These pictures are difficult for me to look at. I spent over a decade heavy, overweight, the chubby girl, clinically obese.
I had a hard time looking in the mirror.
One day I finally decided that something had to change. I started to study everything I could find about nutrition and health.
I soaked it in, all the books, documentaries, and studies about food and how it effects the body. I was fascinated!
Everything I read convinced me that we needed to kick processed food to the curb and get back to eating real, nutritious, yet incredibly delicious food.
Through cleaning up my family’s diet, and finding a new exercise routine that I love, I was able to quickly drop over 60 pounds.
I thought I was at my goal weight and was very happy, but over the next year and without even trying, another 10 pounds naturally slipped away. My body just knew the right place that is healthy for me, and because I was nourishing it with great food, it was almost effortless to get there.
I have gone from a size 18 to a size 4, and have easily maintained my weight loss for more than 7 years and counting. More importantly, though, I have never felt better in my life! I want everyone in the world to have access to healthy, whole, delicious real food, so that they can know just how fabulous this feels!
Because I wanted to share my new found knowledge more effectively, I decided to go back to school. I researched several different schools and realized that for most colleges out there, I would spent 4+ years and tens of thousands of dollars to be a nutritionist or dietitian, and at the end of that schooling I would probably end up working in a hospital, trying to decide what kind of formula to put in people’s feedings tubes. That is not at all what I wanted to do!
Then I found the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, where I could learn to be an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach. I signed up as soon as I could, dove in right away, and I have enjoyed every minute. I am so glad that I made this choice! I am now coaching people and helping them transform their lives.
Throughout my transformation I was asked many questions, from what I was doing to what size I wear now. But the question I was asked most was, “What do you eat?” This site is an attempt to answer that question, and hopefully inspire other people along the way.
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Can’t wait to learn more about this!!
I’m very inspired by your story. I’m in size 18, been the overweight (now obese) girl my whole life. I have six kids and I’m very very interested in making the change. I bought 100 days of clean eating, gotten rid of processed foods, but I can’t ever shake this feeling like my body is the only broken body in the world and though this works for everyone, I’m convinced it won’t work for me. Mostly because I’ve never been there before. Ever. I don’t know what healthy is for me. I don’t know what a reasonable timeline is for me. If my goal is to lose a good 70-80 lbs, what is a reasonable timeline? I ask so I don’t get discouraged… I’m willing to work hard, but Im scared I’m going to always do something wrong and the results you got will never be mine.
Oh, I want to give you the biggest hug! I want so much to change those voices in your head and show you how amazing you are, in exactly the body that you are in. I really believe that will make the biggest difference for you, changing your mindset to one of treating yourself well because you deserve it! Eating healthy foods because that is a way to treat yourself well. Exercising because it feels good. You definitely can do this!
It took me about 9 months to lose 60 pounds, and the last 10 came off more slowly. It took about a year total for it all to come off. A good rule of thumb is a pound a week. Hang in there!
Hi Emily,
I am kind of at a lost. I am trying to lose weight on a popular diet that separates when you eat certain foods. I do okay, but none of the baked goods taste good to me, my face breaks out when I eat too much almond flour and I buy so many special products to go along with it (to be fair, not required). But even though I can lose weight on this, it would be very hard for my children to sustain this eating when they go off to college or are on their own (not there yet, but quickly approaching). They aren’t eating to lose weight just for health. I want to encourage them and teach them a healthy way to eat that they would be able to maintain once they leave home. Does your way fit this? I am on the low end of prediabetes and I get really tired if I eat too many carbs or too much sugar. I miss bread though and I think I would do better sometimes if I just had a regular sandwich on a good bread over trying to fill my self up on other stuff (not necessarily unhealthy, but excessive) just to try to fill that craving. Just looking for a few thoughts on if how you lost your weight would work with what I am trying to do? Thank you.
Hi Kathleen! My heart hurts because so many people are right where you are, thinking there is one specific way that is “healthy,” and yet it’s so restrictive or hard or not the right diet for that person. It sounds like mostly this is working for you with the exception of a few hard things, though, so that is great!
I don’t teach people to do any certain type of diet. I teach people how to eat whole, unprocessed foods, but some of my clients can eat grains with no problem, and some have to be gluten free. Some can have nuts and some can’t. Each body is completely different, each budget is different, each life is different. I do, however, believe that anyone can eat healthy, whole, unprocessed foods, on any budget and with any amount of time.
How much do you cook? The more you can cook at home, and from scratch, the better. Buy the foods that don’t have labels, or if they do, they have only a few very recognizable ingredients. Tons of fruits and veggies, like obscene amounts.
I hope that helps! If you want more details, I offer free initial consultations for my health coaching practice. You can click this link to get that scheduled.
I would also love to have you in my free monthly challenges. Simply enter your email in the bar across the top of the page and you’ll be in!
Thanks for your response. I saw your January Challenge this morning and I believe I will sign up. I do like to cook, I just think sometimes I try so hard to stick to the schedule of certain foods at certain times that I become overwhelm or a bit off and just go pick up fast food which doesn’t help anyone. I know I do much better when I am eating a lot of vegetables and fruits. I even crave such things after the holidays, so I take that as a good sign. Thank you again and I am looking forward to January. Happy New Year!
Hooray, I’m so glad you’re going to join us! It is definitely a good sign that you are craving vegetables and fruits even after a little holiday indulgence. I can’t wait to get to know you better in the group! Please let me know if you have any more questions for me, I’m so happy to help!
Emily! Thank you SO much for sharing your story and your gift. I feel lucky to know about you and your site here. Your recipes are particularly helpful to me! Thank you. Keep up the good work, girl!
Jessica, you are so sweet! Thank you very much!
Food controls me. I really should say sugar is my addiction. I want to learn how to prepare and love nutritious food. I live on junk…
Cindy, then we need to talk! We can fix this for you, don’t worry. Have you snagged the free meal plan? Enter your email address in the bar at the top and get it, that’s a great place to start. Would you like to have a free consultation? Click this link and pick a time that works for you, let’s chat and get a plan in place for you!
Hello, I am drawn to your story as I want to cut out processed foods from my diet and I very much want to lose weight, but I also cannot do a super restrictive food plan . I see that you do Trace Anderson exercise and my understanding is that she is quite restrictive when it comes to eating and caloric intake. Is that how you lost weight? Did you drastically restric the amount of food you were eating or did you simply switch to real, whole foods? I’d be interested for sure in your site and whatever program you have if its really just about switching to real whole foods but I can’t starve myself- I know some people really do have the discipline to eat very little in order to lose weight and my hat is off to them, but if I get overly hungry then I just lose it and eat comfort food. Thanks for any input you can give me.
Hi Nicole! I didn’t follow any of Tracy’s meal plans. I agree with you, starving yourself is no way to lose weight or be healthy! I did watch my portions, but if anything I feel I increased the amount of food I was eating, it just changed to tons of produce and high quality foods. I would love to talk to you more about this! Will you send me an email at Emily@healthbyemily.com and we can find a time to chat?