Expert Profile: Victoria Moran

“What you focus on, you attract.”
–Victoria Moran

For those of you who follow my articles and blogs, it’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Victoria Moran.

I’ll own it.

One of my favorite books of all time is Fat, Broke & Lonely No More.

Laugh now, but call me in 2 years after you pull a 180 with negative habits.

Victoria has had an enormous impact on my life both personally and professionally. I’ve read her books and blogs, heard her speak, listened to her radio show and participated in her tele-classes. When she isn’t writing books, hosting radio shows, speaking and coaching she is a mother and a wife.

I’m impressed.

When I heard she was slated to release two books within two weeks in May 2009 (The Love Powered Diet and Living A Charmed Life), I knew I had to get her over to PN for some Q & A.

(And yes, I’ll answer now, if you’re wondering where I’ll be the evening before each of her books is released – check the orange tent outside of a Colorado Barnes & Noble.)

“Cravings stop going where they aren’t fed.”
-–Victoria Moran

Get ready to feed your soul.

Q: So Victoria, you overcame compulsive eating. And you’ve maintained it for 25 years. That’s something not many people have done. What were some of the key factors to overcoming a regular “food fix?”

A: It’s one thing to just want to eat healthier or lose a few pounds.

But the kind of eating that nearly destroyed my life — and that plagues countless other people in our country — is something else. For “us” — people with chronic, long-term, recurring food issues, we need more than just information about nutrition.

In fact, most of us are experts about nutrition because we thought knowledge would heal us.  It didn’t.

Here’s what I know:

If you’re a practicing food addict as I was, you need to recover from the inside out, just as if you were an alcoholic or drug addict.

I think that the Overeaters Anonymous (OA) program (www.overeatersanonymous.org) is unsurpassed for bringing about the “spiritual awakening” necessary to rearrange a psyche when it comes to food.

For a food addict, grazing won’t do, no matter how many times you’ve read that it’s a good idea.

For us, starting wasn’t the problem: stopping was. If you only start to eat three times a day, you only have to stop three times a day.

Therefore, unless you have a medical situation that requires more frequent eating, I’m a major fan of breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with the kitchen closed in between.

If you’re bingeing right now, do this: commit to three meals a day and eat them out at restaurants.

I know that restaurants serve large portions and rich food, yada, yada, but you don’t binge at a restaurant. And, yes, it costs money. But how much money do you spend on bingeing?

Eat out for breakfast, lunch, and dinner for a day, or two, or three, or as long as it takes (four days of this is the most I’ve ever heard anyone needing).

You don’t have to go to fancy places or “health food” places. Just choose a sit-down place that uses real dishes, not fast food.

Don’t worry about calories or fat grams or anything else except that you’ll eat what you order and then you’ll leave, and you won’t eat again until the next meal. This will break the binge cycle.

Don’t try to do this alone.

Whether you go to OA or get your support elsewhere, just get support.

What people fail to understand is that you can be free from the “fix” for months or even years, and be all slim and trim and great-looking, and still be a compulsive eater.

You need to keep your attitude in the right place and when that attitude falters — which it will; we’re all human — you need understanding people around to help you out.

Q: What are the top three areas where people go wrong with nutrition?

A: The three things people do to mess up their nutrition (Audio clip; MOV format)

“Eat better than you did yesterday.”
-–Victoria Moran

Q: You’re big on a whole foods diet. Tell us about that.

A:  The importance of a whole foods diet (Audio clip; MOV format)

“If you eat the foods nature provided, and if you move through your life using your arms and legs and muscles as nature intended, you will have the body nature meant for you to have.”
-–Victoria Moran

Q: You’ve mentioned being “somebody who moves.” What’s that about?

A: Being someone who moves (Audio clip; MOV format)

Q: Do you find that your clients and readers who are intimidated by “classic” exercise (e.g., running, weights, cycling, etc.) do well with the idea of just trying to be somebody who moves?”

A: The “being someone who moves” thing is such a great way to ease into more vigorous exercise.

The body loves moving, even if the mind doesn’t, and giving it that chance can awaken an interest that was latent or never there at all.

I’m not a natural exerciser — I mean, I was the fat kid always chosen last for sports, and I had every imagined ailment possible to get out of gym class — so sometimes I drift away from my disciplined gym schedule.

What gets me back more effectively than anything else is to just walk a lot — in Central Park with my husband or around my beloved New York City all alone. I’m so grateful for the ability to walk and breathe deeply and get energized that it makes me appreciate the more structured exercise, too.

With coaching clients, I find it’s vital to let them discover a kind (or kinds) of movement they’ll hopefully love, or at least do.

I used to urge everybody to get to the gym in the morning since that’s what I do. But a lot of people will go after work, if that’s when they want to go. It’s an individual thing.

Q: Like me, you’re an advocate of weightlifting. Tell us about that.

A: Weightlifting (Audio clip; MOV format)

Q: I’m a yoga junkie. What about you?

A: Yoga (Audio clip; MOV format)

Q: While it’s great talking about food, weightlifting and all the surface stuff, you’ve definitely taught me that our health and well-being goes much deeper than selecting vegetables with lunch.

Do you think that our health on the outside reflects our health on the inside? For people who are brand new to this idea, what would be your first suggestion for working from the inside out?

A: I believe that true health is reflected from the inside out.

When I was struggling with binge-eating, I wandered into a Christian Science reading room. The man there was trying to show me a more spiritual way to look at the situation and I argued with him.

He said very calmly and with a knowing smile I remember to this day (we’re talking years ago; I think I was twenty at the time):

“Healthy people do healthy things.”

There’s such wisdom in that: we have to be healthy from the inside first. We have to know that we
are healthy, that we’re meant to be healthy, that we deserve to be healthy.

Then the actions we need to take are just like filling in the dots on a kid’s colouring book.

Okay, so I’ve rambled and not given you a tip:

Think of yourself as your animating life essence, and your body as the vehicle that gets you around.

With the idea of your body as an entity in its own right, you’re more likely to give it what it needs.

Q: I’m always fascinated by what gets people excited to take on the day. What gets you out of bed every day and what is your typical morning routine?

A: What gets Victoria out of bed every day (Audio clip; MOV format)

“When you change your diet not with a specific goal weight in mind but because your life and your world will be better when you do, your body will take it from there.”
–Victoria Moran

Q: I’ve received so many inspiring tips from you on simplifying and the idea of “slowing down to speed up.” Can you elaborate on simplifying life, what we should devote our time to, and how we can feed our spirit?

A: Simplify daily life (Audio clip; MOV format)

Victoria’s two new books are due to release in the beginning of May 2009 – The Love Powered Diet & Living A Charmed Life.

“Weight loss itself is like winning the lottery. It’s terrific, but many lottery winners, like weight losers, wake up at some point where they started, wondering what happened. What happened is that the recently rich aren’t always able to develop the attitudes (emotion), knowledge (intellect),
and/or consciousness (spirit) necessary to maintain prosperity. Same goes for the suddenly svelte.”

–Victoria Moran