Food Coaching

"I literally cannot. I mean, I literally said I was a vegetarian and they give me chicken? Like, really?" blurted out the 17-year-old teenage girl named Lola.

“Say literally one more time and you’ll literally see your eye go purple,” stated 21-year old Jane, who sat on the opposite side of the table.

“Shut up! Don’t talk to her like that!” screamed John, a middle-aged man that sat right beside the 21-year-old woman.

“What are you, his daddy or his sugar daddy?” mocked Jane. 

“Ugh, that’s disgusting. No wonder you dress up like that, every inch of you is literally disgusting” declared Lola. 

Suddenly, the door flung open and the event planner entered the room. In the Centre of Aggressiveness and Anger Control, a new type of therapy involving food was being tried out. Numerous studies have shown that, when people were having dinner or any other type of meal, they were more likely to be calmer than in a normal setting. From the five people present on that particular day, no one had decided on this type of coaching by themselves. John’s wife, for instance, had assured him that if he didn’t attend this therapy she’d divoce him right away. Jane and Lola’s parents had pressured their daughters to go, fed up already with the mocking behaviours that persisted year after year. 32-year old Matt had also been sent by his wife while 14-year-old Thomas had been carried to the institution by his grandmother.

“How’s everything going?” asked the event planner calmly.

“Oh, great,” sniffed Thomas sarcastically.

“Um, I'ma veggie? What’s this chicken  all about?” snorted Lola.

“Oh, no! So tragic, guys! She’s a veggie, did you hear that?” mocked Matt.

“You can eat the potato chips, you don’t have to eat the chicken if you don’t want to'', replied the event-planner calmly.

“Salad! That’s what I want! I don’t wanna be a thing full of grease such as that one over there”, Lola exclaimed as she pointed at John with a quick head movement.  

The event planner, a 52-year-old woman, listened to the continued arguing in disappointment. If this was actually their peaceful version, she didn’t want to know how these people could be ‘at their best”. A part of her wished that, when they finished their meal, they would be at least in a calmer mind-state. Nevertheless, as time went by, the aggressiveness persisted. The group that had been present in that room the day before had actually responded in a positive way to this new kind of group therapy. After all, even if food was no magic potion, sometimes it could be even better than that. Today’s group, however, seemed to have no chance of salvation at all. Every time Marissa commented something in order to bring peace to the room, the arguments would get stronger and stronger. 

Then, it struck her. The chocolate-raspberry smoothie! How couldn’t she think about it before? Marissa’s two life passions in life were coaching and making smoothies. When she wasn’t listening to other people’s problems or giving advice, she was in the kitchen making the most delicious drinks anyone could think of. For some reason, though, the one that people liked the most was the chocolate-raspberry one. Quickly, she hurried to the nearest supermarket, bought the ingredients she needed and hurried back to the Centre’s kitchen to do what she knew how to do. When Marissa got back to the clients’ room they were still arguing. 

“You know nothing about life, you’re a baby”, Matt said. 

“Don’t act like you’re so old. Get to my age and you’ll understand life once and for all” cut in John.

“Okay, that’s it guys” interrupted Marissa. “I brought a smoothie for you. But it’s not just any smoothie. It has a special ingredient in it”.

“What do you mean special ingredient?” asked Lola with distrust.

“Well, you’re being a difficult group, if I have to be honest. This smoothie has a special ingredient that will make you all calm down. It takes about ten minutes to work, so you’ll have to stay quiet for those entire ten minutes. And I mean it” explained Marissa.

“You want to drug me? There’s no way in the world” replied John in defensiveness. 

At first, all five clients refused the idea. Marissa wouldn’t tell them what ingredient it was, even if she assured them it was no drug and that they would not be affected in any negative way. All the event-planner told them was that the smoothie would make their sensitive side show up in an opposite way to their usual defensive attitude. Slowly, given that they had no other option, they accepted the challenge. In order for them to drink the smoothie, the event-planner assured them she would tell them what the ingredient was, if it worked, by the end of the session.

Lola, Jane, Matt, John and Thomas proceeded, then, to drink up their smoothies. For ten minutes straight, they were not allowed to say a single word. If they finished their drink before time, they still had to remain completely quiet until Marissa gave them permission to speak. Finally, when the time was up, the event-planner announced they could proceed to talk again.

“That was amazing. It was the most delicious smoothie I had ever had in my life” said Thomas excitedly.

“Oh my, yes! It totally was” agreed Lola. 

Suddenly, John started sobbing. 

“What’s wrong, bro?” asked Matt with genuine worry.

“My wife. I love her. I’m really afraid to lose her, she doesn’t deserve this attitude of mine” replied John simply.

“Oh, I’m going through the exact same thing. But don’t worry bro, we’ll get through it. You’ll see.”

“I’m sure your wives love y’all. You won’t lose them if you actually change those nasty attitudes” noted Lola with a calmness that blew the whole group away. “I’m like that myself, as you may already know. I really wanna go to this party, you know. The guy I like will be there. I need to prove to my parents that I have control over myself”.

“Oh, you will, don’t you worry,” remarked Jane. “It’s hard, I know, but we’re here. If we’re seeking help, even if someone brought us to this place… that must mean we want help and that we want to get better”. 

From one moment to the other, the climax of the room had completely changed. Suddenly, the people that had been aggressive strangers minutes ago were giving advice to each other as if they were life-long friends. No longer were they insulting each other, but telling their sorrows with an open heart and empathizing with their colleagues’ struggles. They even asked each other for forgiveness and recognized all of their nasty behavioural patterns. 

Eventually, the session time ended and Marissa’s time came to reveal the smoothie’s secret ingredient.

“Oh, it was a chocolate-raspberry smoothie. The ingredients were raspberry and chocolate. Oh, and milk too,” declared the event-planner with a smile.

“Oh, we know. But what else did it have? I mean, what drug did you use to calm us all down?” asked Jane with intrigue. 

“Oh, nothing. No drug,” smiled Marissa. “I figured that if I told you it had something special you would believe it and you’d take down those defensiveness barriers. Besides, I let time pass which is key in order to achieve peace. Next time you feel an aggressive impulse, count to ten. If it isn’t enough, count to thirty. If it isn’t enough, let two or even ten minutes pass”. 

“That was it? There was literally no drug?” asked Lola in amazement.

“No, no drug whatsoever, you did it yourselves. Besides, who doesn’t love a well-done chocolate-raspberry smoothie? I don’t want to brag, but I’m the best at it.”