I believe we all have a story that has brought us to exactly where we are today. My health & wellness journey began over 25 years ago –
All of my life I have been a caregiver. To my siblings when I was younger, later to a husband and children, and then my aging parents. My siblings are grown, I’m divorced, my children are on their own, and both of my parents have passed on.
One day I realized there was no one that needed my caregiving. And at that moment I realized that I had never truly taken care of MYSELF. I knew that NOW is the time to finally care for and heal myself.
My story is a story about food, body, and loving myself. From the age of 17-27, I suffered from bulimia. Sadly, in those 10 years, I became an expert at hiding my feelings, the binging and purging and pretending that my life was fine.
At the age of 27 I had gone through a 6 month personal development course and something in me shifted, I no longer felt the need to binge and purge, but I continued to struggle with food, body image and self-love, I knew the 3 things were connected but I couldn’t quite see how.
The pain and sadness I felt became unbearable and hiding it from my loved ones was exhausting. I tried and tried to gain “control” of food and body but “control” only sent me on a further spiral of shame and depression. I was in search of something more! Something that would have me take pride in myself.
I started reading every self-help book I could find (I thought there was something wrong with me, why was I like this?). Then in 2007, I discovered energy work and I got certified in quantum healing, reiki, and a few other alternative healing modalities.
I was good at what I did, I loved it and found meaning in helping and healing others, although it still didn’t change my inner feelings. I had realized that I was still ignoring myself and caring for others. Over the years I so desperately wanted to lose weight. I thought that losing weight would change how I felt about myself, I’d finally be happy! I tried almost every diet out there: cabbage diet, juice fasting, vegetarian, vegan, paleo, keto. You name it and I’ve probably tried it.f
You know the story: diets don’t work. And despite all my attempts, my negative body image and food were still a painful struggle. Finally, I realized that at the core of this struggle was my self-worth – or rather my lack of self-worth.
I didn’t know where to turn for help; I didn’t feel like I could tell anyone what I was going through. I really thought that I was the only person struggling with these issues. What would people think of me?
In the early part of 2017, my prayers were answered when The Health Coach Institute showed up in my life. I knew that becoming a Health Coach was what I was meant to do. I had so much personal experience around food, weight, body image and self-love that I knew I can help women that struggle with the same issues.
As I went through the program myself, my life and weight began to change. As I learned new habits and a way of eating that worked for ME, I started feeling better about myself; no more judgment, no more beating myself up. The weight came off, all without any diets or deprivation. Through the entire process I realized that losing the weight wasn’t what had me feeling better about myself, it was the habit changes, releasing learned programming and learning to love who and where I was.
Most importantly, I’ve learned to love myself, and the body I’m in, no matter my weight. I am enough!
I am passionate about helping women not only gain clarity on what they want, but understand how to make it a real possibility, and then a reality for themselves. I believe every woman has an innate wisdom within, and part of my job is to help her tap into it to create the life she knows is hers deep within.
When we tap into our truth and align our internal and external worlds, we transform, heal and thrive!
Angie
