I had to eat like a monster to make it an NFL training camps - but it completely wired me wrong around food.

Here's what I mean.

When I was playing offensive line in colleage, and with briefs stints on a couple of NFL teams, my peak weight was over 300 pounds.

To get there — basically from age 14 through 25 — I had to force-feed myself. Eat as much as possible, all the time. That was the job.

Was it healthy? Far from it. But I was chasing extreme performance. I was trying to play in the NFL and do what offensive linemen do.

Then my mid-20s hit. I retired. And all of a sudden I had the same eating habits — but no four to six hours of daily training to burn it off ;)

That's when I realized something. It wasn't just about following a new meal plan. There was a whole lot more going on underneath the surface.

And honestly? Up until not that long ago, I would still catch myself just wired to stuff my plate and finish everything on it. Part of that was the football conditioning. Part of it was probably growing up hearing "finish your plate, don't waste food" — the kind of thing that gets baked into you early and just runs on autopilot for decades.

Here's what I've figured out working with hundreds of clients over the years:

People don't need another meal plan. They need a different wiring around food.

That's exactly what we're building in the Mindful Eating Summer Reset — a 6-week small group program I'm running one time this spring leading into summer.

Over six weeks we're going to work on things like:

• Breaking the cycle of eating, overeating, and starting over every Monday
• Distinguishing real hunger from habit and emotional triggers
• Navigating summer cookouts, parties, and social events without stress
• Enjoying the foods you love without guilt or going off the rails
• Building a "relationship with food" that's actually sustainable long-term
• Reclaiming the mental energy you've been spending on food obsession and redirecting it toward things that actually matter

This is a skills-based reset built around awareness, habit change, and sustainable behavior — backed by research from Harvard Health, the CDC, NIH, and the American Psychological Association.

I'm also bringing some personal experience to this beyond just the football stuff. I'm currently completing my master's degree in addictions counseling, which has given me a deep background in behavioral therapy — the foundation all of this is built on. I've also completed a specific mindful eating certification and have facilitated mindful eating workshops alongside clinical mental health specialists in the past.

We're keeping this to 12 people total so everyone gets real feedback and actual coaching interaction — not just videos to watch on your own.

Spots are filling. If this sounds like what you need heading into summer, grab your spot at the link below.

> https://forestvance.lpages.co/mindful-eating-summer-reset-2026/​

Talk soon —

Forest