Family in Focus®

Seriously, y'all, if you're gonna have your first-ever podcast guest, who are you gonna have? P!nk? Yup, thought about it. My sister? She's coming... And Corinne Freaking Crabtree! The Queen Bee of the No BS Weight-loss Program, host of Losing 100 lbs with Corinne, she is a force to be reckoned with, and one down-to-Earth woman. And that's what I love about her: talking real-talk about raising hea...

"This is just the way I am." That is THE biggest obstacle to change: thinking that you are your habits, your actions, your thoughts and feelings. Thinking that they are set in stone. Nope, they are just practiced a lot. And when we practice things they become relatively automatic, Default Mode is activated in our brains. What to do? Take a listen about how to detect default mode and the three step...

"I'm only as happy as my unhappiest child." What on Earth?! With all the kid-angst and unhappiness that kids experience, it sounds crazy to think that we would tie our emotions to theirs. But do you see that happening? Do you try to make your kids feel better so you can feel better? Let's talk about recognizing that there is an ongoing drive to have happy, healthy kids. And yet, it's not really he...

Today, we celebrate. I'm celebrating the birth, evolution and growth of Family in Focus.   I've been asked time and again, "What is the evidence that Family in Focus is effective?" I'm creating the evidence. It's been a labor of love, seeing the problems with the traditional approach to weight in the medical office, the community and my own home.   And now, I'm proud to announce that I have a coll...

Have you heard the questions about identifying your kids' needs? It's really the heart to understanding their behavior, but let's not jump too far ahead: When's the last time you asked what YOU need? This is critical for health as an individual and a family: identifying and meeting needs. And in order to be the parent that our kids need, we have the opportunity to understand and address OUR needs....

"You're the worst parent in the world." "You've f'd me up." Ah, kids. Gotta love them. They sure know how to make us feel amazing.  That's what we're talking about today: the explicit is for feeling "shitty" a few times, and "f'd up" wihtout the rest of the word (you're welcome... and there are very quick "ear-muffs" warnings.) This is real-deal parenting: kids do not agree with the job that we ar...

We've been working through a series on stress eating, and we need to understand the stress first. We've started with ourselves: understanding our stress, what we do with stress. Now we can start talking about helping our children. (After all, we can't just swoop in and address their stress and stress eating if we don't have a solid understanding for ourselves first.) Today, learn about our natural...

Continuing on from Episode #80, "How to deal with stress eating," we dive into 8 ways... yes 8, to address the stress. Please notice if there's stress about 8... you can try any one and see how it works for you. That's the ticket: awareness, experimentation, curiosity and noticing how we stress about stress (dude, me too). As parents, we get to understand our stressors and how to deal with it, so...

Do you find yourself stressed out, collapsing on the couch with a bag of tortilla chips in exhaustion, and scrolling on social media? You are not alone: stress eating is so common for us and our kids. In order to address it we need to understand it. Just addressing the eating part is a plan for disaster as it changes eating habits without addressing the stress in the first place. Today we talk abo...

What happens when we focus on the scale? Finding it hard to NOT do it? In this episode, I share the story of how I smacked face-first into the reality that it is really hard to not focus on what the scale says. But also, what happens when we practice not letting it have control over our lives. Full show notes available here . Calling all Healthcare Professionals: I'm so glad you're here, to benefi...

We think we need to focus on weight: after all, isn't that how we identify a problem and fix it? In today's episode, I start the conversation about how there's more to it. Our focus on weight has NOT been helping our families. In fact, it's causing more problems. Let's dive in and see what we can do. Where should we be placing our focus for health? This is from my recent guest article on the Kevin...

"And the reality of my weight is..." Let's talk about the facts of weight. How is the number on the scale impacting your reality? How do you determine what is possible for you and your family, given the reality? Much to discuss. Take a listen. And drop me a line: wendy@wendyschofermd.com . Let me know how your reality has impacted your possibility - and now what ? --------------------- Full show n...

Challenges! We've sure got them.  What are the challenges you're facing right now? Work, stress, relationships, health, weight... What makes them challenging? Challenges are situations we don't know the outcome. It's stressful. And yet... we can grow. Let's talk about the challenges that arise, as well as challenges that you WANT to sign up for. And I invite you to join my free 5-day LIVE challeng...

Do you have a plan for your family's health? How's it working? Want to throw it out? Or is it something that you hate the rules and structure of a plan? In today's episode we talk about how to create a plan for your own family: why it's important, and what to account for. We also talk about why all those other plans haven't worked (and why there's nothing wrong with you or your family that a certa...

Previously we discussed doing a little sleuthing - observing behaviors. What is it that your kids are doing? What are you finding out about the patterns of their behavior? This week we are exploring what comes before the behaviors.  Why do we do the things that we do? It's not as mysterious as what it's made out to be. In fact, we pretty much do everything for one reason: emotions. We have a feeli...

How often are you just too pooped to do anything? And yet, work, kids, email, dinner, life just keep making demands of you. It is further exhausting! Today we talk about my concept and PRACTICE of The Bare Minimum. We define it, use examples of practice, and most importantly, why this practice is important for parents. When you're ready to dive in and work together to practice The Bare Minimum (an...

It's Part 1 of our mini-series! Why don't weight goals work for kids? Learn 3 reasons, and the first 2 things to do to help in a meaningful, lifelong way. Full show notes available here . Join Family in Focus coaching now. Current offerings available here . Weight Loss 101 for Your Whole Family: get started helping your whole family with the self-paced mini-course HERE . --------------------- I as...

No hypotheticals or fear of the future: let's talk about what happens if your child is actually overweight, has a diagnosis of obesity or diabetes. Then what happens? Today we dive into what we can do as parents to support, nurture and help with raising our kids. It's not what others have told you. Check this episode out as it is the HEART of helping our kids navigate all this BS about their own w...

SUGAR! It's everywhere. How do you deal with the sugar in the food, and the fascination with sugar? Is it helpful to declare war on sugar? Let's talk about different approaches to take to help get past the black and white thinking of sugar being all good or all bad. What's in between? Real choices and real life. Take a listen! And check out my accounts for the follow-on posts this week about how t...

You've got questions, experts have answers. Bring your questions to Episode 69 of FIFWS and find out how to answer them: What do I feed my kids: how much, how do I help them find a healthy weight, how much to move... And so many more. Learn how to tap into your expertise in creating the healthy results you want for you and your family. Full show notes available here . Join Family in Focus coaching...

How do you build trust in your body? In your child and their decisions? How does your child build trust? Is it earned? Take a listen to learn the questions to ask now to build trust going forward. Full show notes available here . Weight Loss 101 for Your Whole Family: get started helping your whole family with the self-paced mini-course HERE . --------------------- I ask a favor of you: if you lik...

It's a spooky time of year, when we finalize costumes and freak out about what to do with all the Halloween candy. Sames, my friend. Let's talk about preparing now & learn three things to help make Halloween what you want it to be for you & the kids. Full show notes available here . (Including fabulous PDF mentioned in the podcast with resources on healthy Halloween activities from KEYS 4H...

Let's do an exercise today. Bring a pen and paper, and be ready to write. We are going to explore what it needs to look like to have a healthy weight for you, for your family. It's an introduction to something that I call the manual. And you will get to hear how I tossed my manual for the podcast (and much more: enjoy!).   Full show notes available here . Weight Loss 101 for Your Whole Family: get...

Struggling with your weight? Struggling with your child's weight? Let's talk about how to struggle less. Learn why we struggle, as well as the three ways to decrease struggle. With lots of examples of how I still struggle and use these tools in regards to working out, my kids' struggles, and... (no big surprise) weight/body image. Full show notes available here . Weight Loss 101 for Your Whole Fam...

Got a weight loss goal? Helping your child eat better to maintain their weight? And you're not seeing progress? Listen to Episode #64 where we talk about what to do. Learn about: defining progress, what metrics are you using, and which should you not use Full show notes available here . Weight Loss 101 for Your Whole Family: get started helping your whole family with the self-paced mini-course HER...