From Binger to Baker: How Heather Overcame DECADES of Struggles | DFIO Ep. 257
- Dieting From The Inside Out
- Feb 27, 2023
- 7 min read
Updated: Oct 5, 2023
About Today’s Episode:
Welcome back to the show! I’ve got a really cool episode lined up for you! Here’s the thing—I know how difficult binge eating makes weight loss, so today I want to show you what’s possible and give you an actual case study on the topic of binge eating and overcoming binge eating.
We are going to be talking to an awesome client named Heather. Heather has completely 180’d her life. But this episode is going to give you more than just the before and after picture—you will also get takeaways that you can apply to your life.
Having a story that you can relate to makes such an impact and that’s why I got Heather, along with Coach Grant, on the show today. Let’s get into it!
TIMESTAMPS
02:31 Our Sponsors
04:56 Heather’s Story
Transcript (click to expand)
About Heather:
Heather never thought that she would find peace with food—or be able to lose weight while being a baker.
Before she started coaching and found her peace with food, Heather struggled with her weight and self-perception. Heather says that she was always a bigger girl—even back in high school she saw herself as being very overweight and beat herself up about it. Now, looking back at those pictures, her high school weight is her goal weight.
Heather had been on and off of Weight Watchers since the age of 12. Weight has always been a struggle for her and, at the time, her parents did the best they could for her with the knowledge that was available to them, but neither of them had ever struggled like Heather.
Before finding Jared on TikTok, Heather tried many different diets/fad diets. After seeing Jared’s content she joined his Fat Loss Simplified Facebook community and continued to take in Jared’s content—eventually deciding to start full-on coaching.
After starting the program, Heather learned that it was not her fault she struggled to lose weight—she learned about how powerful your mind and beliefs are when it comes to weight loss. She learned that foods weren’t ‘good’ or ‘bad’.
She no longer had to sneak foods like when she was a child because the labels were gone.
Being able to learn about the calorie content of foods, healing her relationship with food, and going through therapy has helped Heather stop her binge eating habits. She used to joke that the only thing that would stop her from eating a bag of chips was the bottom of the bag, but now she doesn’t think like that and is able to eat what she feels is appropriate and put the rest away.
Heather has learned tricks to help her portion her foods—she has even had to throw things like cookies and chocolate away because she is not eating as much of those foods as she used to.
She is no longer an emotional eater—and when she does overindulge, she is able to go back to eating the way she wants to eat and she doesn’t punish herself.
Jared and Grant both find that Heather has been a ‘professional executor’ when it comes to the coaching program. Heather was able to let go of her desire to lose weight and focus on the hard part of fixing her relationship with food first.
Jared has found that many people who are 35/45/50+ believe they are a lost cause because they have decades of struggles. Heather is 48 and has changed her life.
One thing Heather never did was give up. She took breaks, sure, but she always kept trying.
At one point, after Heather had her first son, she got up to a very high weight and joined Weight Watchers. She white-knuckled through it and lost 70 pounds in a year, but she never enjoyed the process or her weight loss. After having her second son, she had again gained weight and was angry with herself for it—something she carried for years.
Heather has since learned that despite what you want, think, and feel, time still goes by. It doesn’t matter what age you are, you can always keep working at reaching your goal.
Now that she has been through coaching, she can enjoy the process and results of losing weight—and she’s down about 45 pounds on top of it all.
How Heather Learned to Enjoy Weight Loss:
For Heather, the shift began last summer when she was a few months into the program.
She was out on a walk and felt good, so she continued walking. It hit her that she was just enjoying the walk, enjoying the scenery, enjoying the music she was listening to—and she wasn’t thinking about the details.
She wasn’t thinking about how far she needed to walk or when she needed to head back, she was simply in the moment and unconcerned about the end goal.
Heather realized that she had the time in life to enjoy the process and that she could lose the weight while enjoying the process.
Grant saw Heather’s shift before even Heather did.
He could see her starting to exude positivity as she learned about foods and improved her relationship with them. When she had days that weren’t perfect, Heather was able to let go and stay positive.
Balancing Grace and Standards:
Weight loss requires you to have a balance between giving yourself grace and having discipline and standards.
For Heather, though there can still be struggles with perfectionism and negative emotions, she found balance by learning to sit with her emotions and reflect on what/why she was feeling a certain way.
Heather used to describe herself as an all-or-nothing person, but now she doesn’t seek ‘perfection or nothing’.
On the days she isn’t feeling into it, she finds that having Coach Grant and her spreadsheet tracker is very important to staying on track and keeping herself accountable.
Coach Grant finds that it is vital to figure out and establish what self-love is.
He has observed that many people tend to push the idea of self-love to extremes—they will define self-love as not giving a shit and eating/doing whatever, or they will go to the other extreme where self-love is all about working out every day and self-control.
Grant points out, however, that you have to find a balance and that you need to define self-love in order to have that balance.
What Made Heather Commit to Coaching:
Heather was already familiar with spending money on weight loss. She had been in Weight Watchers for 30 years—she had paid for products, meetings, etc. She had also decided to see a therapist after learning about cognitive behavioral therapy and how it could impact her relationship with food.
Through these experiences, she was able to recognize that she had tried everything on her own—and since she had gotten help for her mental health, she could also get help with her weight loss and diet.
She had been on a long journey and it took a few years before she was able to be open to the idea of coaching.
Heather recognizes that she was on the road to living a shorter life because of her struggles with food and weight—but she also realized that she is worth the investment.
Jared finds that investing in yourself monetarily often spurs people into the realization that they are worth it. He gets frustrated with our culture at times because it’s easy to say affirmations in the mirror, but truly believing you are worth it can be hard work for many.
What was the Hardest Thing to Learn?:
For Heather, the hardest thing to learn was that she could eat what she wanted to eat and that she would be okay as long as she wrote it down. Even when she doesn’t want to record what she ate, she will track it.
It took her time to learn that she could eat a cookie or a 100-calorie snack and be okay.
She also learned that she can pass on foods because she can always eat them another time if she wants them.
Now that Heather has given herself permission to eat what she wants when she wants, there are no longer ‘bad’ foods and there is no longer pressure to eat certain foods. Food used to call to Heather—but now she chooses what she wants when she wants it.
Because of these mindset changes, Heather has been able to go on vacations and enjoy herself without being controlled by food.
Jared points out that—even while doing all of this learning and giving herself permission to eat and enjoy foods—she has continued to lose weight.
Heather actually went to Florida twice (she’s from Canada) and still lost weight while on vacation. During her vacations she doesn’t track, she just eats intuitively.
Grant finds that once you get the mindset side of weight loss down, things become much more simple. Though losing weight may never be easy, it does become simplified by getting your headspace right.
Heather understands that her weight loss is more than calories in versus calories out. It’s her mindset that makes the biggest impact on her weight loss and her enjoyment of the process and results.
Jared agrees that weight loss is more than just the physical. “Calories in, calories out,” or “food is just fuel,” makes it seem like weight loss doesn’t involve mental or emotional elements, but in reality, your mindset can dramatically impact your weight loss and the choices you make with food.
Why Grant Thinks Heather has Been Successful:
Grant believes that Heather has been so successful because she has been able to let go of the outcomes and she has been an action-taker. Heather has consistently shown up for herself and consistently taken action on the information given to her.
Heather agrees that she is an action-taker, but having Grant, the private and public Facebook groups, and people in her corner has been a big motivator for her to take action and keep showing up for herself.
Coaching has not only impacted her weight loss, but it has also helped her in her baking business, which is doing very well.
Heather believes that having Grant allowed her to believe in herself in a way she never could have before. For Heather, learning to sit with her emotions was also immensely helpful. She is stronger now because of coaching and knows, no matter what may come up in the future, she is and will be okay.
Closing Thoughts From Heather:
Heather tells others like herself to give themselves grace, forgive themselves, and reach out for help. Jared and his team have tools to help.
She says it will be scary, but to trust the process. She emphasizes that it doesn’t matter how long it will take—just give yourself the time.
CONNECT WITH HEATHER:
‣ Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/sugar3creations
FREEBIES & SPECIAL OFFERS:
‣ Special Coaching Offer calendar link for only podcast listeners: https://calendly.com/hamiltontrained/application-call-from-the-podcast
‣ Join my free Facebook group & get all my trainings: https://www.facebook.com/groups/fatlosssimplified
‣ Get my [Free] Fat Loss Check-list Course: https://bit.ly/5daychecklist
‣ The best supplements for weight loss video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfjByg4Zr_Y
‣ 1st Phorm Supplement Training (from our Facebook community): https://bit.ly/3hkBuLF
‣ Get FREE shipping on 1st Phorm Supplements: https://1stphorm.com/?a_aid=realjaredhamilton
‣ Use promo code HAMILTONTRAINED for 20% off at: https://www.flexpromeals.com
FIND ME ON:
‣ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realjaredhamilton
‣ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jaredhamilton
‣ Contact
----
Post-Production by: David Margittai | In Post Media
Website: https://www.inpostmedia.com
Email: david@inpostmedia.com
© 2023 Jared Hamilton
Comments