After working with hundreds of women over 40 who were desperately trying to lose weight, this is what I know about you:

• You do your best to eat lightly. You know the more you eat the bigger you get. But you’re really hungry and just don’t have the willpower to be good day in and day out. Especially by about 9 pm.
• You’ve wasted money on gym memberships, spending what feels like hours on the damn elliptical. It just makes you tired & hungry.
• You actually hold your breath every time you zip up a pair of pants you haven’t worn in a bit and say a silent prayer that they still do up.
• You just feel really uncomfortable in your own skin-if you look too closely you don’t recognize yourself, so you avoid mirrors. You also avoid changing in front of anyone else, no matter how non-judgmental they are.

I know how draining it is to spend your life ‘hiding’ in baggy clothes, because I did that for way too long. I spent a small fortune on new clothes convinced if I just found the right outfit my problems would disappear. It didn’t work.

We all have insecurities but weight is one of the hardest to shake. You can’t leave it at home, hide it under makeup or cover it up. It’s always there in plain sight, ready to pop up in the WORST situations (like the change room of your favourite store. We’ve all been there: change room meltdowns are the WORST).

It’s exhausting to keep trying and failing and you get so sick of dieting. You slowly build up layer after layer of indifference. You tell yourself you don’t care (but of course you do).

Because it’s not JUST your weight or your reflection in the mirror. It’s not even how you feel naked. The truth is, aside from the way you LOOK it’s also about the way you FEEL.

You’re exhausted. You feel like crap from the time you drag yourself out of bed in the morning, until you crawl back in at night and try desperately to get to sleep. You LIVE off of coffee & pop (anything with caffeine), hit a complete WALL by 3 o’clock and CONSTANTLY crave food like chocolate, chips, cheese & popcorn.

Your body aches in places you didn’t know existed, while your moods are all over the place and you walk around with a mini pharmacy in your purse (Advil, Zantac, Tums, etc etc etc). You’re also so bloated some mornings that your pants literally won’t do up.

Whenever you try to make a change and start going to the gym, you feel like everyone is judging you for not being in shape. It’s embarrassing, plus it doesn’t work, so you stop going.