Sharing our Successes….Meet Julie!!!!

For
the bulk of my adult life, I was heavy, achy, and less than healthy.  I
carried an extra 70 pounds on my body.  As I’ve shared my journey with
thousands of women over the last several years, I’ve learned that we are
all so similar.  Maybe you can relate to some or all of what I share
here.  

I spent many years…

…dodging
the camera. There are a lot of reasons I didn’t want my picture taken;
some of them are superficial. But the main reason was because I didn’t
want to see myself as others saw me. I was overweight and close to
obese. I was not ready to face that true reality.

…dodging
social events. I was so worried that someone who had not seen me in a
while would notice I had put on weight. Or what if no one noticed that I
had lost a few? Or, even worse, what if someone did notice I had
lost a few pounds; then people would know I was trying to change my
body and I would have one more opportunity to fail.

…dodging
certain conversations. There always seemed to be the one person would
bring up diet and exercise casually in a group setting, and I
immediately felt ‘less than.’  The only thing I felt I could contribute
would be the times I tried and failed to change my body.  And who wants
to listen to Debbie Downer all night?

…being
sneaky. I was the classic drive-thru queen and had perfected dumping
the trash in a gas station on the way to carpool line. See, in front of
everyone, I could be the perfect dieter, but I didn’t have enough
willpower to avoid the smell of fries. If I ate the “naughty” foods when
no one was around, then no one saw me stumble and fall, or even worse,
fail.

…missing
out. I was tired, grumpy, and anti-social. I know I missed making
connections with my husband and kids, simply because I wasn’t engaged in
life in general.  And (hello!) it was difficult just to keep up with
them.  I was counting down nap time for the kids, not because I needed a
break, but because I needed a nap, too.

I
am so thankful to have a friend who introduced me to eating and
exercising to lose fat.  It’s different than dieting, which was a huge
relief to me.  When you try and fail time and again, it gets harder and
harder to diet.  But eating for fat loss is different in that it kept my
cravings away, kept my energy up, and allowed me to see success.  

The
biggest change was that I was able to get my emotional eating under
control.  Because I was feeding my body great foods, I wasn’t dealing
with the normal cravings that came with dieting.  So this gave me some
time to looking to the mental attachments I had with food and make
adjustments.  It feels pretty amazing to have a stressful day, deal with
an upsetting event, or struggle with a scenario and NOT feel the need
to dive into a pint of ice cream or a heavy pour of vino.  I have coping
skills in place that allow me to keep on trucking past the drive thru
and skip the order of fries.  Getting the emotional binges out of my way
is what has allowed me to keep the 70 pounds off.  It has allowed me to
see past food and deal with what was really driving me to eat.  It has
allowed me to no longer feel attached to food, and it’s a great
sensation.

After
experiencing the changes in my body and mind, I became determined to
help other women with their struggles.  Becoming a trainer certified in
fat loss exercise and nutrition, I opened my own fitness studio and have
helped hundreds of women get healthy, feel, better, and break emotional
ties with food.  Wanting to expand my reach and help even more, I
started the Fit Mom Revolution, an online community to support women
(mostly moms) who are sick of the diet cycle and need a way out.  I help
moms expand their resources, which allows them to keep up with their
kids and partners, get better sleep, and feel less guilty about taking
care of themselves.  It’s a win for the whole family!

Thank
you for taking the time to read a little about me.  If you are
interested, I have a free gift for you.  It’s 5 steps to recover from a
food binge; simply to grab your copy.  

Feel free to stop by the Fit Mom Revolution page on Facebook and say, “Hi!”
  I’d love to meet you!