I was pretty nervous driving up to the Woodlands to see Kathy for the first time. I didn't know what to expect. I had a hard time finding her office but luckily I was on time. It is in a big complex with several buildings and of course her building is tucked in the very back corner and you can't see it from the main parking lot.
I got to her suite and sat in the waiting room by myself. She came out and introduced herself and had me fill out some paperwork. She then called me back to her office and we started talking all about my dieting history. I don't think that she was expecting it to be so extensive! LOL! It took us most of the appointment to talk about all that I had done, Weight Watchers, fad diets, Weight Watchers, Optifast, JoAnn, surgery, Weigh Down, Weight Watchers, My Fit Foods. She told me that she could tell that I was a professional dieter and she was sure that I knew how to keep a good journal and weigh and measure my food. She said that she would rank me in the top 10 of her clients. LOL!
She went on to tell me that she did not believe in diets. She told me that people with eating disorders do not need rules. Rules can make you binge. She said that her approach was that all food was good food and there was no bad foods. She pulled out a copy of the newest food pyramid, you know the one that looks like a plate, and she told me that she wanted me to eat 3 meals a day and wanted me to structure my meals to look like that plate. She also told me that she wanted me to have 2 snacks a day and that I could decide when I wanted them. She told me that the snacks should consist of two things. She said "like strawberries and yogurt" or "some almonds with fruit" but the snacks must consist of "two somethings". I told her that I could do that.
She also gave me about 8 pages for me to work on for my next visit. It was a listing of foods, next to the foods were six columns. They were: Like, Dislike, Safe, Not Safe, Binge, Binge and Purge. She told me the Safe and Not Safe columns were for foods that dieting taught me were safe foods to eat and foods that I should avoid. Humm...I thought to myself, this is going to be interesting and this is going to take some time because of the like, dislike, safe and not safe columns. At least I had a week to work on the list.
She then told me about how she wanted me to Journal my food. She told me that there was a App that I could download if I had a smart phone and if I didn't I could get to it on-line. It is called Recovery Record. She pulled it up on her computer so that I could see what it looked like. As we talked I downloaded it to my phone to make sure that I had the right one. The app is for Droid or Apple. I really encourage you to take a look at it. It is really cool. It asks you questions like if you are angry, sad, joyful, guilty and you rate how much, you can journal your thoughts and feels and it gives you a place for you to type in what you have eaten. Kathy gave me her client code to plug into my App which allows her to be able to access my records at any time and see how I am doing. Pretty cool isn't it. It also gives you some encouragements after you log your meals. It is very uplifting. It will also email you encouragements from other users using the App but the App does it all and it assigns you a incognito name. I have really enjoyed the App and getting the encouragements. They have been great!
So she asked me if I had any questions and I asked her again about weighing and measuring and she told me to try and not to. So I told her o.k. I would try. She also told me that if she had to she would get after me which I thought was great because I'm paying her lots of money. She told me that if it upset me to remember that I said many times during our visit that "I want to be healthy!" We ended our session there.
I went through that week feeling all kind of guilty. We still ate out as I had a hard time getting to the store and getting "proper food" into the house. It is also the time of year where Mark and I love to go out and look at Christmas lights so that means eating out a lot! I finally got to the store and I'm telling you I barely made it all the way through and got checked out and back to the car. I cried all the way home because I was in so much pain. I called Mark and told him and he talked and calmed me down and assured me that if I couldn't get the cold stuff in and put up that he would come home and do it. However, I sat in the car for a few minutes and I managed to get everything out of my SUV and into the house and put up. I was exhausted and my knees and ankles were killing me!
I kept up with my journal and I logged my thoughts and feelings and I was ready to see Kathy the next week good or bad. I know that this is going to be a learning process. It is going to be a interesting, yet different journey!
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