I am so happy that you are here and I feel like now is the right moment to share my story with you, to give you a better idea of who I am, what I have struggled with, and how I was able to overcome certain health challenges. The beautiful thing is that I am now able to look back and clearly pinpoint the method in which I was able to get to a place where I successfully built healthy nutrition and lifestyle habits into my life. Ones that have allowed me to thrive, feel better in my skin and gain self-confidence along the way. I can assure you that it wasn’t always this way for me (and we’ll get into that in a minute), but it was doable and I’m here to tell you that the same is possible for you!
So, let’s go back in time for a moment. Growing up, I always considered myself to be an athlete, and to have an athletic body type. I played competitive soccer (as well as other sports) from the age of 8 to 21. During these years, I didn’t have any weight issues per say and never really struggled with my weight until I landed my first full time job in a Big Four accounting firm at the age of 21, which also coincides with when I stopped being active. You may not know this about me, but I am a Chartered Accountant and have worked in corporate accounting my entire adult career. So, the years spent at this accounting firm involved me working late nights and weekends, eating take-out more than I’d like to admit, and being constantly tired with no energy. I was eating poorly as a result of the busy and stressful work environment and frankly had no energy or desire to take the time to take care of myself through better nutrition and exercise.
I gained 20 pounds within two years because of this lifestyle, and if I’m being honest, I found myself in a place where I felt lost and unhappy. I would look in the mirror and not feel good about the person I was seeing, I didn’t recognize myself. My clothes were tight and didn’t fit me well, and I would cringe at the thought of shopping for new clothes because it was an experience that just made me so uncomfortable.
During those years, I really struggled to lose the excess weight I had gained. My go-to method for weight loss always seemed to be the all or nothing approach, where I would go full-force with a super strict diet and cut out all the foods I thought were bad for me. While I was able to lose a few pounds over a short period of time, I would then regain the weight shortly thereafter. I tried all the things…low cal, low fat, low carb, exercising to burn off calories, but could never find an approach that would stick because they would all leave me feeling deprived, hungry, tired, and overwhelmed.
Finally, in 2013, after two years of on and off diets, I got to a place where I knew something had to change, because I didn’t want to continue feeling the way I was. So with a work colleague, I joined a CrossFit gym. I loved the energy that these workouts brought me and this is what truly sparked my interest in exercise. Within 8 months, through what I would call more intense training and monitoring my nutrition more closely, I lost those excess pounds and actually got into the fittest shape of my life. However, I realized that this method would likely not be sustainable in the long-term, especially knowing that I wanted to start a family in the near future.
I was right. In 2014 I got pregnant with my first daughter, and then had my second daughter two years later. During this time, I put the intense workouts on hold. While I considered myself to have a healthy pregnancy and was making efforts to eat well and incorporate gentle movement, I still gained 40 pounds with each pregnancy, and those pounds did not melt away after giving birth. Life as I knew it changed and so did my body! I struggled to find my groove as a new mom and with the changes that my body had experienced after having kids, I found myself back at the start.
Let’s fast forward to 2019, two years after having my second daughter. I finally decided to enroll in a gym with the intention of getting back into shape. I had a few good months of consistent exercise, but then suffered a knee injury which left me out of commission for six months. During this time, the pandemic hit and there was so much uncertainty around me. I still wasn’t able to exercise due to my knee, and I found myself eating more than I normally would. Once again the weight started accumulating and I got to a place where I knew I needed something to fundamentally change. The cycle kept repeating itself and I quickly realized that I had to make lifestyle and nutrition changes that would be long-lasting!
In the first few months of the pandemic, I turned to reading as a pastime (primarily because we were homebound with nowhere to go), and my interest was quickly piqued when I started reading books and research papers on nutrition and wellness. Nutrition had always been a subject that I was interested in over the years, and when my reading picked up I became even more intrigued. It’s as if there was this flame inside of me that was sparked, and there was this voice that kept telling me to pursue this passion. So after a few months of reading and studying on my own, I decided to formally enroll in a school to study holistic nutrition. I can honestly say that this is when my entire perspective on health and nutrition changed. Through my studies, I learned about how my body worked and the nutrients that my body needed to thrive. I began to understand that there was logic behind eating the right combination of nutrients to keep me satisfied. I was able to develop healthy eating habits that allowed me to lose weight, keep the weight off, and gain more energy and focus. I was able to do this because I finally understood the missing piece of the puzzle. In order to make long lasting sustainable change, it was a flexible and balanced approach that was needed, not something drastic and restrictive. I finally learned how to eat in a way that nourished and satisfied me, without restricting or eliminating foods, and by doing this I was able to find my healthy weight. I started counting nutrients over counting calories and my entire relationship with food changed in the process!
While a large focus of my health journey was making shifts in my nutrition, I also worked on personal development, growing my mindset, and finding ways to take care of myself by making myself a priority.
I changed the way that I talked to myself, by being more positive and showing myself compassion. I learned to be more mindful of my energy and worked on ways to better cope with stress that came from work, kids, and life. I can honestly say that working on my emotional health (which is what I like to call it) has been instrumental in my ability to build long lasting healthy habits.
Through the busy days of being a mom and having a career, I was able to reignite my love for exercise because I knew how beneficial it was to my overall wellbeing.
This time however, it was through a much more balanced and flexible approach that focused on consistency over intensity. I began to shift my mindset to focus on the way moving my body made me feel more than anything else, which was energized and strong! I was able to maintain a consistent exercise schedule because of this shift, and also because I found a way to build movement that I enjoyed into realistic pockets of time that fit into my days.
If you are reading this, feeling lost and a little alone, feeling like you need to make a move to take care of yourself but you just don’t know where to start, I get you. I have been there, standing right where you are. I know that it's hard to start making changes to your health. What I also do know is that sometimes making a change requires you to step out of your comfort zone, and get into a space that fosters growth. I can tell you that surrounding yourself with supportive women, who want you to step up with confidence so that you can feel your best, is so important and can be incredibly helpful in your wellness journey.
I can honestly say that I wish someone would have stood alongside me and shown me that there was a better way to get through the years when I struggled with feeling good in my body. A way where I could better understand my body, learn how to nourish myself with food that would give me energy rather than bring me down, and learn to enjoy movement because it would ultimately help me to feel better.
I’ll end this by saying that wellness is a journey, one that requires a commitment and desire to want to live a healthier life. However, with the right tools and knowledge, you can get to a place where you are in control of your health, and are living in a way that feels good to you, a way that you can keep up with when life gets busy. As moms and busy working professionals, we always give so much to others, and now is the time to start giving back to ourselves. Your wellness journey is a beautiful process and has the power to be life changing. All it takes is your decision to start, and if you need someone to stand alongside you to guide you, I am here for it.
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