See my full interview with Dr. Meredith at the bottom of this article.
Dr. Meredith came to me in May of 2021. An OB/GYN with her own successful practice, she has spent more than 20 years delivering babies and helping women through difficult medical events. Married to another busy physician and the parent of three energetic children, many might say she “has it all” – a rewarding career and a beautiful family.
But building a family and a career came with pitfalls. Between 24-hour shifts at the hospital and rushing to school events and sports activities, Dr. Meredith had developed a mean addiction to sugar and caffeine. Though she had always detested her poor diet, the final straw came when a newly released study revealed a link between high sugar diets and the risk of developing dementia. Her family has a history of dementia; not only was her high-sugar diet putting her heart at risk, it was putting her mind at risk, too. It was time to fix her eating habits for good.
Dr. Meredith started by working closely with an integrated medicine doctor to change her diet; this involved lifestyle changes and taking supplements to control her sugar cravings. But it wasn’t working, as had none of the tactics she had tried on her own for the past 20 years.
Dr. Meredith wanted to kick her sugar habit and take back control over her food habits, but she needed personalized accountability, support, and advice tailored to her hectic lifestyle to achieve permanent change.
She needed an online weight loss coach like me.
What is an online weight loss coach?
An online weight loss coach is a professional you work with virtually to help you reach your weight loss goals. An online weight loss coach provides advice, support, feedback and accountability to help you lose weight, live a healthier lifestyle, have more energy, and get more out of life.
An online weight loss coach like myself can teach you to change the way you think about food so that you can achieve your health, weight loss, and body goals without restrictions, diets, or disordered eating habits. A great fit for busy professionals, a virtual weight loss coach allows you to access the support and accountability you need to lose weight and keep it off for good when it works for your schedule – on your own time, from anywhere, on any device you choose.
What does an online weight loss coach provide?
1. Advice that’s tailored to your lifestyle
Weight loss coaching isn’t one size fits all, because women aren’t one size fits all. The things that make us special – our careers, interests, hobbies, families, and relationships – are the fundamental building blocks of life, but also present a set of weight loss challenges that are unique to each individual. An online weight loss coach helps you address these unique challenges to overcome the weight loss barriers specific in your life.
With personalized coaching, you receive dedicated, one on one advice that speaks directly to your lifestyle, preferences, and strengths. Dr. Meredith, for example, needed to learn how to plan for several different scenarios: healthy options for when she’s pulling a 12-hour shift, options for when she was on call, options while traveling, and how to avoid the temptation of a junk food binge from the hospital cafeteria or nearest vending machine after a late night. With me as her online weight loss coach, we were able to identify her specific hurdles and together, create a successful plan to clear them.
2. Easy Access
If you have a busy schedule – and let’s face it, most of us do – an online weight loss coach is the way to go. Dr. Meredith wasn’t able to easily commit time from her chaotic, often unpredictable schedule to commute both ways to an individual weight loss check-in, nor could she stop a delivery to attend a support group meeting. Instead, we were able to communicate through video calls, or quickly through emails and texting. Plus, she could watch video recordings and trainings when it worked for her schedule, like after the kids were in bed.
Compared to traditional, in-person weight loss coaching, online coaching is much more flexible, efficient, and easy to access. If you benefit from group support and you’re worried that online coaching will diminish your sense of camaraderie – don’t. Zoom group meetings are just as effective as gathering in-person. In fact, for Dr. Meredith, witnessing others in the group conquer their own sugar addictions and achieve their own health and weight loss goals was a huge motivator to believe in herself.
3. Support and Accountability
Dr. Meredith explains that it was hard to ask for help – she admits to feeling a sense of shame that she wasn’t able to control her sugar habit on her own for the last 20 years. However, she credits having a trusted online weight loss coach to walk alongside her through this journey fundamental to her success. Similar to a therapist, an online weight loss coach is a dedicated source of encouragement in your life – empathetic and judgment-free.
You might “know” everything you need to do to lose weight, but knowing and implementing are two very different things. When you have an online weight loss coach to support you, it can actually make losing weight less overwhelming. Like so many of us, Dr. Meredith found herself waiting for the “perfect time” to get an online weight loss coach – maybe after that slice of her favorite cake at her daughter’s birthday party next week or after the family summer vacation they have planned to Italy. But if you’re waiting for the perfect time, it will never arrive.
A weight loss coach can help keep you accountable through events where you are tempted to indulge more than you want – and troubleshoot what happened when things don’t go as planned, giving you the opportunity to try something new next time.
For Dr. Meredith, being held accountable for small incremental changes was one key to her success. Meal planning was something she decidedly did not enjoy, but with my support, we focused on making healthy changes to her breakfast, lunch, and snack habits one by one over time. The result was a noticeable increase and ability to sustain her energy levels throughout the day without the eventual sugar crash she had experienced before.
4. Build a Lifetime of Healthy Habits
As mentioned, small, progressive steps are the key to building lasting habits. Not only will I teach you what to eat – I will also teach you a better way to think about eating. Dr. Meredith and I worked together to both adjust her diet for maximum weight loss and change her mindset about food. Now, she trusts herself to make healthy choices on vacation and doesn’t feel awkward when she chooses a glass of sparkling water over wine on a social outing. Through my online weight loss coaching, Dr. Meredith has learned how to successfully navigate her busy lifestyle and overcome her sugar cravings for lasting, sustainable weight loss.
5. Boost Confidence
Dr. Meredith came to me 10 pounds heavier than she was at the start of the pandemic. After a strong start and a commitment to health and exercise with her partner, the chaos of their unpredictable schedules and having her children attend school at home eventually caused her to relapse back into her old, unhealthy habits.
Since we began working together in May 2021 she has lost 20 pounds, 5 inches from her waist, and 5 inches from her hips. “I didn’t even know I had 20 pounds to lose”, she says, but now that the weight is off and she has changed her mindset, she feels excited about waking up every day and getting dressed. In fact, she is 8 pounds lighter than the day she was married over 20 years ago, but with one important difference – she feels healthy and energized. Why? Because she’s now eating intentionally – she isn’t using sugar to temporarily fuel her fire, skipping meals because she’s too busy, and binge eating based on her cravings from starving herself all day.
She now has more confidence. People she hasn’t seen since the pandemic have been noticeably impressed by her weight loss, complimenting her for her hard work on herself while under quarantine. Dr. Meredith explains how that confidence has changed her outlook on life – she now looks forward to clothes shopping together with her 16-year-old daughter for an upcoming trip they planned together – something she used to dread before. Now, instead of shying away from shopping, she gets to spend more quality time with her family AND look good doing it.
Dr. Meredith believed that it was nearly impossible to lose weight after 50, but has been amazed at the results she’s received just from eating well through online weight loss coaching. She’s now able to control the sugar cravings she has struggled with for the past 20 years, has more energy, is sleeping better, has let go of her perfectionist mindset, and her relationships have improved. With the help of an online weight loss coach, she now feels more in control of her body and life.
If you are interested in losing weight permanently with MasalaBody’s online weight loss programs, apply here!
Reader Interactions