Hi! My name is Brooke.
I live in Santa Cruz, CA with my husband Doug and a black cat named Tybalt.
I teach Spin classes and play classical guitar.
I’m a certified nutritionist and coach.
I’ve been a sober “Friend of Bill W” since 2001, and work a program to this day.
And in 2015 I found a solution to chronic overeating and used it to free myself from decades of struggling with food.
For the first 15 years of my sober life, I struggled with overwhelming food cravings, sugar addiction and aggressive hunger that resulted in huge weight swings, compulsive sugar binges, chronic dieting and restricting, and increased anxiety.
Just like you may be experiencing right now.
I had already overcome a very serious addiction to alcohol. I knew what to eat to be healthy. But the “doing” part of it with the food was out of reach. It was maddening to be filled to the brim with addiction experience, nutrition information, exercise routines, tips and trick galore – and not be able to stick to it.
The food struggle roars quietly and constantly through our lives, stealing our self-esteem and our freedom.
Here’s what I discovered through my own stop-overeating journey: I was treating myself like a typical “dieter” but I was struggling with a unique issue, addiction transfer to food. This problem requires a different skillset than was available to me pretty much anywhere.
I have a different physical response to certain foods than other people. And I have a mind obsessed with eating those foods (and then filled with guilt, remorse, and frustration when I return to sanity). The foods to which we are sensitive are unique to us as individuals - so a one-size-fits-all nutrition approach doesn’t work.
When I became “food sober”, all kinds of magical things happened. My cravings quieted, my hunger became gentle and non-urgent, and my mind calmed down. All I needed to do then was stay stopped - not an easy task in a world obsessed with overeating. But it is possible, when we also heal the mental and emotional aspects of the compulsion.
To me, this was miraculous. I thought I would struggle with food forever. And yet, I’m as free from overeating as I am from drinking - the problem has been lifted. I know that there are a lot of sober folks who also struggle with addiction transfer to food - the addiction “jumping” from alcohol to sugar, snacks, salt, and sweets.
This is how Sober&Hungry, and its signature weight loss program OPAAT (One Pound at a Time) was born.
Overeating in sobriety is a unique issue - because the tools that worked for casual dieters, AND the tools that work for drugs and alcohol don’t work the same way with food.
Sober&Hungry is the simple solution to a complex issue - designed for sober people, by a sober person.
I help people heal from overeating and learn to live peacefully with their unique bodies and minds.
If you relate to my story and want freedom from the food struggle in sobriety, I invite you to check out the S&H signature weight loss program - One Pound at a Time. Click below to learn more, or email me anytime at:
My credentials:
I graduated from Oberlin College in 2002 (B.A.) and from the University of Southern California in 2009 (M.F.A.). I’m a certified Life and Weight Coach through The Life Coach School, and I teach fitness classes as a certified Spinning instructor. I’m a Certified Nutrition Specialist through International Sports Sciences Association (ISSA).
“The most unique thing about coaching was Brooke! She has walked this path before me so I knew she understood the struggle I was having about things. All the people I worked with prior had no clue what it feels like to struggle mentally with food, compulsive food thoughts, and facing the scale. ”