Barbora, a lawyer
Barbora, the lawyer, has undergone an incredible change in three months. She improved her relationship with food, started moving more, and even got married 
In the beginning, she felt restricted by food and thought her food wasn’t good enough.
“I always treated food as a necessity. where I had early thoughts of, God, you can’t have this, you can’t have that, you can’t have a lot of that…I was tired of all of those thoughts about food.”
This exhausted her mentally and physically.
Because of her workload, one of the problems for her was food on the go.
“Sometimes, even when I had food to go, sometimes the problem was that I would come home in the evening and I wouldn’t want to think what to make for dinner.”
With small steps, she made big changes.
The first win was her realization that subconsciously she had limiting thoughts about food.
When she started eating more, she noticed pleasant changes – she noticed smaller measurements, began to feel less bloated and felt more energy.
She incorporated more movement into her daily activities. Not in the gym, but in the form of regular exercise. This was problematic for her in the beginning because she has a sedentary job. But she figured out that when she picks up laundry or washes the kitchen, the steps add up.
What I want to point out is not only her relationship with food and exercise, but more importantly her determination to create new habits. Three months before, she couldn’t imagine preparing her own food. It was very tiring for her.
What were your concerns before we started working together?
“Myself. I think a lot of people try 1500 things that don’t really work or they don’t follow through because there’s no learning involved, it’s more of a trial and error, and then when it fails 1000 times, that person has an automatic fear of trying something new because they think it’s going to turn out the same way it’s turned out 1000 times before.”
How was coaching beneficial to you?
“In a lot of things. Apart from learning about eating and nutrition as such, it gave me a lot in those moments when you need to hear ‘no, what you did is not bad’. One needs a mirror at times, but loud. I need the kind of mirror that tells me that when I am on a trip for 3 days, nothing happens. I need to be reassured a lot of times about everything, so this was a big help for me. And when I had a problem or a question, I was sure I’d get an explanation, and that made it better.”
Who does she think would find it useful to work with me?
“Probably with anyone who has a goal to lose weight, but realistically even people like me, because my priority goal wasn’t to lose I don’t know how many pounds. So for people like that who need to learn to be at one with that diet, to accept that diet is not something bad, that it’s not something that’s out there tyrannizing us in the world.”
Who wouldn’t that be appropriate for?
“For someone who doesn’t want to listen, for those who aren’t open to get advice.
You need to think about it as well. It’s not that you end a consultation call and that’s it. It’s also about the learning. You have to repeat yourself.”
How much of the time, other than our calls, did you focus on food?
“I was battling with food, so I think quite a lot. But I’ll sum it up by saying that I sacrificed a lot of time for my own good. If I don’t want to, I don’t have to. Apart from when I was at work, when I had time to think about it in the morning, I would think about it in the morning, over coffee, over tea. From an hour to three hours in my free time.
We all have to eat. But in the past I would go to the fridge and picked a few things, but now I’m thinking about it.”
Nowadays, she almost automatically thinks about prepping in advance, and when she goes on work trips, she prepares her food in advance because she knows she has more energy and less stress afterward.
“I always had food on the road as if I was at home.
It was easier to manage because I had a set routine of what I was going to take with me in the car. Sometimes, even if I had food on the go, the problem I had was that then I’d come home at night and I wouldn’t want to think what to eat for dinner. Now I prepare dinner ahead of time and I knov I am going to eat. So I have already cleared that up, and organized it, and that is great.”
Plus, by taking action, she gained confidence.
“Even if there’s a moment where I don’t feel like it, which I sometimes do, I can imagine getting back on track within a couple of days. What I would have once confidently said is that if I quit, I wouldn’t get back on track.”
Barbora is an example of how determination and small steps lead to big changes.