Facilitator Materials

Prepared by Karen Nathan, Suppers for Weight Loss Strategies

There will be times when members want you to be the expert or have answers for them. Resist their efforts. We don’t offer specific advice; rather, we encourage personal experiments. So if someone asks something like, "How should I eat to reduce anxiety?", you can respond in three ways:

Briefest Version: Elevator Speech

Suppers is a network of programs for people who choose to make diet and lifestyle changes. At meetings we cook meals from scratch together, eat together, run personal experiments with food, and support each person's unique path to better health.

Our Signature Program

“Treats and Triggers” is an important concept at Suppers because we want people to experience as much pleasure as possible from eating without triggering themselves.

Definitions

A treat is something you eat and really enjoy that does not precipitate more eating or other unwanted behavior. Having it feels good, not gleeful.

A trigger is something you eat that does precipitate more eating or other unwanted behavior. It feels like a tripwire or compulsion.

Exercise for Facilitators

By Veronique Cardon, MS, Suppers facilitator

You don’t have to cover all these points; it’s up to you. Feel comfortable writing in your own style as long as you include the basic elements. The "New to Suppers? Here's What You Need to Know" link must be included at the end of all of your email invitations.

Subject Line: Suppers: RSVP for Jane’s Vegan Monday Lunch on December 14, 2015

Message: 

Greetings Suppers! Please RSVP by Saturday noontime and let me know if you can come to Jane’s Vegan Monday Lunch on Monday, December 14 at 11:30am.

Contributed by Mireille Delman

The idea behind silent eating is to create a state of inner coherence for harmonious functioning of the body’s biological rhythms. Silent eating can improve digestion, reduce stress, and put you in touch with your most intimate relationship, the relationship you have with the food that becomes who you are.

This may be read at table before a period of silent eating of, say, five or ten minutes, as you wish.

Suggested Cues

“We are eating in silence so we can tune in.

This document was prepared for Suppers facilitators. The original document by Rollnick and Miller appeared in Behavioral and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 1995. Notes on operating in the spirit of MI for Suppers facilitators are in italics.

Introduction 

How will you know when you are ready to facilitate your own meeting? You may have already co-facilitated another meeting, experienced growth in the program, and articulated your experience in the form of a story that’s posted on the Suppers web site. There is nothing that says you need to have all the skills; you can team up and co-facilitate with someone who fills in your blanks, like cooking if you aren’t proficient.

Facilitator Dos and Don’ts