My Biggest Struggle as a Wellness/Weight Loss Coach

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I loved sports growing up.  I played them all: volleyball, softball, basketball, cheerleading (yes, that’s a sport) and more.  I didn’t realize until I got to college that I used them to keep my weight under control.

When the demands of Physical Therapy school became too great, I gained 25 pounds.  When I realized what had happened, I went to a STRICT diet and worked out 6 days a week to remove 27 pounds in 3 months.  Needless to say, the weight returned…with a vengeance.

So I completed my training and went on to get a bunch of other certifications-nutrition and lifestyle coach, exercise coach, strength and conditioning specialist.  All the while trying to find the cure as to what was wrong with me, why couldn’t I lose the weight and keep it off?  I loved the human body. I loved helping people and I always wanted to have my own business.

What better way than to use my training as a PT to help people get fit without injuring themselves?

The problem was, I didn’t look the part.

I kept telling myself, when I got rid of the weight, then I would train people.  When I could run a 5K without feeling like I was going to die, then I would coach people.

10+ years went by before I finally started making consistent progress with my weight, but not my confidence issues.

Never (thin, strong, fast, knowledgeable, fill-in-the blank) enough.

I have no idea how many women I missed the opportunity to share my knowledge with because I was afraid that I didn’t look the part or I didn’t know enough.  Heck, I had been practicing as a PT for 10 years and knew enough from my own experience that starving yourself and working out like a maniac would not yield lasting results.

It wasn’t until I finally decided that I. Am. Enough.  That I found a love for working out, for the sake of it, not as a punishment, that I wanted to share all of the different ways you could work out without lifting weights or running, if you didn’t want to, that the fear subsided.

I realized that there will always be people at different stages of the game, and with different goals in mind, and who am I to withhold information because I don’t look a certain way?

When you let go of thinking that it’s about you instead of the other person, you can release some of the fear and actually help somebody.  After all, isn’t that why you decided to become a coach in the first place?

 

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