Kellee Waters
I am a:
- registered psychologist-coach
- hypnotherapist
- internet radio host
- qualified trainer
- fitness coach
- experienced speaker
- experienced media (TV, radio and newspaper) expert
- Dancesport professional, performer and teacher
My personal weight & disordered eating experiences:
- obesity
- yo-yo dieting
- anorexia
- bulimia
- binge eating disorder
I specialise in:
- weight & obesity management
- weight loss surgery (assessment and counselling)
I work in the private sector as a contract for individuals, organisations and prominent bariatric surgeons.
- pain management
- injury adjustment
I work in one of Australia’s leading private hospital’s pain & rehabilitation centre as a leading psychologist.
- grief & loss
- relationships and family counselling
These issues are incorporated in all of the work that I undertake.
My personal and professional experiences have resulted in the development of:
http://fitmindsandbodies.com.au – specialising in psychology and personal training for weight management, obesity management, weight loss surgery, pain & injury management
http://weightlosssurgerysuccessradio.com.au – a podcasting website developed as an online support and information community for weight loss surgery.
http://inside-weight-loss-success.com – the blog attached to all of the websites.
http://healthyvibrations.com.au – Dream Healther whole body vibration platform and training.
I am the expert Weight Loss Coach for http://sizexchange.com/
My passion lies in promoting balanced health, combating obesity – from and individual and family perspective – and helping to shape healthier, happier individuals and families. My personal, competitive and professional experience has shaped the development of my unique and innovative programs.
My own personal journey of weight issues (childhood obesity and the full continuum of eating disorders) has lead to my strong desire to coach and guide others in finding freedom from the rollercoaster of weight issues. All of my personal struggles have helped me to understand the powerful effects of the mind and emotions on weight related issues and combined with my professional qualifications has shaped the development of a unique and innovative way of dealing with weight management and obesity. I help people to develop their own weapon for success against yo-yo dieting, emotional overeating, weight gain and obesity through knowledge, skill development and practical application. By helping people develop their own weapon for weight success, I help them to develop skills and tools to be generalised to all other aspects of their lives.
My Story
“My journey of weight issues began with childhood obesity at the age of 18months. My parents were in control of my nutrition and they misguidedly and unknowingly caused me to go from a normal weight child to an obese one. Childhood obesity remained with me until my early teens. When I was a child, childhood obesity was not very common and as a result I was stared at, taunted and teased by children and adults. School was very difficult because the children bullied and taunted me into tears nearly every day. All of this caused my self-esteem to plummet and my social skills were affected as I did not want to talk to other children or go and play with them for fear of being taunted so, I became a loner. I also hated any form of exercise and especially exercise that involved competition, as I was always last, picked last and again taunted by others.
Luckily my teenage years were relatively normal, weight wise, which made high school a lot easier. From the age of 23 I began to suffer from the effects of anorexia. My anorexia came about because of grief and a sense of my life being in chaos. At the time, I was a top ranking State and Australian competitive Dancesport professional athlete, so my mental toughness and control was very strong and as a result I used these same strategies and skills to control my chaotic life. Therefore, I found control in my life through controlling my food intake, activity level and sports training. I was already lean, weighing 47kg and my weight fell to a very unhealthy 41kg in a very short time. I was lucky though because I only suffered with anorexia for 3 years.
As I did not get help for the anorexia, when I began to recover, I plummeted head on into bulimia followed by binge eating disorder. As a result, my life was consumed by food, every waking moment. It caused my weight to yo-yo. Where before, food did not control my life, from the age of 23 my life revolved around food, weight (especially the scales), exercise, lack of exercise, poor body-image and self-esteem, being a recluse at times because I was ‘too fat to go out’.
By my late 20s, I had healed my issues and felt as though my life was ‘normal’ again. My life was ‘back on track’ and I felt good about myself and my relationship with food. Then, I protruded 2 discs in my back. Again, my life was thrown into chaos as I could not exercise, perform and teach dance, work and at times sit and walk. My whole life changed! Before I realised it, I had become depressed and I turned to my old friend, food – for comfort, to help reduce the pain, to reduce the grief & loss, and the feelings of being alone and isolated. During this time I went from a size 8 to a size 14. Although to many, this may not seem that ‘big’ however, I have a small frame and for me, it was ‘big’! I fell into the vicious cycle of food controlling my life again.
I began to further discover and learn about myself – the internal processes, external influences and relationships associated with weight management issues. From all of my experiences, I knew that the key to all of my weight issues were psychological. I understood that nutrition and exercise were like putting a cast on a broken arm that is not properly set; on the outside it looks as though it would be mended but inside it is not. No matter how many casts are put on the arm, unless it is set properly it will never mend. From everything that I have learned personally and professionally, I began to help others conquer their psychological issues, that were the cause of weight issues, and so far have helped many, many people find freedom from the rollercoaster of weight, food and motivation, and find a life filled with fun, confidence and excitement.”
