Karens Story continued
Karens Story - I wrote this in 2015, 5 years after I developed Fast Track to Health
All of us are aspiring to something, it may be abundant energy, the ability to sleep soundly at night, to be free of aches and pains. The biggest dream that most of us have and find almost unobtainable is to have what is perceived as the perfect body! Now most of us do not have the body type to be an Elle McPherson or a Twiggy (if you aren't of my generation you may not have heard of the latter.) But you can create the best shape body for YOU. In just a few easy steps. I personally have had that journey, as you will find out in the following.
Now I believe we have found a solution which breaks the myths of health and nutrition where you can not only lose weight but reach other health goals such as abundant energy, being able to sleep etc. We will go into more details as we go on so hang on in there the ride is a wonderful one, if you are prepared to make changes after all -Nothing changes if nothing changes!
Since finding this programme my life is transformed (hence the name) I thought it may be of interest to you dear reader to see where I have come from so my story is as follows!
Since I was fourteen I have been on nearly every diet known, I tried a diet from a doctor, the F Plan diet (if you're not sure what F stands for you will do after you or someone you know has been on it a few days, Phew). Eating only carrots for days at a time, which turned the palms of my hands a lovely orange colour, but very little else changed. I moved through each diet plan which promised huge losses and they never came, I used to beat myself up every time stopped my diet thinking I had failed miserably and of course I had. I was never going to be a size 8-10 which seems to be the size that we are told via the media that should all be and that ALL clothes appear to be designed to look good on. I was destined to not be a size 8 my body shape would not allow it unless, of course, I had a muscle-wasting disease. I have a muscular build and in my teens, I was a Very fast short to middle-distance runner who needed large thigh muscles among other things.
Actually, my journey started a few years before that. It was when I was only 11 years old and my friend was convalescing after having both knees operated on. She had been inactive for about 6 weeks. Her mother came into her room with a set of scales and proceeded to weigh us both. At that time I had no problem with how my body was in fact my body worked so well for me and I totally took it for granted. My Friend weighed in at 1 stone lighter than me. I must admit I was a bit shocked as we were of a similar build and we wore the same size clothes. Then her mother got onto the scales as and I weighed more than her and she stood a good 6 inches taller! Of course, she made a comment, which I don't remember what it was but it must have started a touch of doubt in my mind that I was somehow abnormal! I think if that had been the only negative comment I wouldn't have had so much of a problem with my body shape and size. However, another event made a very large impact on my psyche. I was 13 years of age and we were in the science lab and our science master decided to do an experiment. Nothing unusual in that it was an experiment in taking everyone's weight and putting them into an order of weight height and age. You can probably see where I am going with this, however, I will go over it! After all the weights had been taken, boys and girls, together. My weight was the highest out of us all, all thirty of us. Even the boys. I was horrified, I was even heavier than the fat girl in class. I went into a spin, everyone in class started calling me all sorts of names and I started wearing clothes that hid away, whereas before that I wore bright colours and fitted funky styles that were slightly unique. My own style went out of the door and I hid away. I also started to experiment with drugs which is another story altogether.
From that time onwards I would look at myself in the mirror and see a fat blob looking back at me, I couldn't see the great skin, the abundant energy, the ability to think fast and sleep well. Like most of us, I dwelt on the things I couldn't seem to achieve rather than the things that were great in my life. Until I was about 25 I was on one diet or another (upon talking to thousands of clients I know that my story really is a very common one)
At that time I discovered Natural health ( I was on another quest at this time as I was suffering from extreme fatigue but that is another story to be told on another day) I went on another tack, I then tried every detox known to man. I had converted to being vegetarian a few years earlier, as I thought I would lose weight! But of course, I didn't AS time went on I became more and more extreme from veggie to vegan from vegan to raw foodie from raw food to Fruitarian - Fruitarian will only eat foods that are grown above ground.
Leslie Kenton became my guru, (Leslie Wrote a book called Raw Energy) and I followed her with her dietary advice I must admit didn’t feel any of the benefits she said would come about!
Interestingly enough I found that with nearly every new diet/detox on the market, my body never seemed to respond as the author or teacher said it should and I always thought it was my own fault, I obviously wasn’t doing it well enough, it never occurred to me that maybe the science they were working with was flawed. While I was on my dietary regimes I also participated in mega cleanses including daily colonic irrigation whilst doing a juice fast for 10 days, juice fasting for over 30 days, and eating only raw food for months at a time. Oh plus from 1990 I was gluten and dairy free as I had been tested for food intolerances and those two came up, plus I had been told I had candida Albicans overgrowth (if you haven't heard of this it is fungal that when it proliferates it can cause thrush) so I avoided sugar. Well, I thought I had avoided sugar, I will go into more detail later on about that one. To be honest none of these programmes worked for me! Sometimes I did lose weight but as soon as I went onto 2-3 meals a day the weight went back on. When I hit middle age it got harder and harder to lose it and easier and easier to put more on. I am sure if you have struggled with your Weight this story is a very familiar one.
The great thing about doing all of this is the amount I have learnt along the way, I know that if I had not had this struggle I would never have been able to come up with the programme we have and I would not have met the inspiring teachers and clients I have had the pleasure of working with along the way.
I worked and trained in many different modalities Like colonic irrigation, Nutrition, Reflexology, Nutrition, medical herbalism, The Journey with Brandon Bayes and Bio-energy medicine (this encompasses many other healing arts, like homoeopathy, aromatherapy and flower essences as well as using machines to ascertain how the energy is flowing in a person body and where the blockages are). I also did an apprenticeship with a quantum Physicist who helped me learn so much, including creating my own powerful remedies and homoeopathic remedies (as well as so much more!)
I should have been firing on all cylinders and feeling amazing, but I didn’t feel as well or look as good as I knew I could. I was always searching for “The Way” which was health Nirvana.
Admittedly I had glimpses of my potential then it just seemed to slip away and I would feel fat and bloated again. I would then go into a depression until in my quest I hit upon another programme which would be the cure for all my ills!
This went on until I had my 50th birthday ( about 4 years ago ) I was in despair I was doing all the right things, I was exercising daily for 1 to 1.5 hours taking what I considered to be all the right nutrients. I was eating tiny meals 3 times a day (because of course breakfast is the most important meal of the day!). My weight was going up, up, up! Month by month I felt my clothes getting tighter and tighter. Even worse, we went on a holiday to Bali and it should have been the best of times, as we had three weeks of relaxation, the first for many a year and I felt awful, everything I put on was tight, as I looked in the mirror, I didn't see me I saw a fat Middle-aged woman who was bearing a striking resemblance to my Grandmother. My Grandmother was considerably older than 50, more like 80 in the last photos I have of her. This was such a big shock. It seems remarkably shallow that such a thing as weight can ruin a wonderful experience like a holiday but it really can. If you don't feel good about how you look and feel you cannot enjoy life to the fullest extent. When we returned I had a look at the photos we had taken, I hadn’t managed to keep out of a couple I looked terrible, miserable and fat! If you are reading this for someone else and you are not overweight yourself you can never understand what it feels like to despise this body it was truly a desperate time.
The reason I am telling this story is to show that I am not just some natural health junkie who has got on the weight loss bandwagon I really have been there and know what it feels like to be in your shoes. -
I will continue - After the holiday I felt as though all doors had closed on me, I had tried everything (or so I thought) I went through all of my wardrobes and turfed out the clothes that no longer fitted. I had saved for those slim days but those days had long since past. I could no longer even put my arms or legs into most of them Some of them were beautiful designer clothes that I had bought when I worked in a clinic in London.
I was so fed up with myself and it was an incredibly dark time in my life where I felt that if I couldn't achieve this very simple thing like losing weight how could I help clients achieve their health goals? I was after all so far away from mine. Personally and professionally I was at an all-time low, I even stopped reading and researching, that was a major for me as one of my passions is to search for answers. Again it was if I can't find the answer to my minor issue how can I help others?
This went on for nearly a year until I decided to look back at my own experiences. I created a program called “detox your Allergies” in 2006 and started to follow the food guide. Plus doing intermittent fasting (which wasn’t called this at the time as it was before this became a thing!)
So 2 meals a day lunch and dinner which was easy for me.
I felt so much better, but the weight didn’t come off. So I started to research deeper - found that we put on weight because of being under stress. This opened to door, to me finding the solution and the formula quite simply started to work.
Once I had started on my programme clients and friends started noticing after only a few days as the weight was dropping off me. I lost 11.2kg (which is 24.6lb, 1.76 stones). In just 40 days I looked and felt better than I had in years. After that my business just took off and I found myself looking after clients who were in a similar position to what I had been doing only a few weeks previously. Well after that I went on to lose another 10kg (22lb which is another 1.5 stones). I then felt amazing in my body and didn't feel out of place going into shops, in fact, clothes shopping has become a pleasure rather than a chore. Perhaps the very best thing about all of this is that I no longer blame myself for not doing things right, for not being good enough and for not being successful. After all of this time I have found out just a little of what I was capable of and we have seen thousands of clients do the same.
