Amber's Story: She's Been WFPB for Years But Wasn't Reaching Her Goals Til Now

Can’t wait to share Amber’s story with you. One interesting thing about Amber is that she has been doing a whole foods plant based diet for years, but not until she signed up and implemented the strategies with diet and exercise that my Balanced Babes Program teaches did she see major results in both her mental and physical health. She has quite the history with exercise (doing bodybuilding, CrossFit, running, etc.) which just goes to show that JUST exercise alone isn’t enough to get to the healthy body you desire. So let’s see what Amber has to say about her experience!

Introduce yourself! What’s your name, age, where you live, what you do, all that good stuff!

I am Amber. I'm 35 and live in upstate NY. I grew up as a military brat so I'm not from anywhere. I'm currently a homeschool parent of 2 girls, co-lead a homeschool co-op, and coach kids gymnastics part time. Formerly, I was a RADAR engineer as a military officer, semiconductor engineer in civilian industry, and owned a CrossFit gym for 2 years with my husband.

Can you share a little bit about your background regarding your health, diet, hormones, weight, relationship with exercise & food & your body throughout your life?

Growing up, I didn't think food was related to health. I thought health and obesity was all genetics and I knew one day I'd be obese since most of my extended family was obese. I didn't think much on it. I ate whenever and played hard. I ate a mix of standard American, as it was back then, with a mix of Korean since that was a big influence on my only parent, my father. I was a scrawny girl most my childhood and it wasn't until the end of high-school that I gained weight and looked puffy. Thinking back, I remember the stress of hiding food and eating so my step mother wouldn't know. It was a lot of thick peanut butter sandwiches and butter with sugar. I laugh now when people think its all genetics that I look the way I do now. I definitely did not peak in high-school!

In college, I actually lost 15lbs. I think it was all the campus walking. But I picked up running because of the Air Force and worked up to running 45 miles a week mostly for fun, partly to stay slim (bc of all the beers and junk food in college), and definitely to run faster than the guys when we tested for our timed runs. Again, I ate and drank what I wanted and this continued on into grad school as a Lieutenant.

It wasn't until my father suddenly died when I was 23 when I decide to drastically change what I was doing. I got into fitness competitions briefly and competed twice in 2012. My goal was to try and look like a fitness model. I ate the standard bodybuilder diet, 6x a day, cardio and lifting, the works. It was the first time in my life I loved the way I looked but I was HUNGRY all the time. I went without a period for over a year and was high strung. It was because of this that it took me 2 years of stress trying to get pregnant as well as 2 miscarriages. I'm sure other factors were involved. But I decided to try paleo to gain weight and get healthy enough to get pregnant. It didn't work but I did gain some weight.

In 2013, I was learning about the vegan diet and I cared so much about the environment that I said, "Screw my health, I'll change anyway." This was around Dec 2013. I got pregnant soon after, unexpectedly and just before my move to another state to open a CrossFit gym. Pregnancy was the first time in a long time that I ate for health and I ate when I was hungry and stopped when full. I think I was losing body fat as I was growing baby, which is not something I did on purpose. But food felt easy for the first time since childhood.

After fitness competitions during my 2 years of infertility.

After my first was born, I was shocked at how much I loved my postpartum body and honestly didn't think much on my body. I was effortlessly lean after having a baby. Looking back, I think it's because I only ate 3 large plant meals, no snacking, and I was on my feet all day coaching. I didn't even workout much but my NEAT was high. I was doing what Audra promotes by accident. Breastfeeding also kept me leaner and as my daughter weaned, I gained a little back.

For some reason, 2017, I felt average and decided to try a vegan meal prep program which was 1200 calories. I definitely ate more than that but it was still low (1600-2300) for someone doing CrossFit 5-6x a week. Naturally, I lost weight and got very lean again. I loved the way I looked but on top of all the stress of life, dieting contributed to my 6 month separation from my husband. When I decided I couldn't take it anymore, I found the diet recovery community and started eating more but always afraid to take it too far so I'd go back and forth between letting go and being restrictive. My family had to live through that.

At one point, I spent thousands on a coach to basically go on a potato fast in 2019. I dropped weight so fast and I remember having 3 periods in the span of 6 weeks. That snapped me out of it and I was done with diets. I went on to more intuitive eating and given my obsession and research into plant based diets over these years, I knew what was health promoting and what wasn't so its not like I went to pizza and chips. I wanted oatmeal with all the toppings and thats what I ate for a while. Soon, I started eating other healthy foods that made me feel good and fortunately for me, I didn't do any harm with my restrictive experiments as it took us only 2 months to get pregnant with my second. Once again, pregnancy intuition went well. (Keep in mind I get serious nausea just thinking of certain foods the first trimester.) But otherwise I crave health promoting foods and what makes me feel good.

Postpartum in 2021, I decided to purchase Audras program as I had been following her from the beginning and truly believed in what she had to share. I felt like I was basically living what she was promoting and wanted to learn more about feminine energy and letting go of exercise guilt. It's funny looking back now how I didn't want to subscribe to her advice for so long because she made it sound too easy and I wanted it to be difficult. I binge listened to what she had to say which kept me motivated about eating enough of the good food and not fearing fat. While it felt slower than 6 years before, I tightened back up, which naturally happens with time and breastfeeding for me. Instead of doing CrossFit 6x a week or run 45 miles, I now walk, hike, and do yoga daily. Carrying my kids and doing chores is also a workout. I throw in kettlebell work on occasion but I've been embracing the feminine energy that I've suppressed for so long. I'm not the crazy lean I've been in the past but I have room in my life for the people I love and I still look good, if I'm being honest. My body obsession no longer gets in the way of my relationships.

What was it that you were looking to solve? What were your main issues? (For example, things related to weight, hormones, skin, exercise, digestion, food, mood, energy, etc.)

Postpartum after first baby, effortless. But effortless because it’s the same stuff you promote.

Probably mostly mood and getting permission to let it be easier. After having kids, there's less energy I can give to trivial things like the way I look. I still like the way I look, it just doesn't involve all the stress it used to.

How were these things affecting your life?

I know I have a tendency to go to extremes. I had an ED expert once tell me I was anorexic so I knew I didn't even want to chance getting to that place again and jeopardizing the relationships I have.

What other things did you try to fix these issues? (Diets, exercise routines, pills, etc.)

I guess I tried and failed to go to the other extreme which was to allow myself to eat whatever junk food just to get rid of mental and physical hunger but it always made me feel terrible. Digestion is always off and generally I just felt uncomfortable.

When did you first discover me and my programs? What led you here?

This is during my ED in 2017, not healthy. My mind was crazy.

I first discovered you when you were first out on YouTube. Maybe 2014 or 2015. I enjoyed your content even if i didn't want to do it. I've had moments in my life where I've had to naturally slow down and it felt like proof that what you were saying was correct. Eventually, I was tired of the extremes.

What made you believe my program/ebooks/coaching/etc. could work for you?

I had experience with this style working for me after having my first baby. So I knew it should work again. And after all these years of listening to your content, this was the best way to get it all in one concise package and pay you back for it.

How long have you been doing it?

I've been doing this since pregnancy with my second and when your program officially came out, I made sure to embrace more fats, which certainly helped with the munchies.

During your experience with it (the program/coaching/ebook), what was the thing you enjoyed the most & benefitted most from?

Listening to your content gave me the one question I often ask myself today and that is, "How will this affect my hormones/body?" So whether I want to do more exercise, think it's okay to skip a meal, stress about not having the dessert, or overwhelm my schedule with too many activities, I think about how all of my actions will affect my well being.

3 months postpartum vs. 15 months postpartum following the Balanced Babes Program.

How has your situation improved/changed from before?

I don't really think about any of it anymore. It's like they say in the diet recovery world, when you're recovered, you don't care about talking about diet recovery anymore. When you're recovered from this, you no longer look up diets, think about your next meal, stress about going to the gym 5x a week, or frankly, think about any of the stuff that attracted you to Audra's content. You're happy and think about anything else life has to offer.

How does that make you feel?

Relieved and content.

What about the (program/coaching/ebook/etc) surprised you the most?

Honestly, I don't think anything surprised me but thats because I've been following Audra for a very long time.

What are the key elements of (the program/coaching/ebook/etc.) that are a huge aspect of your lifestyle now?

This is me with my husband last month not worried about diets on our trip to the Dominican Republic.

More feminine energy and law of attraction stuff. More positive mindset.

What would you say to others out there who are still searching, confused & frustrated & are considering working with me to fix their issues?

Stop trying to make it hard. It doesn't have to be difficult to work. Plus, the stress alone is doing you a disservice.

Amber is a GREAT example of what can happen when you actually SLOW down and let things be. She’s been in the health plant-based community, but didn’t start seeing the last results until she implemented the info from the Balanced Babes Program - like she mentions so many times throughout her answers, it was doing things with an EFFORTLESS attitude that got her results. She wasn’t creating a lot of resistance towards losing weight by being super obsessed with weight loss, counting every calorie, doing tons of workouts and essentially stressing herself and her body out. Let it be easy! I’m giving you permission!!

To listen to her full story, clicks on her podcast testimony where she goes into much more detail! And to get in the program and get started on changing your life today, click here!