Say hello to Stephanie, our Inspiration of the Month!
This month we’re excited to spotlight Stephanie, a member who has not just improved her health, she’s changed her entire relationship with food.
Stephanie’s journey began last May, when she was camping with friends and noticed she didn’t like how she looked in photos. She made a promise to work toward a normal weight within the year. Unfortunately, she didn’t make that goal a priority, and when the camping trip rolled around again, she felt even more uncomfortable. “Regardless of how great my friends, my job, my home and family are if I’m not comfortable being me, then it really ruins life experiences. That was the moment. I was not going to go another week or year without being fully committed to myself. This is something that is within my control, no surgery or miracle needed, I have it within me and the tools available to me.”
She started by wearing a Fitbit that she had ordered through the HumanaVitality mall a couple years before. She logged her food on Fitbit.com and made sure she got her daily 10k steps. A month after walking, she added jogging along with sculpting exercises. She also signed up for the Living Lean course, which is free and available to all HumanaVitality members. Living Lean focused on helping her acknowledge the triggers of a food addiction and repairs your relationship with food, without substituting or suppressing those cravings. It helped her to retrain her brain to choose a healthy lifestyle.
She committed to changing her lifestyle on May 3rd, 2015 and has lost 20 pounds since that date!
Living Lean helped Stephanie realized that she needed to change how she thought about food. “I used to be like a lot of people who go on diets, I tried the fad exercises and diets, only to binge eat or have a cheat day or weekend. Food still controlled me. I still thought of food and I still felt like a victim because I told myself couldn’t have pizza or pasta”. By chance she signed up for the Living Lean course and did the assignments. By following the program after six weeks, she has successfully become free from food being the focus in her life.
For anyone struggling to lose weight, Stephanie highly recommends trying the Living Lean course. She says that before you can be truly successful you have to change your relationship with food—this program makes it clear and gives you the tools and direction to do just that.
She’s been motivated by her success and is feeling good in her own skin. “I want to be able to be in social situations and not feel insecure. I want to be able to throw some clothes on and go out the door, without changing 10 times because nothing feels comfortable. There are so many things I don’t do, because of my weight. That’s what motivates me—freedom to be myself.”
Her advice to those just starting their health journey is to know it takes courage and guts. “It’s not easy to change your behavior when you’ve been living a certain way for so long. It takes guts to go into a gym when you are at the very beginning of a lifestyle change and at your heaviest; it’s hard to push yourself through those workouts that have you winded halfway through them. It’s not easy choosing a salad and fish over steak and fries, when you’re out with friends or by yourself and no one will know if you had fast food. It takes courage and guts, especially when there are those who are expecting you to fail.”
Congratulations to Stephanie on her success!
If you would like to be our next Inspiration of the Month, send us a private message on our Facebook, telling us why you’re an inspiration.
HumanaVitality is not an insurance product. This material is intended for informational use only and should not be construed as medical advice or used in place of consulting a licensed medical professional.
