Let me guess—you’ve been crushing it at the gym, trying to eat healthy, and working HARD to lose weight, but it’s not working, the weight is not coming off. You’re annoyed every time you see other girls at the gym who don’t work half as hard as you do, but they DO have the body you want! Annnnd you feel like you’ve been in an endless battle with your weight.
I feel you, because I was you.
If you want to read this story, well… keep reading!
If you want to watch and listen:
This is the story of a girl (me, I’m the girl) who, after years, decades, of working way too hard and getting no results, finally found out how to lose over 60 pounds AND keep it off. This is my tell-all: the nitty-gritty details of my journey from “former fat girl” to FREEDOM! Lean in, learn, and let me help you!
Don’t Worry, This is NOT a Sob Story
I actually had a great childhood with supportive parents, a brother, and some awesome friends. I played sports (volleyball and/or lacrosse, anyone?), I was pretty good at school, and overall, had a lot of things going for me. But I never felt happy with how I looked in my clothes. From my earliest memories, being overweight was a shadow that always hung over me. Even in my childhood years, I never felt like I looked like “me.”
Remember going shopping with your friends to all the “cute” stores like Limited Too as a kid? Yeah, no. For me, none of that shit fit, ever. I mostly shopped in the adult section because girls’ and juniors’ sizes just didn’t work for my body. My mom would try to be encouraging and say, “oh, they just make these sizes too small!” because we both knew my weight was an issue, but it just made me feel even worse.
Since I couldn’t get my weight under control, I put my efforts into my personality and my academic success. I’ve always been witty, so I took on a sarcastic persona. Hiding behind my sense of humor and intelligence, I convinced myself and everyone else that it was just who I was. I leaned into my strengths through high school, college, and even into grad school. I was able to excuse/justify my weight because I always had other goals that were “more important.”
My Breaking Point
By the time I was getting my doctoral degree in physical therapy and still couldn’t figure out how to lose weight, I was infuriated. It drove me insane thinking about how I could help all these people heal after surgery and/or injuries, but I couldn’t lose 10 pounds by myself. It was equal parts disheartening and embarrassing to encourage my patients to be active when I didn’t even look like I was. I thought, who’s going to listen to me? I wouldn’t!
So, fast forward to after grad school, I was working full-time as an outpatient orthopedic physical therapist, I hired an online coach. He gave me a very strict meal plan with precise eating windows, and I followed it perfectly for 18 weeks. The one and only “cheat” (if you can even call it that) I had was literally ONE square of Dove chocolate off plan.
But after 18 weeks…nothing changed. My clothes weren’t fitting better. My measurements weren’t changing. I wasn’t losing weight. I was dumbfounded. The coach I’d hired was less than helpful as he claimed to “always get results” and that “you must be cheating” …so that was the end of that, and I fired him.
Still, I was desperate for change.
Honestly, if someone told me the guaranteed way to lose weight is to drink a small portion of rat poison every day, I would have said, “How much?” and “What brand do you recommend?” Pretty embarrassing to admit that, but I wanted to lose weight with every cell in my body. I would have sold my soul or my left arm to do it.
Freedom, FINALLY!
After a TON of research, I gave it another shot with a different online coach, and immediately learned that a cookie-cutter program didn’t work for me because my metabolism was what some would understand as “damaged,” but in actuality, it was just used to lower calorie intake from my extensive dieting history. See, our DNA has memories. It recognizes when we’re in fight or flight; feast or famine mode. Our bodies register how much energy is available to be used, pay attention to how much we’re feeding them, and determine how much we can burn based solely on what we’re feeding ourselves.
Let’s say old Hannah’s here now. She has quite a bit of body fat to lose and goes into a super low-calorie diet thinking the restriction will help. Well, her body is registering that she’s not giving it much fuel, so it doesn’t trust her anymore after being subjected to so many prior diets. Her body doesn’t think she’s going to feed it anytime in the near future, so it holds on to everything it gets fed instead of using the fat she has stored, which means no weight loss for old Hannah… and that’s not evening mentioning taco Tuesday or the weekends “off plan” after being “so good” all week.
There is no Quick Way to Lose Weight…
Nobody likes to hear it (myself included), but before we can lose weight, we often have to “reset” our metabolism. There’s no magic wand; no quick fix. We have to spend time feeding, fueling, and training ourselves properly to get the physique we want.
We start by focusing on rebuilding our bodies, restoring our health, and repairing our metabolisms. Then, we add in phases of purposeful dieting to achieve a goal, followed by restoring what our body lost during the cutting phase (metabolism and hormone wise) while maintaining the results. Those are actually the three distinct phases all clients on Team HLB now use successfully. You can read all about those here.
Learning to lose weight by treating my body with respect, eating real food, doing less cardio, and actually gaining energy (no expensive supplements or crazy detox cleanses required)—was life-changing for me! I’m committed to never going back.
I Aim to be the “Coach I Needed”…for YOU!
Maybe a part of my story resonates with you. You’re toying with the idea of hiring a weight loss coach because you hate that your jeans don’t fit. You’re tired of feeling sluggish and foggy-brained and coffee hardly brings you back to neutral. And you’ve tried all the things with no progress.
You’re tired of not feeling at home in your skin.
I get it. I really do.
EVEN WHEN IT WASN’T WORKING, I was always going for a new “quickest result” or the cheapest option. Finally, I made the investment in myself to fight for food freedom, self confidence, and change, I mean it was my LIFE we’re talking about. And you can, too. I want that for you! You deserve it.
Thanks for reading! Be sure to drop a comment letting me know what you think, and subscribe to my YouTube channel for more.
