About midway through the Eat for Life class, Julie admitted that she had still been trying to eat by dieting rules while simultaneously trying to apply the principles of mindful eating. This strategy was obviously causing a great deal of conflict and mixed results. Upon further investigation, Julie realized the conflict was due to the difficulty she had with trusting herself and her own body. This story highlights the impact of the dieting mentality on our behavior, our minds, and our hearts.

Learning to recognize the struggle is an important step on the path of mindful eating. On one hand, we’ve been conditioned by our culture to trust everything but ourselves (e.g., diets, apps, calorie counters, social media). On the other hand, mindfulness practice produces an exciting new ability and desire to listen to the wisdom within your own body. As the class continued, Julie kept using her mindfulness practice to help her listen to the messages of the dieting mentality with greater distance and less emotion. Mindfulness is the practice of being present with thoughts, feelings, body sensations, and behaviors with curiosity and kindness. It helped her to be willing to gradually let go of past conditioning and trust in a growing awareness of her own body.

Benefits of Mindful Eating.

There are many reasons someone might benefit from participating in a mindful eating program. Learning to trust your own body’s signals about when and how to eat is certainly a significant benefit. Other benefits include cultivating an increased appreciation of your body, a more compassionate approach to yourself, an ability to nurture your body with food and pleasure, a greater resilience with your emotions, and an overall greater sense of well-being. When you learn to be intimate with yourself through mindful eating, you also improve your ability to direct your entire life in ways that bring you joy and ease.

Start the year 2021 with a new hope, not a diet plan that won’t work. Shift the focus from weight to well-being, from shallow promises to values that bring your life meaning, and from outer to inner wisdom. Spend ten weeks with a community of people who are all learning this new path of inner wisdom and watch 2021 unfold with new clarity, compassion, and curiosity.

Eat for Life Program Information.

Eat for Life is a live online 10-week mindfulness-based intuitive eating program that has been taught to people around the world since 2007. It guides you to a loving and kind relationship with your food and your body through the practice of mindfulness. Guided by the knowledge that diets don’t work in the long term, the program teaches participants how to enjoy the food that’s both tasty and nutritious, care for the body they inhabit, and create a more meaningful, joyous life.

Research on the program, published in the American Journal of Health Promotion, demonstrates that participants had significant improvements in comparison to a control group as follows:

• Increased mindfulness
• Greater appreciation for their bodies
• Increased intuitive eating (eating based on hunger cues instead of emotional and environmental cues)
• Decreased binge eating and other problematic eating behaviors

If you are seeking professional development, the program will give you tools and practices to teach mindful eating to your clients and is the first step to certification for teaching the program. If you are seeking personal knowledge about mindful eating, the Eat for Life Program will help you enjoy the food you eat, love your body, and live with joy.

Eat for Life Dates and Times for January 2021:

Option 1: Evening: Tuesdays, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. CENTRAL TIME, January 26 – April 6, 2021

Option 2: Day: Wednesdays, 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. CENTRAL TIME, January 27 – April 7, 2021

Sliding Scale Tuition:

In an effort to support the greatest amount of student participation regardless of financial situation, a sliding scale fee is available. The intention is to make this offering more affordable to those with financial challenges, particularly due to the COVID crisis, and to allow those who are more fortunate in their financial circumstances an opportunity to practice generosity. You may choose the fee that feels most fitting.

• Our-Cost Tuition: $249  At this level, your registration fee fully covers the costs of your attending an offering.
• Subsidized Tuition at 25% discount: $186.75 – Use Coupon code EFL25 
• Subsidized Tuition at 50% discount: $124.50 – Use Coupon code EFL50

Here is the link to register for your preferred class.

Continuing Education: A certificate for 21.5 CE Credits is available upon completion of the course. For more information, contact Dr. Rossy at MindfulRossy@gmail.com.

Read what participants have to say about the class:

“I found Dr. Rossy’s book and her class to be a transforming experience. As a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, I have knowledge about food and nutrition but that’s exactly what often gets in my own way and in the way of assisting others! Dr. Rossy has shown me it’s much more than what you eat. I became aware of my own food rules that I have clung to for years. I began applying mindfulness practices to other areas of my life and found more peace and happiness in daily living. If you want something lasting, I encourage you to sign up for Eat for Life and/or buy the book. It’s worth every penny!” –Nancy Strot

“EFL has been a transformational experience…my relationship to food has changed dramatically.  I actually think about food much less than before — now it’s rarely on my mind until I begin to experience hunger.  And I am savoring my food infinitely more…EFL embodies an intuitive, gracious approach to living, and I am captivated by the gentleness and kindness inherent in the process.” –Linda Dyer

“It is amazing that 10 weeks have gone past. I will use the “make peace with food” for a long time to come, that has been the most successful tip. I don’t have forbidden food, or food that is “bad.” I can have it just in the quantity that will satisfy. Thank you for the insight and the motivation.  You have made this a successful experience that has changed my life.” –Amy Hampton