Learn to eat and stop yourself and make peace with food!
By Fatima Gorezi
Sora Vernikoff is a no-diet, weight-loss coach, international speaker and author who healed herself of compulsive overeating and has helped hundreds of unhappy dieters do the very same thing. Her book “Eat What You Want! Stop When You Want! A No-Diet, Weight-Loss Program” became a #1 Amazon Best Seller.
Sora teaches her program to private clients and helps them to lose weight without having to diet. Her program gives the user the choice to consistently eat and stop themselves all by using two simple eat and stop yourself techniques for a non-dieted and healthy weight-loss.
Presently, Sora lives in Manhattan and is passionate about travel and volunteers in dog rescue. Sora also shares aspects of her journey in her business which includes some of the ways that she supports her clients not only reach their non-dieted weight loss goal but in other life goals as well for a peaceful and happy life.
For those of us who don’t know you, please introduce yourself. What are you passionate about and committed to?
My name is Sora Vernikoff and I’m a No Diet, Weight-Loss Coach at www.nodieting.net I’m a Speaker, an Author and a Coach and my book Eat What You Want! Stop When You Want! A No-Diet, Weight-Loss Program became a #1 Amazon Best Seller when it was published and just recently became the 2018 Distinguished Favourite by The New York City Big Book Award Contest.
It was over 20 years ago that I healed myself of compulsive overeating by transferring my classroom “management” techniques to food “management” techniques (having taught really challenged kids in East New York, Brooklyn) and then developed an easy to use no-diet, weight-loss program that I went on to teach hundreds of unhappy dieters so they too could make peace with food.
I’m both passionate and committed to having a peaceful relationship with food by having the choice to eat what I want, stop when I want and become a healthy, steadily-thin me, which I’ve done now for over twenty years and which I help my clients do presently.
What has been your greatest professional success and biggest setback?
My greatest professional success was when my book became a 2018 Distinguished Favourite by the New York City Big Book Award Contest. I’m a New Yorker tried and true, and to be recognised by a New York City Book Award Contest, bearing in mind the amount of talent in this city, was just a very moving and emotional experience for me.
My greatest setback as I look back now was really my greatest set forward. I couldn’t find a publisher for my book because every agent told me that I wasn’t a celebrity and that the editors of most of the Publishing Houses only bought weight-loss books from celebrities. It was yet after one of those many rejections based on my non-celebrity status that I decided to set up my own publishing company and that’s just what I did. I would never have done that had my book been picked up by a House. But at the end of the day, Yeah!! I got the exact book that I wanted and it was all worth it.
From a weight-loss nutrition perspective, what do you think about organic foods vs. genetically-modified foods?
So genetically modified foods are when a gene is inserted into an organism that wouldn’t necessarily be found there. The gene is usually from a virus or a bacteria and is designed to change how the food is grown. It is believed that this process can change the genetic code in the plant and therefore can make it more resistant to pests and more productive.
On the other hand, organic foods are more expensive to grow due to the fact that they need to be certified and that they are more labor intensive due to the necessary tilling and removing of weeds coupled with large amounts of organically approved pesticides that need to be applied.
I would always choose organic food vs. genetically modified food, but in the reality of the supermarket world, finding genuine organic food is not always easy to do and is always more expensive; sometimes 50% more expensive to buy.
And so, the best way to find organic food which would obviously minimise one’s exposure to harmful chemicals, is to purchase them from what’s known as a “ reputable source” and to make sure that there’s a label that states that it is “certified organic.”
You only have one body to live in, so choose wisely!
How can a No Diet, Weight-Loss Coach help clients with their fitness, wellness or health goals?
When I first work with a client, the client is there to most likely want to lose weight and get healthier and doesn’t want to diet, because they’ve dieted in the past and they’re stepping out in faith, willing to try a new way to lose weight which is by not dieting. They’re tired of the deprivation through diet and by nothing ever being enough, which maintains their overeating behaviour. In that relationship, at the same time that I teach the unhappy dieter the system’s 2 unique eat-n-stop yourself techniques, we also talk about any particular medical condition that they may have so we can work out their best food choices. At the same time we also talk about how exercise can now support them in reaching their non-dieted weight-loss goal in the shortest amount of time possible.
How can a No Diet, Weight-Loss Coach help clients with their business or career?
As a No Diet, Weight-Loss Coach by default, I am an encourager. I know that once a person learns to eat and stop themselves by using the system’s two eat and yourself techniques that their sense of personal power grows exponentially. Once they see that they can manage food in this new way, which they never thought that they could, they instinctively know that through time, patience and commitment, they can bring that skill set to any business or career that they have a vision for. So I don’t help an unhappy dieter directly with their business or career but by teaching them to take back the power from food (which they’ve been afraid of so much of their life), all things are possible.
What is one foundational concept that you can share with our readers about making positive, bold life changes for the better?
For me, it’s my faith in God and my daily commitment to prayer that is my rock and salvation and gives me the courage to make “bold” changes. I believe that regardless of your religion or form of spirituality, if you practice it daily (especially when you start your day), all things are possible. In addition to starting your day with prayer I also highly recommend that at the end of the day you keep a Gratitude Journal. Even if you just list 3 things that you were grateful for that day, it will help carry you positively and hopefully into your tomorrow.
In addition, to that, I am also a devout daily planner, always leaving room for flexibility. If you don’t plan for the day and/or for the week, you’ll always be beating yourself up for what you didn’t get done. I believe that it’s of crucial importance to understand what you can reasonably do on a daily/weekly basis without the potential of selling your soul.
Bold moves are really the result of daily steady processions of small moves.
Build yourself a strong daily foundation and You Can Do It!
I definitely agree that living in alignment with your core values is essential to being a happy and balanced person. But what practical applications do your core values have in your life?
My core value is to live a life of integrity and to do what is right even when no one is looking. Being at peace is very important to me in my life and therefore so is also taking The High Road. For me being at Peace comes from having choices and so I work daily on feeling that, whatever the challenge, I can find the choice in it. That brings me peace. I also like to do a kind deed whenever I can, like helping a blind person cross an avenue or helping a friend out, whatever their need might be at a particular time.
Do you have a final piece of advice or insight for our readers?
Again, I would say that all accomplishments are just processions of small daily steps taken consistently each day. Also, when something happens to make you feel like it sets you back, it’s really a possibility for a better way but it arrives in its own unique disguise.
That every set back is really a set forward and to remember to always give thanks in everything.
