Renee Jones - Gambling With Your Health (The Enemy of Emotional Eating)

Renee Jones shares her journey from a 10-year-old dieter to a health counselor who helps others break free from emotional eating. Her powerful mantra "Face your stuff, don't stuff your face" encapsulates her philosophy that sustainable weight loss comes from addressing underlying emotional issues rather than just controlling what we eat.

• Renee's 40-year diet yo-yo began at age 10 when her mother put her on her first diet
• Emotional eating often stems from seeking comfort or stress relief through food
• We often have emotional connections to certain foods (Renee's was peanut butter which reminded her of her grandmother)
• Diets fail because we stop doing them, viewing them as temporary rather than lifestyle changes
• Keep trigger foods out of sight or in opaque containers since "we first eat with our eyes"
• One day or meal off plan won't ruin progress - it's a holiday, not a "hollow month"
• The health industry thrives on repeat business - be wary of "magic" solutions
• When choosing a health coach, research their training and avoid high-pressure sales tactics

TEDx:  https://youtu.be/8bE5XLGNPF0?si=YqumDEbMkWm0TOXs
Website:  www.packyourownbag.com
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LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/renee-jones-speaks/
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Chapters

• 0:57 Introduction to Renee Jones
• 8:39 Childhood Weight Struggles
• 13:54 From Reluctant Speaker to TEDx Success
• 22:16 Understanding Emotional Eating
• 28:58 Why Diets Fail
• 32:31 Navigating Food Temptations
• 37:20 Health Coaches: The Good and Bad

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:38

welcome back to one-on-one with mr you of. Of course, I'm your host. Mr Yu in studio with us today. Family and health counselor, author of the book what's Really Eating you, and famed TEDx speaker over 750,000 views, wow. And our TEDx talk is Lose Weight and Keep it Off. If you guys are interested in hearing her talk, renee Jones is in the house today.

Speaker 2: 1:01

How are you, Renee? Good to see you again. I'm doing well. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1: 1:08

My pleasure. Good to have you in here. We had an awesome chat. I definitely want to get into it. I'm almost positive from the outset we're going to ruffle a lot of feathers, because this conversation is not for the faint of heart, so we'll get into this, though, but I'm excited about this. But before we get started, I'd love for you to share a bit about your upbringing, your background. Where do you come from? What was young when they like? Share some of that with us.

Speaker 2: 1:27

Well, my parents were teachers and by the time I got into middle school, my father was the assistant principal and when I went to high school, he was my principal, Complicated by the fact that my mother was the English teacher in a very small high school and my brother was a year ahead of me. So we were all four of us were in the same building for three years.

Speaker 1: 1:47

Oh goodness.

Speaker 2: 1:48

Oh goodness, how'd you survive that? Yes, and I had my mother for my English teacher.

Speaker 1: 1:59

So it was. It was an interesting experience. No, it sounds like it. Was there anything that happened in your childhood that made you, I guess, a way you can connect the dots to what you're doing now? Was there any kind of a tissue back then?

Speaker 2: 2:14

Well, with the parents being teachers, there was a lot of please others and don't make you know, don't, don't make a mess of yourself and try to behave yourself in public.

Speaker 2: 2:27

Do not embarrass me yes, do not embarrass me and be in your world, but not really of it. So it was, yeah, and the weight loss thing. My first diet was when I was 10. What my mother said this is a bit early, but her thought was that if we start now, then you'll know what to do as you get older. And unfortunately, she wasn't very good at it. So I wasn't very good at it and that began my 40 year diet yo-yo began my 40 year diet yo-yo.

Speaker 2: 3:07

Now, when you say diet, I think we all understand what that means, but for a 10 year old, explain to me what we actually talking about here, paying attention and eating a little less and only what mom gives me, not, uh, going for the treats that some of my friends had.

Speaker 2: 3:23

Let's try to get some of this baby weight off, because, you know, my family was large so it wasn't like this was going to just go away when I hit puberty. In fact, it'd get worse. And the thing was, you know, I was looking around, I was the only redhead, which is a course, a life course in resilience in and of itself. But I was looking around all my blonde and brunette friends, and they were all skinny and I was this tubby little redhead and I thought this just isn't good, I don't want to do that anymore. So it just kind of would perpetuate itself unless I would get started on it. And thankfully, having that experience, I never got huge, but I did have a very keen awareness that weight was a thing and I would have to deal with it for the rest of my life wow I want to get behind the curtain a little bit on the comment you made about the redhead.

Speaker 1: 4:24

Is that like a real thing?

Speaker 2: 4:26

Yeah, it was. Why do?

Speaker 1: 4:27

redheads have too much trouble. Break it down for us.

Speaker 2: 4:32

You're younger than I am and things have changed in the last. Well, probably the late 80s, early 90s, things for redheads started to change, but prior to that, I mean historically, redheads were thought of as possibly evil, uh, maybe a witch, certainly a whore. Um, yeah, yeah, so it was. You know there's. There had to be something wrong with your genes for you to have red hair, and since I was the only one in my family for two generations, it was like okay, mom, did you sleep at the Milk Manor wall? It's like no, I'm by myself here.

Speaker 1: 5:15

Was the Milk Manor ginger.

Speaker 2: 5:17

No, that was just the thing we said in those days, right, but that whole thing, you remember the South Park episode where they had a kick, a ginger day?

Speaker 1: 5:28

I haven't seen it, but I've started to be checking the surface. It sounds crazy, but I shouldn't be laughing.

Speaker 2: 5:38

It was an amazing experience, let's put it that way, but it's just something that it took me years to not only accept but actually value.

Speaker 1: 5:49

But if our viewers and listeners have the link to the episode, send it to me so I can watch it and see if I could be offended or not. We'll see. I'll decide that later. Kick a ginger South Park. All right, send it to me, but all right.

Speaker 1: 6:06

So we had a great conversation in our know pre-interview. Uh, regarding a lot that you've done, I'm I was very, very intrigued by this part. This is outside of the weight loss emotional eating conversation. Your TEDx talk. I love the story about that because anybody that wants to be a public speaker or a scribe to do that professionally, anybody that wants to be a public speaker or a scribe to do that professionally, myself included would love to have the story you had or how you got started. My mind is blocked. Please share the story of how you got to the TEDx stage to have I believe it was 750,000 views of your TED talk. Help me understand how you got there, because people are out here trying really, really hard and not even sniffing what you did so share the story please, if you don't mind doing that for us.

Speaker 2: 6:51

Well, I will start with saying the 700, I think we're up to 770 now, 770 something.

Speaker 2: 6:56

Congratulations, it's because it is a popular topic, it's something that a lot of people deal with, and I've actually clients have contacted me because of that. So it's just the topic as much as anything. But here's the thing Always work on your title, because your title is what draws people in, right? So that's just a metaphor. So I did not know what a TEDx was. I had been living under a rock, I suppose, and I had no idea what it was. So when somebody said, oh, you ought to apply for this, I thought okay and I did, and it just happened to work. The first well, not the first time I applied to a lot of different places. I actually applied to states I wanted to go to because I hadn't been there and I thought that'd be fun. And the people in Rhode Island told me that that's not how it worked.

Speaker 2: 7:48

Oh, ok, but I actually I actually did my talk in Delaware, in Wilmington, and they didn't mind where you were from. But it was just one of those odd moments when things came together and I was offered the place and I took it. And it wasn't until after I had given it when I told my nephews what I had done, they were like you did a TEDx. It's like what Is that a thing? And they're like yes, yes, indeed.

Speaker 1: 8:22

How do you feel about it now? Do you kind of feel like the bigness of it now, now that you understand what it is more, do you feel, yes, how do you feel about this? How do you feel?

Speaker 2: 8:32

I. I am so blessed to have had that opportunity and to have had the struggle that so many people have had, that it is such a popular topic, it's it. But you know, it did a lot more for me than just giving a talk. After I understood, okay, this is a big, huge thing, I thought, wow, I didn't know enough to be scared and that took away a lot of fear, such that now you know, I'm doing public speaking and, honestly, almost a year to the day before I was on that stage, my husband said, hey, you want to think about speaking? And I said, love, I am never going to be a speaker. And lo and behold, here we are a few years later and I'm a public speaker. And lo and behold, here we are a few years later and I'm a public speaker.

Speaker 1: 10:07

I said the same thing and I stood on a few platforms not on that level perhaps, but at least not yet anyway. But I said the same thing and look what happened we have a bunch of reset you never know.

Speaker 1: 10:20

That's exactly what happened with some friends that are popping in. You never know. That's exactly what happened. We have some friends that are popping in. The Triple B podcast is here. Say hello to Renee, big fan of ours. Awesome supporters. Thanks guys for jumping in, appreciate you. If you have any questions you have for Renee here on this topic, I'm sure she'd love to answer those live for you.

Speaker 1: 10:42

The reason why your TEDx talks you already animated. That was so popular and still is because of the subject matter, what you were talking about. I want to try to get into that a little bit. There's so much meat on this bone. I want to try to get there as much as time will allow us to.

Speaker 1: 10:58

But you talked about being fed up with the diet yo-yo. You've met many women who feel the same way. Tell me something that you've been hearing from some of these women in regards to diets. I mean the commercials. I thought that in 2025, all that we've learned that the commercials would be less to actually more. I see more diet commercials and I don't even watch that much television. I see more diet commercials per capita on a few shows that I watch than imagine. If I was watching shows all day long, Imagine how much I would see. So tell me what you've been hearing from the women who are fed up with the diet, yo-yo and the whole exercise routines, hoping that all the fat would just melt off. Talk to us about that a little bit, what you've been hearing.

Speaker 2: 11:40

Well, it's not just women, to be honest, I've had a few men, so they want it to be easy, they want it to be magic, they don't want to have to do anything, they want to just be able to eat normally and lose the weight. And that's wonderful. But it doesn't work If you didn't get that body. It doesn't work that way. I didn't get that body. I still don't have that body, but overcoming the emotional eating made it a lot easier for me. And of course, now there's like Ozempic and Manjaro and all of those things Great tools, but you might have to take them forever because if you don't deal with what's driving the behavior, you're never going to get free of it.

Speaker 1: 12:27

So emotional eating. That's a really, really important point. I think it's pivotal to a lot of what we talked about in our pre-interview chat. Just being transparent with myself, I've done it in every single episode I've ever done of my show. So I've already told myself, but I don't know why I do that I do the microphone is more like a truth serum. It should say stuff that you ordinarily wouldn't say. But I think that I've experienced that. Didn't even realize that it was a problem, I didn't even realize it was a thing. I was feeling a certain kind of ways and I'm standing in front of the refrigerator late at night.

Speaker 2: 13:03

I've been snatched.

Speaker 1: 13:06

So I'm like, so talk to us about emotional eating. What, what have you learned about that? What have you seen? Has it evolved?

Speaker 2: 13:11

tell us about emotional eating what you learned from this concept idea, if you will well, I will tell you, I didn't realize that that was the issue for me either, until I ran across the term and I thought oh, that's me, that's the problem.

Speaker 1: 13:27

Oh, wow.

Speaker 2: 13:28

Okay, but once I heard it I understood it completely right. We're looking to food for comfort or stress relief and a lot of times because we're actually looking for life. It's not the Twinkie. We want it, whatever that represents to us. I had I had an issue with peanut butter and peanut butter.

Speaker 2: 13:55

It's a perfectly lovely food, except in the quantity. I was eating and I could. I could tell myself when I'm struggling, because I would be circling the refrigerator, going back for another spoonful of peanut butter to soothe whatever was happening for me. And I finally worked out what it was. It was a connection to my grandmother. Wow, because we we enjoyed peanut butter and chocolate together. Oh, it was great, but it it reminded me of the love and encouragement she gave me. That's what I was looking for, not the peanut butter.

Speaker 1: 14:31

Oh my God, we need that story.

Speaker 2: 14:34

And when I finally realized I had to face my stuff, not stuff my face, things changed.

Speaker 1: 14:44

Oh, that's powerful. Face my stuff, not stuff my face that became my mantra.

Speaker 2: 14:50

I mean that whole the whole time I was trying to lose the weight. It was like face your stuff, don't stuff your face, face your stuff. What's going on? What's driving you to food for comfort or stress relief and honestly, the concept isn't limited to weight, I mean with anything we. We go to something, looking for life when life gets hard.

Speaker 1: 15:15

Wow For you guys that are listening, please drop that in the comment section.

Speaker 1: 15:20

Wherever you are on social media, face your stuff, not stuff your face. Please share that. That's gold right there. You know what I love this show? It's not self-aggrandizing at all.

Speaker 1: 15:33

I learned so much from convos like this because I have a very distinct memory. My mother if she was watching this and she probably will she won't be able to say I'm wrong, this is totally what happened. But we had a tradition in our household. This was before my sister was born, just me and my mother, only child at that and we had a tradition in our household. This was before my sister was born, just me and my mother, only child at the time and we had a Friday night tradition where we would go to the store, get a big well, it wasn't a big black paper bag, but it was big enough, medium size and we would stuff it with snacks cheese, doodles, corn chips, potato chips, nacho cheese and all those things, shake them in a bag and we'd watch a movie together or a TV together. Every Friday night was our tradition, because she worked so hard, she had two jobs and went to school too, so that was kind of a tradition for us, and I'll tell you what.

Speaker 1: 16:24

I developed a healthy love for snacks. Of course, I didn't know where it came from Wait a minute, I'm tracing it back. It's my mom's fault, just kidding Mom but it came from that. So what you're talking about it was an emotional attachment, because I was like, okay, it reminded me of the good times in my hometown. There were a lot of bad times, plenty of them, but those were the good times. They remind me of the emotional ties that we had to each other. I was a mama's boy, I guess you could say, and it was just like so now I'm eating snacks, like wow, I like snacks a lot, don't I? I didn't catch the connection, so I love that you shared that. That's pretty awesome. Thanks for the comment.

Speaker 1: 17:04

Triple B. Moderation is important. Hard lesson definitely Post that where you are, face your stuff and not stuff your face. I that where you are, face your stuff and not stuff your face. I love this, I love this, I love this. All right, so I think we understand a bit more about emotional eating. I think we can say that here. Why do you think diets fail? What's the number one reason for that in your assessment?

Speaker 2: 17:23

Because we stopped doing them. Explain the thing is a diet teaches you what works for your body, and everybody is different. My cousin cannot do the same diet that I follow. Right, it doesn't work for her body. So you've got to find what works for your body and diets are one way to do that. Some people are better on low fat, some people are better on low carbs, some people are good on Mediterranean moderation, intuitive eating, all of that. But the thing is, the whole idea of diet is there's an end point, and I don't know about you, but those 40 years I was on the diet, yo-yo when we hit whatever point it was like. Now I can have anything I want and did and promptly gained the weight back. So we stop using what we know works for our bodies and start just eating all kinds of snacks and stuff that we shouldn't be eating. We go back to our old ways.

Speaker 1: 18:25

I think the idea of you being on a diet for 40 years is probably going to be strange to some of our listeners, I guess because diet has a connotation to the word die or death. Yeah, so how do you feel about the word choice? Are you good with it? You've been going for 40 years. You were obviously doing it. Are you good with the word diet? Is there a better word or the word diet appropriate for what's supposed to be happening?

Speaker 2: 18:51

Well, the word is fine. I mean diet means your plan for eating. Some people call it nutrition plan. Some people get whammed up about all kinds of words. It doesn't it. Whatever works for you, I'm good with, because you know my job as a coach is to work myself out of a job so you can continue doing what you need to do and getting the results that you can get. So whatever word people do the same thing about the scale. I can't use the scale. It freaks me out. Okay, then don't use the scale. It doesn't works well. So, whatever tools I mean this is the whole thing about that concept of resilience is that we are collecting a box of tools that work for us to help us get from A to B. So whatever works for you, use that I love the idea of being resilient.

Speaker 1: 19:52

You kind of have to when we talk about things like this. This is a practical question I want to ask you because I've noticed some people who are listening who might need some practical help here. So let's go to the most obvious question. We talk about diets. We usually see this thing somewhere close to the end of the year, after Christmas, right before we start popping off fireworks. We want to start our New Year's resolution. Show me how you make that work for you with the idea that you're sharing today.

Speaker 2: 20:27

Well, a resolution only works when you resolve the behavior driving the problem. Ok you've got to come up with how you are going to then do it. We have to resolve the inner issues before we can change the behavior.

Speaker 1: 20:50

How does the everyday person address that? Is there a way that they can do that?

Speaker 2: 20:57

Yes, I mean there are a lot of self-help books out there that can be helpful. I found after 40 years I couldn't do it myself. Obviously it wasn't working. So I hired my first coach, mostly for the accountability, but also to deal with some of the issues driving the behavior. So whatever works for you, that's what you need to do.

Speaker 1: 21:20

Okay, I want to come back to the coach park. We had a great conversation about that. Both of us have a nice belly laugh. We'll come back to that one. But say you live in a house, thankfully Well, I think I live in the same kind of house. I check with the business. But if you live in a house, thankfully well, I think I live in the same kind of house. But if you live in a house that's filled with snacks, how do you navigate that? Because it's like you go in the pantry snack, you go in the fridge snack. You may even see on the countertop snack. Some folks, even in the bedroom, on their nightstand, is a snack. How do you navigate that when you're trying to stay on this healthy course, if you will? How do people who are watching this handle that? Because this is a tough one.

Speaker 2: 22:01

It's a very practical thing. You either have your own cupboard with your snacks.

Speaker 1: 22:09

Okay.

Speaker 2: 22:10

So that you have special things too, things that are on on your plan, and you don't go into the other areas, or you put the snacks that you don't want a part of in another cupboard and you don't go in there, because that would be stealing, it's not yours, ok. So the way I did it in my house is I put the foods that I wanted most for my health in the refrigerator at my eye level. Everything from Mr Jones was above or below my eye level. His stuff was in opaque containers so I didn't see it. Mine was in clear containers. Pantry same thing. My stuff was at my eye level because we first eat with our eyes and you see it, you want it.

Speaker 2: 23:05

Some of the stuff he had to take upstairs there's some foods that I cannot say no to. Like his mother sent home a large container of salted roasted nuts. I can't handle it. So he was going on a business trip and he brought it down and put it in the pantry before he left. I was like, oh, so I put it in the softboard because I knew I wasn't going in there. Out of sight, out of mind works really well.

Speaker 1: 23:39

I love it. All you guys watching listen love to hear your guys kryptonite. What's the snack that you guys just cannot get away from? I know I have mine. I think I like nuts, the same way, the almonds and the cashews with the seasoning on it. Oh good, Bad things result. But drop it in the comment section wherever you're watching this show. What's your kryptonite snack, the snack you cannot take your eyes off of when you see it? It's yours automatically. Share that with us. All right, so let's get into this. Okay, it's yours automatically. Share that with us. All right, so let's get into this. Okay.

Speaker 1: 24:12

So you talked about emotional eating and how there's no magic to this. There's a process that has to take place. I love that. I love that. How are you managing at the holidays and the family events of barbecue, Because this is the time of year where those things happen at. It's rampant because people are off from school, the kids off from school, the parents have adjusted schedule with work and everything, vacations and whatnot. How are you navigating that? Talk to the people, Renee, because I wonder if they can do this the right way or not. So help them out, if you can. How do you manage the family events and the barbecues and holidays when you're trying to stay on task with your diet.

Speaker 2: 24:49

Well, if it is a potluck, where you bring part of it bring something that's good for you.

Speaker 1: 24:55

You're talking about the hey. Are you talking about the canvas and the silver? That's what we're talking about.

Speaker 2: 25:01

Yeah, whatever, I always take my own dressing to Thanksgiving because I need something I can have. Well, it is a potluck, we all bring stuff, right, but I always make sure I've got something that I can have. That's on plan.

Speaker 1: 25:17

If you bring something.

Speaker 2: 25:18

Yes, what if you don't bring something? If you don't bring something, then you do a reconnaissance round, see what's available to you and plan for that.

Speaker 2: 25:31

And say, okay, okay, these are the things that I really need to have to make the holiday feel like this particular holiday. And you take a small portion of that, because one day, one meal is not going to tank your progress. It's the problem. It is a holiday, right, not a hollow week or a hollow month For some. But if you completely go off plan, okay, it's a holiday. The next day, get back on your plan, because the idea is we don't want to completely destroy all of our progress, but we do want to try some things. It's okay, it's a holiday, but just choose wisely. If you really have to have something, if you can't say no, make sure you sit down, you use the appropriate knife, fork whatever, and you eat it slowly and enjoy every bite, because you're going to be paying for that for a while, so you better enjoy it.

Speaker 1: 26:38

Oh my goodness. So when you go out of town for, like, holidays and vacations, is that a different approach Then? How do you? How do you handle that one because it's out of your control? How do you handle that? One Carb is out of your control. How do you handle that?

Speaker 2: 26:52

Yes, because my mother-in-law has never met a carb she didn't love, and carbs are not good for me. They make me mean, to be quite honest. Yes, this I found out over the period of time. I put my clients through this survey that tells them it's basically their unique nutrition blueprint, so they find out what foods work for them and what not. Carbs do not work for me. They make me hungry and they make me mean. So when I go to mother-in-laws I know that's not going to be a great time for me nutritionally and I just do the best I can. Now one year, husband was again going on a business trip and his mother put down in front of me this plate of dessert, like three different kinds and I looked at him and he said go ahead, I'm not going to be here Because something about that blood sugar thing. Oh, it makes me crazy. I hate it, but it's true. So you just do the best you can and then moderate yourself thereafter.

Speaker 1: 28:07

Oh, my goodness, Just something I want to ask, but I know that time is already up against it Up against it already, but I do want to ask a few more things, if I can try to get it in, hopefully. Okay, but I had a two-part question that I asked in our pre-interview that I thought was so profound. I want to get your insights on that. So one what have you learned about the health industry as a whole? And the second part of that question is what have you learned about other health coaches? Are they helping the industry? Are they hurting the industry? Are they qualified? Should they not be coaching people? Answer both questions, if you don't mind. I thought your answer was profound, to say the least.

Speaker 2: 28:48

I love to hear that your mind, because I thought your answer was profound to say the least.

Speaker 2: 28:51

I love to hear that. Well, the health industry is predicated on repeat business, just like any business. They need your business, so a lot of the. There's no magic to any shake powder potion. It all comes down to some form of having reduced calories and your body being okay with that. That's what I like about the unique nutrition blueprint is it tells you what you'll be most satisfied with, what will take care of you. So you know, try whatever you want, but just know that it may not work for you, like Ozempic doesn't typically work for emotional eaters as well, because when you finish you still have to deal with that emotional eating. Yeah, yeah. So finding the industry is just there because it's a big problem. It is a huge problem, but not everyone has your best interest at heart, and I would say that also about coaches. Some are trained, some are not Knowing what their training was like, what they do, their longevity in the industry If it's someone who, a new coach, may not be able to help you unless they've had a lot of training they haven't been using.

Speaker 2: 30:20

I was like that. I was. My master's degree is in marriage and family counseling, so I had that kind of training. I just hadn't been using it in that way. I was doing it in a different way. But once, once I got there, it was like, oh, I could, I could help someone, because I thought if I know this and don't help someone with it, that's going to be a problem for me. But again, my I was thinking about my entire career. It's been about working myself out of a job rather than creating dependency.

Speaker 1: 30:55

I hope everybody heard that part. Oh, my goodness, so much gold coming out of your mouth right now. Instead of trying to create dependency, work yourself out of a job. I don't know any coaches that are doing that. They're trying to hold on it's, it's a. It's a.

Speaker 1: 31:13

It's a really bad method to start with. To begin with, it doesn't really equal success, at least long term. Not the income per year bracket anyways. It really doesn't do that. It's really about the business that you have and people you know, with attention and things like that. So I love what you just said. That that's really about the business that you have and people you know, with attention and things like that. So I love what you just said. That that's really. We could have more time to get into it more, but I know we don't. But, uh, give advice to those that are seeking a coach out.

Speaker 1: 31:40

You and I discussed this and we laughed about it, but I'm known in certain in certain areas as a coach and a mentor because I was doing it for a while, certified to do it the whole day. If you want to see paper, I have paper for it. If you have to have that, you know what I'm saying, but I just really cringe now because so many mentors and coaches that pop up. They're part of the same community that we're a part of. Sometimes we meet them in all these different networks and everything, and everybody that has a story or has something they've overcome dub themselves. I dub thee coach, I dub thee mentor and it's like that's all you got to do. People get marriage license online and they can become the merrier of people. I'm like is that what we're doing? That's why I cringe at the idea of a coach and a mentor, even though I feel like I'm qualified to do it.

Speaker 1: 32:29

Give some advice out, renee, to those that are watching listening right now that may need a coach like yourself. Maybe they're honest about this. You know what? I've been on this weight train no pun intended for a long time and I'm not getting any results. How do I look for a coach? How do I find a coach? What's the process? Can you help them a little bit with?

Speaker 2: 32:52

that briefly. Yeah, just look at the kind of training they have. If it's a one week course or if they just decided they're a coach, they may or may not have the skills they might. I mean, I think one of the primary things coaches do for us is hold us accountable to what we say we want. Yeah, yeah, but just look at their training. Um, if they have certifications, although there is no regulating body for coaching, it is totally the wild west. So do your research, see what they've done.

Speaker 2: 33:29

If someone is styling themselves as a weight loss coach but are still, you know, 50 pounds overweight, I would question that they may not yet know what they're doing. They may, they may have figured it out, but they may not have. So just be aware. Look at how long they've been doing it and look if it is a constant upsell. If someone is trying to pressure you into buying the next thing today, you might want to think twice about that. I don't know. I hate that high pressure thing and I don't do it because I wouldn't respond well to that. So why would I expect other people to? So if they're trying to push you in, you might want to think twice.

Speaker 1: 34:18

We got time for two more questions. I want to go further but we cannot. We have a link out there for listeners I guess a gift to our audiences. If you guys are watching and listening still and you want to kind of get on track with your health, if anyone wants to help you out with that, go to wwwpackyourownbagcom forward slash friends. Packyourownbagcom forward slash friends. It should help out with this exercise to kind of help you get on track. I'm not sure it's exercise in the way you're thinking, so I think it's a little bit different than that, but follow that. Wwwpackyourownbagcom forward slash friends. All right, last two questions. Can you share a quick success story for people who have been under your tutelage, so to speak, got some insights and wisdom from you, a success story of how you seen it work for them, Got some insights and wisdom?

Speaker 2: 35:09

from you a success story of how you seen it work for them.

Speaker 2: 35:11

Yeah, one lady was stuck because she wouldn't look at the emotions behind it and she was like I don't want to sit with those emotions. I'm like, well, I understand that and we can do it gently, but we've got to figure this out because that's what's stopping your weight loss. So she went home and she decided she would work on this and we devised a couple of things. But she used some of her son's toys to represent the feelings that she didn't want to face. So it was a friendly thing and at first she just had to walk by the room, didn't want it in the room with her, she just walked by it and look at them and go on past. But eventually she decided you know what I I'm gonna have to to look at this. So she picked the toys up, imagining them as that feeling, and she said it was the weirdest thing. All of my anxiety about that disappeared when I would just look at it and think about it. So she got once that was out of the way she was done.

Speaker 1: 36:25

Wow, it's incredible. Pardon the sound. Heavens are, Lord, in my neck of the woods over here, so pardon the sound there. But no, that's a fantastic success story. Just a last question for you. Of course, if you missed it, Renee is offering some free assistance here wwwpackyourownbagcom. Forward slash friends. Of course her book is what's Really Eating? You Overcome the Triggers of Comfort Eating. Of course, her TED Talk, which is highly popular, helped me to number the goal, because what she's talking about is valid and very, very important and valuable to all of us. At least it should be Lose weight and keep it off. Emotional eating is her TED Talk. So thank you for doing that, for sharing that with us. Last question I always ask this one. It's always a tough one. You got to think about it. You had a little bit of advance notice this time, but anyway, everything that you've been doing the author in the books, family and health counselor, TEDx speaker, extraordinaire all off the table. What is Renee most likely doing? Career-wise, vocation-wise, mission-wise?

Speaker 2: 37:32

What are you doing with your life if all those things are off the table? From the beginning of my career, from the beginning of my career, what I always wanted to do was help people heal Heal their hearts, heal their minds, get free of stuff that's holding them back.

Speaker 1: 37:47

You can't be a coach either. You can't be a coach either. You got to be something else.

Speaker 2: 37:51

That's cool.

Speaker 1: 37:55

You can't coach.

Speaker 2: 37:56

I would be a missionary.

Speaker 1: 38:00

Would you be a dietitian?

Speaker 2: 38:02

Sorry.

Speaker 1: 38:04

Would you be a dietitian?

Speaker 2: 38:06

No, no, too much math and science in that. No, it was, I would do ministry, because that's all about helping you heal your heart.

Speaker 1: 38:19

I like it. What kind?

Speaker 2: 38:22

Well, I spent four years in Wales doing mission projects. That was fun. I got so much more out of that than I ever gave them.

Speaker 1: 38:34

Before I ask the question this is serious talk. Before I ask the question I saw you building houses.

Speaker 2: 38:42

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 38:44

I saw a flash of you building houses.

Speaker 2: 38:48

There for a while we did some house flipping to make houses better and more affordable for people.

Speaker 1: 38:56

Oh goodness.

Speaker 2: 38:59

And building their emotional house is always important.

Speaker 1: 39:05

It sure just got weird, but I like it. Renee, thank you again for joining us. This is fantastic. Author of what's Really Eating you Overcoming the Triggers of Comfort Eating, of course. Family health counselor, tedx speaker. Her TED talk is incredible. Lose weight and keep it off. Emotional eating. Of course she's offering you guys a little free exercise wwwpackyourownbagcom. Forward slash friends. If you don't mind, renee, once we get done with the show, we're off air. If you don't mind, jump on to the YouTube channel in the comment section where this show is located. Drop your links there so they can find it kind of easily. Some folks want to put in a little extra work. It's just a thing to do. It's okay. Go ahead and type it into the comment section. Put all the links there so they can find you. I'll be promoting this show like crazy because I believe in what you're talking about and I want to help. So this is fantastic. Any closing thoughts for our viewers and listeners? The floor is yours. Give me two more minutes and we're out of here. Go ahead.

Speaker 2: 40:03

Face your stuff, don't stuff your face. Say it again Face your stuff, don't stuff your face. Don't stuff down your emotions and follow it with a food chaser. It never works. You're looking for life, not a Twinkie.

Speaker 1: 40:20

Oh goodness, I love this. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for staying in touch in advance. I definitely want to unpack what you're doing and help you out down the road. So thank you for your time on this. Definitely appreciate it. Thank you, we may admit to you, we're out. Have a great day. Thanks again for watching and listening.