As I’m writing this, I’m finishing up my mid-morning snack: 2 tablespoons of crunchy almond butter (because crunchy is the only way to go ;)) with sliced apple. I tell you this because it’s barely 11 am and I’ve already eaten twice today! Some of you might think, “So, what?” I know… big deal, right? But in my life, this IS a big deal! Typically around this time of day, I would still be sipping my coffee (which no surprise, I currently am), but more importantly, I most likely wouldn’t have had breakfast yet. Why is this information significant? Let me back up a second-er 10 years and explain a little bit about my health journey.
Let’s Go Back to The Roots
For those of you who either know me personally or have followed my blog for awhile, you know that I’m passionate about healthy living. What began as a weight loss journey, turned into a passion for education about food, health, nutrition, and conscious living. You can read more in-depth about my weight loss journey here. (BTW: this was one of my first blog posts ever, so bear with the grammar and rambling LOL. It’s pretty comical though so prepare yourself.) If you don’t feel like reading it (no shame) – here’s the short version: around 2007/2008 I was at my all time heaviest weight at 178 lbs. Through diet and exercise (and thanks to weight watchers), by 2010 I was down to my lowest weight of 123 lbs. Around 2012 after traveling and meeting a boy aka “love weight”, I had gained about 15-20 lbs back. Shortly thereafter I started eating in a paleo lifestyle and doing CrossFit two to three times a week. Fast-forward 5 years, for the most part, I still eat “paleo”. The reason for the quotes is, I’m not one of those paleo people that are so intense about eating like the cavemen did – you know those paleo people I’m talkin’ about. For me, I just believe in clean, sustainable eating – and also enjoying really good tacos and margs every now and then.
As I mentioned above, and have said over and over on this blog – I believe in educating yourself about your body and figuring out what works best for you and your lifestyle. With this mindset at the forefront, I’m an open book. I’m such an open book, my track record with “dieting” is kind of…. impressive? Well, maybe not in a good way. I’ve tried a lot of different “lifestyles”: vegetarian, pescetarian, low-carb, cleanses (yup, I did the master clean twice), low-fat, eating for your blood type, weight watchers, eating for your hormones, gluten-free, diary-free and paleo. I don’t claim to know everything about nutrition and have no judgment toward those who eat differently than me. I do know that our bodies are constantly changing and adapting to our surroundings, and there is so much information out there, I think no matter what industry you’re in you have to look to the experts in each field in order to become better educated.
Fitting Health Into A Busy Lifestyle
In my line of work, being a consultant yields so many great opportunities that you don’t get in a normal 9-5 (and yes, you could argue the other side). For me, I love having a flexible schedule and working from anywhere, but on the downside, because I’m so passionate about my work I have a hard time “turning it off”. Yup – I live to work, not work to live. Ya, ya, I know I need balance, I’m working on that too… but the reason I say this is, I put the work before myself. If there’s a deadline, I’d rather meet it than stop and eat lunch or to exercise. And if I had a busy day, like most days, it wasn’t unusual for me to skip meals.
I knew these habits were not healthy, but yet when you’re trying to hustle there are times I think you must choose something to sacrifice. My sacrifice? Fueling my body properly. When I ate, I ate super healthy – clean, mean and green is what I like to say. And the occasional date night or glass of wine. Of course, with the lack of consistency, I experienced the dreaded yo-yo effect. I would become frustrated at times on why I wasn’t losing weight when I wanted. These frustrations were not to the point where it made that much of a difference in my life. All in all, I love my body, I embrace my curves and am thankful for my health. BUT, like a lot of women (and men too), you know that when bikini season comes around, you want to rock it without worrying about that extra 10 pounds or cellulite – so doing better was definitely in the back of my mind.
Finding Motivation in Unexpected Places
About 5 months ago, I started working with two great companies, Whole Body Fitness and MetPro (the parent company of Whole Body Fitness). From the get-go, I believed in their mission – otherwise, why would I work with them right? Right. Side note: isn’t it interesting how the world works? Opportunities or people come into your life, and at the time you’re blinded to the impact of those relationships until that moment when you’re able to sit back and reflect… it’s like a version of serendipity.
I love working with both companies for so many reasons, but one of the most important is their mission to educate people to become the best version of themselves by helping them transform their lives through nutrition and education.
I knew it wouldn’t be too long until I drank the water. I was hesitant at first because I thought, how would this be different than anything else I’ve tried? And, do I really want to dedicate the time? How will I balance this lifestyle change with work? You know as good as I do that making excuses are easy. We can convince ourselves out of anything, can’t we?
I’m not sure what it was that made me all of a sudden set up a consultation with Whole Body Fitness. Maybe it was the fact that I have a few summer trips coming up, and I wanted to look good in a bikini… or maybe it was that I was running myself down so much to the point where I was getting stress rashes, not sleeping well, and let’s be real, I know I was getting to be just a plain pain in the ass – sorry K 
– yeah, too much work and not taking care of yourself will do that to a person. Whatever it was, I had the motivation to do it – and when I put my mind to something, very type-A of me I know – I go all in 100%.
Jamie, Meet Your Slow Metabolism
On March 17th, I joined Whole Body Fitness. Whole Body Fitness provides weight loss, health and fitness training programs using Metabolic Profiling (MetPro), an advanced methodology created by Angelo Poli for calculating and evaluating an individual’s response to diet adjustments. I feel like for me, this is exactly what I’ve been searching for – a customized fitness and nutrition program. Like I said, for the past almost 10 years I’ve eaten clean and always been conscious of my health, and yet I still yo-yo between weight and have not changed my body composition since losing the initial large sum of weight.
What will be different? To start, I’m eating like twice as much as I did before! This time, with a customized game-plan in place. Metabolic Profiling (MetPro) evaluates your genetics, fitness, lifestyle, and metabolism. MetPro uses my personal data to assign me a custom Metabolic ID and meal plan. Then, every 72-hours my nutrition coach (who is a registered dietitian I might add) re-evaluates and learns my metabolic patterns, allowing me to stay one step ahead by anticipating and adjusting my meal plan in advance. Meanwhile, my diet strategy is paired with intentional fitness, provided by a trainer in-house 3x a week at Whole Body Fitness’ training center.
Two Weeks in, and I’m Hooked
It’s only been two weeks since I started and already I’ve seen a bigger difference than previous other diets I’ve tried! A few notable things so far:
- Hands down, I have more energy. My schedule is often crazy busy. Most days I tend to work from 7 am-12 am (yes, you read that correct.. I’m not exaggerating either just ask my roommate(s) K and Harp). Since starting WBF, I’ve tried to get to bed by 11 pm at the latest, but I’m noticing that even with the same strenuous hours, I have no peaks or dips in my energy throughout the day. I may be tired at the end of my day, any normal human would be, but mostly I maintain energy!
- I’m down 2.5 lbs. The number on the scale really doesn’t matter to me as long as I feel good (and look good 😉) but seeing that number decrease isn’t bad either! I’m not overweight, I mean I guess I could lose 5 or so pounds, but my main goal is to change my body composition aka show me the lean muscle!
- I’m hungry… in a good way! I never used to get hungry really, unless it had been like 6 hours between meals, which obviously my bad, that was my body screaming at me for food. Now, I wake up with an appetite and go to bed feeling satisfied. This is to not get confused with being hungry… no point throughout my day when I feel like I’m not eating enough or am going without.
- I. Have. Abs. I knew they were in there somewhere! It’s so fun to start to see my body actually respond to the diet and exercise, and SO quickly. Never in my life have I seen such fast results. I’m so excited to see what 2 months will do, let alone 2 weeks!
- I feel great! I feel healthy. And I’m probably one of the “healthiest” people I know. Not to toot my own horn, but I live a very health conscious life. I take supplements, I eat Sauerkraut for my gut health, I buy local, organic, sustainable food, I eat bone broth for my joints and skin, I don’t use antibiotics, I opt for essential oils, I use clean products for my makeup, toiletries, dish soap, laundry… you get the picture. I mean it’s safe to say I’m pretty in tune with health. So the fact that I feel different speaks volumes to me!
I’m really not a fan of before and after pictures, but maybe if I get to a point where I’m shredded I’ll feel better about sharing that with you :). Really, though, how amazing are our bodies?! I’m learning that if you feed it properly – beyond eating clean, but instead concentrate on what works for YOUR specific body, it will respond in a BIG way. I’m really excited to put my body to the test and see how fit and healthy I can actually get.
Stay tuned for more!
Oh, and if you’re in the Chico area, don’t walk – run to Whole Body Fitness, it’s a game changer.
