When you don’t like the way you feel about yourself, it bleeds over into other areas of life. It can affect productivity, confidence, and pretty much any and every aspect of your life. This is the case for so many of my clients, including Marina. Learn how losing 9lbs helped her rediscover herself.
Losing 9lbs: A Self Love Discovery
Marina went through a rough period in life. First, she was pregnant but then miscarried her baby. Soon afterward, she got a divorce. These two life-altering events happening so close together caused Marina to struggle for a long time. She had a hard time finding herself.
Marina has an incredibly busy schedule. Saying that she is a high achiever would be an understatement: She is a PhD student in systems engineering and working on exciting projects including one with NASA! (You go, girl!).
It is safe to say that productivity and confidence are pivotal characteristics for someone with a high demanding career like Marina.
Obstacles
You get the sense from talking to Marina that she is a very career-driven person and a go-getter in every sense of the word. But after her miscarriage and divorce, she found herself in a rough place and wanted to find herself again. This seems to have been a big turning point for her. She realized it was time to focus more on herself. She felt like something big was missing. “I knew that I didn’t like the way I was feeling about myself.”
In order to reach this goal, Marina needed a plan. She had competed (bodybuilding competitions) in the past, so she figured a good way to get herself “back in the game” would be to set a goal of competing again. Unfortunately, going back to old ways doesn’t always work.
The Time Issue
The vast majority of women I work with are at a point in their lives where they are short on time. Short on time they once probably enjoyed a lot of. Some are busy with their careers or running a business, some are moms now, and some are busy with school and projects. (And some are even busier with two of these things or all three!) And maybe in the past, pre-kids, or pre-jobs, or pre-college, these women had a lot more time to be able to devote to working out and to themselves in general.
Often these women get caught up in their day-to-day busy new lives and fitness falls by the wayside. Then, at some point, they want to get back at it. BUT, they discover that now time is a hot commodity, and they find that what worked for them in the past…no longer works. That is where Marina found herself.
So Marina thought she could jump right back in with a goal of getting back to competing. But of course, she now had strong demands on her time. And her schedule from the past wasn’t practical for her life anymore. She says she was working out for 2-3 hours per day.
That may work for some, but for a busy doctoral student, that’s a lot of time to carve out between research and classes and the projects she is working on. At this point in time, that workout schedule would not work. But Marina was trying to get back to it, and then becoming discouraged and losing her drive when she found that she wasn’t up to that same schedule.
Like many people, Marina struggled with consistency (and the inconsistency of the bursts of motivation ). How many times do we get on these “fitness kicks” only to have it fizzle out soon afterward? The motivation won’t always be there, and Marina realized this early on, which was part of the key to her making her own success. “The reality is motivation isn’t a thing. You just have to get up and do what you gotta do.”
Success
Or how Marina lost 9lbs
Marina realized that she had set too lofty of a goal for herself at that point in her life. It’s OK to scale back a bit! This is not an all-or-nothing thing. Marina says of her goals that they “required an amount of discipline I was lacking. Every time I missed a workout I just felt like more of a failure and it just spiraled downhill from there.” These workouts required too much of her time…time she didn’t have to give. But as you’ll learn, fitness should be about QUALITY over QUANTITY.
So, after several false starts, Marina found a system that worked for her. She set a new goal. Losing 9lbs in the course of the program. Marina was able to lose those 9 lbs. within the span of 5 weeks. She also lost inches all over, most notably 4 inches off her waist (we all know how stubborn those inches can be!!)
And Marina made progress mentally as well, and this is the progress Marina is most happy about (in fact she almost glosses over her weight and inches loss, but give yourself some credit girl! Amazing work!) There’s a certain sense of accomplishment with getting stuff done that carries over into other areas of life as well. She says, “I’m confident and happy and proud of myself. I’m excited about the gym and training again.” The small successes create a sense of accomplishment, which in turn makes you feel more motivated, which encourages you to stick to the plan, which results in more small successes, and the cycle starts all over again!
“I’m starting to fall in love with who I am again.”
These powerful words from Marina show the difference that confidence can make. And NOT having that confidence carries with it the danger of holding you back. As Marina explained it, “when you feel good and confident about yourself, you feel unstoppable, and unbreakable” when doing anything…even just cleaning the toilet can have you feeling like a badass while doing it because you’re just that confident!
The Method
The workouts
Ok, I’m sure you’re asking by now, “What did Marina do to get to where she’s at today?” Marina joined my 5 Week Super Shred Challenge! There, she learned essential strategies that helped her and got the guidance she needed. During those 5 weeks she was able to lose 9lbs, gain confidence and love herself again.
In the 5 week challenge, you get step-by-step workout plans that can be done from home or the gym, exclusive access to our closed community of like minded people, which was a huge part of Marina’s success. She says she felt safe in the community of women she had joined.
She also loved the fact that the 5 week-long challenge is long enough to make a difference but short enough that it feels manageable. Knowing that it lasts just 5 weeks makes it feel like a more doable goal, and knowing it’s only 5 weeks means you’re making sure you’ll get the most out of every day! Plus losing 9lbs in just 5 weeks is such a doable goal!
Your sense of dedication goes up each checkpoint along the way, as Marina says: “Every week that went by, I was more and more proud of myself for not quitting.” 5 weeks is a short time, but Marina says the amazing changes it had on her are going to last well beyond those 5 weeks! As I said, losing 9lbs in only the beginning!
The diet
Marina loved how doable the diet was. I’m not kidding when I say this is not your typical diet!! I give you step-by-step guidance on how to make the nutrition plan work for YOU, so you can lose weight and keep it off… even when the challenge is over! My plan is pretty clear cut with room for life to happen! I’m not living under a rock. I don’t think that you have to sacrifice life in order to accomplish your fitness goals. Marina loved that she, “didn’t have to turn down lunch with a friend because ‘I’m dieting.”
She also appreciated the videos and reading materials provided. I’m not just going to tell you “do this” and leave you hanging. I love learning the science behind things and the process behind why this works or that works. And I know many of my clients do as well. Knowing why you have to do something makes you more likely to do that thing. You don’t have to be a PhD student to want to understand the process behind things! (Although I’m sure that certainly helps!) As Marina explained to me, we’re often told to “trust the process.” But how can we trust the process when we don’t know why or how the process works?
She learned that the quality of workouts beats the quantity of time spent on a workout, and loved that she could get amazing results in only an hour workout. This is in contrast to the 2-3 hours she was spending before, yet not seeing as much of a difference. As she puts it, an hour is roughly about how much she spends on Facebook. Instead, she’s now spending that time on something more productive!
“Nathalia will make you earn the body you want, but everything she gives you is more than realistic. She doesn’t expect anything from you that you aren’t able to accomplish.” Yup. My programs are for those that want REAL results. For those tired of sifting through all the other stuff. And for those ready to put in the work and see the results. I did it…Marina did it…and so can you!
Ready to be the next success story? Ready to regain YOUR confidence? And ready to have that confidence spread over into other aspects of your life, for a more accomplished feeling in everything you do? Then I want YOU for my next 5 Week Super Shred challenge!! We start June 14th, so get on this!! JOIN TODAY HERE! Losing 9lbs will only be the beginning.
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