Q: Tell us what brought you to WLA:

“I am 48. My goal is to hit the age of 50 healthy, trim, and injury free. I tried an extreme diet years ago and was able to drop 60 pounds rapidly, but since that time it all came back. My metabolism felt slow, my body no longer cooperated with me, and I felt out of control.”

Q: How did this program compared to the programs you have done in the past?

“I was blown away by the amount of materials, and truthfully it overwhelmed me. That first week I wondered if it was possible to drink all that water and walk every day. I realized really quickly that this program was different than anything I had ever tried and I was shocked by how easy these changes happened. Having the group go through the changes together made it fun, and by the first week I was encouraged and excited, something I hadn’t felt in a long time.

Q: What are some of the changes you experienced during the program?

“Within the first 3 weeks my wedding ring finally fit. I lost a total of 16.5 pounds in 8 weeks. Also, I noticed the tingling and numbness I would feel in my hands and arms when I would drive long distances suddenly stopped becoming an issue. But probably the biggest difference was the noticeable shift in my thought life. I felt happier, more uplifted, but most of all, my mind was expanded with all the incredible information I was learning about health, nutrition and the mental process behind changing my habits.”

Q: What makes you think you won’t just gain the weight back like you did before?

“Well, I have rearranged much of my life around the habits I need to continue to make progress. Since the program ended I have lost another 4 pounds in 2 weeks. The time and values management pieces have helped me put first things first and keep the habits I know are essential for my ongoing weight loss.”

Q: You said you followed diets before. What is the difference between how you ate on your previous diets and how you ate during the WLA?

“While on this program I ate balanced meals, I cooked all of them myself, and created a ton of new habits around food. I actually love to cook, and found so much pleasure cooking and eating food I made from scratch. We were encouraged to use real, wholesome normal food. Not once was I instructed to count calories, or measure portions.  After learning about how much of the convenience foods I was eating before was negatively impacting my weight and overall health, I was even more motivated to up my kitchen skills. I won’t be going back.

Q: How do you see yourself differently than you did before the program?

“I feel more knowledgeable and more equipped to live a healthy, movement-rich life.  I feel like I’ve gained confidence in my cooking skills…I actually use pots and pans now, and have to run the dishwasher at least once a day! And we bought a treadmill…not for throwing clothes on top of, but to actually walk on! I see myself as stronger and more active, better suited to take care of two wild and crazy boys. I also no longer feel like it’s selfish to take care of myself.”

Q: Before the program, what thoughts did you wrestle with related to your health or body composition?

“I saw myself as a horrible eater, who had pretty good metabolism that had started to slow down in the last couple of years. I was exhausted all.the.time and felt like my kids and husband had a crappy mom/wife that was lazy and that could barely take care of them, let alone myself. I just felt flabby and felt ugly in all my clothes. Even getting dressed in the morning was difficult, because I never liked the way I looked and would rather just have a pajama day vegging out on the sofa.”

Q. How are those thoughts different now?

“I know that I worked extremely hard and was successful in my journey. I am proud of all that I was able to accomplish and know that this journey was not just for myself, but for my family as well. I can do hard things and come out at the end better than before. I have more energy, less stomach discomfort, able to sleep through the night, and actually enjoyed trying on clothes at the store.”

Q: In what way has the program changed your life such that you will never be the same person?

“I now understand what ingredients to look for on food labels and know which choices are healthier for my body. I now feel confident that I can make meals (pretty much from scratch) instead of purchasing processed, packaged foods and heating them up in the microwave.  I have experienced the benefits of walking on a daily basis and actually miss it when I’m in the car for long periods of time or at other events that require a lot of sitting.”

Q: What has been the biggest change you have noticed going through the program?

“I have a much higher energy level and rarely take a nap during the day now. My core feels stronger, and my pants fit better around the waist. Also, I don’t feel as depressed and don’t have as many self-defeating thoughts as I did before. I have more “I can do it!” thoughts run through my head when it comes to doing exercises and when I turn down foods that I know aren’t good for me.

Q: What has been the biggest change other people have noticed about you since doing the program?

“Both my mom and my husband both have commented numerous times how I have so much more energy now... My husband would come home from work and find me napping on the sofa almost every day, but now he comes home and finds me walking on the treadmill. People are shocked when I tell them I’ve made my own soup…NOT from a can! And my sister said I “looked tiny!” Tiny has never been a word to describe me. Still wouldn’t say that is accurate, but she obviously noticed I had lost some weight. Everyone’s comments have really made me feel good.

Q. What physical symptoms/conditions did you wrestle with before the program and how have they changed since going through it?

“I came into the program with chronic neck pain. I would not sleep through the night and would toss and turn because I could not get comfortable. I would switch back and forth between two pillows. I took multiple medicines to try and keep the pain away. I also didn’t do well with dairy. I would take at least 2 Lactaid pills with almost every single meal. I also had a lot of heartburn every night and frequently took medicine to relieve the pain. I also have suffered from depression and anxiety for years. I have been taking Prozac for awhile. 

Since going through this program, I have not taken any Lactaid pills and haven’t had issues with any of the dairy I’ve had. I believe I have only had heartburn once or twice, and that was due to having eaten too much. I reduced my dosage of Prozac and have been doing well. I’m hopeful that I will be able to completely get off of it in the near future. I still suffer from neck pain, but I will say that I now have been sleeping through the night and have been able to stick to one pillow through the whole night.  I do think it isn’t as bad as before though.

Q: What has the program done for you that you think it could do for someone else?

It has empowered me to cook, move, and know how to make healthy choices. It’s helped me lose weight, drop my metabolic age, and helped knit me into a wonderful community of like-minded people. It’s truly made me feel like I can do anything I set my mind to.

Q: If someone asked you what is different about this program from everything else, what would you say?

I would say that this program is like nothing I have ever seen or experienced before. It wasn’t focused on just one particular body part or about eating less. It was a well-rounded program that was simple to understand and easy to implement through Christian and Nina’s guidance. Usually, the nutrition experts I’ve come across are rather odd people. They tend to be so far on the “hug a tree” spectrum and “wear all clothes made of hemp” thing, that it’s very off-putting. Everyone I interacted with was totally “normal” and the information was presented in a way that made a lot of sense and allowed me to make the decisions about what I wanted to do/not do on my own without feeling pressured or forced to. 

Instead of being “hangry” all the time, like I have been on multiple programs, I was actually quite full every day, and I surprisingly still lost weight! It is rare to have exercise programs that take you back to the fundamentals of movement, from the time when we were babies. This program’s emphasis on walking was one that I was able to quickly embrace and was an easy thing to put into my schedule. Way too often programs tell you that you have to go to a gym or have to use fancy workout equipment to see results. I was seeing plenty of results just through the walking and using my own body weight during exercises.

As a result of his former career, Bill experienced multiple musculoskeletal injuries and had more than a half dozen surgeries to repair his damaged joints. 

In addition to learning to exercise with much less pain, Bill also reversed his heart disease in just 10 weeks. 

Here is what he had to say. 

“The program was more beneficial than I ever anticipated. Going in, I wanted to lose weight to improve my health, but weight loss became a mere collateral benefit. My focus shifted from short-term to long-term. I built better habits and my blood pressure went from 172/82 to 110/69.

Where my traditional exercise routine had been failing me, this new way of moving helped me develop improved mobility and strength. If you’re interested in altering the trajectory of your life—this is real transformation.”