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On New Year’s day in 2012 I Quit Sugar (known on twitter as #IQS).  I’ve had a loooong love affair with sugar and sweet food so learning how to quit sugar was really something I needed to do.  I didn’t do it without help, I had the brilliant IQS e-book by Sarah Wilson.  But first, a little background…

I have no idea how much I weigh, and I haven’t for quite a few years.  You see, one day I just threw out my bathroom scales. And I haven’t looked back. I don’t know if I’ve gained 2 pounds or kilograms on a certain day, or whether I’m heavier in the morning than at night.  And I don’t care, I refuse to define myself by a number, be it weight or size.  But it wasn’t always this way.

I was born in the 70′s but my formative years were the 80′s and 90′s. Which as I recall roughly equates to the era of androgyny followed by over the indulgent fluorescent ‘Choose Life’ which was followed by power suits, power walking, eating, dressing, working and pretty much everything else in terms of images in popular media.  I was an active kid and teen, tallest in the class pretty much every year, average music talent, often in the top 10% academically right through school in most subjects (school friends feel free to correct me), popular and with long blonde hair.  Yes, I was a total Gleek and like that cast I was bullied at high school by a select crew. It wasn’t pretty, some days it was unrelenting and drove me to tears when nobody was looking, but on reflection I’m glad it was a small country town with no slushies! {insert Gleek humour}.

It was around the age of fourteen that I became aware of the Sports Illustrated cover girl phenomenon, because Australian Elle McPherson was featured.  She was one of the original glamazons; a super tall, athletic, beachy babe. I read in an interview somewhere that she used to do 1000 sit-ups a day, and my awkward self toooootally envied her flat as a pancake stomach to my blossoming womanly pooch.  And without trying too hard I became obsessed with morning and nightly repetitions of crunches, leg lifts, push ups, squats and butt clenches.  It was my new religion.  Thankfully I woke up to what an unsustainable routine that was after a few months and cut down on what I was doing.  Turning sixteen was a big deal for me. I got two Valentine’s Day cards that year (I think I can count subsequent year’s on one hand) and not long after that I got my heart broken in spectacular end-of-days teenage style. I mention this because as a result I tried to self-medicate my pain with food, the sweeter the better!  Unfortunately nobody took me aside and pointed out the flaws in my campaign and much weight gain ensued.  Worse, the habit of eating my emotions stayed until well into my twenties. It was also probably about the same amount of time before I gave up on the unrealistic idea of a flat stomach and embraced my womanly curves. I could kick myself for it taking that long!!  Morning and night I would weigh myself and check my side profile, stomach in and then relaxed.  Cursing what I saw day, after day.  When I finally threw out the scales and weaned myself of this mirror routine I decided forever more to only judge my weight (and partly my health) by the fit of my clothes.  It has served me well; I have pants I fit into when I’m slim and I have pants that if I don’t fit into then it’s time for an intervention!  This first-hand experience turned me into the body love champion I am today.  It’s why I’m passionate about what I do, to transform how my clients see themselves and to love what they see!

Cut to last Christmas, I’d finished a frantically busy few years professionally and hadn’t really taken care of myself very well during it.  Yes I was so exhausted that I often ‘cooked’ just corn chips for dinner or yes, even worse, ate breakfast cereal – adult fail!  Lunch was usually a sausage roll eaten on-the-run between meetings and I propped myself up with a LOT of coffee and Lindt balls interspersed with the weekly ‘treat’ of McDonalds and/ or cupcakes.  In short, I was kidding myself that I was coping or indeed looking after myself.  I’d seen a snapshot of me at Christmas and in my head I was saying ‘jeezus, WHEN THE F did you stack on so much weight??!’.  Up to this point I’d been kidding myself that my clothes weren’t really getting that tight, especially my underwear!

I then stumbled on the show ‘Eat Yourself Sexy’ and was so impressed with the results, the concept and the host Sarah Wilson that I did some digging on her. I unearthed her ‘I Quit Sugar’ eight-week challenge and could see that twitter was going OFF with people tweeting about the results they were experiencing. So I bit the bullet and bought her IQS ebook and I was mortified to find myself nodding in recognition at her old bad habits she was describing. Unable to say no to cake (check), having too much take-away, coffee and alcohol (check, check and cha-check). As she went on to describe the changes in her own wellbeing I knew I wanted that too. So about seven weeks ago I set out on the challenge and I have to say that now I FEEL PRETTY EFFING GOOD!! I think I’ve dropped about a dress size, I wake up with the clearest head (akin to the old me having had three coffees), I have even energy throughout the day and I CAN RESIST CAKE! I do have the odd craving (salty fries or red velvet cupcakes) and very sometimes I indulge them and move on, but the difference is I no longer self-medicate with them. More importantly, my underwear fits better and the bra (pictured) that I panic purchased on New Year’s Eve no longer is trying to machete me in half! *DOUBLE FIST PUMP*

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Louise

With over 15yrs of marketing, business development, sales and negotiation skills Louise is the best friend your small biz needs, the coach to put your social media ideas into action and the photographer who makes you feel better about yourself. lifestyle matchmaker for people who like to get shit done | photographer | F-bomb dropper | #IQS crusader | knitter

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