BRUTAL HONESTY SUCKS! BUT, SO DOES STAYING STUCK.

Have you ever had or do you have that friend who is just brutally honest with you? Like, Mike Tyson, knockout brutal?

When I was in college. Kelcey was that friend to me. I was at my dorm, emotional having just lost a family friend, stressed about finals, exhausted, depleted, and hungry af! Kelcey came to visit. And after listening to me cry and lose my shit, Kelcey lovingly said, “Lin, you need to pull it together, you are literally gray.” 

Me, in disbelief, “No, I’m not!” 

“Yeah, you are, and it’s not ok. You are stressing yourself out, an emotional wreck, basically killing yourself and for what?!”

There were a few more loving words shared, but that day Kelcey held up the mirror that I needed, to see the damage I was doing to myself. 

I placed a lot of pressure on myself (and still do sometimes) in college to get good grades, be social, look good, and dance it up as much as I could. Sound familiar to anyone? At this time I stopped eating red meat because of all the high saturated fat and heart disease related reporting around it. So I ate a lot of salad with chicken, yogurt and fruit, and anything else that I deemed  low-fat and “healthy.” I would go to the gym, work off as many calories as I could, get back to my dorm, study and do it all again the next day. 

As you can imagine, over time this lead to weight loss and complete depletion. I became anemic (not a big shocker) and also hypoglycemic (this was more of surprise). With solid evidence that I needed to change my diet, I started eating red meat again, took iron supplements for awhile, and started to incorporate more protein into my diet. Things got better, and I felt better. 

Kelcey’s intervention was the start of longer journey for me towards loving and honoring my body and recognizing that I am enough and deserving of love and appreciation. It’s not something I need to earn. It’s not something any of us need to earn. It’s these lies, these stories that I told myself and I know countless other women tell themselves that hold us back from reaching our full potential, trying something new, or just feeling confident enough within ourselves to succeed. 

Reaching a certain number on the scale or fitting into a certain size does not define you and more importantly, it does not equal health. Being thin or skinny does not equal being healthy or happy. Neither does pushing a little harder, placing our feelings aside, hoping it will all be worth it. I’ll be happy, then. THESE ARE LIES! And at 41, I am tired and no longer interested in lying to myself. 

Here’s what I know to be true. Health is an inside out job. Food is not only energy, but it can be the best medicine we can give ourselves. As Dr. Mark Hyman says, food is information and the better information we give our bodies, the stronger and healthier and fitter they will become. I have lived this truth and now I want to share all that a I have learned and the tools I have picked up along the way to help you become the healthiest, happiest, most vibrant you there is so you can feel truly free to enjoy life.