Hi everyone, I am Karen – a proud part of Sue’s Ideal Bodies Online team!
As well as guiding my mentor clients through the journey that is the IBO 12 week challenge, I am raising a family, working full time as an event coordinator and continue to manage my health and fitness commitments. …it’s a whirlwind lifestyle but probably not unlike most!
I absolutely love my role as an Ideal Bodies Online personal success mentor – it has enriched my life enormously. I am continually inspired and encouraged by the ambitions and achievements of the people I meet via my role as mentor.
I use the trials and tribulations of my own 12 week challenge to underpin my success as a mentor at IBO. As well as celebrating the wins, I had to manage and overcome my own fears and obstacles as well – so I fully understand the journey first hand.
Many of the hurdles my clients are faced with I have overcome myself. That’s a great source of motivation for my clients and fills me, as a mentor, with a lot of confidence knowing that I can make a positive contribution – simply by understanding.
I like to take a very realistic and positive approach with my clients – more often than not, I’m a soundboard for the fears and hiccups that only a life change can bring.
I am also a source of continual motivation and guidance. As an IBO personal success mentor, I am here to share, listen, discuss ideas and create opportunities so my clients utilize this amazing 12 weeks to their fullest potential. I derive a great source of satisfaction seeing the positive changes slowly creep into their lives…it is so inspiring!
I am forever amazed at what people can achieve and overcome with the right mindset and attitude.
MY PERSONAL CHALLENGE I HAD TO OVERCOME
I’d like to share with you one of MY personal hurdles I overcame during my 12 week journey, in a bid to inspire you further…. and help anyone who may have similar thoughts or patterns and think they are too hard to break…..
One of the issues that I overcame during my 12 week challenge was relinquishing my glass or two of wine each night after work. It was my small reward for a day at the office and most likely the thing I looked forward to the most after dieting all day. It was such a powerful prop that it single handedly inhibited most of my efforts at changing my physical being. My thinking was ‘well it’s only a drink – what harm can a drink do to my other ‘good’ nutritional efforts and a focus on physical fitness?’.
In fact, it was a lot! This little reward was undermining my efforts at consistent weight loss – not only was it calorific – but it would loosen my resolve and on the second or third glass would see me ditching all my good intentions quicker than I could say ‘triple cream brie’. Further, evidence to prove that my body harboured a preference to burn stored energy in my sav blanc before that of my glycogen and fat stores wasn’t helping! In short, I was holding up my metabolic processes as well as setting myself up for perpetual failure!
My solution
Once I committed to the IBO programme written especially for me – that meant I was committing to dropping the vino life prop. I allowed myself one glass of wine per week during my free meal and that was it!!!! so not only had I changed my head space in terms of its habitual use – I also learnt to control my intake of alcohol when I did have it. It was no mean feat! And I see many clients face the same hurdle. So how did I do it? Here are a few tips if you find it hard giving up your one or two alcoholic beverages in the name of physical transformation…
1. Swap it with something else! I tried Bundaberg Diet Ginger Beer (on Sue’s recommendation) It even comes in a bottle that looks like it came out of a wine store. I treated it just like a glass of precious vino – one or two and no more.
2. Change the routine. If you have to unwind after a hard day at work and put your feet up with a glass of wine – jump in a hot bath instead or better still, schedule your workout for that time. There’s nothing that puts you off alcohol more than a good sweat session when you’re gasping for a bottle of water!
3. Learn to say no at parties and functions. If you want to look the part though and not feel left out – ask for a mineral water in a champers glass! No one would even know you were ‘piking out’ and the benefit is you can drive yourself home without the need for taxis after an expensive night out!
At the end of the day, you’ll soon realise you’ll still be a happy, well functioning individual without those two glasses of vino each night (Surprise Surprise!!) and it certainly is something you can take with you beyond your 12 week programme (amongst other amazing changes)!
I found after a few weeks I could just say no rather than create illusionary props to trick my mind. It was a very empowering moment knowing I had control and hence free rein to garner the best body I could as a result!
So as you can see the journey is fraught with a bit of risk and a bit of moving beyond the comfort zone. But it was so worth it.
I have a saying I like to offer my clients: ‘If you always do what you always did, you always get what you always got!’.
I say cheers to that! Ciao, Karen xxx
Thanks for sharing that, Karen. I love a glass (or two) of wine at the end of the day, and it’s definitely been the hardest thing for me to change my attitude about. During my last program, I would actually skip meals 5 & 6 (and sometimes the carbs during the day) just so I could enjoy some wine at night. While I lost weight, it didn’t help me to change the habit, and it no doubt meant that I didn’t lose as much weight/fat as I could have (i.e. had I forgone the wine & stuck to the program). However, I seem to be managing this time around, and with resolve. It helps to hear that other people, such as yourself, have also enjoyed the lure of the grape AND have then managed to overcome the habit. While I know that those people are out there, not too many of them share their experiences. Thanks!