“My name is Eve, I am from Indiana, and I will be sharing my story about my journey to lose half my body weight."
What is your story?
"I was unhappy, depressed, constantly challenging my self worth. I weighed almost 300 lbs. I waddled, my thighs rubbed together, My arms chaffed daily from rubbing against my torso. I was so out of shape that washing my hair was a struggle to hold my arms up. I cried in dressing rooms. I didn’t go to weddings because I didn’t have anything to wear. I couldn’t keep up with my daughter. I never got to wear the white wedding dress of my dreams. I wasn’t living. I felt dead. I wasn’t pleasant to be around. I was missing out on everything and only saw myself missing out on more because I watched my mom spend 25 years trying to lose weight too.
I eventually went on to lose 158 lbs. My weight loss transformation was the catalyst to a whole new life, a career change and a platform to change the lives of others. I went from laboratory scientist to multi -laboratory manager...to a certified nutritionist ….to business coach and owner of a global fitness coaching academy.
After losing 158 lbs, I began to help women lose weight, build muscle, gain energy and experience food freedom through flexible dieting. I teach women to count macros-a detailed/more portion controlled way of counting calories to have a sustainable diet without food restriction, gimmicks, and reliance on things (like fat burners and hours of cardio). I have been coaching women globally since 2014, when I reached the half my size point of my weight loss, and I did it out all out of fear.
I stated that I lost 150 lbs and I know you guys are wondering when, where, how…I spent a lifetime being overweight. I was more than 100 lbs by the fifth grade. 140 lbs in middle school and remained over 200 lbs in highschool staying around a size 20. I was unathletic and was always the chubby girl. I freaked out when in gym class. Once I got to college I stayed between - 200 and 225 lbs. Losing weight seemed impossible.
I got pregnant during my sophomore year gaining 85 lbs, gave birth to my first kid, and found myself at a size 24 and 277 lbs. It was crazy. I felt depressed, worthless, and saw no sight of being average. I was uncomfortable and just wanted to blend in and be average. My goal was to be 200 lbs, just to feel normal. I thought that was my perceived best self. The breaking point of being overweight came when I went to a dressing room to get a pair of pants. When I looked in the mirror I was far from my best self. I decided to take action, stopped making excuses, and researched how to create a healthy weight loss diet for myself with lower calorie meals of the foods I was already eating and calorie counting.
I bought a taebo video series, grabbed a jump rope, and started working out at home. I found creative ways to cook healthy foods and started journaling all of my food. Once I lost 40 lbs, I got a gym membership and started walking, running and using the elliptical machine. It took me about 16 months. I finally lost 120 lbs. Then..I got pregnant again and gained 40 lbs. during the second pregnancy and lost all the weight in 3 months.
We moved to Arizona to help open another research laboratory and I gained 15 lbs the first month we were there. I then lost the weight, we moved back to Indianapolis where we opened another laboratory, and found myself gaining weight from the move, stress, and old food habits. Management was stressful so I found myself deteriorating mentally, physically and emotionally.
After a couple years of gaining and losing 10 lbs it was 2011, I was sitting around 160 lbs but I still didn’t feel good about myself. I wasn’t comfortable, I was feeling sluggish again, and knew I needed to get back to feeling good. I kept seeing the half my size magazines every year. I would buy them, take them home, and study them intensely. I felt myself slipping and losing motivation so I decided to get uncomfortable to hit my goal. WHY NOT ME?
I started blogging my journey through instagram in December 2013. I posted everything...recipes, healthy food, shots of my running mileage, sweaty gym photos, everything. I used the #halfmysize every time I posted.....I was tagging People Magazine. No one was watching or at least I didnt think they were. I was getting 5 likes, maybe 13 likes.
In April 2014 I had finally lost half my body weight.
In September 2014 People Mag emailed me out of the blue. They told me that they wanted me to be in their magazine; that they had been following my journey for a long time. They said they wanted to get on the phone with me and interview me to make sure that I was a good fit so they could do a background check to make sure I lost the weight way the said way I did.
A lot of people were asking me to help with their own weight loss journeys, so I pursued my nutritionist certification. On December 30th, 2014 I became a certified nutritionist and remember messaging people as the ball dropped on NYE that year.
January 2015, about three weeks after the magazine article released, I found myself very overwhelmed with people messaging me and emailing me nonstop to help them. I felt compelled to help others. That’s when I slowly started to know that it was my purpose.
In February 2015 my boss wanted to do our weekly catch up in his office the same week that I was feeling overwhelmed. I had planned to go in there and tell him that I was thinking about quitting; I was ready to announce that I wanted to resign or go part time in the spring. He ended up giving me a promotion and a raise in that same meeting and I walked out of there in tears.
I got myself together and did some soul searching and one month later I walked into my boss’s office in tears and told him that I loved the company, I loved what I did, and I love my staff, but it was time for me to either resign or go part time. We made the decision for me to go part time from home and that was the week that G transformation fitness LLC was born."
In one word how would you describe/define your experience/story? Why?
"Unreal- I wished and worked my goal into existence (I told myself, "we could change this")."
What would you compare your experience to? What analogy would define your experience?
"Going from a caterpillar to a butterfly."
What advice would you give yourself or someone else experiencing something similar?
"Keep a #WhyNotMe mentality and do it afraid"
Hear the song "Do It Afraid" inspired by Eve's story: https://open.spotify.com/track/0FANaL7dXgOEEGwWtDNBWd