EAT LIKE
YOU TEACH
How to Reset Your Weight
and Reclaim Your Life
IRENE PACE, RD
NEW YORK
LONDON • NASHVILLE • MELBOURNE • VANCOUVER
EAT LIKE YOU TEACH
How to Reset Your Weight and Reclaim Your Life
© 2020 Irene Pace, RD
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Published in New York, New York, by Morgan James Publishing in partnership with Difference Press. Morgan James is a trademark of Morgan James, LLC. www.MorganJamesPublishing.com
ISBN 9781642796896 paperback
ISBN 9781642796902 eBook
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019943714
Cover Design by:
Megan Dillon
Interior Design by:
Chris Treccani
Emotions Wheel graphic by Geoffrey Roberts
All other graphics by W.T.L.Rathnasekara
Morgan James is a proud partner of Habitat for Humanity Peninsula and Greater Williamsburg. Partners in building since 2006.
Get involved today! Visit
MorganJamesPublishing.com/giving-back
For my children Lacey, Daphne, and Hugh who engaged in the most creative and entertaining self-directed play while I wrote. I love you guys like crazy. My world is an infinitely better place with you in it.
For Bose who makes the best noise cancelling headphones on the market.
Table of Contents
Chapter 2: Be Human – Like You Have a Choice
Chapter 3: Follow Instructions – An Owner’s Manual Made by You for You
Chapter 4: Start Here – Make Your Expectations Work for You
Chapter 5: Get Curious – Awareness, Curiosity, and Compassion
Chapter 6: Try Stuff – Experiment and Evaluate
Chapter 7: Eat Better – Five Steps to Reset Your Eating
Chapter 8: Boost Energy – Move and Sleep like Your Life Depends on It
Chapter 9: Cultivate Environment – Create an Operating Space that Supports You
Chapter 10: Take Action – Turn Knowing into Doing
Chapter 11: Steer Dynamically – Navigate Common Obstacles
Chapter 12: Own It – You Got This
Chapter 1:
An Introduction
“I don’t have to know how to solve a problem in me. I just have to be willing to have a new experience. Practice observing. Practice acceptance. Practice willingness.”
–Tracy McMillian
Being a nutrition professional who is struggling with eating sucks. It’s not just about your pants not fitting or the mind games you play with yourself like you can almost feel your arteries slamming shut (true story) or it’s somehow okay because what you’re impulsively eating is fruit and cottage cheese (also a true story). It’s isolating, distracting, and it messes with your confidence, your identity, and your integrity. You don’t turn to friends for support because you’re their go-to for all things nutrition. Outing yourself to colleagues feels like career suicide (not to mention more shame than you could bear right now).
As your waistline grows, you feel like it’s the elephant in the room. You’re distracted in appointments, wondering if your clients are onto you. The word “fraud” invades your thoughts like that song you can’t stand but can’t get out of your head. Eating trouble is not only costing you your health and eroding your confidence, but it’s beginning to pick away at your sanity too.
I bet you’ve tried to figure this out. Maybe casually at first when you felt a little off-track. You tightened things up for a while. At some point you thought, “Okay, I better do something about this. Time to get serious.” Perhaps that looked like a highly detailed meal plan and tracking sheet or apps or both. Perhaps you went the route of expertly calculated macros and meal templates (but which ratios to use… hmmm?). Perhaps, even though you know it never works, you said goodbye to bread or chocolate or cheese “forever.”
What would you give right now to have your eating back on track? To go to bed at night knowing you’ve got this (and your pants will fit in the morning)? To feel sharp and focused at work and enjoy time with your family and friends - free from the weight of this secret you’ve been hauling around?
This book serves to help you reset and experience what it feels like to get your eating back in alignment with your values and your identity. To put an end to creeping weight and the worry that goes along with watching your waistline grow. To let you