Madeleine P

When I signed up for Rachel's coaching I was at a point in my life where I was not only my heaviest weight, but experiencing some real health concerns and hardly able to get the motivation or energy to try and start my fitness journey on my own. I had throughout my whole life been someone who had yo-yo'd between diets and tried everything because I always thought I was overweight, however, in hindsight looking back I was healthy but I was unhappy. I may not have been skinny but I am someone who is naturally more curvy and so I always looked badly upon myself and my relationship with food and fitness because of this was poor. 

My relationship with food was toxic. I would emotionally eat whenever I was stressed and then feel guilty the next day only to repeat the same mistakes without ever getting to the root cause. 

I saw exercise as a punishment and a 'must do' rather than anything ever enjoyable. I used to see it as a way of burning calories through cardio. 

This was why I started Rachel's program as the many other testimonies shared by others made me see that there is a better way of doing this and in particular, the mindset coaching and nutrition was where I needed help with most. 

Joining this coaching program with Rachel has changed my output and view on many things. I was able to recognise that no matter what exercise or 'diet' you try will never work in the long term if you aren't happy with who you are and get to the root causes of why you are doing things - which the mindset coaching helped me do. 

The mindset coaching made me realise that fear was always holding me back - fear of missing out when with friends, fear of what changes may or may not come, and the fear of giving up. For some reason, one piece of chocolate or the idea of hot chips could be obsessive and the thought of missing out on that when other people get it or thinking I was punishing myself by not eating it would consume me and be such a big deal. However, I came to realise this is the wrong way of thinking about everything - I didn't look at the big picture like why I couldn't practice self care and reward myself with something else that wasn't food. And why I couldn't enjoy the healthy foods I like eating and focus on how good those taste and the nutrients they provide my body rather than obsessing over an unhealthy food that in the end makes you feel bad the next day. 

Rachel's nutrition program was not only easy to follow, but was flexible and helped me see that healthy eating isn't just boiled chicken and broccoli - you can still enjoy meals and flavours you like and incorporate those into your daily eating without missing out. It also helped me focus on macros and incorporating those into my diet rather than obsessing over calories. 

I began to enjoy the gym again and the energy I felt after doing a morning workout! The workouts made me love lifting weights again and showed me how to incorporate cardio into my weekly routine in other ways without it being a boring 20 minute treadmill walk in the gym. I even started looking forward to each workout to see how much I had progressed and if I could lift or press more this time, and push myself in a non-punishing but instead, rewarding way. 

For me, this coaching has helped me start to make long-term changes I needed and to focus on my health and how I feel as a whole rather than dropping dress sizes. These changes have been sustainable and have helped me create a healthy lifestyle for good.