LBC Testimonial from a Long-Term Client (with Hypothyroidism)
Here is a new testimonial I received from a client who I’ve been with for nearly two years now. It’s a great joy to get testimonials like this and it’s precisely why I love my chosen career path so much. Thanks Carrie.
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I have always admired people with a strong, lean physique and wanted the same for myself. I was always the “fat” kid who constantly heard “she’d be so pretty if she’d just lose some weight”. I finally hit my heaviest weight when I was 17, I’ll never forget stepping on that scale and as I saw 265 flash across the display, I was in shock. Throughout my 14 years of being overweight I tried every fad diet out there; the cabbage soup diet, the negative calorie diet, Atkins, Weight Watchers, Slim Fast, frozen meals (better referred to as cardboard), excessive calorie counting (of which my food was not weighed, it was guessed at a scoop of this, a deck of cards of that, you get the idea), low carb, low fat, South beach, Calorie King, Simply Weight Loss, L.A. Weight Loss, diet pills, internet scams, those crazy solar suits; you name it, I’ve tried it. I eventually lost 105 pounds on my own before finding Erik, but not without paying a price both emotionally and physically. 3/4 of the way through my weight-loss journey I was diagnosed with Hypothyroidism. In the beginning I liked to think that my thyroid was to blame for all of the weight gain, a large part of it yes, but all of it, no. After being put on thyroid medication maintaining and losing weight became somewhat easier but it wasn’t and isn’t a magic pill; I still had and have to work my butt off for results.
After 14 years of every diet known to man and endless hours of cardio I continuously found myself looking in the mirror and hating what I saw. I became tired of being sick and tired of disliking myself. I wanted a strong, muscular, and lean physique in place of the “fat cardio bunny” body that I had. I ended up on bodybuiling.com and I started reading articles on fat loss and then I made my way into the BB.com forums. After reading multitudes of information I decided I wanted to work with a trainer. I called a few locals but wasn’t impressed so I turned to the forums in pursuit of online trainers. My search populated two names on the BB.com forums, one of whom was Erik Ledin. I went to both trainer’s websites and requested information. After much research and a quick response from Erik I decided that he was the one I wanted to train with. So thus began my journey with Lean Bodies Consulting in May 2008.
The decision to train with Erik is bar far one of the best decisions I have ever made.
After filling out all paperwork I anxiously awaited to receive my first nutrition/training plan from Erik. I must have checked my email 100 times a day waiting on it; I was like a kid at Christmas. Erik had told me in the beginning that I wouldn’t be eating any foods I didn’t like; this was a new concept to me. I couldn’t believe I was going to be eating foods that I actually liked; a sane way to achieve results, really? No more bland tuna, iceberg lettuce, and no carbs? Needless to say, my view of nutrition and training was somewhere out in left field. I had this bass-ackward notion that cardio/exercise was first and foremost the most important part of the equation and that you had to eat crazy “diet food” to achieve that lean physique and if you messed up or binged then you did more cardio to burn it all off! Well, I quickly found out that is not how it’s done.
I quickly adjusted to the nutrition, enjoying this “diet food”, if you can call it that. I must admit I wondered in the beginning how this was going to work, eating rice, potatoes, beef, oatmeal, and do I dare say it… a free meal? I started delving into Erik’s blogs and reading anything he had written, that’s when I came across “The Paper Towel Analogy” //leanbodiesconsulting.com/blog/the-paper-towel-analogy/ and realized that I must trust him and the process (this wasn’t an easy feat for me, I can be a control freak); much to my amazement Erik was correct, imagine that?
There were times when temptation would strike and I’d give in and then there were those times when life just throws you a curve ball I found myself trying to make the best choices possible, but yet in my mind I was still falling short. This is something that I expressed to Erik in my Biweeklies and his response was “While keeping the ‘bar’ high is good, don’t beat yourself up. Think lifestyle, not diet. In that context, you’re improving in a very well rounded way.” I took what he said to heart. Beating my self up over every little thing was something I’ve been guilty of doing over and over and consequently it has kept me from making progress in the past. I have come a long way by taking those words to heart and making a conscience effort to pay attention to when I’m beating myself up; it has been very freeing!
I started my training with a ton of energy and motivation. I had never trained like this before. The first week of training went great, but the soreness; well I’ve never experienced anything like it before, I felt muscles I never knew I had. When I looked at the training and realized that my cardio was minimal I kind of panicked and wondered how results would come with such little cardio? Again, I told myself trust your trainer; this was something I would tell myself over and over in the coming months. Week after week I found myself getting stronger, faster, and tighter!
Gone were the days of endless cardio and diets that were doomed to fail by binge eating and then running out for seemingly endless cardio sessions to try and compensate. I am like a kid at Christmas when waiting for my updates; I am always excited to see what he has in store for me, even if I can hardly move 24-48 hours later.
Working with Erik has been monumental to me and looking back over the past two years I have become substantially healthier physically, physiologically, and emotionally. Erik helped me reach my all time lowest weight of 127; I never in a million years thought this was possible and was even told by doctors that I would never weigh less than 150 because of my thyroid. In addition, I know that my husband is extremely grateful to Erik; because of him I now lead a normal balanced life. Gone are the meltdowns because a few clothes don’t fit, gone are the days of non-stop movement “cardio in hubby’s terms”, and gone is the depression that came from the random number generator being up a couple of pounds.
I have much appreciation and gratitude for Erik; he has been patient and a huge encourager to me as he’s walked me through the absolute toughest nine months of my life. When my dad passed away suddenly last June I was catapulted into emotions I’ve never experienced and the extreme stress of it all took its toll on my health. My weight loss stopped, my thyroid got out of kilter, and my cortisol levels among a tirade of other issues surfaced. I could not have been blessed with a better trainer, nutritionist, and coach
Erik, thank you for all you have done, for your patience and for setting me straight, and not being easy on me when you know I’m capable of more. I look forward to everything that I know I can and will accomplish with you as my coach and trainer.
In my opinion Erik is by far the best in his field. If you’re looking for real results then you need a trainer and coach with a real life view. Not another fad diet and food that you don’t like. So what are you waiting for, email LBC now!
“Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after the other” – Walter Elliot –
Sincerely,
Carrie Luster, Brandon, MS