You're in the right place.
My personal training session was starting in 9 minutes and I was shit scared.
Literally.
I had arrived 20 minutes earlier at the gym. My mind pictured the torture I’d be going through in a few minutes.
Sweating, I raced to the bathroom and stayed there until I had to come out or forfeit my money for that session.
The worst part? I kept thinking this is what you do for health. I just accepted it.
I had come out of the doctor’s office for the fourth time after experiencing shortness of breath and other unexplainable symptoms for months.
I had gone through five doctors in eight months. Every one of them told me: nothing wrong. I felt like I couldn’t trust them anymore.
None told me what I should focus on - spoiler alert: my diet and fitness.
I found out later that out of 6 years of medical school, doctors spend nearly zero time on nutrition.
You know, the preventative stuff that reduces medical bills.
Luckily for me, I am a normal person who Googles my symptoms.
I found articles telling me some of my symptoms could be caused by my diet. So I started changing my diet.
And I started seeing the episodes become less and less frequent. I figured I should go all in on my health changes.
And the fastest way I could see to get there was to skip all the trial-and-error by hiring a coach.
You ready for this?
We're getting down and dirty.
Looking back, I was so naive.
I didn't know that finding a coach who puts me first isn't a quick Google or Yelp search away.
And worst of all, I didn't have enough know-how to even comprehend when I wasn't being put first.
Since I believed that exercise is the main contributor to health, I hired personal trainers.
You know, the ones who've clearly done this all before. Guess how many of them pulled me aside to say:
"Hey Richa, you know that the exercises you're doing with me are, like, 20% of what's gonna move the needle for you, right?"
Zero.
Nada.
Sigh.
I told them "Look, I have never worked out in my life. I just want something that gives me longevity. I don't care about six-pack abs or whatever."
And yet I had one personal trainer who'd put me through such a wringer that before every session, I'd be shit scared. Yep. That's how I ended up here.
Then I had another personal trainer who'd shout "summer arms!" at me as I did numerous bicep curls. The whole time I'd be thinking "who wants summer arms?" Also: "what are summer arms?"
At some point through this mess, I realized what I eat matters.
I visited a nutritionist who gave me a meal plan of salads and chicken breasts 😢.
I told her that while I understand I need to eat vegetables, I detest raw vegetables.
But she seemed to take the attitude that it was salads or the highway!
Do you think any of this was going to last for me?
Hell no!
Do you think my coaches knew their stuff won't last for me?
Probably not.
How could they not know?? They are coaches for goodness sake!!
Psst...I'll let you in on a secret I learned after hiring numerous coaches and talking to other coaches as a coach myself.
They tried that got them to where they are now, and they believe that what they are teaching you is it. That nothing else works or is actively harmful.
This is like saying kindergarten to junior year of college were useless because it was during my senior year of college that I landed a job.
The reality is that each stage/method you try prepares you to accomplish the next stage/method in your journey to life-long health and fitness...
...provided of-course that the sequence of the stages/methods is in the correct order for you.
For me, the first method I tried was calorie counting.
It helped me understand where foods fall in the nutrition vs. calories per volume spectrum.
While it's true that when I stopped calorie counting I regained 10 lb over 2 months, it gave me the foundational knowledge needed for my next method - losing weight by trying to balance my food groups.
Without this knowledge I'd have been where some of my clients are at when they start with me - eating almost entirely nutritious foods and yet struggling to lose weight.
And practicing balanced food groups prepared me for eating mindfully, that is, listening to my body's signal of when to stop eating.
Without having practiced balanced food groups, my body would have never known what satiety feels like, and so it would never have given me a lasting "full" signal.
And this is just my path.
Methods like intermittent fasting, meal timing, Keto and high intensity cardio, to name a few, never personally stuck for me, but I have seen each work really well for some of my clients.
Just because something didn't last for me doesn't mean it won't last for you.
And as a coach it's my responsibility to recognize when which method is a good fit for each of my clients.
If a coach doesn't do this for you, then the "personalized" tagline on their website means nothing. They are confusing "personalized" with "I will answer questions about my one, narrow method".
True personalization is about really listening to your goal and creating a roadmap for you that's fitted to you at each point in your journey - no matter what your coach's personal journey looked like.
True personalization is to read deeply into your question and answer what you're really asking.
For example, a client asking "which exercise causes most weight loss" is really asking "what is the best way to lose weight".
A bad coach would answer at face value - "high intensity cardio".
A good coach would answer "Exercise is secondary for weight loss. You need to focus on your nutrition."
And if nutrition is not the coach's speciality, then it's their responsibility to be honest and direct you to the right experts even if it's not them or their friends.
If you've been looking for this kind of personalized coaching, then...
You won't starve.
You won't need to exercise daily.
You will not have to give up your social life.
You won't obsess. The process won't take over your life.
This is not cookie-cutter coaching.
We teach you how to create a plan that's uniquely fitted to you by diving deep into your:
Goals: Not just "weight loss" but "why that number", "by when" and a reality check of trade-offs.
Medical: If you have a hormonal condition like PCOS or metabolic damage, then that effects the timeframe, trade-offs and plan.
History: Our shortcut. We learn what are the things that worked or didn't work in the past, so we can skip unnecessarily learning it all over again.
Behavior patterns: Then we dive deep into why those things worked or didn't work. We plan ahead for when those behavior patterns are going to get triggered again.
Lifestyle: We hone the plan based on your schedule and people, as they are make-or-break when it comes to your ability to follow-through.
Preferences: We tune based on foods you like, exercises you enjoy, and any diet or workout program you're specifically interested in trying or specifically want to avoid.
A plan fitted to you is useless if you don't follow-through on it.
And this is exactly where things tend to derail. Because life can't be neatly planned to a tee.
Surprise team lunches?
Hungry all the time?
Stress triggering overwhelming need for comfort food?
Unlike other programs:
You just send us a photo of your food and we return you all the nutritional information, so you know exactly how to adjust for the rest of your day.
We make things as convenient as possible for you by arming you with clear knowledge of your options in unplanned situations.
We coach you through breaking unhealthy cycles because as science shows, that's how you're most likely to make lasting changes.
Everyone inevitably gets stuck. Everyone.
What separates those who succeed is how smart they were in their experiments to get unstuck.
You're going to be one of them by:
Being guided on how to track progress correctly. (Yes, it's not just jumping on a scale).
Knowing if you're making progress fast enough and precisely what to do if not.
Evolving your plan continually based on what has worked well and what hasn't.
Having coached 100+ clients, we have not seen a single successful client's final life-long habits match exactly one diet or workout plan out there. Not. A. Single. Client.
Our mission is to demystify weight loss and help you create your compass that guides you toward your True North - your true habits, tools and beliefs for success.
We've been in the trenches with 100+ clients. We didn't just hand out a pdf and touch base every month. We went through the highs and lows on a day-to-day basis with each client.
What this means is we've seen it all. When the client is doing everything perfectly and not making progress - is this normal? How many weeks is it normal for?
When a client feels they are making slower progress than normal. Are they? And even if their progress is normal, what are the 1-2 things to change to speed things up without killing the joy out of life?
Twice-a-week, you can jump on a Q&A call with us. We're here to take the guesswork out of what's normal and how to take control of your progress rate.
In our private community, you can post your questions, problems and frustrations anytime, and get them answered by Richa and Lucy within 24 hours.
Get support and form accountability groups within the community to hold yourself accountable to staying on-track.
Think of this course as Choose Your Own Adventure with a Personal Map and On-Demand Guide.
It is a roadmap from >30% (for women) and >20% (for men) body fat to <30% and <20% body fat.
Each body fat stage requires you to master 3 pillars: nutrition, exercise and mindset.
Within each pillar, you can choose your own adventure (e.g. your preferred eating plan, workout plan, etc.).
And within each chosen adventure are easy to hard habits you must master to up-level to the next body fat stage.
This is by far the most comprehensive, holistic, and step-by-step course you will find on body transformation.
Just take a photo of what you're eating, and we'll take care of figuring out the nutritional information for it.
You'll receive a food report after you log showing you exactly how you're doing against your nutrition goals.
Did you know the FDA allows up to 20% inaccuracy on nutrition labels?
We've built a system that takes USDA's data and combines it with real-world data of our clients to optimize for progress at your check-ins without leaving you hungry.
Nothing derails a plan like eating out. No more!
Whenever you're headed to or are at a restaurant, just message us, and we'll tell you exactly what to order to stay on-track while still loving your food.
As someone who injured myself a lot when I first started exercising, I cannot stress enough the importance of having a good coach correct your form.
And no, YouTube videos are often not enough. Just look up "Russian Deadlift Dumbbell Form" right now and you'll notice 5 different videos doing it 3 different ways.
The truth is there are good guidelines but your skeletal structure overrides what your good form looks like.
You can simply take a video while doing your exercises, send it to us, and we will correct your form.
