My Story
Like many others, my story starts with weight loss. At 30, I had never officially been on a diet, yet I’d spent my life believing my body was not thin enough.
In 2018 I trained to be a Personal Trainer and Nutritionist as I was passionate about helping others lose weight to live their most confident and radiant lives. It is honestly one of the best decisions I have made. I love my clients, I love the laughs we share and I love that I provide busy people 45 minutes for themselves. It is truly a great profession if you like people.
I was convinced the secret to a happy life was within weight loss, because weight loss equalled health and health equalled happiness. This is what I’d been taught all my life and I was clearly living proof, with my not thin enough figure and my daily feelings of dread I’d squash down to convince myself I was happy (eye roll).
As my clients opened up to me, I was hearing their stories and their reasons for wanting to lose weight which only provided me more validation that weight loss was the answer to a happy life. I decided the way to help more people was to create an online course to help people with weight loss, but to do it my way; without dieting.
Then in a few years ago my world turned upside down, and to cope I turned to food, I wasn’t active either, so I started to put weight on. Once out the other side I was, and still am 1.5 stone heavier, which on a 5ft 1 frame, is enough to mean my clothes no longer fit.
The thing I noticed which I was not expecting; I was no less confident and I was happier. Happier than I had even been. I had faced demons and survived. I was now a survivor and let me tell you, that is a better feeling than any number of the scales.
This meant only one thing…
…everything I had ever been told was a lie. Being thinner does not equal more happiness. Being thinner did not get me a promotion. Being thinner did not get me more money, more joy, more fun. All being thinner did, was convince me I needed to be thinner oh and have women who also wanted to be thinner, tell me I was too thin. What a total mind fuck.
Having had this momentous breakthrough (feels so bloody obvious now I’m writing it down) and realising I knew nothing, I didn’t feel like launching a weight loss programme. It no longer sat right with me.
I spent some time staring at walls wondering where the meaning of life was, because it was no longer in weight loss. I got pretty sick of seeing this new lost version of myself. I’d never felt this sort of lost before, I’d always had weight loss to turn to if I felt lost. ‘If I lose 4lb, I’ll feel better’ etc etc.
Then one day I’d just got out of the shower and I was looking at myself in the mirror. I was planning on berating myself for not being good enough, not knowing what I wanted and not being able to fit in my clothes.
But I caught my eye and was flooded with compassion. By looking myself directly in the eye, I couldn’t berate myself, instead I saw someone who was trying their very best.
This brief moment started an entire life overhaul.
Without weight loss being the meaning of life, I was curious to find out what did provide all the promises weight loss was supposed to come with. I started to think about all the areas of my life that were important to me and my health. I looked at many aspects of my life and asked myself if I was happy in that area, did I understand what my goals were and what did I want to improve upon.
Two years later, I had gone through the biggest transformation of my life. I was still me, just a renewed version. I had my sparkle back and best of all I knew how to keep it. The experience was way better than any weight loss. Don’t get me wrong, it was difficult and challenging, but out the other side, it was the most rewarding journey I have ever been on (and I’ve been to Disney).
Without life throwing me that curve ball, I wouldn’t have had this transformation experience, however, I don’t think we should all have to experience rock bottom before going after our dream lives.
Which is why I created The Elita La Vie Approach. An approach to fit seamlessly into your life and get you working towards everything you’ve ever wanted.
You only need to do one thing; commit to yourself.
Sleep well
Charlene Elita x