AN INTRODUCTION TO MINDFUL EATING – 4 WEEK COURSE

REDUCE EMOTIONAL EATING AND INCREASE YOUR ENJOYMENT OF FOOD AND LIFE WITH MINDFUL EATING

4 week Introduction to Mindful Eating course.

$99 for the entire course including four classes, guided mindful eating exercises and guidebook.

DIETS DON’T WORK

Diets don’t work. 80% of people who use a diet regain their weight plus more within 2 years.  Although people can maintain diets for short periods of time, ultimately don’t work because they restrict the types of food you can eat, which very few people can sustain over the long term.

THE MINDFUL EATING ALTERNATIVE

Mindfulness provides an alternative to diets. With mindfulness you don’t restrict any food or food types, you dont calorie count or weigh-in. Instead you learn to use the system that nature gave you.

With mindfulness you have whatever you want. You learn to stop eating when your taste buds tell you the taste is no longer as good. When you are mindful you notice how the chocolate or chips don’t actually taste as good after the third or 4th bite.

THE BENEFITS OF MINDFUL EATING

REDUCE BINGE AND EMOTIONAL EATING –  Bad day at work or is your partner being a jerkface?  Do you eat to make yourself feel better?  We can help you be more in control so you can choose other options.

REDUCE MINDLESS EATING – Do you repeatedly find yourself mindlessly snacking in front of the TV every night after dinner and you know that you are not even hungry? Or do you eat while driving or while on the computer or while reading? Do you find yourself doing late night snacking…when you are really just tired and in need of sleep…you eat instead of doing what you really need?

FEEL BETTER ABOUT YOURSELF, YOUR BODY IMAGE AND EATING. Do you find you use any excuse to buy yourself big bars of chocolate and then feel guilty when you eat them? Over-time with mindful eating practices you can learn (or re-learn) to feel good about your body and find that you are less likely to rely on food to try and feel good. Are you really good at beating yourself up and calling yourself names when you fail yet again at another diet? We can teach you how to stop doing that.

LOSE WEIGHT OVER TIME WITHOUT PILLS OR DIETS.  Instead of taking pills or another diet program learn to tune in to your bodies own built in systems for hunger and fullness and use that.

REDUCE SUGAR CRAVINGS WITHOUT GUILT OR SHAME  We offer hands on practice with chocolate and chips. You have support from the group as you engage with those foods you may feel little control with. With mindful eating you will find it easier to stay away from sugar and other foods that may not be good for you and be be less reactive and less compulsive. Mindful eating.helps you pause and make decisions more in line with your values.

DEVELOPED BY NZ BASED CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST AND BASED ON MB-EAT

The Introduction to Mindful Eating course has been developed by Hamilton-based Registered Clinical Psychologist, Dr. Heidi Douglass and is drawn from the scientifically-proven Mindfulness Based-Eating Awareness Training (MB-EAT) programme created in the USA by Dr. Jean Kristeller and colleagues.

 “Are you really good at beating yourself up and calling yourself names when you fail yet again at another diet? We can teach you how to stop doing that.” – Dr. Heidi Douglass 

“Mindful eating involves use of meditation and mindfulness practices to build our capacity to be aware and to direct our attention to the present moment. With mindful eating, we can better observe our triggers to overeating and eating when we are not hungry. With mindfulness, we can develop a new, flexible relationship to food and eating. The use of mindful eating techniques can help us, with regular practise, to reconnect with our body’s own systems for hunger and fullness and to start to identify the thoughts, emotions and behaviours that lead us to overeat or eat when not hungry. By listening to what our body needs, we can move toward a more positive relationship with food and with our body.” – Dr Heidi Douglass.

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“Just telling people to eat healthier and exercise more if they want to lose weight doesn’t work for everyone, it gives some people terrible self-esteem when they fail to do that. Mindful eating teaches people to tap into their built-in natural systems. They don’t have to calorie count; they just have to listen to their body.” – Dr Heidi Douglass

BOOK HERE | ALL COURSES ARE $99

Course Locations and Timetables | Click menus to expand

SAFE, CONFIDENTIAL ENVIRONMENT

This course and all course facilitators are non-judgemental.  All people who come to the Introduction to Mindful Eating course are attending for similar reasons. Your privacy and confidentiality is fully respected.

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  • Ways to decrease mindless eating, emotional eating and binge eating.
  • How to reconnect with your body’s own built-in systems of hunger and fullness.
  • How to release yourself from negative judgements about food and your body.
  • How to slow down, savour and more fully taste and enjoy food.
  • How to become less reactive and more calm; especially when making food decisions.
  • Four weekly 60-minute group classes.
  • Three guided mindfulness meditations for you to download.
  • Handouts with useful reflections and practices.
  • Opportunities for questions and answers.

“So honest & relatable. Great new ideas made simple. Made me feel that all my inner dialogue and disagreements around food was normal, just thoughts, and could be managed with mindfulness, time & kindness to myself. Thanks so much.”  – Jenny D.

What The Course Covers Each Week

Week 1: What is Mindful Eating?

  • What is mindful eating and how can it be helpful?
  • What evidence do we have that it works?
  • How can we cultivate mindful eating behaviour?

Week 2: Our Body and Our Thoughts: Internal and External Triggers to Eating

  • We will look at internal and external triggers for hunger and eating.
  • We will discuss how our patterns and habits of thinking can influence when we eat and how much we eat. These thought patterns can lead to mindless eating, emotional eating and binge eating.
  • We will cover black and white thinking and behavioural chaining.
  • We will discuss the benefits of taking a non-judgemental stance towards ourselves and the food choices that we make.

Week 3: Chasing Taste: Mindfulness of Our Taste Buds

  • We will demonstrate how mindfulness of how our taste buds operate can influence how much of any one type of food we consume.
  • We will look at how we can shift our focus from quantity of food to quality of food: we can eat less yet feel more satisfied.

Week 4: Cultivating Connection and Kindness Towards Ourselves and Our Body

  • Many people with food issues make negative judgements about themselves and dislike their bodies. Guilt about food intake is common.
  • We will discuss some ways to move away from this pattern and towards kindness and acceptance and a more positive relationship with food and with our bodies.

How long is each weekly class and what happens?

Each class is  60 minutes long. A typical class will include:

  • An overview of the topics for that session
  • A practical mindfulness exercise
  • A guided mindfulness meditation
  • Time for questions and answers.

Who is this course suitable for?

This course is suitable for any of the following:

  • Anyone who is overweight.
  • People who struggle with emotional eating, binge eating or mindless eating.
  • People who struggle with guilt over food decisions.
  • People wanting to explore mindfulness and meditation in relation to relaxation, stress reduction and wellness.

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About the teachers

The approach by all Mindfulness Works teachers is straightforward, practical and heartfelt and is directed towards you discovering your own innate wisdom and authentic experience.

Dr. Heidi Douglass – Course Designer and Lead Facilitator

Heidi 250Dr. Heidi Douglass is an American-trained Clinical Psychologist who provides psychological assessment and treatment services for adults, children and couples in Hamilton. Dr. Douglass provides Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) along with other evidence-based therapeutic approaches (ACT & DBT) depending on the needs of the person.

Heidi has experience treating a wide range of problems including weight management, eating disorders, anxiety and stress, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, depression and trauma. Mindfulness Based Eating Awareness Treatment (MB-EAT) is one of her specialities.

Over the years, Heidi has held clinical and research positions at some of the most prestigious American Institutions including Harvard University, Columbia University, Boston University, Mt Sinai Hospital in NYC, Brown University in Providence RI and three Hospitals of the American Veterans Administration, and within New Zealand at Otago Medical School. For over two years, she worked as an obesity expert for the Waikato DHB in Hamilton. She resigned from this position to return to private work in August 2013.

Most recently, Heidi has become very interested in the scientific literature regarding the health outcomes of a Whole Foods Plant Based Diet (WFPBD). In March 2014, she completed a certificate program through Cornell University in the USA on plant-based nutrition.

Catrina Bengree – Lower Hutt and Wellington

Photo CatrinaCatrina Bengree has been eating mindfully for 20 years. She founded Nourish ‘N Nurture in 2009 when she realised it was her ‘true purpose’ to share mindful eating. Catrina is a motivational speaker and offers three courses which enable her clients to develop a healthy relationship with food.

Her business is based on her own personal journey of 20 years of yo-yo dieting and excessive exercise, culminating in a six-year battle with depression and bulimia. Since learning to eat mindfully in 1996, she has remained slim and healthy without starving, depriving or fighting herself. She no longer diets, exercises excessively or feels guilty about what she eats. Eating mindfully has enabled her to simply eat when she is hungry and stop when she is satisfied.

Catrina has been married for 17 years and has two teenage boys. She loves walking, reading, sports, travelling, personal development and meditation.

Catrina is also the Regional Manager for the Venus Women’s Business Network in Hutt Valley and Wellington.

Glenda Irwin – Auckland

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Glenda began teaching mindfulness practice to families and parents. She has written and facilitated many adults mindfulness courses of her own. She wrote ‘Mindful Me’ and co-wrote ‘Resilient Me’ for teens.

She is the trainer of facilitators for the Mindfulness Works: Introduction to Mindfulness and Meditation 4 Week Course.

Glenda and her partner, Chris Irwin, conduct workshops and retreats in mindfulness practice from their East Auckland base.

‘I attempt to live mindfully. I remind myself that mindfulness is a practice and is never perfected. Since eating is a part of our daily routine, Mindful Eating is the perfect opportunity to practise a conscious way of living.

Pat Alexander – Napier

PatI came to New Zealand eight years ago and since then, I have consolidated a passion for mindfulness. This personal journey came about from different life events, but significantly from the disconnect I felt when I was dealing with the impact of a big change in my life.

This challenging time brought a lot of self-doubt and emotional vulnerability into my life. However, I have found that mindfulness practice has enabled me to engage and rejoice in the complete person that I am and connect with the very being of me.

This journey has been in both my personal and professional life. It has been enabled through attending training, retreats and teachings and through the development of my own practice which has been a personal commitment to my journey and that at times has brought feelings of fear and trepidation. It has enabled me to connect with like-minded people and to receive guidance and mindfulness supervision through my teachers to whom I am very thankful.

As a clinician in mental health, I can see the great potential mindfulness offers and use it in my work. I observe the benefits it provides people – developing awareness and gaining a better understanding of what limits their lives and living to their full potential and freedom of choice.

I completed the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) teachers practicum in 2012 and provide mindfulness-based interventions in my private practice.

I enjoy being part of the Mindfulness Works team and providing the Intro and Mindful Eating courses in Napier. With the Mindful Eating courses, we explore our relationship with food with openness, kindness and curiosity and allow ourselves more insight, understanding and compassion.

For more information and contact details please go to mindfulnessmind.co.nz

Meegan Care – New Plymouth

I have practised mindfulness meditation for 25 years, and am a registered Craniosacral Therapist (BCST) and Psychosynthesis Counsellor. I have worked with individuals in private practice for around 15 years and regularly facilitate retreats and workshops in New Plymouth.

In clinic, I specialise in working with individuals experiencing anxiety, stress and chronic pain conditions, and I love to teach my clients mindfulness-based approaches that support their health and wellbeing. I have personally benefited from this mindful approach to eating and am so pleased to now offer this course in New Plymouth.

I live in central New Plymouth with my husband, two daughters, a dog, cat and two happy roaming chickens.

Here is the link to my website: meegancare.co.nz

Kate Brandram-Adams – Rangiora – MBSR Qualified Trainer

Kate Brandram-Adams250

Kate is excited to be part of bringing mindfulness courses to Christchurch, Rangiora and North Canterbury, where so many people have suffered losses and are experiencing ongoing stress in their lives.

Kate has a love for practising and teaching mindfulness as it allows for a way of being with people “as we are” in any moment… sad, happy, anxious, joyful, frustrated, lonely… the whole caboodle of this life as a human being! The 10 thousand joys and the 10 thousand sorrows. Mindfulness’ values of friendliness, openness, curiosity and not just going with what is said but checking it out in our own experience, resonate deeply with her. She loves the fact that you can’t get it wrong… your experience is your experience!

Mindfulness is a fundamental part of Kate’s life and infuses every part, imperfectly, with difficulty at times and ease at others, but it is always there. Even if it is simply the awareness of not being at all mindful! She has a daily meditation practice, attends regular meditation and mindful living retreats and has done personal development work with mindfulness therapists. It is a value of hers not to teach anything that she is not willing to experience herself, allowing her to teach with authenticity and compassion.

Kate has completed and continues to do ongoing training in teaching mindfulness: including Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) through “Openground’’. She teaches MBSR and mindfulness in other settings and groups. She is supported to teach by experienced mindfulness teachers from around the world.

Kate is also a registered mental health nurse who specialises in addictions and holistic approaches (integrating body, mind and spirit for wellbeing) including training in naturopathy, nutrition and massage.

Kate has a passion for the integration of ancient wisdom with modern day neuroscience. Thus uniting the art and science of supporting people to discover their own source of wisdom, wellbeing and healing; connecting with their own “inner teacher”.

Kate is grateful to the many mindfulness teachers in her life that include animals and the nature around her that she is part of.

Neave Ross-Wallace – Christchurch

In offering the Mindful Eating introductory course, I am delighted to bring together my experience as a Gestalt psychotherapist and mindfulness practitioner of 25 years. I believe that the challenges many of us face with regard to food and body image are multi-faceted and that practising mindful eating is a very real and useful way to bring clarity and balance to ourselves.

My own journey with mindful eating has seen me go from someone who, every day, felt confused about food intake and continuously dissatisfied with my weight to now being able to choose and eat food in a way that is easy and that keeps me both healthy and balanced.

What I have discovered for myself is that mindful eating is not a quick fix and that it has the ability to transform your relationship to food and how you feel about yourself. I am very much looking forward to sharing this reality with others.

For further information about me, please check out www.manawahouse.co.nz

What People are Saying About The Intro to Mindful Eating Course and Course Designer Dr Heidi Douglass

“So interesting! Heidi has a beautiful, friendly, kind and understanding personality. Awesome to be in a room with others dealing similar feelings. Loved the balance of meditations and discussion.” Kate U.

“So honest and relatable. Great new ideas made simple. Made me feel that all my inner dialogue and disagreements around food was normal, just thoughts, and could be managed with mindfulness, time and kindness to myself. Thanks so much. ”
Jenny D.

“Interesting, animated – fostered self acceptance.” A.M.

“Made me really think about my actions and decisions that lead to over eating.” K Coulter

“ Warm, friendly, real instructor. Does make you think and notice the value of meditation to thoughts and behaviour.” Andrea E.

“It has been useful and enjoyable. It has been really nice to make time for myself and learn skills that I can apply to my everyday life.” Anna S.

“The course was extremely informative. It was practical, insightful and useful for everyone. Heidi truly has the skill to put people at ease and able to deliver. I think it was great.” Sandnya F.

“Heidi is absolutely lovely and explains everything thoroughly. She makes it interesting to listen and learn and love her accent.” Meena P.

“I have found your style to be very effective and informative and I have learnt a lot. I like your humour and your knowledge. I find you to be welcoming and down to Earth.” Elizabeth

Questions or More Information:

Please review the Mindfulness Works Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). If you have any further questions or require more information, please contact us.