the Theory of Expando Thighs in response to all those fat feelings I encountered (first in myself and later in clients). I kept hearing fat is not a feeling, but it sure feels like a feeling! If it is not a feeling, what is it? Includes a detailed explanation of its use excerpted from a book I co-authored titled Moving Away From Diets. This section is called Decoding Body Preoccupation: If Fat Is Not A Feeling, Then What?

 Comparing Consequences of Abuse and Restricting – Chronically restricting food intake can create symptoms that are familiar to the survivor of abuse. This form highlights the consequences of both abuse and food restriction, drawing parallels between the two.

Comparing Traditional and Nondiet Approaches to Eating and Weight – Compares the traditional weight-focused approach to eating and weight management to the nondiet approach (which uses intuitive eating, self-compassion and self acceptance).

Comparing Traditional and HAES Approaches to Eating and Weight - Same as previous form except that " Health At Every Size (HAES)" is used in the header rather than “nondiet.” I use this form for those who may be resistant to HAES concepts, or those who have been introduced to HAES (as in when I am doing a workshop on HAES).

Feelings

Feelings List - Lists feeling words in four basic categories to assist in identifying feelings. Use when clients find it difficult time identifying how they are feeling. I give them this form and as them to skim the columns, calling out any feeling that resonates with them. Then I ask which column had the most feelings. We look at the header for that list to help more clearly identify what is going on. For instance, if they say “anxiety,” the header is fear. Then I ask, “What might you be afraid of?” Anxiety is free floating, fear more specific and often easier to deal with (or refute). If a client is feeling impatient, the reframe to “anger” (the header) puts a different spin on the impatience (though clients are often resistant to admitting to anger). I especially show clients this list when they say they feel bored. That creates quite a discussion!

Fear/ Glad/ Mad/ Sad Defined - These 4 forms outline typical words used to describe each feeling, then lists synonyms and a sentence to assist understanding of the words to help clients clarify feelings and better identify them. 

Feelings Communication Model - Walks clients through the appropriate expression of feelings, differentiating between thoughts and feelings.

Feelings Faces (female and male version) - drawings that depict common feelings.

Blank Feelings Face (female) – For clients to draw depictions of their feelings to help clarify what they are feeling and open communication of what is going on.