Podcast: Be Inspired by Lia's Health and Weight Transformation Story

From feeling fat and overwhelmed to loving her life and watching the weight fall off. Thank you Lia for chatting to us today and inspire us with your story. Lia pulls back the curtains on what it's like to be part of the Healthy You Healthy Family group program and have support creating her healthy life.

Interested in joining the Healthy You Healthy Family group program?
Watch this video: https://vimeo.com/752244908/1d9ec86fd9

Want to chat to Dr Orlena? https://bookme.name/drorlena/healthy-you-healthy-family-program

Transcription of Podcast

Please note this transcription is generated by software. There may be some errors. I hope you find it useful.

Hey Lia, thank you so much for spending a little bit of time and just chatting to me today. Do you wanna just start by chatting people a little bit about yourself and introducing yourself?

Introducing Lia

So, I'm, I'm Lia. I live in Connecticut and I run a medical practice, so I'm very busy.

My kids are big, but my 19 year old son still lives at home, so I'm not quite empty nested. But I, you know, I'm at the point in my life where I can sort of set my own schedule and not have to worry about Carpool and school buses and all of that stuff.

You've been in Healthy You Healthy Family Group program for a year now, so congratulations with you.

It's just been such an honor and a pleasure to watch your transformation and to work with you. But I'd like to take you back to the beginning and think about.

What challenges were you experiencing before we started work together?

So physical emotion, all of them. What, what did you want and what were you frustrated about?

I Felt Fat and Didn’t Want to be Fat

So, so it's really funny to think about it because back then all I felt was like I'm fat and I don't wanna be fat. And it's so funny to think that that's what got me here because it was real. It really was so eye opening. Our first conversation, I realized like, Just that I'm heavier than I want to be.

Like my life doesn't look the way I would like it to look. And you kind of get to think, you get stuck in a thinking like, Okay, I've got a great relationship. I've got a great kid. I have a job that I like. My family's great. My friends are great. Everything's great. Right? But everything we talk, when we started talking, I realized like everything is not great.

I Realised I Wasn’t Living Life to the Fullest

I am not living life to its fullest. Even with like all those boxes ticked every day, didn't look like fun or joy. It kind of was like slogging. I'll never forget the question you asked me was like, Well, what do you do at night? And I was like, Oh my God, this is so bad. I think I probably said that to you.

This is so bad. But nothing. Nothing. We go home from work. We, we come home from work, we eat, we drink a glass of wine and we crash out and we kind of stare at our phone or a device until it's bedtime. And you, I said that and it was like, That's terrible. That is not a life. Well, I didn't say that you said that, but it was like, I hadn't thought of it because again, I felt like, oh, my life is so fulfilled.

I have these wonderful people in it who love me and who I love, and. Like I, I just realized in that call, I am wasting my days. This is not how I wanna look back in 10 years and say I spent, you know, some of the best years of my life, what should have been.

We started work together around a year ago. What changes have you experienced after working?

Specific ones. Emotional, physical, anything, any changes.

I came originally for weight loss and the weight loss has happened. I care so much less than I thought I would because I'm stronger, I'm fitter, sleep better, my clothes fit better, and I have the tools.

I Was Frustrated and Didn’t Think it Would Work

So when I came to you, I was frustrated. And I remember telling you too, that I don't think it'll work. I've tried everything. And you're telling me like it'll work and it's simple. I'm like, Okay, lady. Like tell, talk to me in a couple months and within a couple months I had, of course, lost like 10 pounds, was feeling great.

It was just you lit a fire under me. It really resonated. You know, I was, I think now like how I played racket sports four times last weekend. But do you remember when I first came and it was like, Oh, I can't find tennis. I can't find this, I can't, all these excuses. And now, you know, I play tennis, whatever pretty much at will now that we're back in the season.

Summer was different, but at least I had pick. But that kind of initiative, even finding pickle ball was something that came from my coaching. You know, I was very much, I think just waiting for, Oh, I have things I love, but if they don't fall in my lap, then it's not gonna happen. You were like, You love tennis.

Go make it happen. And I did. And you do, You do love tennis? I do. I do. And you know, so I started the 10, I found my tennis. I started that and that's great. And then I started you know, I just started looking for light in life and things like, I loved what years that does it light you up? And all of a sudden I was doing all these things.

The Changes Were Huge But Felt So Manageable with Coaching

I was taking a writing class I hadn't written in probably 15 years. I started knitting, but that didn't last. But I went out and tried . I went out and tried it. You know, I just made. Changes that were huge, but felt so manageable with coaching. You know, I just felt sort of daunted by everything before I started, and now my life is totally different now.

Totally different. Perfect. Perfect. And I think as well, like I see you sort of like taking the next step and I think it's a journey that kind of evolves. Like as you say, you start off going, Okay, I wanna lose weight. And then your goal becomes something else and it's like, hey, I want to make this amazing life.

And you just keep building and building. So one of the questions I want to ask you this about coaching, cuz I know that. Coaching is one of these really intangible things and you kind of think coaches never tell you anything that you don't already know. And you know, everyone always says, I knew that kind of thing, but now I'm doing it.

What Was it Like to Have Support?

And so tell us a bit about the experience, because I have coaches and I see they make me do things that I kind of thought I was doing before, but wasn't. What's your experience of being coached? I think it's that you, it takes a, When you're just by yourself and you do know what to do, it's so easy to come up with excuses.

You Took Away the Excuses

You took away the excuses,, Leah, what exercise led to you up tennis. But I can't find tennis because I work, and everything around here is geared towards housewife. And you were like, No, you're gonna find tennis. You're gonna sit down and take time and do a Google search and find yourself from tennis.

I found more tennis than I know what to do with only that. But it ended up being at the health club that I now love. You know, I found my, this gym. Right around the corner for me, Huge tennis center and drop in tennis almost every day of the week, but also an amazing gym and the Pilates. So my Pilates came from there.

You know, I had done Pilates before, but my weekly Pilates that I've been doing since November is at that gym that I found because you told me go find some tennis. So all the, the, the, the, It's the inertia had set in.

You Put Things Back in Motion and Keep them in Motion

And you put things back in motion and you keep them in motion. Yeah, that's a really good analogy actually.

The inertial motivation. I think that's a momentum brother. I think that's a really good, Yeah, because I can't say, you know, I won't pretend that there weren't, well actually it's not true. Cause I would say there were dips and, but there really weren't dips in like getting my life back together and like going to sleep, putting your device down, doing things living life that didn't dip.

You Helped Me Keep Going Through the Ups and Downs

That's been very consistent. I never sort of got back to. Sitting on my couch. But of course, like the, the weight loss things and the goals, that kind of thing ebbed and flowed. So I think knowing that I wasn't alone. Knowing that, I mean every time I came to you with like, what do I do? You had an answer.

It's kind of magical . I remember I said to you, we're doing all these things in the evening now we're playing pickleball a ton after work in the late spring. And like, what do I do? What do I do? Cause we go straight from work to play and then we get home. It's eight o'clock, it's too late to eat. I try to do my fasting.

And you like without a beat, you said, Have a bigger lunch and take something light to eat right before. And I. Why didn't, why couldn't I think of that? But I didn't. And you did. And that made a huge difference for us in that time. Because honestly, if you hadn't said that, we would just have like gone out to dinner after we played eaten some restaurant meal, probably had a drink and you know, end up blowing the whole thing.

I think I wanna have to pause.

Sorry. I'll be right back. Okay. Cause, because I literally tried everyth. Okay. Sorry, there's just for the recording, there's been a little blip, but we're back now . So what made this experience different from other things? I really think it's your real life, very simplified approach. Like nothing is fussy, nothing is a set of directions that you have to follow.

Nothing is something where you have to sit down and focus on it for 35 minutes a day, not it's all. Again, it's all things that you already knew, but you needed to sort of, Sorry, I keep getting distracted cause I'm, I always have listened to whatever's happening here. I'm sorry. I totally lost my train of thought.

Should we start over? You were saying it's about but basically fitting it into your life.

Your Approach is Wholistic and Addresses All Parts of my Life

Yes. So one, one is comprehensive because again, I came originally for weight loss and there isn't, There isn't that without getting the rest of things together. So, you know, I was always trying to address it in a vacuum, like without looking at any other part of my life.

Like, take this pill, listen to this hypnotherapy, you know, follow this meal plan or whatever. Those things don't work because they don't address you as a whole person. You know? I feel like. So it's twofold, but the whole, the whole comprehensive approach, but also the simplicity of, I mean, what could be of, I think of the diets I went through when what resonated was fill your plate with vegetables and make, have the vegetables with the meat instead of the meat with the vegetables.

Eat more fruit. Don't eat things out of a package that, like, these things were so simple. And they just make, it's so easy to follow. If you just do that, you see things change. If you stop adding so much salt, your body stops craving that kind. Like, I mean, every time I do the reboot, my, my cravings go away.

Like, hello. It is very simple. It's, I mean, so I, I think there's just so much knowledge that went into keeping it super simple.

That I guess I would've could say I intrinsically knew, but didn't know the importance of like the salt thing, for example. That's huge. I, I would've said to myself, Salt doesn't have any calories, so what difference could it make? How much salt I put in my food? Right. Not realizing that like, that still keeps my, it keeps my my body craving certain things.

Craving more of that, craving this or like the way that you. Explain. It just makes it make sense so that you don't have to figure it out, you just have to do it. Does that, Does that make sense? Yeah. That I'm worth saling . Yeah. No, I think it's easy and it fits into your life, and I always say to people, I can make it complicated if you want me to , but that, Yeah, complicated doesn't work.

Your Approach is Real and Sustainable

I've tried complicated. Yeah, I've tried complicated. I've tried oversimplified, like just eat steak and eggs or whatever, you know, None of those things are sustainable. They're not real. This is so sustainable. It also, I found after a very short amount of time that it became very intuitive. You know, that it just becomes the natural way that you eat.

I think, you know, it's, it's tough. Because I guess if you haven't always, like I always ate vegetables anyway, and I thought I was eating enough. So it was in, it was, it's been enlightening to learn that the more vegetables you eat, the healthier you are, the better you feel, the more weight you lose. What I like, that doesn't apply to me, but what I like watching you do is make people who aren't used to eating vegetables figure it out.

That's pretty remarkable. Cause a lot of people, especially, I mean you might have noticed your Americans did not grow up eating. You're probably horrified, but a lot of Americans don't grow up eating real food. But making that switch is, is, is key. And it's interesting to watch people do it and then say like, Oh, I actually, I started liking that.

Yes, exactly. You know, or like, you know, they the same, They're like, I, I, I wanted chips, but I ate a banana. And Yeah. And like, and it happens and it's real, and they're thrilled. And I think for you, like when I look at your journey, I think you took to it like a duck to water. Like you were like, Okay, I get this.

I remember you going to Boston right at the beginning and having news lead with Apple on top of it, and you were loving that. But other people have to, I mean, the truth is other people do have to work a little bit harder on it. But they do come out going, Hey, I do genuinely like this food. It's not like, like with everything, it doesn't work.

Yeah. If you force it. So you have to learn to like it, but you have to give it a chance to like Exactly. But I think that's a big part of the miracle that that, that I've watched my tea, my, you know, coco cheese make that evolution and it's remarkable. Yeah. That has life changing for people. It is, it is so well, on that note, would you recommend my coaching services to other people?

Oh my goodness. I don't, I, I just, anybody who feels like me, right? You maybe start off too fat, but you start looking at your life and think it's not just too fat, it's, it's too understimulated. It's too sedentary. It's too so many things that you, that just don't fit the picture of life for you. The, the, just, just get started.

Just get started. I love that message. I love that message. And is there anything that you think that I could do to support you all move in with me, . No. I, I feel so supported. And that's another thing that surprised me because I thought, remember when I first signed up and I'm really glad I went with the group because I love the group.

But I thought like, maybe I need to do the individual because I just thought I was such a lost cause. But I thought, and then you said, Well, you know, even if you do the group and if you need help, reach out. But I haven't felt like I had to reach out to you very much because like I said, it's plain sense.

You know, It, it just, it, it's very matter of fact. It's very British. Yeah. Like, here's what you need to do, do it. And stop making excuses. So I haven't needed the level of handhold that I thought I would originally need. I thought originally I would be like bombarding you with emails every day. Thank you.

But it's so intuitive and so rational and sensible that you know, while the guidance and knowledge that comes from my coach has been key, I haven't needed to be handheld. And I think that's part of what comes from doing something that. Intuitive and, and simple. And I think giving you the tools as well that we talked about the tools, and I know there's sort of like layers of tools in the, you know, we've kind of been diving deep into emotional tools recently, but once you've got those tools, you can reuse them.

And my aim isn't for people to be constantly thinking, Oh, I have to, I have to always have coaching. My aim is to empower you to be able to apply it to. Although obviously it's now a lifetime, you can come whenever you want. , No, now I just love it. Now it's, I, it's, But I am still learning, still evolving, still learning that like it's, life is always gonna be like this.

Yeah. Where I used to just be defeated. I mean, I used to get, you know, I, like I said, I've been trying everything for the last like, what, five years? Everything. And a plug away, plug away, plug away. Didn't see what I wanted to see immediately. And. Start again. Maybe see some results and quit. Like, this is for life.

These are Real Changes and I Feel Better

This feels real. These are real changes. They're concrete changes that I feel better. I, I mean, I just feel, I always thought I, all I cared about was looking better. I feel so much better. And I'll never, I mean, how could I go back? Why would I go back? I think as well, when you talk about life being like this, I think that's really interesting and I think life stays the same.

Life is always gonna be like this, but when you've got coaching your peaks, like you manage to sort of accelerate more in those peaks so that they're more productive, you're getting more done. And then when, when it's a lower bit, you don't dive down so much because you've got that accountability. So actually you are sort.

Middle line instead of being here is up here and you've lifted everything up. Yeah, that's absolutely true. Yes. I guess by this I meant that like you can't always just plan for things to Yeah. You know, so you've gotta be, and, and yes. I feel definitely way more like I have now the tools to rebound, you know, so when life throws a, a curve ball that I can get back on track.

Perfect. Clear. It's been an honor. Thank you so much for chatting. Any last words of wisdom for people? I just, I can't stress enough how this is the best gift you can give yourself. I mean, when I think of myself before and after and that I hesitated, I say, Oh, it's so much money and it's such a commitment, and I, I don't regret anything.

I'm just so grateful and so happy that I found you. So, do you remember I found you so by accident? Yeah. You know, what can I say? Serendipitous. Perfect, perfect. On that note, thank you so much. My pleasure.