“At the point when I first went to see Jo I was pretty desperate. I’d been binging on huge amounts of chocolate, cake, biscuits… anything bad! And not eating much else. I was seriously low generally, I felt awful about the way I looked and I was also desperately hungry – starving myself to gain back the calories I’d consumed bingeing meant I was ravenous (not that I realised at the time) and would eventually give in and binge again. This is basically the vicious cycle I’ve been in for years with food: and getting bigger and bigger as a result. Jo was, and has been, extremely patient and kind. And she listened. She recognised the emotional side of my eating and has helped me to gradually change my relationship with food – but, while I’d known this already – I don’t think I’d ever realised how much was actually very practically resolved – by eating proper food regularly.

This hasn’t happened overnight – but we have found that every time I’ve started bingeing again I’ve needed to return to the completely obvious idea of this basic eating plan – 3 meals a day. Carbs, proteins and veg. Every time I have forgotten, Jo’s reminded me how to get back on track. It now seems so simple – but it’s taken a while to change my eating patterns as I’ve had to retrain myself after years of terrible eating habits that had gradually formed from following unsustainable diets. I’ve needed Jo’s input – and it’s been amazing how it now feels like I am eating the way I will always eat: as in it feels sustainable (not like when you are thinking ahead to the end of a diet and being able to eat normally again!!) and I’ve gradually lost around 3 stone doing it. I’ve got more to go. I do other things like exercise too. But because I eat normally and healthily now I have enough energy to exercise lots. I love eating now in a way I could never do before – I felt guilty whatever I ate – whereas now it seems normal to eat a full, proper meal and to have treats now and then and be able to control it. Still not completely there yet – but after years of trying and failing I feel really happy in myself and it’s a huge relief – in massive part thanks to Jo’s way of doing things.”