Hi Eliza,

I hope you are doing well! Wanted to send you a quick email with a “hi!” and a personal update.

Over the past 14 months I’ve lost 55 pounds and completely reclaimed my health – both mental and physical – and I owe a huge part of this happening to you. I was able to finally stop the excuses and get back to becoming the person I wanted to be again.  

In May 2017, I just got tired of it all. The excuses. Constantly needing to buy new clothes. Not wanting to take pictures, and especially not having them show up on social media.

Remembering our conversations and your book, I started slow and set SMART goals. And they were really basic: 1) Use my Fitbit to track 10,000 steps at least five days a week, and 2) Work on portion control to eat 2,000 calories a day and 60 grams of fat. For this I used a meal delivery service for about a month before I was able to recognize easily what was correct.

I lost about 10 pounds the first month and it propelled everything else. I started running again – slowly – and expanded my 10,000 step goal to seven days a week. Then I started doing more meal planning and prep using Pinterest to find healthy recipes that I could prepare easily after work. In another month, I lost 10 more pounds.

Then I hit a plateau, and realized that diet is what makes the difference. So I assessed what was important to me, what foods “served” me and what I was willing to compromise. One thing I wasn’t going to compromise was my glass (or two) of red wine each night, our weekly “donut Friday” at work and enjoying the occasional pizza and chicken wings.

So I recognized the need to eat better during the day and set boundaries. I focused on protein-rich breakfasts, eating at the work cafeteria because they offer many fresh and healthy options, plus post nutritional information, and having a light dinner with a lot of water after my evening workout. “Cheat” meals were really saved for one evening a week and one lunch a week, and they became treats and not the norm. I also joined a gym to diversify my exercises and to start actually pushing my body again, something I was eager to do since I had been an athlete most of my life.

I didn’t think I was going to get here. I’d honestly given up and thought that being overweight and out-of-shape was just the new normal for me. Using the tools you shared, it was easy. Much easier than I thought it would be, because the changes I made were small and they added up over time.

I’m not on a diet. This is my life. This is how I live day-to-day, and I can do it.

Thank you for showing me it was possible!  It was important that you knew the impact you had on this journey.Your clients are lucky to have you in their corner.

This is NOT another diet book! This is a book about finding your healthy obsession and I love it! This book is about being your healthiest self, learning mindfulness and self love! Kingsford delivers some amazing tools to help you get to your goals! As someone who struggles with anxiety the sections on mindfulness was something I wasn't necessarily expecting, but was very appreciate of. I will have this book on my shelf and return to it often!

This book comes from a place of why we overeat or eat the wrong things An how we can change this forever it’s about emotions false conceptions if the mind and how we let both outside stimuli and inside thoughts and emotions stop us from making the right choices. Once we are in the mean flu thought process we can get ourselves back and change not only bad eating habits but other bad habits as well. 

The author doesn't tell you what to eat or how to exercise, she helps you work on the mental part of your weight journey. Great examples, solid science based advice, and an easy read. I'll be buying copies of this book to give away as Christmas presents. The best book I've bought in a long time.