"I'm not fighting myself anymore on eating" (An Insider Review of Our Coaching Program)
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Georgie: [00:00:00] I met Berenice six months ago when she signed up for the Breaking Up With Binge Eating group coaching program, and I'm really glad that you're going to get to meet her today. She's one of the most fun, enthusiastic, and positive individuals I've had the pleasure of working with, and I'm glad that she's willing to share her story about how binge eating affected her life and how she has conquered it, including what her next steps are.

Enjoy.

This is the breaking up with binge eating podcast, where every listen moves you one step closer to complete food freedom hosted by me, Georgie fear and my team at confident eaters. Hello, Berenice.

Bérénice: How's it going?

Georgie: It's good. It's good. Thanks so much for doing an episode with me. I'm very glad to have you on, even though we've [00:01:00] talked quite a bit. This is extra bonus time with Berenice.

Bérénice: Yeah, no, it's an honor. I've been listening to your podcast for years, literally. So yeah, it's an honor.

Georgie: That makes me happy. So you just finished doing our breaking up with binge eating program literally like a week and a half ago, maybe. And so I was hoping that we could get some more of your story. Cause I think it's, it's really good. We've had so many good epiphanies over the last half a year. And. We can get right into it.

How about that?

Bérénice: Yeah, that sounds good.

Georgie: Yeah, so where does it all begin for you?

Bérénice: Gosh, it all began a really long time ago. I've never been comfortable in my body, and I've always Had a tendency of overdoing it on sweet things. I'd say I'd always have what people call a sweet tooth so when I was a kid I could have like, you know, seven cookies in a row without batting an eye So there's some problem areas there.

But what really started was The year after I graduated college I did a sort of gap year and I went to teach English in France and it was the happiest year of my life. I had such a good time. [00:02:00] I ate every baguette ever made that year. So coming back from that, I weighed like maybe five ish pounds more than I usually do.

No, no big deal. Right. And so. It started off with me wanting to lose those five ish pounds, which isn't a bad thing, but then it was the first time I had ever tried to diet intentionally, and so then I'm kind of a perfectionist and kind of an obsessive person anyways, and so then counting calories became pretty obsessive, and so it turned from like the five pounds to, okay, now maybe seven pounds, and then maybe ten pounds.

And then, as I was doing that, I moved to China to teach English there, which was amazing. However, Chinese women are much smaller than I am. Like, I'm a 5'9 American, you know? I'm gonna be bigger than them, but I was surrounded by all these tiny women. And I just kept losing weight, and then that turned into, like, me starving myself, and then me binging because I was starving, and then developed into bulimia, and it got really ugly.[00:03:00]

I ended up coming back from China because of it. So yeah, it just turned into something really ugly, and it's something that I've been dealing with for the better part of a decade at this point, because I I started losing weight in 2016. So, yeah, almost almost a decade.

Georgie: I wouldn't say the story is ugly.

I mean, obviously you can use whatever words you want, but I think more like,

Bérénice: Right.

Georgie: That's so painful that's so sad.

Bérénice: Yeah.

Georgie: And when you're young and you're trying to adventure and be out in the world and it's Just sort of holding you down and making you weaker and trying to keep your world small. And, yeah, it's something that unfortunately it happens to a lot of people.

A lot of people that this may have come up in the group. So many people have battled anorexia before battling binge eating disorder. Right it's actually, you know, not uncommon for people to develop one problem and have it progress into the other.

Bérénice: Yeah, yeah. it's a really tough thing.

Georgie: When did you first get help?

Bérénice: I tried therapists on better help fairly recently. It's kind of when I, when I hit 30, I was kind of like, okay, [00:04:00] come on, this has to stop. I was just tired of being stressed out and tired all the time. And I was just ready for help. So I tried a couple of different therapists, but they weren't necessarily eating disorder specialty so it just none of them are really good fit. They're all lovely humans, but none of them are a good fit. And then it finally got to the point where I think I had purchased something from you before or something, or I got a promotional email from you like, hey, we're starting a group in November. I was like, oh my gosh, this is a sign.

Georgie: Oh, wow.

Bérénice: So that's when I signed up. I probably signed up sometime in October or something right around the time that I was moving and things were super stressful. And so, yeah, that's, that's how that, yeah, that happened. That's how I got help.

Georgie: Awesome. Okay. I never actually knew what your history of, you know, sort of treatment was before.

So basically it's blank.

Bérénice: Yeah.

Georgie: Kind of blank.

Bérénice: Yeah, very blank. Yeah. I'm bad at asking for help. I, I'm good at figuring stuff out on my own. And so I try to translate that into my mental health, which

isn't, A good thing? [00:05:00] some things you can't figure out on your own, you know, but yeah, I clearly wasn't doing a very good job.

So I figured I needed some professional help.

Georgie: Well, I'm glad that we connected that way and that you did reach out.

Bérénice: Yeah, absolutely.

Georgie: Okay, so we do, as you may remember, like a pre and a post survey.

Bérénice: Yes.

Georgie: In the group, so you probably vaguely remember filling out the survey.

Bérénice: Vaguely, yes.

Georgie: So I'm gonna read some of your answers here.

Bérénice: Okay. Oh gosh, this is fun.

Georgie: What you wrote down before. It can happen anywhere that food's available, and generally happens if I've had any kind of refined sugar, or even particularly sweet fruit.

Bérénice: Yeah.

Georgie: And that sounds to me when I read that, like, wow, that's a very vulnerable place.

Feeling like any sweet food or even sweet fruit could set off a binge. That feeling from what I've spoken to you over the last six months has changed quite a bit.

Bérénice: Yeah. Yeah. No, it definitely has. Yeah. I, for a long time, I felt like I, I was afraid of even eating cause I [00:06:00] knew every time I'd start eating, I just wouldn't want to turn it off, you know?

Yeah. And I still struggle obviously sometimes, but the difference now is that I can eat things that feel good, you know? I still avoid refined sugar and I may need to do that for a while, but but I love making myself smoothies with all sorts of stuff, like blueberries, plantains, like coconut, all sorts of fruit, all kinds of stuff, and

Georgie: Yum.

Bérénice: You know, it just feels good to drink now.

Georgie: Nice. Nice. So, anything else that you would say that would describe your experience before doing the program? Maybe, how frequently did you feel like you were losing control with food?

Bérénice: For a while, felt like all the time. Multiple times a week, really. And then the rest of the time I wouldn't say I was in control with food because I was restricting or I was just overall hating myself.

Things were really stressful, like my mom's got health issues. I was moving , which is fun. I love moving. I love picking up and moving and changing jobs and everything. I enjoy it. [00:07:00] But it is really stressful and so when I'm super busy and I'm not thinking about food, then that's really great.

But then all of a sudden I had no friends, I wasn't in the office yet, I was working remotely I was in a living situation that wasn't ideal, and like, it was just everything at once. It's sort of just stopped and I was left alone with my eating disorder and I was just like, Oh my gosh, I don't even know what to do with myself.

And I would, I would keep binging and then beating myself up for it and then binging and beating myself up for it. I mean, I think that's the biggest difference that I've noticed like, now, even if I do binge, I don't beat myself up for it. I sort of just, like, I think you've been the one to say it, I put my lab coat on, and I'm like, okay, what happened, and How can we handle that next time that that happens, you know?

Georgie: Yeah. All right. So there's been so many good changes. Let's talk about

Bérénice: Oh so many good changes!

Georgie: the process here. The process. So it didn't happen overnight. the stuff that we cover early in the program was things like setting up your motivation [00:08:00] in the right sense of like, why do we want to do this? And really coming up with good reasons because losing weight and feeling thinner or sexier While they're valid as goals, they're usually not meaningful enough to keep us going through the really hard parts.

And then we also talked about you know, getting through urges. Like, what do you do when you have that urge? So in the first few weeks, can you remember anything early in the program, maybe that surprised you or let you know that things were going to really be changing for you?

Bérénice: Yeah. So I think it was, Several weeks in I was like doing the homework, things were going well.

And then several more weeks in, I was really busy and I let a few homeworks stack up, you know, I was like, Oh, I'll get to them. I'll get to them. But my one takeaway is like, do the homework, do it every week. They help do it twice or three times if you want to, because I really started seeing progress when I really started doing the homework.

So at one point, I want to say maybe six or seven weeks in, I just like stopped and I started over [00:09:00] And then I did all of them, even if I had already done them, I just did them all again, you know?

Georgie: Nice.

Bérénice: And so, I think that was a turning point for me. I get stuff done, right? I'm an accomplisher.

And so in my mind, it was like, okay, I'm gonna do the homework, check, I'm done. But this kind of homework, you really just want to spend time with it. You don't want to do it just to get it done. You want to just feel it and think about it. And I think that's when I really saw a shift to several weeks in but yeah, I think it was the first lesson establishing like why you're doing this, like why, why, and I really started thinking beyond.

Myself, you know, I, I have a lot of good relationships that I want to keep, but being in a relationship when you have an eating disorder is a very hard thing to do, you know? You just push people away, it's a thing you want to do in secret, you lie, you just do all sorts of things that you shouldn't be doing in a relationship.

So I think taking it away from myself and how I wanted to look and feel and just Being like, how do, what do, how do I want to be in a relationship? [00:10:00] You know, what do I want to bring to those people? I think that was really helpful too.

Georgie: Yeah. Yeah. the question that gets a lot of people that in that first homework assignment is what will your life be like in 10 years if you don't change anything?

Bérénice: Yeah.

Georgie: And like, that can be really sobering.

Bérénice: Exactly the same. Yeah.

Georgie: Yeah. It can be really sobering. so over the six months.

Bérénice: Yeah.

Georgie: We cover 22 lessons. So it's like, it's a lot.

Bérénice: It's a lot yeah

Georgie: were there any that were your favorites?

Bérénice: Yes, my all time favorite is Sabotaging Thoughts and it's both my favorite and the one I struggle with most, because that's a big part of my problem, is I have all these thoughts that have just guided my behavior, really, for years and years and years, and they're so ingrained in me that I didn't even really see them as thoughts.

I just saw them as, like, how I have to act, because it's just how I act, you know?

Georgie: Yeah, yeah.

Bérénice: But really stopping and, like, actually having to write them out and give them a name and all of that, Yeah. Yeah. That was [00:11:00] really, really helpful. Yeah. So one of the biggest thoughts that I had was the screw it thought, you know, like just screw it.

it's fine. Like I've already messed up a little bit. Might as well just keep going. That kind of thought.

Georgie: Yeah.

Bérénice: Yeah. I think that one was my favorite one of all the lessons.

Georgie: Black and white thinking is so common.

Bérénice: Yes.

Georgie: And people who struggle with this. And so like to lesson five, the sabotaging thoughts, a lot of times people realize that.

Like your example of like, well I've already done X, so I might as well Y, is like prototypical black or white thinking.

Bérénice: Yeah, which I think was your example like, I've already dropped my phone on the floor, so now I'm just gonna step on it or whatever.

Georgie: Yeah, I'm just gonna snatch it.

Bérénice: It makes no sense, but that's exactly how I am. Like, oh I've already, eaten a singular thing that I would consider bad. And so now I might as well just like binge, you know,

Georgie: yeah. Yeah And I bet a lot of people listening are nodding their heads, like, yes. Oh my God. I thought it was just me. Who thought that way, but

Bérénice: [00:12:00] it's not just you.

Georgie: Yeah. Most people who deal with, binge eating or emotional eating and are trying to lose weight, they find themselves like they have two modes. Like I'm in restrict mode, diet mode, whatever you want to call that mode where I'm eating like dry chicken and broccoli, or I'm in six donut mode. I'm eating like, I don't give an F about my health. And what they want is to be able to find a third mode that's in the middle, which is like,

Bérénice: yeah,

Georgie: I do care about my health. I also want to have a nice time while I'm on the planet. So how can I be healthy and still have some stuff that's tasty, but balance out when do I say yes and say no

Bérénice: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah.

Georgie: Any lessons that were. Did you say that Sabotaging Thoughts was the hardest one for you, or is there another one that was harder?

Bérénice: It was both. Both my favorite and hard. Let me think. I'd say another hard one I still struggle with, like, the [00:13:00] the eating until you're full. The green zone, yellow zone.

I can't remember which lesson that was in. That one I struggle with because binge eating has broken my full cue. I just, like, don't get full. But I do get hungry, and so I have no problem, like, identifying when I'm hungry, waiting 30 ish minutes, you know, I have no problem with that end of things, it's the stopping when full, because I just There's a point where I'm not hungry anymore, but everything from not hungry to overstuffed is about the same in my mind.

Georgie: Yeah, not many landmarks.

Bérénice: Exactly. Exactly. It's all kind of a gray So that one was tough because my mechanism of fullness is a little bit broken.

Georgie: That's also really common. You know, people that have struggled with binge eating and in particular bulimia, their appetite signals go relatively dormant. And both for hunger and for satiety. The good news is that they come back. It just takes some time. And so, the most important thing in bringing back satiety responses is actually the cessation of [00:14:00] purging.

When people stop purging is when you're starting to Go back on the road to improvement and then hunger often comes back first. So people describe exactly what you're feeling like, okay, I can feel hungry and I can eat, but the stop signal is like blurred, not quite sure where to go. But in time that also, you know, starts to come back and like, almost if you had a camera that was out of focus and you like, you just started to dial it and it turns a little bit more into focus, you're like, Oh, Oh, I think I'm starting to feel, I think I'm starting to feel some sort of landmark between just having crossed into not hungry anymore and very full, you start to be able to notice some gradations in there.

But it does take time. And your body needs adjusting.

Bérénice: And yeah, and it is coming back and it's helpful to just stop and be aware of it. Like I even set up, I have an app that has like a timer and every 45 to 60 seconds it'll make a noise and then I can eat my next bite. So I really have been slowing down and

Georgie: Oh wow!

Bérénice: Just chewing and waiting.

Georgie: You're eating with a timer!

Bérénice: Yeah Yeah. It's been [00:15:00] really, really helpful. Yeah. Cause otherwise I just wolf it down and then that doesn't help me feel full at all. Like it makes it worse. And so, yeah. Yeah, that's been a big change is just slowing it down and it does help a little bit.

Georgie: Wow. Yeah. Slowing down is key.

Bérénice: Yeah.

Georgie: And keeping our attention on the food because if we're, you know, we're all busy. And so if you're trying to return emails and eat your soup and like shush your dog or cat all like all at the same time, very hard to tell when you're full.

Bérénice: Definitely. Yeah.

Georgie: But yeah, that's really impressive to be eating with a timer. As soon as you said that, my brain, fired five thoughts, like, simultaneously, which were, oh my god, that's dedication.

Two, there's no way in hell I could do that. Three, yes, you probably could if you tried. You should try it. Four, that would irritate the hell out of your husband at the dinner table. Like, all at once. Machine gun.

Bérénice: You know, it's pretty nice. I mean, I live alone for now, so It's fine that I'm slow and my boyfriend is slower than I am anyways, just generally.

So I think it'll help us, you know, it'll help [00:16:00] us eat at the same pace overall. Yeah, I recommend it. The app is called something like Slow Eats and it's a cute little picture of a sloth.

Georgie: I'm on it.

Bérénice: It's really simple.

Georgie: Of a sloth?

Bérénice: Yeah, it's a cute little green sloth.

Georgie: Aww It does sound adorable. Okay, I'm going to look it up. Okay, so we talked about some of the big lessons for you. Recognizing and changing those sabotaging thoughts. Lesson five and lesson 15. That eating to satisfied project. And obviously it doesn't end the week that, you know, we move on to the next lesson, but it continues even after, afterward, you're still gaining benefit there. Any lessons that you felt like were super easy for you?

Bérénice: There are a couple.

So the movement one.

Georgie: Yeah.

Bérénice: Amazing. I love working out. I always have. And I, back in the worst of my bulimia, I was working out three hours a day. So it was a form of purging. But that was really unhealthy. But since then, I've totally transformed my relationship with working out. And now I work out to feel strong and healthy.

So that one was great. The movement one was amazing. Lesson 18. Another [00:17:00] one that's super easy is planning meals. So that's two easy weeks in a row. I was like, Oh, I got this. I love meal prep. I love cooking. I always have food in my fridge that's ready to go. So yeah, those, those made me feel like a rockstar.

Georgie: Great Great. It's nice to have some easy ones. We don't want them all to be super hard.

Bérénice: And those might be super hard for someone else. Right. And ones that I find hard might be super easy for them. So

Georgie: oh yeah, yeah.

Bérénice: they're really valuable lessons for sure.

Georgie: Awesome. So

what has changed for you as a result of the program in terms of,

I guess I want to kind of ask about.

You're eating. I wanna ask about, you know, your thoughts and emotions and how you treat yourself.

So

Bérénice: yeah,

Georgie: let's talk about eating first.

Bérénice: Okay.

Georgie: So how would you say

Bérénice: eating first.

Georgie: Your eating has changed?

Bérénice: Yeah, so so I, eat slower. That's the big one. . I'm also more aware of it. Like I allow myself to eat more in the sense that I'm not eating more than I was, but I'm allowing myself to eat, so I'm not working against myself to eat, if that makes sense.

Georgie: Yeah.

Bérénice: I'm just like accepting the fact that [00:18:00] I'm hungry and I'm gonna eat. And that's just it. Like, I'm hungry and I'm gonna eat. And so, it used to always be a battle, like, don't eat, don't eat, don't eat. You know, so, that's a big thing. So I'm not fighting myself on eating. I will eat all the sweet fruit I want, you know, no problem. Yeah, and I eat slower and more mindfully now.

Georgie: Nice.

Bérénice: Those are big things. Yeah.

Georgie: Most people think that if they aren't constantly fighting themselves with that, like, I want to eat. No, eat less. No, but I want more. No, eat less. They think if they stop that battle that they'll eat more.

Bérénice: Yeah.

Georgie: But it's not necessarily how it works, you know, for a lot of people, once they get off their own case and just allow themselves to eat, with some of the right Mindsets in place.

Bérénice: Yeah.

Georgie: Oh, wow. This is nowhere near the battle that I thought it was gonna be. So yeah, you end up not

Bérénice: Yeah,

Georgie: eating more you're just eating with greater peace

Bérénice: Yes, and I've heard you say those exact words like literally the same thing. I've heard you say it probably multiple times But it just never really sunk in. [00:19:00] And I I never felt comfortable.

Georgie: You thought I was full of it.

Bérénice: I never felt comfortable trying because I didn't feel like I had the tools I needed to try, you know, but all these lessons, they just sort of like get you to that point without even realizing you're at that point, you know?

Georgie: I understand that suspicion and doubt.

I was, you know a teenager with anorexia who was like convinced that the people around me were trying to make me fat. Not trying to make me better. So

Bérénice: Right

Georgie: I think that helps me actually, because I can relate to people's fear that I'm just going to step in and , Tell them to just eat Twinkies all day.

And I'm like, look, I'm a dietitian. Like I went to college for 10 years. I'm here to help you get healthier and feel good.

Like I have no joy in making people heavier. Like the goal is people get to healthy weight. So if people have extra weight, like I'll help you get there. So

Bérénice: yeah.

Georgie: Yeah.

Bérénice: Yeah.

Georgie: So how about and your, like, your thoughts and emotions in particular. I'm assuming there's probably gonna be a lot of change in [00:20:00] how you handle distress.

Bérénice: Yeah. Well first of all, I catastrophize a lot less now, so that's huge.

Georgie: nice

Bérénice: because like everything used to be a huge deal.

Georgie: Lesson five benefits again.

Bérénice: Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So that's really helpful. And I just I feel more resilient.

I just feel chill is a word that I wouldn't use to describe myself in general. I'm definitely not chill, but, but I do feel a little bit more chill than I used to be. And I feel definitely more resilient than I used to be. And all that time that I've spent in the last, like, eight years obsessing over food, like, that's a lot of mental space that, that has been taken up by these stressful thoughts, you know?

And so I feel like I have more space to invest in my relationships with my family, with my boyfriend, with my friends, you know, colleagues, all of that. I just have more emotional capacity for stuff, you know?

Georgie: If you want to change the world, we can't let an eating disorder take up all of our time

Bérénice: Yeah! Oh my gosh, it takes up [00:21:00] all your time.

It's crazy.

Georgie: Yeah. It's like a parasite

Bérénice: It's crazy. It is not. Oh yeah. It's nonstop. Terrible.

Georgie: Well, I'm glad that you're feeling more resilient because life doesn't ever stop challenging us. So I think that's probably the best outcome we can hope for is, you know, feeling more resilient and like. We don't make our own situations worse by self sabotaging, catastrophizing, or blowing things out of proportion.

Bérénice: Right. Yeah, for sure.

Georgie: Awesome. So we talked about your eating. Oh, and

Bérénice: Self kindness?

Georgie: Yeah, like how you relate to yourself. How do you treat yourself?

Bérénice: Oh my gosh. So much better. So much better. I know there's a lesson on, I forget what it's titled, but Appreciating your body for what it is rather than what it looks like, you know That's been a huge one because especially with my mom having health issues and stuff I realized that could happen to anyone, you know, so right now I have a body that maybe maybe I want it to lose five pounds But really I can [00:22:00] do things like I can bike to work and a lot of people can't do that You know I can Walk on the beach.

A lot of people can't do that. And not just because they don't live by a beach, you know, I have so many things that I should be thankful for. I'm like, right now I'm a healthy human. And I've spent so many years hating on my body and just hating what it was without really appreciating what it can do, you know?

Georgie: Yeah. That's great.

Bérénice: Yeah.

Georgie: Less time worrying about how you look, it sounds like.

Bérénice: Yeah. Yeah.

Georgie: Less appearance focused

Bérénice: A lot less time. Yeah. So I'm less afraid of looking into the mirror than I used to be. And when I look in the mirror, I don't like nitpick as much, you know, so a little bit, I think we all tend to do that a little bit, but not really as much.

Georgie: As I get older, I stand a little further back from the mirror.

Bérénice: Yeah, like don't put your glasses on when you're looking at your face.

Georgie: Totally.

Bérénice: Sure, sure. For sure.

Georgie: And then you get in your car and you like put the visor down and you're like, oh God.

Bérénice: Oh no, . Or your phone's on selfie mode accidentally. And you're like, oh, oh

Georgie: yeah, I do that all the time. I go to like take a picture of my food and all I see is like my [00:23:00] scrunched up, like caveman brow, like , what's going on? Ah, yeah. Just being kind to ourself.

Bérénice: Yeah.

Georgie: So there's the lesson on making peace with our bodies.

Bérénice: Yes.

Georgie: Like we talk about like the functionality and the fact that our bodies are like our interface with other people in the world and they communicate for us and they let us take in art and sound and touch and

Bérénice: yeah,

Georgie: these things and then they do cool stuff like walk on the beach and hike and swing from ropes and lift weights.

Bérénice: Yeah.

Georgie: And then they also do all sorts of like internally cool things, like heal when you cut it.

Bérénice: Oh my gosh, yeah.

Georgie: So yeah, when we think about all those things going on. It's like, wow, how random and narrow it is to focus on like what it looks like.

Bérénice: Yeah.

Yeah.

Georgie: And then self kindness is a couple of weeks later where we talk about, giving yourself encouragement instead of criticizing yourself.

And I think a lot of people find they've got an inner critic on board [00:24:00] who is like way too vocal, way too much of the time.

Bérénice: Yes. Yeah, I definitely do. Yeah, for sure. And I haven't really reflected on how I've changed, but I think just overall, I'm more positive to myself. So yeah, I'd have to think about how exactly I've changed in that capacity.

But yeah, it helps that I'm not in school anymore. School is terrible because you actually get graded on stuff and in work, you don't really get graded that specifically on stuff, you know, so you're just sort of like, you're either doing a good job or you're not, so

Georgie: they keep paying you or they fire you, right? It's very clear.

Bérénice: Exactly. So that's been helpful. But. Yeah, overall I'd say I'm less quick to criticize myself or to blame myself for things that aren't in my control or all of that.

Georgie: Good stuff. I think that ripples out into all areas of life.

Bérénice: For sure. Yeah. I also rest more. I've taken a couple baths in the past few weeks which I never used take.

Georgie: That's tremendous! [00:25:00]

Bérénice: I know.

Georgie: I remember us talking.

Bérénice: Who am I taking baths? Yeah. .

Georgie: We were doing one of these phone calls and you're like, yeah, I, don't rest. No just, no,

Bérénice: I really don't,

Georgie: like I don't play soccer. I was like, no, I, I don't rest. , .

Bérénice: Well, even, I actually just got this today, the paint by numbers thing that you suggested. I'd been thinking about it. I was like, you know what, I want to try that. And so I got it today, and I'm traveling this weekend, but next weekend I'll probably paint by numbers. Why not?

Georgie: What like, what picture did you get?

Bérénice: So it's a pack of four so we're having a special on it. There's one with, like, a boat in the mountains that looks like a national park, and they're all, like, travel mountain nature scenes, you know, so it's kind of my jam.

Georgie: Love it. Yeah, I love all the landscape ones.

Bérénice: Yeah, there's some good ones.

Georgie: Yeah, it's hard to stop once you start shopping for Paint by Numbers. Yeah. I feel ya. I feel ya. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, I'm glad you're doing that. Okay.

So, let's see. Anything else that you would comment on about the program? I pulled up your post survey, and you said you wouldn't change anything about the [00:26:00] program.

Bérénice: I really wouldn't, honestly.

Georgie: That makes me glad. Anything that you would say to somebody who's thinking about doing the program?

Bérénice: Yes, I would say do it. I am not the same person now that I was six months ago, and I'm going to do it again. I know I'm not going to be the same person six months from now that I am today, you know? And I would say do it because the homework and stuff, it might all be simple stuff that you already know in your mind, but it's structured in a way that makes sense, and they're delivered in an order that makes sense.

And they just sort of like slowly get you to the point where you're ready to make these big changes and then all of a sudden, one day you wake up, you're like, holy crap, what happened to me? Like, who am I? In a good way, so. Yeah, the accountability groups are also great. You and Mary Claire just spend so much time responding to us.

You guys actually read all our messages, which is amazing. You respond to them and you give us advice and everything. So it's like daily communication with one or both of you. And the calls we get were amazing. You know, like that was, yeah, I could go on and on, but basically like, do it. If you're thinking about it, do it. It will change your life.

Georgie: Aw [00:27:00]

Bérénice: for sure..

Georgie: Thank you so much.

And a lot of people, as you said, they make great progress and they want to do it again to like, yeah, re cement things and review them and take from 90 percent to 95 percent consistency.

Absolutely.

Yeah. So we support people after the program. You can always do the program again.

We have an alumni discount if you've been through it before, and then we also can switch you into one on one coaching or just an accountability group. So we have lots of options for people after the program. You're kind of in our family for good after that.

Bérénice: Good. I'm glad to hear that.

Georgie: So thanks so much for your time. I guess we've got a wrap on the episode. And thanks for sharing your story with everyone. I think

Bérénice: yeah, of course, it's so helpful to the people out there that are currently feeling like they have to keep this to themselves. They're not sure things can get better. They're not sure they can get better personally, even if other people can get better.

And so I just thank you for your bravery and your honesty and your openness. I know it's going to help a lot of people.

Oh, no, I'm glad. I'm happy to help. And I will shout it from the rooftops, really, [00:28:00] like do it.

Georgie: Thanks

Bérénice: You won't regret it.