Hi Everyone,
Check out this week’s blog by Lisa Rucker, our Wellness Director. Watch social media this week to see her amazing transformation in her before and after pictures.
Allison
Weight Lifted!

Two years ago this month, I started the Reboot. I was 53 years old, 5’7 and 270 lbs. One year ago, this month, I had lost 116 lbs and was finally at a healthy weight. Honestly, something I wasn’t sure I would ever see. It brings me to happy tears as I write this. It’s impossible to put into words the joy that comes from that weight being lifted. The mental weight, as much or more than the physical, but both. The struggle started for me around age seven, over 45 years of dieting and losing only to gain it back plus some, each and every time. That brought about shame and a never ending mental weight of carrying it. I soooo needed this time to be different. I wanted sustainable weight loss. I needed it to be the last time I would ever go on a weight loss journey. I didn’t believe it was possible, but I had to try. I had gone down this road so many times before.

When I started, I was intrigued but not optimistic. I focused on everything I was losing, most importantly the weight on the scale. I was consumed with how much, how fast, and how to maintain it, so that I could get back to life as I knew it. It felt like punishment for bad behavior. After the first conversation with Allison, I felt like maybe. She was authentic and knowledgeable for certain and I thought there was a chance she really got it, got me, and where I was coming from. I committed to the plan. Followed it exactly, by the book. After a couple of months of obsessing about the timeline and the scale and almost quitting at one point, there was a pivotal call/consultation with Allison that changed everything. She definitely got it, understood me, was honest and caring. She was genuinely willing to help me and I was finally willing to accept the help. I made the decision to let her help me carry the weight. I stopped fighting the process, started trusting it and realized that I had it backwards all of this time. I needed to focus on what
I was gaining, usually a word we don’t use on diets, right? Although my weight wasn’t coming off as fast as I had hoped, I was sleeping a little better, breathing a little easier. The anxiety attacks and hot flashes that had started, were no more. I felt like I was focusing better. As I started to feel gratitude for those things and started to believe in the process just a little, the weight started to come off faster. I was releasing a lot of built up stress, anger, hurt and my hormone levels are coming into balance, the good nutrition was doing its part. I started to eat every 2.5 hours without fail and drink all of my water, which was a lot at that point. The weight was coming off, but I wasn’t obsessed about that any longer. My mind and body were responding in ways I had never seen before. The inflammation was gone. My feet didn’t hurt. I could actually see my collarbone and feel my rib cage. I had renewed energy. This was
different, I was different!

As I started to really focus on my life as a whole, I knew that in order to fully complete this journey, I had to dig deep enough to get to the deepest of the roots of my issues. I knew I was an emotional eater. I understood the original trigger and thought I had dealt with it, but learned that there were still some remnants that needed to be cleared out. I needed to put my life into balance, live mindfully. I decided to do the work. Allison was a key part of that decision. We became the best of friends through the process, her family now part of my family, one of the gifts
that was unexpected, but life changing from this journey.

By Christmas of that year, I had met the original goal I had set for myself, but I wasn’t done. I wanted to be within the healthy range on that dreaded BMI chart for once in my life, so I set a new goal and kept the course. Almost exactly one year to the day of when I started, I reached it. I also left my corporate job(once my dream job), moved into a house that fits me better today, renewed my faith, became certified as a health coach and started this new role with TKF. The list of gifts seems endless. I’ve learned that positivity and gratitude truly changes things. Making
a choice to believe, for me related to my faith in God, in myself and my ability to fulfill my purpose on this path, maybe the hardest one at first, trusting in someone else who can live up to that trust and help carry the weight until I could truly put it down. I am beyond grateful, humbled and motivated to help others do the same.

I’ve already been inspired by your stories. I can’t wait to see where this journey takes each of us.

Here’s to Life Rebooted!
Lisa