OH WAIT. No. I DID do that....and here’s that story 👇🏼
It’s August of 2019: I’m on leave from my job, feeling stuck and lonely in a new city, and I was doing what anyone does when they’re not at work: watching IG stories. Where I came across Erin talking about IFCA (where they teach normal people how to be online coaches), and enrollment was closing in 1 week.
When I saw this, I knew this was the key to live my dream life. I had been a client of online coaches since 2018 and loved the process. So to be helping others with their transformation too? This was my wildest dream!
So I DM’d her, wanting to know about future rounds where I could get in on this, when I knew I’d be *ready*
I had only ever known Erin through her IG, but she always came off as very honest and genuine. So when she told me “we’ll tell you if you’re not ready”, that’s all it took. I applied and had my interview for the following week.
I was fully aware of how crazy this was, but given my current situation...I had nothing to lose. It was just an interview, right?!
But then, it happened. One week later: I was offered a spot, to change my life, so I could change other’s lives. The catch? The price tag was almost everything we had.
How Lance ever gave me the go-ahead to spend our savings for our first house, to take a business course, from strangers, with no business yet...I’ll never know
A declined card, a call to the bank and an emptied savings account later....I was doing this.
6 months later, I can say that day changed my life. I HAD to invest that money in myself to have success. I had to trust myself to be where I’m at now.
IFCA was one of the best, but most challenging experiences ever. I can never say thank you enough to Erin + Jordan for taking a gamble on me, teaching me everything about running a business and forcing me to be uncomfortable 24/7.
Giving your life savings to strangers won’t always change your life for the better, but for me, it did.
So you’re saying I can gain fat by eating salads...? 👀 Say sike right now 🥴
Does the term *sALaD* automatically bank as a ~*diet*~ food in your brain?🥗
Contrary to popular belief, eating salads while you’re trying to lose weight is a fat waste of your time, especially when you’re at a restaurant. Let me explain.
YES they have micronutrients on deck and tons of vitamins and minerals, BUT 9 times out of 10, you can find a lower calorie/more macro friendly entree on the menu than the salad options they have. Weird, isn’t it? 🧐
Even Cheesecake Factory has 700 calorie salads that are within ~10 calories of a piece of cheesecake...is that even legal? 🍰
So why do restaurants do this? Because *health* sells, even if it’s fake health. They create, market and make what people buy.
They’re in the tastebud business, and most of their customers aren’t looking at the nutrition facts anyways. NOT US THOUGH CAUSE WE’RE SMARTER THAN THAT 🤪
They dress salads up and make veggies fancy, so we can FEEL like we’re eating healthy food. When in reality, we could leave more satisfied by just ordering our dream burger in the first place. 🍔 🤷🏼♀️
This is why I’m huge on flexible dieting.
🥗Are vegetables good for you? Yes.
🥗Can you like eating salads? Heck yeah you can.
🥗Will you want to eat a salad every time you go out to eat? Nope.
🥗Is that okay? Yes.
🥗Can you still lose weight AND choose a burger over a salad? 100% you can.
🥗Are salads always the best option? Probably not.
🗣 Not everything is always what it seems. Eat what you WANT, eat foods that you LIKE, FUEL your body at least 80% of the time and don’t deprive yourself of anything. Re-learn how to live a life that gives you everything you want.
BALANCE Y’ALL BALANCE!❕ A calorie deficit is the secret to the fat loss you want to have with the flexibility that you need.
There's way too much information to still be able to keep chugging along in a state of deprivation. THERE IS A BETTER WAY! DM me and let’s get you hooked up 🙌🏼
"My belly button ring makes me look skinny”
That’s a sentence that’s come out of my mouth way too many times since I added this little hole to my body back in 2013.
Because of how teenage me saw it, skinny girls had their belly button pierced, and if I had it pierced then my stomach would be cuter and then I would want to show it off, which would then put me in the same realm as the other skinny beautiful girls...
Right? That’s how that works? If that’s true, that little piece of metal had a big job to do.
It was like that little ring would make my waist look snatched, bring your eye in, and somehow make you think I weighed 10 pounds less than I actually did
Did it work? Probably not. It would be weird if it did.
Sometimes I would even take it out for a day and stare at my stomach and think “I just look so much fatter without it” so I would put that sucker right back in before the hole closed up, because I was fearful of looking on the outside how I felt about myself on the inside.
When was the last time you’ve ever looked at a person with a belly button ring and thought “wow, you know that’s really flattering, they look so much thinner with it pierced” ….LOL PROBABLY NEVER. The thing wasn’t magic Olivia 😂
I made this whole situation up in my mind. It’s not like the belly ring made me drop 10lbs.
I was unhappy with how my stomach looked, thought that getting a jewel to dangle in front of it would cause me to love it, and how I expected that to work is beyond me.
So you’re probably wondering why I’ve still left it in all these years, right? 7 years later, it’s still here, even after a lot of the belly fat has been burned off and melted away.
I kept it in almost in spite of myself thinking that that little piece of metal would impact my self esteem that much.
The belly button ring was like a bandaid on a cut that really needed stitches, it didn’t solve the problem but it helped me not to look at the issue.
But now I see it almost as a tattoo, something to remind me where I used to be, what I used to think and how much I’ve changed since then.
Hopped off the plane in HTX and started sweating because I’m back in 65 degree weather wearing a sweatshirt and a beanie 😂✈️⛅️
The past 5 days have been a whirlwind. I’m exhausted, I’m proud of myself, I’m on FIRE to make some big changes to grow myself and my business and I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS WEEK!
Even though I’m running on less than 3 hours of sleep, watching this dope sunrise from 37k feet was next level. *swipe to see this mornings sunrise from the sky*
I’m going to make a more in depth post about how this past week totally changed my life soon, but for now I need to have slam some breakfast, rehydrate and take a little nap so I can not drag my feet all day 😅
Here’s to continuing to grow, to be uncomfortable and to getting to hug my hubby and puppies just MINUTES from now 🤍🤟🏼
Same spot 5 years later.
2015 → 2020
The last time I was on this bridge, I was 18, going to prom with my smokin’ HOT college boyfriend, getting ready to fill my lactose intolerant body with a vat of mac n cheese and then bust an absolute MOVE AND A HALF on the dance floor.
I was accepted to the University of Cincinnati for Biology-Pre-Med, working at Coldstone Creamery, driving my 2004 Nissan Pathfinder that looked like a safari car, just finished senior tag (*and still to this day never got tagged*) dude this girl’s life was AWESOME but man, little did she know the next few years was about to rock her world.
A lot has happened in the dash between 2015-2020.
I’ve worked a lot of jobs, quit a lot of jobs, if my count is right in the last 5 years I’ve had 8, some at the same time, before starting my coaching business last Fall.
I changed my major too many times to count. Pre-Med, Nursing (or pre-nursing), Education: High School Biology and Early Childhood Education, Communications, and then took a handful of classes in the creative side of things, writing, business...you name it, I either took it, thought about taking it, or enrolled it and then changed my mind before I ever went to class.
I joined a sorority. If you knew me in highschool, you knew that this is something I always wanted to do. I dreamed of having an epic girl gang like the ones you saw in Legally Blonde who would help me get into Harvard and show up to my trial, that kinda thing. Because of greek life, I got to meet so many really fun and kindhearted people, got out of my comfort zone, accepted leadership positions, ran events, threw a bid day, lived in the house...newsflash it’s not like legally blonde, but it’s still pretty cool.
I got engaged and married to the most charismatic, handsome, thoughtful and intelligent man I’ve ever met. He’s way out of my league, always has been. #SCORE Even though he’s not in the second pic here, he’s supporting me behind the scenes now more than ever.
Physically I haven’t grown a bit unless we’re counting muscle mass and mind gains...and the hair LOL
All in all? I wouldn’t be me at 23, if I wasn’t her at 18. 🤍
We had a date today, we went to Kohl’s and the grocery store...LOL
No but seriously, today was so much fun. We had just got home from running our errands for our “day date” and I interrupted Lance playing the Sims to take these pics with me 😂
In 6 years together and over 1.5 married, still one of my favorite things to do is be homebodies together 🖤 you make everything more fun.
Here’s to continuing to work hard for each other, chase our dreams together, and sit on the couch and watch Criminal Minds until our eyes bleed 🤟🏼
#youngmarriedlove
I wasted my time so you don’t have to! 🤩
Over the years I’ve learned a thing or two about what works and what’s a steaming pile of crap 🙃 so here’s some of the lessons I’ve learned the hard way to help you all save some serious time in your fitness journey👇🏼 (*cue the upper bod gains*)
🍞 To lose fat I needed to cut carbs.
Carbs are our bodies #1 energy source! I don’t know how I survived without pasta, bread, potatoes and rice krispies I’ll never know. My diet was sad, I was hungry, tired and *NEWSFLASH* you can lose weight WHILE EATING CARBS!
💊 Buying and using thermogenics/fat burners when my nutrition was a dumpster fire.
Hitting macros? NEVER HEARD OF HER. Buying whatever the person at GNC said would work? I”M IN. I’m not saying these products don’t work AT ALL, but if your 99% isn’t right (training, intake, nutrition, water, sleep, etc.) the 1% won’t make a difference.
🍗 *high protein* automatically meant healthy.
Protein = good. BUT don’t believe everything that is marketed as *high in protein* is actually worth buying. READ YOUR LABELS GIRL!
🥑 You can and WILL gain weight from eating only healthy food.
*Newsflash to past me*: fruits and veggies ACTUALLY DO have calories. Just because it’s the color of the rainbow doesn’t mean it will help you lose weight. Eating too much of ANYTHING = weight gain. Even if it’s healthy.
🥤 That smoothies = weight loss.
I thought this was the secret sauce to being skinny or something?? lol. Throwback to when I would opt for a medium/large smoothie from Smoothie King THINKING I was all things *hEaLtH* when in reality I was just having a liquid high calorie meal instead 🥴
🙅🏼♀️ A quick fix ≠ a permanent solution
Like wrapping my body in oil and plastic wrap to cut water weight was SO DUMB. Because as soon as I was rehydrated again... I GAINED IT ALLLLLL BACK. Want long term happiness in your body after treating it like crap for years? It won’t happen overnight. It’s a marathon y’all, not a sprint!
Even though all of these things were a FAT waste of my time, I would’ve never learned my lesson unless I learned it the hard way 🤷🏼♀️
There’s this one thing that I’ve become obsessive over…
It’s a quote I’ve already shared with my facebook group (“Livelite Free Facebook Community”-open to everyone!) that I read in one of @jensincero books on how to change your money mindset recommended by the queen @kaylinpyles 👑
The quote is: “The invisible world creates the visible world” ….*mic drop*.... 🎤. Short, simple, to the point. But above all, it’s TRUE. Let me put this into perspective and give you an example as to WHY I’ve become obsessed with those 7 words ⤵️
“I can’t give up bread!” / “I can’t run a marathon” / “I’m so broke” / “I’m not smart enough” / “I’m too old/young”
These are all examples of self limiting beliefs...these guys are what keep you broke, out of shape and unqualified for your dream jobs. These invisible guys are our mortal enemy.
We’re estimated to have in between 40k-70k thoughts in one day. ONE! Good, bad, positive negative, right, wrong, whatever we think, our mind accepts as TRUTH whether it is or not.
This can be powerful or crippling, all depending on what our thoughts are. On what we’re feeding our mind.
‼️You will never become financially stable if you can’t stop spewing “I’m poor” out of your mouth. You will never feel beautiful if you only pick yourself apart. You will never find a man who loves you like a rom-com if you’re constantly telling yourself you’re undesirable‼️
Whatever you’re feeding yourself, plugging your mind full of, those are the things that are impacting your life.
Think of our thoughts like food. If we only eat Taco Bell and gas station Icee’s and fuel ourselves with actual crap, how are we going to feel? ....LIKE CRAP 💩 We get out what we put in.
Our thoughts dictate our words, change our actions, they decide who we date, or where we work, or who we hang out with, how much money we have in the bank.
Your MIND is controlling your life.
Your invisible thoughts are CREATING change in your world, regardless of if it’s consciously happening or not. We have to change our mind before we can change our life.
Change the narrative or it’s going to change you.
I’m still 20 pounds away from my goal weight.
Everyone has that number in their head. That weight that they felt their best at, for whatever reason.
For me? That number was 105 pounds.
I was always small growing up, but when I was 16 I remember going through a really bad breakup that resulted in me losing about 10 pounds in just a few weeks...but that’s a story for another day.
Little 16-year-old-post-being-dumped-Liv, looked down at the scale to see 105 pounds and for some reason...I loved that number.
I’m 5’2, so I was never at an unhealthy weight for my height. BUT the missing meals because I was crying, going to track practice on an empty stomach because I had no appetite, living off of snacks instead of forcing myself to eat a full meal…I wasn’t thinking of my health at all.
I wasn’t trying to lose weight. I was just a teenage girl who thought she just lost the love of her life.
I think seeing the scale land on those numbers was the only positive thing I had to focus on at the time.
Fast forward a few years later; where I’m sitting in between 130-140lbs. Incredibly uncomfortable and TBH I just wanted to melt into the baggy clothes I was wearing...while still idolizing my body from when I was 16. 🤦🏼♀️
I remember when I started tracking my food on MyFitnessPal for the first time about 4 years ago, I put my goal weight in as 105 pounds…(there’s that number again).
Since then I’ve lost weight, gained some back, lost some again, gained a little back again, and now I’m sitting just under 20lbs away of what I *THOUGHT* my goal weight was.
I wish past me would have known that I didn’t have to hit that to feel awesome. That number on the scale I used to chase was a number I didn’t reach in a healthy way and was never something sustainable for my body long term.
I’m 20 pounds heavier than I ever thought I wanted to be, but I’m also the most CONFIDENT with my body and the STRONGEST I’ve ever been.
I am so thankful that I’ve found this lifestyle. One that gives me the freedom to look on the outside the same way I’ve always felt on the inside 🖤 DM me and I can help you find this freedom too 🤟🏼
2016: Lookin like a snack → 2020: FEELIN like a snack
Flashback 4-ish years ago: I’m a Sophomore at UC, working two jobs, taking 18 credit hours, an officer in my sorority, a girlfriend & a 19 year old trying to figure out how to cook everything in a microwave...
Wanna know what it looks like to pour from an empty cup? The photo on the left embodied that.
I was focused on being enough for everyone around me I was forgetting to be enough for myself.
It was like my body was that chair in your room that you throw your clothes on (you know the one):
It started with just a shirt, then it was a week's worth of clothes, then a month, then before I knew it, I couldn’t even see the chair anymore because there was so much crap on top...that’s how this weight gain felt. It started slow, but then those +30lbs hit me like a truck.
I mean, I had definitely gained some weight...I stopped running track, nutrition basically meant dr. pepper, leftover pasta from chapter, dining hall cereal....I don’t know what I expected to happen.
A lot has changed since I was that girl on the left.
The ONLY reason why I look different now? Because my priorities have changed.
WE ARE A DIRECT REFLECTION OF OUR PRIORITIES.
2016 priorities: Having fun. Passing my classes. Doing whatever I wanted. Wearing cute clothes. Avoiding FOMO *at all costs*.
2020 priorities: Health. Family. To be a good wife, friend, coach, mentor, leader and example to those around me. To do what feels right FOR ME. To put myself & my families needs first, no more trying to please everyone around me. Personal growth.
I could have been in great shape at 19. I had gym access, healthy food available, workout clothes, all of it. But I didn’t take action. Why?
Because I had to CHOOSE to change. Change was there when I was READY for it. And 2016 me was NOT ready.
If you haven’t realized yet that: closed mouths don’t get fed, $1 Million dollars isn’t going to magically land into your account, you won’t wake up with abs when you keep hitting snooze on your gym alarm...THIS IS THE PART OF THE STORY WHERE YOU REALIZE THAT!
It’s HARD to change. But you know what’s harder? NOT CHANGING.