I have used counting calories for the past few years and I would define myself reasonably in shape. My issue with this approach was that food was most of the time fuel and I would eat or/not eat not because I was hungry/full, but because an app would tell me that. I used to eat without paying too much attention to the food, eating very fast while watching the phone or the telly. An above everything, in social eating I would then feel guilty because I was eating more that I should and also because I could not be too precise with the counting calories. Josh and Eating Skill changed completely the perspective, not food gets my undivided attention, I appreciate more the flavour and the texture of the food and I recognise when I am full and stop and if I am craving a snack because I am bored/stressed/etc. It is more sustainable, I do not have to track things anymore and I do not have the sense of guilt in social occasions, because I can always take a value based choice. I did take a cautious approach to start with, dropping the counting calories progressively as I felt more confident in my new skills. I don't count the calories anymore and I am not constantly checking my bodyweight either I have been on Eating Skills for about 6 months and I am probably at my lowest body fat without chasing it, simply because I am now listening to my body and being present during meals. The journey with Josh has been great, I have met wonderful people in the community and I am always recommending ES to people if they want to achieve food autonomy and a sustainable approach to food.

The only diet I have ever really tried was weight watchers, and honestly it felt more like doing accounting than doing anything healthy. The thing I like the most about Eating Skills is the focus on skills over rules. It helps me build "natural" processes into my thinking, into my daily life, that help me make choices that are the right choices for me. I feel *good* about it, and therefore it's easier to do than following random rules that make me feel negative about my self or my situation. The biggest thing that has changed for me is that I feel good and happy about my progress and my relationship with food. <3

Would you like some sane advice about how to approach food and weight loss? Look no further - this is the best advice I have come across, and I’ve been looking for advice for 15 years. Josh has a really clear sense of why dieting doesn’t work for many (most?) of us, and has some really practical solutions. Not a quick fix - but if those worked you wouldn’t be reading this review on an eating skills program, would you? I think most people would benefit from this course, and this will be the advice I share with my friends and family throughout my life as a reasonable way to approach eating.

Jennifer Carlson

I have been dieting since the age of 16. I have done everything from slim fast, vegan Keto, carnivore, counting containers, measuring my food, counting macros, fasting, shakes, testing my blood sugars spikes…etc. I guess I would consider myself a chronic dieter. They all worked at some level, until they didn’t anymore and I would gain the weight back, plus more and then try another diet (and waste more hard earned money). Finally there was a time I feared so many foods, like healthy foods…apples (too much sugar), zucchini, tomatoes, cucumber (too many lectins). I had a lot of disordered eating I won’t even get into. Then My kids were picking up my disordered eating habits and diet thoughts. I had enough. I realized how ridiculous this all was and how stressed and fearful I became. I am 38 years old and have been dieting for 22 years and I am so tired. Tired of stressing out when I go to a restaurant. Tired of always having to pack, measure and count my food. Tired of trying to find the “last” diet. Why am I still dieting? Do I want to do this for the rest of my life? When I found eating skills, I wasn’t immediately on board. I thought it was another diet and gimmick. I was also struggling with what to do next. I was still binge eating, starving myself, gaining weight, feeling lost and beating myself up for all the wrong things I was doing. Eating skills is just that. It’s not another diet , it’s not a gimmick, it a SKILL. A skill I never learned. A skill I was completely out of touch with. Josh breaks things down to phases and weeks. During the phases and weeks I have learned my emotional attachments to food, hunger cues, what a balanced meal looks like and my values and how my values work with food. I don’t have “diet thoughts”any longer. They are more “nutrition thoughts” like “I like a balanced meal for nutrients and fiber because I get energy and feel good”. I don’t over eat because I sleep better and feel good. My mind frame has changed so much since I started! Not only with food but taking a moment to break down my emotions has been awesome and relieving. It should be called Eating and EMOTIONAL skills 😂. I don’t always react how I wished I had, but I know I am a work in progress, I will not be perfect and I am finally ok with that! I have the skills to recognize situations, work though thoughts and have control over my next step My husband even commented about how much more fun and adventurous I have become. It not an overnight fix, Some phases and skills to me a few weeks, but I needed to work at my own pace. Years of diet damage and lack of emotion acknowledgment doesn’t go away over night. It’s a continuous practice that becomes second nature over time. I feel good in my skin and I am finally in full control over my food choices and decisions.

Michael Elder

In the past I have tried counting calories and macros, fasting, and many others programs that have funny names. Eating Skills is different because it isn't about the food, but about your relationship with it. Eating skills has changed my relationship with food. It has taught me that just because food is front of me I don't need to eat it. Instead, ask myself, "Am I hungry?", "What else could be causing me to want to eat?" It's okay if my answer is yes, I'm hungry, and the need to eat because my belly is empty. The main thing is I learned is I taking the time and asking myself the questions. The answer doesn't matter so much, it's what I do with my answer and that's the power behind the program.

Natya Nauri Namaskara

What had you tried before Eating Skills? Calorie counting, metabolism reset (it's like 3 days calorie counting + 2 days break + 3 days calorie counting again), mindful eating (embracing the food sensations i.e. texture, flavour, aroma, etc.) How is Eating Skills different? So practical, fit to my busy life, no frills, no hassle, no girls with bikini or muscular hunk photos (I'm serious!!!). The texts & images are just comforting to my eyes. What's the biggest thing that's changed for you so far? More acceptance & appreciation to my life, embracing my values, that life is not just food & calories.

I have been a professional dieter since I was 10. Literally, since I even worked for Weight Watchers for several years. Then I just broke one day. Why does eating have to be so difficult? After throwing diet rules out the window for a couple of years I realized that I don’t know how to eat nor how I want to approach food. Eating skills is helping me make decisions about food in a mindful way. It is also not the hunger/fullness diet where you can’t eat unless you’re hungry. Although hunger does figure into it because eating has such a big affect on hunger. After a month I am already noticing that I enjoy my meals more, I am not stress eating as much, and I am not feeling restricted or crazy from being on a diet. This is a true lifestyle change.

I tried simply following my appetite (for a long time, didn't work), the App / program Noom and my health insurer's AI "coach", which is very similar to Noom, all for a very short time and a pdf from a German TV show called "Nutrition Docs", which is run by MDs and helps me a lot to eat less purin, but recommended only two handfuls of carbs each day, which is ridiculously little for me and I never felt full, kept eating proteins to no effect. Noom etc depends on taking account of what I actually eat (I always cheat) and wants me to eat too many pulses/legumes, which I shouldn't, because they're too high in purin. Eating skills works better, because I can still eat what I want and should, there's no "forbidden fruit", but only scores in the tracker, which feel like achievements, but also no algorithm or guide who tells me what I'm doing wrong. In addition, because of the "paywall" I feel safe in being honest in my posts, I love how quickly and reliably Josh replies to questions or comments. Biggest thing that's changed: I can stop eating when I feel full. The voice in my head telling me to finish the plate (or pot) has become very quiet. After only 5 weeks.

My eating patterns where chaotic before starting Eating Skills. I would find a restrictive diet and follow it to an extreme, then life would happen and I would fall off the diet and do that in the extreme as well. I reached a point where I just kept saying I would start another diet the following day while eating like it was the last time I would ever enjoy food. I honestly thought Eating Skills would give me a diet I could follow, instead it gave me something more powerful. It has allowed me to build skills that let me take ownership of how I eat. This didn't happen overnight. I worked through the program twice with a year of practice between. The first time I learned how to trust my own hunger cues and to make value based decisions about what I ate. I practiced those skills on my own for a year but realized emotional eating was getting in the way of truly making value based decisions. So I started the program again with that focus in mind. After the second time through I feel centered around what it truly important to me. I'm not only not always eating in response to triggers but also making value based decisions across all facets of my life. I find that I no longer need to think about food all the time, eating is so much easier. This program is not a magic pill, it is a slow process that requires patience, getting real with yourself, and doing the work, but Josh is there by your side the whole way. He is super encouraging but asks tough questions when you need to hear them. The rest of the members in the program are wonderful and encouraging as well. This is a life changing program and I highly recommend it.

In the past I tend to swing between the extremes of saying food is bad and dieting, or saying restrictions are bad and indulging. Everything is black and white regardless of context. I ended up feeling stuck, helpless and frustrated at myself for not being able to do it right. It felt I was only a passenger in my own car and whatever method I was following is the chauffeur driving me around. Through Josh and Eating Skills, I'm learning to figure out what's really important to me, and how to adjust such that my eating reflects my values. What's also awesome is that the programme is structured while not stifling. It's a sweet spot where I get to work sustainably towards my goals while not having the diet mentality. 10/10 definitely will recommend.

Reflecting on where I was 9 months ago when first embarking on this endeavor. How has my body changed since then? My goal has always been to improve fitness (both health and physique), and once and for all get rid of the visceral fat layer about my waist. I couldn't care less what the number is on the scale, as long as that layer of fat is gone. However, I can't ignore the aspect of weight loss towards my fitness Values. At first blush, if anything, I am only slightly lower than my previous lowest weight in the past 30 years. Maybe 1 lb less. Was the time, effort and expense of this program worth 1lb.? Actually that’s entirely the wrong question now. To put this in perspective, I should add that my current state is probably, at most, another 1-2 lbs from my goal. If I were somehow to forget everything about ES and the skills I now have, I’d almost certainly attempt to heavily restrict my diet in a last ditch effort to attain my goal. From past experience, I know this would only make my face look sullen (my friends would remark on it) as my body rebelled violently against the torment of restriction, and within a week or two be back up several pounds, visceral fat un-changed, discouraged, confused, and no closer to my goal. At that point, my weight would continue to fluctuate as I resumed a lifetime of unskilled consumption habits. Instead, for the first time, I’m at this low-weight point, not at the end of my rope of self-constraint, but feeling fresh, motivated, and in balance. Whereas before, I only approached this point for brief periods once or twice a year, now this feels like my body’s new set-point, and I can very, very slowly continue my journey into increasing levels of fitness. It’s not clear how long (if ever) it might take to completely get rid of all the visceral fat, but the reality is that I’m in an unprecedented position from anywhere I’ve been before. It feels like I have changed my eating habits to support this for the years and decades to come. And that was well worth the investment — priceless, in fact. It feels pretty awesome.

Over the years I have had a varied relationship with eating and food and how my weight impacted on my body image and self esteem. I gave up diet plans but imposed my own restrictions such as no sugar for 6 months or I can only eat any treats once per week etc. This would be successful in the short term but of course I never kept it up for long. I had reached a point where physically I was quite fit, having decided that exercise was the answer to be able to eat whatever I wanted! I was going to the gym twice a week, running regularly and walking the dog every day but my weight was stubbornly stuck at the same point and had even crept up to the point where I was very uncomfortable with it. After much deliberation I decided to try the Eating Skills programme. I am really glad that I did. To begin with I found it hard to take the time to relate the lessons to my everyday practices and to give time to reflecting and being mindful about my eating choices. But the more I continued it became easier and I have now found having delved a bit in to my eating habits, what are my triggers for snacking and emotional eating and am beginning to be able to take control over them. I have not given up any of my favourite foods or engaged in any dietary restrictions, just eating balanced meals and what I like but mindful of whether I am actually hungry and need it rather than just bored or tired. Initially I told myself it wasn't about the weight loss but if I am honest with myself, like everyone it was my hope to lose weight. And it seems like magic in some ways to me, but I have lost quite a lot of weight (around 14 pounds) without seeming to have tried. I don't want to under play the fact that I have done lots of work reflecting, practising skills and using the eating skills but it never seemed like work and I maybe do an hour over a week. It amazes me that just by making small adjustments to my eating habits and thinking about what I eat has made such a big change. Eating Skills was the final piece in the puzzle to ensure that my eating was as healthy as my physical training. Josh is a great coach. Despite the time difference (I am in the UK), I always get quick responses to my queries and postings and they are always really helpful and relevant. I still have plenty of work to do but am feeling much more that I have control over my eating habits than before, when I would just see food and eat it! If anyone is considering joining the Eating Skills programme I really can recommend it. NB: I never give things 5 stars as nothing is ever perfect but Eating Skills is an excellent programme!