The Fall 2023 round of RealSteps has already begun. Check back for details on the next round.
Many of us can frequently feel bad about our bodies, our eating habits or our health. We imagine that if we just start this new diet or if maybe we could lose a bunch of weight, everything would be better.
So we start the latest gluten-free, fish-focused, vegetarian caveman surfer diet, and wow, it works. Maybe we are pretty good about avoiding carbs or sugars or alcohol or whatever for a few weeks. Maybe we do lose some pounds or get stronger. But then we have a stressful week of work or go on vacation, or just, ugh, can’t deal, and then find ourselves back in our old habits. And now we feel even worse.
Enter RealSteps
It’s not a diet plan. It’s not some total body transformation empty promise or mystical realignment practice. At its core, it’s an experiment. Can we come up with another way, a kinder and mentally healthier way, to feel good in our own skin without dieting and without drastic changes to our lifestyle that end up being entirely unsustainable?
We hope to answer that question using the tools and skills we have honed with hundreds and hundreds of clients over the past 20 years.
Who’s this “we” we are talking about?

Elena Felin, MS, RD, CSSD, CD
Elena is a dietitian, board-certified specialist in sports nutrition, ex-pro athlete, mindful eating expert, lover of all things natural for your health, and an unshakable optimist dedicated to helping people become the best version of themselves.
Wendi Dunford, LCSW, LICSW
Wendi is a psychotherapist with 25 years of experience helping people from all walks of life become mentally and emotionally healthy. She too is freakishly optimistic, so the combination of these two could melt metal with their relentlessly hopeful dispositions!

Why should you do this?
This is what we can promise: You will start feeling better in 4 weeks. It might just be a start, but it’ll be the right start. You will be taking Real Steps toward feeling good. Small, systematic, and sustainable steps. You will eat a little better, move a little more, and let go of a few unwanted pounds of emotional baggage.
No big promises, but very solid small progressions that will lead to a healthier you in the next coming years! That’s right, it is not REAL to promise big change overnight. It NEVER works – at least on a long-term sustainable basis. We will help you find a sustainable healthier version of yourself where you feel good mentally and physically. We want you to feel really good by 2025, so we gotta start here and now to get there.
How does it work?
Sign up, pay a $150 participation fee, and answer some basic questions. We’ll have you sign a promise to be cool and kind as a member of the RealSteps Group and that’s about it from your end.
Your registration will then give you access to all the good stuff made just for you and your new supportive friends to start feeling better – both emotionally and physically.
With your registration, you will receive:
- Access to a private Discord server where we will share and communicate together.
- Support from mentors who’ve already participated in RealSteps.
- Weekly live classes on topics that will keep you motivated to keep going and keep growing.
- Online support and education provided by Wendi Dunford LCSW, LICSW and Elena Yorgason RND as well as other potential guests.
- Weekly challenges, inspiration, conversation, and support during your four weeks of taking Real Steps toward feeling better.
All of these things are helpful and important and we’re excited for you to access them, but one of the things that makes RealSteps special and especially effective and ultimately life-changing is the group support that you get by participating in this program.
Group support is crucial for success, always has been, and always will be! So we do our best to make this a really fun, helpful, nice place to be where we learn together and support each other. Our crew is awesome. We promise – it will make all the difference.
PS If you have questions about how any of this works, please send us an email help@realsteps.org and we’ll do our best to clarify.