Chrissie Webber works as a writer, business coach and motivation/ leadership trainer and is Managing Director of Life-Shapers Ltd, an online weight-loss motivation company. With over 20 years experience in the field of business and people development she has an expertise in the area of motivation for permanent weight loss.
Following a lifetime of weight issues - at her heaviest, over 21 stone and a massive size 30 – she has personal experience of diets and their devastating effect on size and psyche. With a background in nursing, psychology and business coaching, coupled with a lifetime of dieting, she developed and successfully used a series of models and tools that enhance weight loss motivation. Now over 5 dress sizes smaller and having sustained her weight loss for several years, Chrissie continues her passionate drive to change the mindsets of people away from a ‘Scarcity’ dieting mindset – where food is demonised as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ – to an ‘Abundance’ mindset where mind, body and spirit work hand in hand with food and nature.
My wonderful friend Jennie bought me a lovely Christmas present, a 365 day calendar of ‘Moments of Indulgence for Girlfriends’. This morning when I turned it over I read…
Flowers are lovely;
Love is flower-like;
Friendship is a sheltering tree.
William Taylor Coleridge
Choosing the friends we want, as our tree to shelter under when we are changing our lifestyle and habits with food, is so important.
Some trees whither and fade away because they cannot relate to our changes. Other trees look the same but on closer inspection their branches and leaves are spread in other directions and they are not in the right place themselves to shelter us.
Then there are those who stand like mighty oaks. Always splendid in their strength, beauty and glory, they are there to shelter us at any time. Yet just as often they come to shelter under our very bows.
It is these friendships that fill our hearts with joy and feed our souls. They are the ones who help to raise our motivation when life throws us a ‘curved ball’. In their loving ways they are…
· Challenging without being judgemental;
· Critical in a constructive way;
· Full of good ideas and useful tips;
· Full of fun to make you smile and your heart sing. Finding the trees that provide you shelter is a very important part of the process of motivational change. 
They are sometimes like Angels, replenishing the love that has eluded you. It is from this reservoir of their love that we re-kindle our remnants of self-love, depleted by the ravages of life.
