Maree

Q: How were feelings about yourself beforehand?

A: I am a 46 year old mother of 3, working part time as well as running a household and running around with the children to all there after school activities.(Pre lockdown of course)

To say I felt overwhelmed was an understatement. After years of dieting, going to the gym and trying to maintain a healthy lifestyle I just felt I couldn’t fit everything into my busy life and my health always came last.

I needed to make a change and find out why I was always sabotaging myself when it came to my health.

 Q: What did you think your limitation would be/concerns

 A: I spoke to Olivia before the program began, and all though I was very intrigued with the program my biggest concern was would I be able to show up for all the classes during the week.

One thing I am proud of was YES, I did show up every week as the program was so informative and educational. Also meeting beautiful women on the program and engaging in groups sessions was cathartic as you realise you are not the only one looking for self-awareness and education when it comes to your health. 

Q: What were your biggest learnings?

 A: There was many thing I learnt, the most important was to not self-sabotage ourselves and to love and forgive ourselves. As woman we tend to do this a lot whether we realise it or not.

Forgive the binge eating, forgive yourself if you didn’t go on that walk, tomorrow is another day and you will and can make better choices for yourself. 

All these enlightens come through from Olivia’s own experiences and training as well as they team she had around her, the beautiful Gloria with her knowledge and wisdom when it came to personal growth. The gorgeous Elise, our yoga instructor, those yoga classes bring so much peace to you day. And let’s not forget Charlie, our one on ones were always so fun and he was always so encouraging when it came to making exercise not only a fun but helping me see how I can implement different exercises into daily life without it feeling like a chore.

Q. Why did you initially join the program?

A. I joined the program because I had been doing everything the hard way for so long and getting nowhere with it, becoming frustrated within myself, having really low days hating my mind and my body not really wanting to continue living the way that I had been for 28 years, surly there was something I was missing. Spoke to Liv, got support off some friends and family members and never looked back.

Q. How were you feeling about yourself beforehand?

A. Before starting grow what you sow I had a really bumpy road with the relationship I had with myself / food and the way I saw myself (mentally and physically).
I still have thoughts of self hate / low self esteem and poor body image but now I know how to manage the thoughts and emotions with new strategies that we learnt in grow what you sow.
Before if I had a day of feeling fat, not likening how I felt and looked physically, I would have probably got emotional about it, sabotaged myself with binge eating to comfort these emotions I was feeling. This then became the norm for me and do you know how hard it is to Beltran yourself out of that mindset! Crazy hard.

Q. What was your experience like?

My experience with grow what you sow was wonderful, I learnt so much about myself- I just needed someone to help me, realised why I do the things I do(self sabotage), understood my emotional triggers, retrained my brain to forgive myself and move forward, accept my past traumas and clear them to make more room for me, myself, my body and my happiness.

Q. What did you learn?

A. I learnt that I am not alone in the thoughts I had about myself prior to grow what you sow.
I learnt that I can love myself again deeply and completely.
I learned that it is not easy but I can do it, I can honestly say I can grow what I sow !!
I learned to change my mindset about food and exercise.
I am still learning to deal with my triggers, emotions and anxiety about peoples perception of me, but I have learnt strategies to help me do this.

Q. what did you think your limitations would be or did you have any concerns? did they change?

When I started I was super anxious about not wanting to unpack all the emotions, past trauma and self hate, that I had bottled up my entire life. So obviously I was very nervous about how it would all unfold.
These limitations were gone in no time I had a wonderful group of women who all came from different boats but were all in the same storm of dysfunctional eating, body image dysmorphia lack of self love. So I was with my people, I felt comfortable and felt less anxious every single week.

A. Has the program made an impact on your everyday life?

Yes absolutely.
I have changes the way I look at exercise 100% I now do things I enjoy I don’t do it to burn 9,000,000 calories I get happiness from the exercises I do.
Food is always a battle but I have a much more self aware view of food and food groups, I Am more conscious about the food and amount I eat. I eat when I’m hungry. I try to eat mindfully. I don’t sabotage myself binge eating. But most importantly I have began to mend the relationship I have with food.

Q. What surprised you?

That I said yes.
This is something I would not normally do, but I got to a stage in my life where I didn’t want to keep living the way I was, I couldn’t keep living the way I was, in the mindset I was in. It was exhausting.

A. What about your life now has changed now?

So many things.
I have become more positive and confident within myself.
I have began to love all of me again.
I enjoy exercising.
I glow now, thanks to a little help from you !

Keep doing what your doing Liv, it’s truly is amazing, I hope someone else can get as much as I got out of grow what you sow.

Love and happy vibes always Katie