Client Success Story: 30 Pounds Down with At-Home Workouts
Today’s client success story features Bridget, a freelance interior designer from the U.S. who lives in Milan, Italy. Bridget and I have been working together for six months, and I have been thrilled with her progress – both in terms of her fitness and her mindset. She has had incredible results, all with at-home workouts and outdoor cardio.
One thing about Bridget that inspires me most is her healthy self-image. Wherever she is on the scale (which, at the moment, is down by 30 pounds), she radiates a calm and neutral outlook on herself. Her balanced sense of body image has allowed her to peacefully target weight loss as a goal without tying her well-being to the number on the scale.
“I don’t treat workouts as a punishment for being overweight anymore. In fact, I don’t treat them as anything other than a regular part of my routine to keep myself healthy, like brushing my teeth. I still don’t love working out – I’m not sure that I ever will, but I’ve come to accept that I don’t need to love it in order to do it. I love the way my body feels when I work out regularly, and I love the sense of accomplishment I feel afterward, and that alone is reason enough to do it.”
I wish I could extract this mindset from her brain, bottle it, and give it to everyone I know!
The rest of this post will be in Bridget’s own words. Enjoy!
“It was difficult to keep a regular routine…”
I work in design as a freelancer, and live mostly in Italy, although I am originally from the US, and spend a few months each year visiting family back in the States. Because of this, it was difficult to keep a regular routine due to the fact that I traveled so much. My fiancé and I and live in a small Italian town, so facilities like a gym aren’t regularly accessible to me, and while the quality of the food in Italy is incredible compared to the standard in the US, it can be difficult to create a balanced diet when the majority of dishes are centered around carbs.
Rachel here: although many of us have experienced the paradox of eating tons of carbs in Europe and coming back lighter (or at least the same weight), most working Italians who don’t live in major cities don’t walk 20,000 steps a day like tourists do. Bridget pointed this out, explaining that her weight struggles had escalated when she moved from Milan to a smaller town. Working from home in a suburban area radically changed her metabolic output, and required that she make nutrition changes.
“There was no change, so what’s the point?”
Before working with Rachel, my biggest frustration was that when I was trying my best, eating (what I thought was) a balanced diet and running 4-5 times a week, I couldn’t make any progress. I felt like even if I had discipline, there was no change, so what’s the point?
I got engaged at the end of the summer, and having a firm date in mind that I wanted to see improvement by really helped me solidify weight loss not as just something I hoped to do eventually, but as a solid goal with a timeline and metrics to reach.
I also came to the realization that weight loss and getting healthier isn’t something that we innately know, so reaching out for help isn’t extreme in any way. If I can ask for help from a professional to teach me to speak Italian, why shouldn’t I reach out to a professional to help me reach my health goals too?
“I had almost accepted that I wouldn’t be able to make any more progress…”
Before working with Rachel, I really thought that in order to lose any significant amount of weight, it would practically have to become your whole personality. Considering that I was trying so hard but getting nowhere, I felt almost impossible to try harder than I was, so I had almost just accepted that maybe I wouldn’t ever be able to make any more progress.
Once I started working with Rachel, though, I realized that it was actually about working smarter, not harder. I could put in the same amount of effort (or even less!) than I already was and see consistent results every week. It made me realize that while discipline with yourself is important, it won’t get you anywhere without the right strategy.
Now, I’ve lost 30 pounds in 6 months, as well as 4.5 inches off my hips and 5 inches off my waist.
“I love the way my body feels when I work out regularly…”
I don’t treat workouts as a punishment for being overweight anymore. In fact, I don’t treat them as anything other than a regular part of my routine to keep myself healthy, like brushing my teeth. I still don’t love working out, I’m not sure that I ever will, but I’ve come to accept that I don’t need to love it in order to do it. I love the way my body feels when I work out regularly, and I love the sense of accomplishment I feel afterward, and that alone is reason enough to do it. You don’t think about whether or not you “like to shower”, but you shower anyway because it’s good for you and it is necessary, and you feel clean afterward.
“I started paying attention to protein…”
I stopped being so afraid to eat meat, and started paying attention to protein. I really think that this was the main part of my diet that changed, and it made a huge difference. I also started trying to balance individual meals more, rather than accounting for the food I was eating in a whole day. I had always approached each meal with the mindset of, “How do I make myself full with the least amount of calories?” Now, I approach a meal with the goal of actually filling my body with nutrients.
“My Body Composition Had Changed…”
Last November I was a bridesmaid in a friend’s wedding. The dress that I wore was quite tight, but it was largest size I could get, so I made it work. This November I tried on that same dress, and even though I weighed slightly MORE this year than I did last year, the dress was way too large on me, because my body composition had changed.
Side note from Rachel here: Over 6 months, Bridget’s body fat percentage has decreased by 9%. This is because she introduced strength training into her life, instead of only running. So in practical terms, this means that even though she was “heavier” (on the scale) than she had been the year before, she was actually leaner and smaller than she had been. This is the power of strength training, and why I recommend it for all my clients!
“You don’t have to dislike your body to want to change it”
I actually never had a particularly bad body image, I have always more or less liked my body, regardless of my weight. I did, however, know that it wasn’t as healthy as it should be. I think that once we set the date of our wedding, I realized that as we will be trying to have kids in the next few years, it was important for me to start focusing on my health also for the benefit of my future kids.
I never felt like my body was necessarily limiting me from doing anything that I wanted to do, but I also was able to accept that statistically I was putting myself at risk for health problems. You don’t have to dislike your body to want to change it, in fact I think that reframing my perspective from exercising as almost a punishment for being overweight to exercising because I love my body and want to take care of it was one of the most substantial perspective shifts that I’ve made.
“Discipline is something that is practiced…”
The consistency and routine and prioritization of your physical health is contagious and will seep into the other parts of your life. I have found myself having more discipline in my work, in my social boundaries, and even in my hobbies since I have been working with Rachel, because discipline is something that is practiced. Self-care is synonymous with “overall life-improvement” because it does improve more of your life than just your body – it helps you take control of your mind as well.
Rachel here again! There are a few keys to Bridget’s success that I wanted to share:
- Bridget was highly consistent with her home strength training program! Just today, I received a notification that Bridget has completed her 75th strength workout in our six months working together. This means that she did an average of 2.9 workouts each week for six months, all at home. This doesn’t include cardio, which she also did twice per week. Even when she traveled, she did her travel workouts and stayed consistent.
- Speaking of cardio, we worked on balancing enjoyment with discomfort. Because she typically runs outdoors and doesn’t enjoy doing speed work (but I knew that doing some speed intervals would be an asset to her goals), we compromised on doing one leisurely run per week, and one interval run that really pushed her pace. This way, she only has to get into that “discomfort zone” once per week, and she could mentally get through it.
- In terms of weight loss, Bridget focused on very realistic nutrition changes. Instead of overhauling her eating lifestyle and going on a strict diet, she modified her meals to include more protein and vegetables. In the process, she had to create more give-and-take in meals with her fiancé – she developed better boundaries around her eating (rather than “going with the flow” and eating more pizza and pasta than she really wants for herself). But at the same time, she didn’t make restrictive changes – she simply made the “core” of her eating stronger and healthier and more consistent.
- When we started working together, she had been using Noom in her weight loss attempts, and – like so many calorie tracking apps – it had placed her goal at about 1200-1300 calories. For context, Bridget is 5’11” – this calorie level was absurdly low. We actually started by raising calories to a manageable level for her body, and – like so many of my clients experience – this helped dramatically with being able to stick to nutrition changes. Just a friendly reminder that ultra-low calories can really backfire!
Bridget is well on her way to her wedding goals, and I’m so happy for her that she is living a balanced life and meeting her goals!
If you want to tackle the same lifestyle transformation that Bridget did, schedule a call to chat with me about my Signature Transformation Program. I’d love to hear about your goals and create a personalized plan for you, too!
Additional Reading
If you’re interested in reading some related topics, check out these articles I’ve contributed to:
“Is It Bad to do the Same Workout Every Day?” – I was interviewed for this article for Popsugar, and honestly this was an issue for Bridget (and maybe for you too)… she was literally only using cardio (specifically running) for her weight loss efforts prior to working together
“8 Small Home Gym Ideas for When You’re Short on Space” – I contributed to this article for Rent., and I also have my Product Recommendations page for good home equipment
“You Don’t Need a Meal Plan for Weight Loss” – this is a blog post from my own site, that really reflects how nutrition coaching works with my clients, including Bridget – it’s not a meal plan!
