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Michelle King Robson, Founder & Chairman of EmpowHER.com, talks with Laura at the Women's Conference about weight loss, dieting, and exercise.
Michelle King Robson:
Tell me about your weight loss. I know you have lost 220 pounds, is that right?
Laura:
Yes, that’s correct.
Michelle King Robson:
And how did you do this? I mean you just look extraordinary.
Laura:
Thank you. I was lucky enough to find, actually, a therapist who had lost 70 pounds so she referred me to Lindora. I figured it was a path that was being presented to me. So, she just said, “Commit to a ten-week program, go in, learn how to eat and what to eat and how much of it to eat and see what happens,” and ten weeks later I had lost 36 pounds.
Michelle King Robson:
Oh my gosh, and so tell me what you did to lose that first 36 pounds? Go through what your routine was like for the day.
Laura:
Pretty much planning what you eat. You have six meals-a-day – small meals, breakfast, a mid-morning snack, lunch, an afternoon snack, dinner and then a snack at night, and healthy snacks, protein snacks, not things like candy and cookies because you have to watch the calories as well, but it’s mainly counting the carbs and having a low-carb count and putting it with exercise.
So I devote a half-an-hour to an hour, more so an hour a day to some form of exercise, whether it’s walking, hiking, going to the health club or biking and I wear a pedometer every day, try to get 8 to 10,000 steps a day on the weekdays and then on the weekends, 12 to 15,000 - kind of bump it up a little bit.
Michelle King Robson:
So I saw that you had your pedometer on and I was so excited to see that you have this great little device that you can . . . it actually, it measures your steps, right?
Laura:
Yes, it measures how many steps and it measures it so it will tell you how many calories you are burning.
Michelle King Robson:
Oh which is the best thing of all because I don’t know about you, I don’t know what you do but I sit at a desk most of the time because I am answering questions from women and running the company and so I am not walking as much as I used to.
Laura:
Right. That’s what I do – I am at the phone all day sitting at my desk. So that’s why when I went on the Lindora program and part of the program is exercise. So that’s why I devote an hour a day, get my steps in and that’s the only way really to keep it off and to stay healthy and fit.
Michelle King Robson:
So we talked a little bit before we did this interview and you were talking about the fact that you felt like you were you trapped in somebody else’s body and you were showing me pictures of yourself and honestly, I looked at the photo and I just couldn’t believe it that was you, and you said the very same thing. Tell me what it was like.
Laura:
Just being trapped and like this is what I wanted to be but I was in this other body so it was kind of like I was always living the before picture when in my mind I wanted to be in the after picture. So now I am the after picture and when I was big, my life was so small and now that I am smaller my life is big because I am doing things, I am walking, I am going places traveling.
My sisters and I just went to Sydney for my sister’s 60th birthday so you had to sit on an airplane for 15 hours would have been totally impossible at 356 pounds.
Michelle King Robson:
So I love what you said, I mean, I think that that’s such a profound statement that you just made and I think it’s… you have done so many things to… I mean it just basically changed your life. I know that you suffered from type-2 diabetes.
For example, I am sure you had high blood pressure which happens when you have the weight gain, and I know that you have had this going on for a long period of time. How does your family feel about what you have been able to accomplish?
Laura:
I think they are just proud, you know, and they are happy. They have always wanted me to lose weight. They have always been supportive but until a person makes the decision in their own head and they get the connection, you can’t do anything. The person has to make their own decision to do it.
So now when I am healthy they are totally supportive. Like last weekend we were at a football game and they were offering me cookies and Pretzels and stuff and it wasn’t because they were trying to sabotage me; it’s because now they think of me as an average person who can eat those kinds of things and not worry about it.
Michelle King Robson:
So if you had to give women, let’s say three tips, on what they should do about you know, if they are suffering from being overweight and not feeling good about themselves, what would you say the first three things are that they should think about doing to get on the right path?
Laura:
I think part of it is depression. I think heavier people are just depressed. I think exercise is the best endorphin-maker there is. If you could just get up and walk for ten minutes three times a day, you are going to get your body moving.
Then portion control – watch, you know, you can eat what you want but cut down the portion, and then just make up your mind to get out of denial, get out of rationalization, say, “You know what, I am fat. I have got to do something about it. No more excuses.”
Michelle King Robson:
I love that and I love you for sharing your story and you just look so amazing and Laura, thank you. You are such an inspiration to so many women and I can’t thank you enough for coming to EmpowHER and sharing your story with us today.
We wish you all the luck in the world. It looks like you don’t need it. You’ve got it all sorted out.
Laura:
That’s right, thank you so much for giving me the opportunity.
Michelle King Robson:
Oh, you are so very welcome, and that’s EmpowHER Live – thank you.
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