Choosing Lasting Weight-Loss Solutions Over Quick Fixes

Dina Exercise

(music) Hey, Becca, it’s Traci from Optavia. How are you? – Hey, Traci, how are you doing? – I’m good. I’m excited.

Are you ready to rock or what? – I am. I’m excited and I’m a little bit nervous, but yeah, we’re ready to go. – So I really remember sitting where you’re sitting and starting my journey, so I know I was feeling a little bit of anticipation, but I was also just totally ready to rock it. The most important thing that you can remember is this journey is not about the scale.

It’s about you and getting you healthy and changing what your family looks like for the rest of your life.

You’re creating your legacy with this one decision that’s starting for you tomorrow. Life 82 pounds ago looked a lot different than it does today. I grew up as a size two, tiny little thing, and I found myself as a size 20. That doesn’t happen overnight.

That happens with a lot of bad decisions and a lot of life happening. I was going to work a lot. I was, I guess, a workaholic, trying to manage my family at home, a very busy schedule, a husband that travels a lot, kids that are in all-star cheer, and one in high school cheer, just really all over the place. So most of the day I wouldn’t eat anything, it was coffee and soda. I wouldn’t pay a lot of attention to myself, and then I would go, go, go with the kids and maybe I would run through a drive-through, maybe I wouldn’t.

And then at the end of the day, whatever was in the pantry, take it or leave it, I was eating it. In those 14 years, I carried those extra 100 pounds which was just a series of life, life happened. A combination of complacency, lots of bad choices, giving up, and I think just not understanding how to get out.

I’m trying to figure out how I’m going to get healthy, how I’m going to get my life back. There were a lot of changes going on around me.

My husband had had a bit of a wake-up call, a health scare, and he was getting healthy. And I kept thinking, I really want to be the best version of ourselves. I want to be the best parent. So, I tried everything under the sun. You name it, I have tried it.

And then I found Optavia. I had seen a girlfriend, a picture on Facebook of a before and after, looking amazing. I called her and said, “Help me, I need my life back.” And that’s really the way it went.

The four components of the plan were phenomenal to me.

I got a coach, someone who was there for accountability, cheerleading, knowledge, and support. I loved that I had a coach, but then there’s also this huge community of people on Facebook. We get together, we share recipes, we pick one another up, and we talk about support. The third part is the habits of health. It teaches you not only how to lose weight on the weight loss part of your journey and get healthy, but how to maintain it and keep it off.

I needed that. I didn’t want to lose weight and gain it all back. I needed to have a lifestyle change, one healthy habit at a time. The fourth part of the plan is the food. It comes to my doorstep.

I don’t have to think about it. I didn’t have to pick it. It just came to me, and it told me exactly what to do. Part of the program that I have to incorporate every day is fixing healthy lean and green. It’s a portion of lean protein, and you get three servings of veggies a day.

Preparing that lean and green for myself and preparing it for my family has really taught me what optimal nutrition looks like. It was good for me to say, this is the plan, follow the plan, and get the results. In the beginning, people were commenting on how I looked or just kind of the difference in how it seemed like I was feeling. The things that my kids were saying were just monumental, I think, in my journey.

Anyone could say something to me, but when your kids say something to you, because that’s my why.

You know, my why is to be there for them. I remember one time going to Disneyland and my daughter, Kiana, wrapped her arms around me and she looked up at me and said, “Mom, I don’t think I’ve ever “been able to wrap my arms around you.” And I was like, “Oh, forget it.” The turning point for me was when my mom and my mother-in-law wanted to get healthy and they said, “We’ll get healthy when you become a coach.” I didn’t want to be a coach because I wanted to figure out what my journey looked like, and then I started realizing, how can I say no to changing somebody’s life that I love so much?

And so I said yes, and it was the absolute best decision I’ve ever made.

The time freedom that I’ve experienced in being able to become an Optavia coach has been paramount. I still have a busy life. Things are still moving and shaking. But I’ve literally fit coaching into the nooks and crannies of my life so that I can be a full-time mom so that I can be a full-time wife.

Yes, we still get the kids off to school in the morning, but I don’t report to an office anymore. Not only has the community been amazing accountability for me when I started as a client, but it’s also been amazing accountability for me as a coach to make sure that I am continuing to make those healthy choices. Not only does my family depend on it, but all these people who are now in this thriving community, depend on it.

I mean, it has been such a community of beautiful people. We have made lifelong friendships.

The journey that I thought was going to be all about losing really was all about what I’ve gained. I’ve gained a new career. I’ve gained a new lease on life. I have no limitations. There’s nothing I can’t do.

I can fit on rides at theme parks. I can go zip lining. I can go scuba diving. I can run with my kids.

I can do anything.

All the things that had set me back, this journey has sprung me forward, without a doubt. Truly, the Optavia way is creating space for the life that you want, and I am absolutely living the life that I want. – [Narrator] If you’d like to start your lifelong transformation, find a coach or become a coach yourself.

Visit optavia.com or stop by our website to access health.

tv see you next time…

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