BodySpec Client Stories: Lisa B.
Name
Lisa B.
Age
54
What does health mean to you? What does good health empower you to accomplish?
This journey I’ve been on the last year has shown me that it’s never too late to make a change. Yes, I’ve lost weight, but what I’ve really done is increased my vibrancy and longevity. I look and feel 20 years younger. It’s all about the way I feel on the inside.
I also learned the importance of being aligned: body, mind, and spirit; and having all three things flowing to be at your optimal self. If these components aren’t stable, the base crumbles. I now feel like I know how to achieve the best version of myself.
How has your health and fitness evolved over time?
Creating healthy habits as opposed to focusing on a goal is key.
When you get started on a health journey, it’s easy to get fixated on the goal and do whatever it takes to to hit that, but then it’s so easy to fall right back into old patterns.
When I was just focused on a goal, because I didn’t have lifestyle habits in place, it didn’t last. I couldn’t sustain the weight loss.
What clicked for me was realizing I needed to be on autopilot--exercise and healthy eating needed to feel as second nature as brushing my teeth.
Did seeing your scan results change anything in your approach to your health and fitness goals?
When I scanned on February 28, 2021, I realized it was exactly one year to the day that I began this journey at 45% body fat. I’m currently at 21.7%.
From October 2020 to February 2021, I was able to make the biggest change in terms of fat loss. Coming into that period, I was down from 245 to 160 pounds, but I had only lost 8% body fat.
I would not have known about the need for weight lifting, and building lean tissue, without BodySpec. That was a lightbulb moment for me. Without BodySpec’s “diagnosis,” I would never have known what I needed to do to really make a significant change in my body composition.
With that knowledge, I started working with a trainer, and I was able to drop from 35% to 21% fat in 11 weeks with weight lifting.
Where are you currently with your health journey?
I have a new lifestyle now and the best way I can show gratitude is to help others get aligned and reach their fitness goals.
Here is the system I created to help me change my life. I hope it inspires others to do the same:
- Make a commitment to move every day.
- Creating routines that require little to no decision making is a daily act of self-compassion. Form habits around fitness and nutrition so that it becomes a lifestyle. The goal is to be on auto-pilot when it comes to food and exercise so you just do it without thinking. This will ensure that the changes are permanent. Plus, one less thing to think about.
- Repetition works. I eat the same things every day. I walk 5 miles every day. Wash, rinse, repeat.
- Log your weight/measurements regularly. This habit works whether you’re trying to lose weight or maintain. No negative self-talk about your weight. (It’s just a number representing the earth’s gravitational pull on your body.) You won’t fall off track with your weight if you’re monitoring it regularly. It also makes you mindful of what you eat and how much you exercise.
- Get a body analysis to understand your muscle/fat composition. Build those muscles! I used BodySpec.
- Accountability is important. Find a partner or group for support. I found that I might break a promise to myself, but I would never fail to show up for a friend.
- Don’t give up. Time and patience are the two most powerful warriors. Whenever I’d feel discouraged, I’d remind myself that it’s just a scientific fact that if I eat less and move more over a sustained period of time, I will lose weight.
- Believe in yourself. Yep, sounds corny - but if you don’t believe you can do this, you won’t ever feel totally committed. When you set out on a road trip, you believe you’re going to reach your destination, right? Every action you take supports that belief. Same thing with a fitness/weight loss journey.
- Sugar and carbs. Alas, sugar is no bueno and should be eliminated as much as possible from your diet. Complex carbs (e.g., sweet potatoes, brown rice, quinoa and steel cut oatmeal) are your friends, along with protein and veggies. For more on this, I enjoyed reading “The Obesity Code: Unlocking the Secrets of Weight Loss” by Dr. Jason Fung.
- Be inspired. Check out my favorite podcast called “Weight Loss for Busy Physicians” by Dr. Katrina Ubell. Good news—you don’t have to be a physician to learn from this!
