28 Day Transformation

This is 4 weeks. 4 weeks of real food, 30-45 minute workouts, superfood shakes, plenty of cheat meals and bourbon, and the motivation and support of my amazing wellness community. This is the first time I’ve made progress without starving myself, throwing up on purpose, or eliminating entire food groups. This time I did it by slowly changing my habits and gradually improving my mindset. This time I did it the right way and it feels SO GOOD. I’ve never been happier. 
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To be honest I’m nervous sharing these pictures (I took them 4 days ago and am just now feeling ready). I used to think you had to wait to share progress pics until you were done with your fitness journey and had this dramatic transformation. Now I realize that the journey I’m on is AWESOME and I’m going to share every step of it.
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Plus, if I can help one person who looks at them and then gets in touch, then it’s worth it. Which I’ll remind myself as I’m sitting here sweating after I click post.
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So get in touch! I’m always looking to pay it forward and help others start their health, fitness and mindset journey. Message, comment or email me (leahnopants@gmail.com)
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Also don’t mind my face in the second one. Tony had just said something ridiculous.

21 Day Fix Advice

My journey to build healthy habits took me a long time. Before I found what worked for me, I bounced between various diets and exercise programs and struggled with disordered eating habits. By the time I found the program that would ultimately work best for me, I had such an unhealthy mindset that I almost couldn't do it. I could tell that this was a healthy way to live, but it was so difficult to deprogram myself! It was so frustrating because I had the tools and I felt too overwhelmed to use them. 

I've talked to many of you who have at some point felt the same way. So here is some advice that I wish someone had given me before I started my journey towards a healthier lifestyle. 

It doesn't matter what program you're using because this applies to all of them. I personally use with the portion control container system for nutrition, 30 minute at-home workouts, superfood shakes daily, and accountability groups for support and motivation, and I wrote this blog with this plan in mind, but if you're doing something different this advice will help you too, I promise. 

One.

You don’t have to change everything at once. This plan, although it's simpler than any eating plan I’ve ever tried, has a learning curve. You don’t absorb all the information and apply it to your daily life immediately, as is true with most things.

I’m an English teacher, so I’m going to use the analogy of vocabulary instruction. If my goal were for my students to know and use 50 new vocabulary words – really understand them on a deep level, not just memorize them to regurgitate them on a test – I wouldn’t teach all 50 on Monday and expect a 100% success rate by Tuesday. I might give out the whole list on Monday, but I’d explicitly teach 10 words one week, and 10 words the next week. Then we’d review all the words taught so far, clear up any confusions, and so on.

The same is true for this nutrition and fitness plan. If you can adopt 100% of it immediately, then by all means go ahead, but that’s not where I was at when I started. Try your best of course, but if you don’t really get into the groove of meal planning until week 2, don’t worry about it! It’s a journey, and if you stress yourself out about not following everything perfectly every second, it won’t be a very fun one!

Two.

Be active in your challenge group. Challenge groups are what set this program apart from fad diets, so utilize them! Use them to hold yourself accountable! Post about working out, making a great meal, saying no to a donut, the moment you bite into a guilt-free treat, or the day you realize push-ups are getting easier.

Post about your struggles! My breakthrough was a moment in my second round when I ate a piece of pizza for lunch. I could feel the “Well, I ate one bad thing, the whole day is a failure, I might as well continue eating crap and start again tomorrow,” mindset washing over me. Then I went into my challenge group and posted about what happened, asking for support. No one judged me, and at least 6 people responded with helpful comments that enabled me to turn my day around.

So POST, comment on other people’s posts, and like things! It doesn’t have to be in real time, but set aside some time each day to login and be active! It will help you stay on track, it will help you build relationships with your team, and those relationships will, in turn, help keep you on track.

Three.

Listen to your body when you exercise. If it hurts in a way that feels bad, take a break. When in doubt, modify an exercise. I learned this the hard way when I was sidelined by a knee injury. You know what’s worse than missing a workout, or ending a workout early, or modifying it even more than the modifier person in the videos? Missing an entire week (or more!) because you injured yourself. Resist the urge to power through all pain all the time. Focus on your long term goals. One workout will not make or break your progress. It’s the consistency that counts.

Four.

Remember that consistency is key. One cheat meal won’t ruin your progress. The flip side of that, however, is that one healthy meal also won’t make you lose 10 pounds. Every day consists of hundreds of tiny decisions you make, and the ratio of healthy decisions to unhealthy ones over time drives your success.

This was my biggest hurdle at the beginning of my 21 Day Fix journey. It took months to deprogram the part of my brain that jumped to “Well, I messed up, there goes my whole day, bring on the Cheez-its.” MONTHS. Yesterday I forgot my food at home and ended up eating 2 pieces of gross pizza (fine, it was 3). I stopped there. I drank tons of water. I did not slide into a binge, AND IT FELT LIKE A MIRACLE. A miracle I worked really hard to accomplish. …so a goal.

I’ve found it helps to think of it as a ratio of healthy to unhealthy choices. I aim for 80/20 healthy/splurge. Some days it’s more like 70/30. Some days it’s closer to 30/70. Thinking about this mathematically helps me immensely, because if 300 tiny choices make up my day, then 1 or 2 unhealthy ones barely leave a footprint in an otherwise successful day. Returning to the numbers helps me remind myself that even if I eat 70% unhealthy food one day, that 30% counts for something! 

Five.

Plan your cheats. Not everyone has them, but if you do plan to splurge a bit here and there (and Autumn herself says she aims for 90% on plan, 10% splurge so don’t feel guilty if you do), plan it in advance. Look at your calendar. What events are coming up? If your friend is getting married, or it’s Thanksgiving, or your friends are in from out of town and want to cook you a traditional pasta dinner, maybe you want to splurge. Eliminate the impulsivity of the decision. I try to, without exception, only splurge when I plan it ahead of time. It doesn’t always work out that way, but it gets easier. If you know that you’re going to be eating a piece of cake from your favorite bakery after Shabbat dinner on Friday night, then you’re more likely to say no to the candy bowl at work.

Six.

FALL IN LOVE WITH DATA. Numbers matter, but you need to open your mind to numbers beyond the scale and the tape measure. Some weeks you won’t lose an ounce or an inch, and that’s extremely frustrating. It helps to broaden the numbers you’re measuring. During stretches when I’m not seeing the scale or tape measure numbers budge, I focus on other numbers. Last week, for instance, I noticed the following:

-I’m not asking, “Do I look OK in this?” nearly as much. It used to be constant, and multiple times a night. Now it’s once a day if that.

-I saved roughly $20 by making recipes that used at least 1 ingredient I already had, which means I can now spend that money on something else… like boots! Just kidding. I already spent it on jewelry.

-I worked out 1 more time than the week before.

-I’ve decreased the amount of time I spend thinking negative thoughts on a daily basis. I am also able to snap out of it when I do get super negative. I’ve still got a long way to go, but 10 minutes feeling uncomfortable in my own skin trumps 2 hours any day!

Force yourself to think about and celebrate those non-scale victories (NSVs as we tend to call them). This is about more than the number on the scale. That's an important part of it, but it's so much more, and when you fixate on one part of this journey, you are missing out on SO MUCH. Don't do that to yourself. And if you start to, reach out to your team! Tell them you're feeling frustrated. Remember that we're all in this together, and that's why we're going to succeed. 

PS: I run monthly accountability groups (aka challenge groups, they go by many names) to help people on their own health journeys! If you are interested, or want more information, get in touch! leahnopants@gmail.com 

Be proud of where you're at RIGHT NOW.

This is not a before pic. This is not an after pick. This is a “I’m feeling strong, confident, and happy in my own skin so I’m going to show you what USED TO BE my least favorite part of my body because I’m a BADASS” pic.


Now, my stomach is my favorite part of my body, even though it’s still the least toned. You want to know why? Because my stomach shows that I’m still kicking. I’ve been through some terrible times personally and professionally. I’ve spent whole years starving myself and existing on diet pills and diet soda. I’ve binged, and purged, and compulsively exercised all because I didn’t feel good in my own body. And I’m still here. I’m still kicking. I’m still getting stronger, physically and emotionally, than I’ve ever been before, especially when I was 30 pounds lighter. My stretch marks, my cellulite, my lovehandles? They are battle scars from a time when I wasn’t taking care of my body, so my body took care of itself. I wear this body - every inch and pound of it - with pride.


Every time I start to hate on my body (and it happens, because this is a loooong-term process) I remind myself that I’m doing all the right things. I’m improving my balance, strength, flexibility, energy and mindset by eating right 80% of the time, exercising consistently, and surrounding myself with like-minded people who hold me accountable and help push me to be a better version of myself every day than I was the day before.


So while I’m sure in a few months I’ll post another pic, and I’m sure in it my body will be significantly more toned, I don’t think it’ll mean as much to me as this one.


So please please please please PLEASE be proud of your now. Appreciate where you are in this exact moment in time. I don’t care if you were thinner 2 years ago or you’re going to be 10 pounds lighter by May, BE PROUD OF YOUR NOW.


You know what? SHOW ME. Post a pic below. Show me your favorite part of your body, your least favorite part of your body, or anything else. Show me your muscles, or your scars, or your lovehandles, I don’t care show me something!


If you want to do it but aren’t sure where to start, show me calves because I am a total calf person and I LOVE looking at them and appreciating them.


If you want to post a pic but you don’t feel comfortable, get in touch. I can help you get there.


*Also, don’t mind the background of these pictures. I took them in my landlord’s place because our apartment is too teeny to fit a full-length mirror. To her credit, when I knocked and said, “Can I take a photo of my stomach in your mirror?” she asked no questions at all.

Transformation Tuesday /// from Starved to Strong

BEFORE, I was slowly starving myself.

At the time I was so proud. I had just lost 25 pounds in 3 months with a restrictive diet of pre-portioned, processed foods that totaled 800 calories a day. My high school prom dress fit. Every 2 weeks I went shopping and bought the smallest jeans I could fit into, and to my joy the pants size kept getting smaller.

It’s taken years to admit that despite weighing less than I did in high school, and fitting into a size 3, I wasn’t healthy. It was even harder to admit that I slid right back into the dangerous eating habits I thought I had left behind in high school.

After all, I never looked like the stereotype. I knew people with eating disorders didn’t all look like the stereotype: gaunt and skeletal with sharp, visible hips and countable ribs. I knew it wasn’t a disorder for the visibly skinny only. But somehow I still couldn’t see it in myself. Plus, I still looked like me, aside from thinning hair and slightly sunken eyes. I think. I don’t know. I still don’t have enough distance to be objective.

I definitely didn’t FEEL good. I was weak. Little, stupid tasks were hard, like carrying a load of laundry or walking up a flight of stairs. I hadn’t exercised in months, since I was eating so few calories.

I was super unhappy. At my thinnest, I still felt fat. Food was my enemy, and I lived in fear of gaining weight and relinquishing the ironclad control I had over my body. I had to eat less and less to maintain. Eventually I couldn’t.

I wish I could say I had an epiphany and changed my habits right away. I wish I could say I started using portion control and (mostly) clean eating to build a healthy relationship with food and using regular (but not excessive) exercise to improve my strength, balance, and flexibility.

But I didn’t. It took a few more years, countless rounds of dangerous dieting, and a lot of anxiety and shame for me to get to where I am now.

NOW, I exercise and eat healthily because it makes me feel good.

Now, I’m stronger than I have been in years.

Now, I look in the mirror and I’m proud of what I see.

NOW, though my body is far from perfect, I’m happier in my own skin.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m not done. I still have muscle to gain, and fat and inches to lose. I have many mental hurdles to overcome. I still fall into spirals of negativity and unhealthy habits. Progress is slow, because as it turns out, eating 800 calories a day on and off for a few years does a number on your metabolism. But each day I work towards being healthier, inside and out, mind and body. And I’m doing it the right way, on my own terms.

Mindful eating, aka how I stopped eating my feelings.

Mindfulness is about being present in the moment, focusing on being here, now, and absorbing and enjoying and interacting with your surroundings, instead of worrying about what happened yesterday, or what’s going to happen (or not happen) tomorrow, next week, next year.

Now I could go on and on about mindfulness and how practicing it has helped me recover from a lifetime of binge eating, anorexia and bulimia, but there are people better versed in it than me, so I’ll leave it to them.

I will, however, tell you my biggest takeaway:

The problem isn’t that we eat crap and feel bad. The problem is that we eat crap, feel bad, and are overcome with shame and guilt, which often leads to eating more crap, feeling more shame and guilt, and so on.

I never understood how people could eat crap, feel physically blech, and then get up and live life the next day. I would always let my sluggishness (because let’s be honest, my “crap” is ALWAYS carbs, thus the malaise) compound my shame and guilt. I’d eat more crap. I’d set a date 3 days in the future to stop eating crap, some arbitrary date because “It’s Monday” or “It’s February first” or “It’s 3 months exactly until bikini season.”

The arbitrary start date is a blog rant for another day, but you get what I’m saying.

Then I planned my cheats.

Actually, let’s call them indulgences. I hate the negative connotation of “cheats” and I hate the sound of the word “splurges.”

When someone offered me cupcakes, I wondered, “ Are they worth it? I am going to Friendsgiving this Saturday and I really want to splurge on sweet potato pie with marshmallows on top. Do I really want these cupcakes? Are they that important?”

Then I thought, “I’m going to wait 10 minutes and reevaluate my need for these cupcakes.”

Later that night, someone offered me a drink and I said, “I’ll see how I feel in a little bit,” and I meant it. Then I forgot about it entirely because as it turned out, my body wanted a buttload of seltzer, as it usually does.

What began as a single-minded goal of only indulging when I planned to slowly helped me be more present. I thought about things more. I indulged less frequently. When I indulged, I ate less because I was actually enjoying it, rather than scarfing it down. I noticed when I was full. I ignored this and kept eating, but I stopped before I was uncomfortably full, and definitely before I was Louis CK full.

Suddenly I was a person who could indulge for one meal and get back on track. In the last week, I also became a person who could indulge for one meal that wasn’t planned ahead and get back on track.

I’ve been trying to figure out how it happened. I know it started with my goal of losing weight while still enjoying refined sugar occasionally, but it turned into something bigger, something that I apply most of the time now.

Then it occurred to me: It’s not about carbs, calories or crunches. It’s about being in control and aware of your mind and your emotions. Then you can think over your options carefully, and make an informed decision. Even if it’s a decision that involves far too much bourbon and/or onion rings, it’s a decision you made thoughtfully and mindfully, after considering the consequences.

By making thoughtful choices instead of impulsive ones, you eliminate (or significantly reduce) the shame and guilt. Without that shame and guilt, you can move on without eating crap for the next 5 days. The cycle ends there. Wait. There is no cycle.

You can only do this if you’re fully present in the moment that you’re in.

That is how I took control of my emotions and stopped eating them.

That sentence sounds really strange now that I reread it, but I kind of like it so I’m leaving it.

The weirdest thing is all the mental airspace that’s left now that I’m no longer feeling guilty and ashamed of every time I’m not 100% on point with my nutrition and exercise. In fact, I’m far from it. But I no longer feel awful about a missed workout or eating too many carbs. I just think, “Well, I’ll make healthier choices starting now.”

Sometimes I say things I used to say, like, “Ugh I’m so fat I shouldn’t have eaten that ____,” but I don’t really mean it. I'm not happy with my body right now, but I’m no longer actively shaming myself about it. It’s a body that I have as a result of thousands of tiny decisions I made and DNA, and I realize that it’s going to take a few thousand more tiny decisions to make it into something I’m prouder of. What’s a couple of onion rings in the grand scheme of things?

I’m going to Florida in 16 days and I thought I would be 15 pounds lighter by now, but I’m not. I can still see all the cellulite on my legs. But I’m so much happier that I almost don’t care. I trust the process. I know that I’m fixing my brain and my thighs will follow, and for the first time in my life I realize that my mindset is more important than my body fat percentage, and that, my friends, is huge.

Below are some tips on mindful eating from this website that I found extremely helpful!

Yesterday I ate a pint of Ben&Jerry’s ice cream.

It’s exactly as bad as you think. There is no reasoning that could explain it. There are no extenuating circumstances to validate it.

It wasn’t impulsive. I thought about it, and decided to do it. I walked to Tedeschi and bought it. Then I ate some of it. Then I ate most of the rest of it.

I was stone cold sober.

I am a Beachbody coach. I help others build healthy fitness and nutrition habits. This is my job. I run accountability groups structured around giving people the support they need to accomplish these goals. Yet I ate Ben&Jerry’s last night.

It wasn’t part of my plan. I didn’t work hard on my fitness and nutrition all week so I could earn this. I worked hard all week to earn some splurges on Thanksgiving dinner. I enjoyed them thoroughly, got right back on track, and then for some reason, 2 days later, I went off-track.

I tell you this because I want you to know that it’s okay if you’ve done this too. You’re not alone. We have so much working against us. So many industries (unhealthy food, quick-fix weight loss) want our money and are willing to do anything to get it. There are so many people, and so many companies ready to shame us so that we’ll give them our money.

The only way we can fight it is to talk about it. The only way we can try to build healthier fitness, nutrition and mindset habits is to own every piece of it, and help each other through it. Which is why I’m telling you all about this.

So wherever you are on this journey to a healthier lifestyle, I beg you… Please talk about it. Whether you’re happily on your way to a healthier you, barely hanging in there, or somewhere in between, talk about it. 

I didn’t get into this business so I could run accountability groups full of people who did everything perfectly the first time, all the time, right away.

So how are you?

Really?

Transformation Tuesday #1

Before, you'd either find me exercising for 2+ hours a night at the gym or sitting on the couch. I was very much an all-or-nothing exerciser. For stretches of time I'd be toned and in pretty good shape, but when things got stressful, I'd lose strength, muscle tone, and endurance.

Now I work out 6 days a week in my living room using weights and resistance bands aka my new love. I work out for half an hour some days, and an hour on others.

Sometimes I go to the gym down the street, but most days I'm content to work out in my home gym. No commute. No waiting for machines. If I decide to work out, 3 minutes later I'm working out. No excuses.

This is the smallest house I've ever lived in, and it's packed to the brim with books from my classroom last year (as you can see in the photo) but you know what I realized? I don't need a lot of space. I don't need a lot of equipment. I just need weights, a resistance band, and an amazing team of accountability partners cheering me on.

Oh, and a good sportsbra of course. Let's be real.

How I'm avoiding the unhealthy spiral of the holiday season!

No one needs to be on a diet during the holiday season. Whether you want to lose 0 pounds or 200 pounds, you don’t need to count calories, cut out entire food groups, or miss out on social events with your friends and family. You can even LOSE weight, if that’s what you want.


What you DO need is a plan, because without a plan, the unhealthy spiral begins.

For me, it starts with Thanksgiving.

• The dinner stretches late into the night because I go back for seconds (okay fine thirds).
• I have leftovers for breakfast on Friday.
• Everyone is in town for the holiday, so we inevitably go out Friday night (and/or Saturday) and then I drink too much bourbon and inhale a box of Cheez-its at midnight (which I bought from Tedeschi because I don’t keep Cheez-its in the house).

The spiral continues from there through New Years...through New Years...

• I’m hungover, because I forget that I can't drink like I'm 22 anymore, so I order pizza and swear to eat healthy tomorrow.
• I wake up late, don’t pack a lunch, require 3 cups of coffee to function and then end up being up half the night.
• My friends throw a “Holiday Party” between Thanksgiving and Christmas so we can celebrate when people are in town. Cut to an entire table full of desserts. I eat 8 brownies.
• I get takeout, because why at this point what’s one more day.
• I feel sluggish so I don’t exercise. This compounds my sluggishness.
• My mood suffers due to lack of exercise.
• I binge-watch a show on Netflix and order Thai food. I do NOT select the delicious AND healthy items on the menu.

The spiral continues.

• The parties continue.
• I avoid the gym because the thought of putting on spandex is horrifying.
• I regret not buying some phony weight loss supplement from Amazon Prime on Black Friday.
• I start googling workout plans despite my frustration with the people who mob my gym after New Year’s (I can’t stand them even when I am one of them!). 

Considering how I usually feel by the time December 31st rolls around, is it any wonder that I hate New Year’s Eve?


NOT THIS YEAR.

This year I have a plan, and it involves eating healthy 80% of the time and splurging 20% of the time. It involves guilt-free treats most of the time, but sometimes full fat sugar-laden pie, because you can eat that occasionally when you HAVE a PLAN and you don't slide into the spiral I described above.

This year I have a plan, and it involves feeling good instead of depressed and lethargic as it gets cold outside. 

This year I plan to build muscle, lose fat, improve my flexibility and balance, and cook and eat great food. 

This year I say no to the spiral. 

Join me for a Game of Thrones-themed nutrition and fitness accountability group starting on November 30th!

We’ll focus on:

-Clean eating and portion control

-Half an hour of daily exercise

-Making a plan so we can enjoy the holidays to the fullest and get back on track the next day

-Game of Thrones-themed workout challenges, recipes and challenges!

Email me at leahnopants@gmail.com OR go to my website to sign up for a challenge pack!

Game of Thrones-themed Fitness/Nutrition Challenge Group Alert!

Challenge Group Alert! And this one has a theme: Game of Thrones!

Winter is coming…

and it’s bringing with it holidays, parties, leftovers, wine, short days, and in my case, cold weather, snow piles, a general malaise and a whole lot of excuses.

I’ll start tomorrow.
What’s one more day?
Might as well wait until ______.
But it’s so COLD and DARK and MY CAT is in my WARM BED.

NOT TODAY.Not this time.
Not this winter.

This winter I’m going to improve my strength, flexibility and balance. I’m going to plan to eat pie and stuffing and plan to get back on track soon after, because this is real life, and I can eat cake sometimes without undoing all my hard work on my fitness, nutrition and mindset.

And I’m going to do it in style, with Game of Thrones themed recipes, mini-challenges, prizes, and excessive discussion of Tyrion Lannister and Daenerys Targaryen!

Can you commit to some (but hopefully all) of the following on November 30th?

-30 minutes of exercise a day
-Clean eating and portion control
-Superfood shakes that taste like dessert, help with weight loss, and can be made into guilt-free treats.
-A private, online group full of accountability partners to support you.

I commit to:-build an amazing, supportive team to help inspire you and hold you accountable to your goals
-provide recipes and tips
-keep you motivated with mini-challenges and prizes!
-helping you build a healthier mindset

Get in touch so we can talk about your goals and I can save a spot for you!

Email me.

Visit my website. 

Comment below! 

HEALTHY AND FIT for the Holidays Challenge Group!

I HAVE NEWS. I’m hosting an 8-week staying fit and healthy through the holidays challenge group starting November 9th and I’m looking for 10 people to join me! Historically, the holidays are a hard time for me to make healthy choices. I fall into this “Well I’ll get back on track after [insert holiday here]” and before I know it I’m feeling miserable in my own skin and making yet another New Year’s resolution. BUT THIS YEAR IS DIFFERENT.

I’m hosting this group with two amazing, inspirational ladies. Lesley posted a great video explaining the challenge group, and I’ll share it at the end of the post, but here are the bullet points:

1. 30-minute at-home workouts
2. Clean eating and portion control
3. Superfood shakes that taste like dessert, help with weight loss, and can be made into guilt-free treats
4. A private, online group full of accountability partners to support you
5. THERE WILL BE PRIZES.

I need to be really clear about one thing, though. Being a part of this challenge group does not mean no pie (cake, stuffing, mashed potatoes, etc). This is a lifestyle, not a diet, and in life, there is pie, and I eat it. Being part of this challenge group means you will eat a portion of pie and enjoy it. You will not feel guilty, because if you’re feeling guilty while splurging on pie then you’re missing the point of the pie. Being part of this challenge group means you won’t eat 6 more pieces of the pie at 11 pm in your underwear in front of the fridge. You’ll get up the next day, exercise for 30 minutes in your house, and go about your day with no pie-related drama.

So if you’re interested, comment “pie” below or email me --> leahnopants@gmail.com

What would you do with your life if money was no issue?

Background: I recently became a Beachbody coach, and I've been posting about it a lot on Facebook because I'm really excited. I wrote a more in-depth post about my lifetime journey with body image issues and weight loss programs, and how I came to the 21 Day Fix. But I wanted to share about the moment I decided to dive in. 

I was reading a book my coach, Lesley, recommended to me: You Are A Badass by Jen Sincero. I had been doing the 21 Day Fix in some form or another since June, and slowly, but surely, building a healthier relationship with my body. 

Then I came to this line: 

"What would you do with your life if money was no issue?"

Before I could censor myself, before my skeptical internal editor piped up, my first thought was: 

"I would help people not hate their bodies and be at war with food like me." 

My second thought was, "buy the entire Cole Haan inventory." 

...I guess some things never change. 

That's how I knew helping people with this fitness and nutrition program was something I wanted to do. It was that simple. I rarely have moments of complete clarity like that. I have an impressive amount of insight into what I'm thinking and feeling, but rarely into what I want to DO. Just so you have a frame of reference, I taught swimming at a camp for 4 summers while in school for Writing, Literature and Publishing at Emerson College, but it took the combined efforts of my father, one of my best friends (who was also the head of the pool), and the camp secretary to convince me that I needed to pursue teaching. Also: Thanks guys. Love you. 

What would you do with your life if money was no issue? 

How I'm losing weight without starving myself, and building a healthy relationship with food.

So I’m in a really good place right now. I’m eating balanced, healthy meals that make me feel satisfied but not gross. I’m practicing portion control and eating whole foods that I cook myself (mostly). I’m NOT calorie counting (I know that I usually eat around 1400-1600 calories, some days less, some days more, but I track portions and food groups, not calories). Every day I drink a magical chocolate protein shake that tastes like dessert. It keeps me full for hours, gives me so much energy that I’ve cut down on coffee, and really helps with cravings. Plus, I can use it to make guilt-free peanut butter cups.

[It Happened To Me: I found a way to make healthy peanut butter cups that taste BOMB. And I don’t even feel gross the next day, because they’re healthy, because that’s how it works when you eat healthy food all the time…]

And yes, I’m losing weight, but more importantly I’m losing inches, and I’m doing it the right way.

I started the program a few months ago, when I saw my high school friend Lesley posting about it on facebook. I’ve done almost every fad diet there is, so I’ve seen a lot of hopeful facebook posts and been through my share of clickbait rabbit holes.

No seriously, here is a list of all the diets/eating programs I have tried. In parenthesis is the number of times I’ve tried:

Medifast (5x)

Weight Watchers (1x)

Atkins (2x)

South Beach (lost count)

Keto (1x)

Paleo (1x)

Jenny Craig (1x)

HCG diet (only 500 calories a day) (1x)

I have survived on almost nothing. I have survived on diet pills, diet coke and saltines (WHATUP 2002, don’t miss you at all!). I have exercised too frequently for too long or not at all because I’ve been so starved. I’ve been through years of really stressful teaching positions that led me to put on weight (talk to me about cortisol if you doubt that stress can and will affect you metabolically), and do drastic things to get it off.

So believe me when I say that when I saw Lesley’s posts on facebook, I approached them with a healthy degree of skepticism, because I really didn’t think it was possible to have a healthy relationship with food, exercise and your body. I thought I was doomed to spend a life treating my body as something bad that needs to be controlled and kept in line.

Last spring, when I started seeing Lesley’s posts, I was opening the medicine cabinet right when I got into the bathroom so I didn’t have to look at my reflection when I washed my hands. That’s how bad it was.

Then I found the 21 Day Fix. It’s all about clean eating, portion control, 30-minute at-home workouts, and a daily superfood shake that tastes like goddamned dessert (and can be made into peanut butter cups). The 21 Day Fix has brought so much simplicity to my eating and exercise routines.

I never thought I could workout at home because I craved the community my gym provided. But the 21 Day Fix comes with a different style of community. Instead of going to the gym, I belong to a challenge group on Facebook full of people doing the same program as me. They’re all over the country, which is WILD, but so cool. We have tons in common, and no one cares when I post about how my cat tries to interrupt my workouts by farting on my dumbbells, so I’m happy. I love these groups, and the people in them. I think they are what makes the program work as well as it does. They keep me motivated and on track.  

My home gym 

It takes time. I do a meal plan for the week every weekend, and I stick to it about… 80% if I’m honest, but I still eat so much more healthily and save so much money because PORTION CONTROL.

The most important thing about 21-day fix is the focus on having a healthy and positive mindset. I got to the point where I realized that I’m capable of losing weight. I can eat less and exercise more and take pills and cut out whole food groups. I’m great at that. But until I fix what’s happening in my head… I’m just going to gain the weight back. Until I learn to change how I think about food, and how I think about my body, there’s no point in any of it. And that’s what 21-day fix has helped me to do.

I used to look at a huge Snickers bar and think “BAD. BAD FOOD. I’m bad if I eat this. If I eat this, it’s a bad day, and everything else I eat may as well be bad too because the day is a lost cause and I can go back to eating good food and being a good, healthy person tomorrow.”

Now, I look at a huge Snickers bar and I see it for what it is. It’s going to taste amazing, but it’s going to make my blood sugar rise and then drop, leading to me wanting more sugar, and if I eat more, I’ll want more, and I’ll feel sluggish for the whole next day. Some days, I decide that it’s worth it to splurge, and I do, because this program is a lifestyle, not a diet, and sometimes you have to eat a Snickers bar. But I make a decision based on information rather than emotion, and whatever decision I make, I have a group of people to support me because they’ve been there too, because we’re all in this together.

So I’m about to begin this journey where I co-host a fitness and nutrition challenge group with Lesley in October. I’m nervous, but I’m excited. And I’m looking for 5 people to join me in this challenge group. 

So if you’re ready to... 

• change the way you look at your body and food
• feel more comfortable in your own skin
• lose pounds and inches
• build a healthy mindset
• save time and money
• see lots of pictures of my cat trying to work out with me and eat all the great food I make

GET IN TOUCH! It’s a journey that you don’t have to go on alone. Join our crew. You'll love it.

I also started a facebook group around having a more healthy mindset around fitness and nutrition, so if you want to join that, ask and I’ll add you!

If you just want to chat, I love talking about this stuff, so get in touch!

And Lesley, I appreciate you so much. I was going down a really unhealthy path, and your relentless positivity, your constant support, and the 21 Day Fix saved my butt. Thank you.

Email me
Go to my Coach website (although I haven't really updated it yet)
PS: Yes, I made my Beachbody Coach website URL Leahnopants. 

A sample meal I made that's on-plan... These are fajitas, from before I started eating meat again. Replace the tofu with blackened chicken.