Pivotal moments in life usually come unexpectedly.  These life-defining experiences can be as small as seeing a number on the bathroom scale or as large as losing a loved one.  For me, it was an unsuspected heart attack at the age of forty-six. 

This experience forced me to pause from the fast paced life I was leading to ask what had brought me to this situation, what did I want to learn, and where did I want to go?   

I knew my overeating had contributed to my heart attack. I never ate healthy food when I was emotionally eating and could even remember my first emotional bag of red licorice when I was a teenager.  The licorice-obsessed thoughts were disturbing and frustrating. 

After my heart attack, I spent hours in public contemplating over the history of my overeating habits, and felt that it was more than just discipline that would cause episodes of overeating. I began counting the people who walked past me who were overweight and was shocked to find that an average of 7 out of 10 struggled with their weight.

This experience was the beginning of my search for the answers of over-eating, emotional eating, and the alarming increase in American obesity.  It wasn’t until I understood the physiology of emotions, the hormonal impact of food, and the biological function of your brain in response to food and emotions that I was able to get the answers I needed.

My dream and passion is to pass this understanding on to all of you who can’t understand why food, whether you are thin or over-weight, has become your love and demon, why you can’t sustain weight-loss, why you obsess about food. Totell gives you answers and long term solutions. This struggle is not about being lazy or about undisciplined behavior; it is about the chemical reactions to food, emotions, the environment, and movement that affect your brain and the balance it must have. These chemical reactions are powerful and will drive you to sabotage even the best of intentions.  There really are solutions, and I want to help you end the internal battle once and for all!