We were lucky to catch up with Susan Zilberman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Susan, thanks for joining us today. What’s the best advice you ever gave to a client? How did they benefit / what was the result? (Please note this response is for education/entertainment purposes only and shouldn’t be construed as advice for the reader)

What if I suggested that you eat what you love and love and what you eat? My client expressed surprise and fear as she repeated “Eat What I Love?, All the foods I love are foods that are bad for me. And of course I love them, that’s why I would eat so much of them! If I allowed myself to eat them.

I understood that she eats what she believes to be “good” foods because of a fear that if she eats what she loves, she will not be able to stop eating those
foods.

What I heard was a need for peace in her relationship with food and a need for physical wellbeing. I asked her if she felt those needs and she said “Yes!”

Her need for physical well being, along with diet culture, had created her view that foods have a moral value of being good or bad for us. And how can we eat what someone says is bad for us? Fearfully, in secret and to excess! And we can use a lot of energy limiting ourselves to food that is “good”. And that leaves my client with an unmet need for peace in her relationship with food.

Which leads to my second and third best pieces of advice:

Make the healthiest food choices that don’t leave you feeling deprived.

Eat all of your food with love and attention.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am Susan Zilberman, a Mind Body Eating Coach. I help client achieve peace in their relationship with food and body image. I help them tune out diet. culture which promises if we eat a certain way we will look a certain way.

I guide my clients on a journey to reclaim their natural instinct to eat for enjoyment and to fuel our bodies. We are born with that instinct and for so many, that instinct gets buried as we develop many different needs and uses
for food.

At some point, many people notice they have unwanted eating habits that don’t serve them. I help them identify those habits and improve their relationship with food.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Being a curious and empathic listener is what draw my client to me and my practice. I interact with each of them from a place of non judgemental acceptance of their uniqueness. I also tap into. what we share in common.

They feel at ease to explore what led them to want to change their relationship with food and body image.
They see hope for freedom from struggling with unwanted habits.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Recognizing clients’’ Interest in and need for my services is the key to growing my clientele. I have found that most people feel there is room for improvement in their relationship with food. When I ask If they eat what they love and love what they eat, I can sense whether they could benefit from my services.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.mbecoach.com
• Instagram: @mindbodyeatingcoach
• Facebook: Mindbodyeatingcoach
• Twitter: @susan_mbecoach
• Youtube: Susan Zilberman