Courage to Lose: A Blueprint to Losing Weight, Loving Yourself, and Embracing Your Life

By Dr. Firlande Volcy

Are you among the multitude of women who have struggled with weight postpartum? Has the number on the scale ever caused you to believe you’re not enough? If so, Courage to Lose: A Blueprint to Losing Weight, Loving Yourself, and Embracing Your Life, is the perfect daily companion to kickstart your health journey.

In thi

• Language: English
• Publisher: Purposely Created Publishing Group
• Release date: Apr 14, 2020
• ISBN: 9781644841983

Book preview

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DR. FIRLANDE VOLCY

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COURAGE TO LOSE

Published by Purposely Created Publishing Group™

Copyright © 2020 Firlande Volcy

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, taping, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of reprints in the context of reviews, quotes, or references.

Special discounts are available on bulk quantity purchases by book clubs, associations and special interest groups. For details email: [e-mail] or call [phone].

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This book is dedicated to all the women who have struggled with weight postpartum; all the women who have felt like less than or not enough; all the women who want to feel thin, happy, and beautiful again in mind, body, and spirit; and all the women who want to be more confident and love themselves and their lives.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Choosing the Right Diet

The Program

PART I: SHIFT YOUR MINDSET

DAY 1 Set Your Intentions

DAY 2 Practice Daily Affirmations

DAY 3 Quiet Your Mind and Meditate

DAY 4 Stay in Gratitude and Celebrate Your #WINS

DAY 5 Visualize Yourself Healthy and Thin

DAY 6 Journal Your Way to Emotional Freedom

DAY 7 Have a Morning Power Hour

PART II: OPTIMIZE YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH FOOD

DAY 8 Be a Mindful Eater

DAY 9 Practice Self-Control

DAY 10 Allow Food to Be Your Medicine

DAY 11 Understand the Role of Macros

DAY 12 Stay Hydrated

DAY 13 Immerse Yourself in the Experience

DAY 14 Change Your Eating Habits

PART III: REMAIN PHYSICALLY ACTIVE

DAY 15 Adopt a Daily Exercise Routine

DAY 16 Stay Consistent

DAY 17 Vary Your Exercises

DAY 18 Train Your Body to Burn Fat

DAY 19 Move Beyond the Number on the Scale

DAY 20 Delete the Excuses

DAY 21 Diet + Exercise = Results

PART IV: CONQUER THE SETBACKS

DAY 22 Stop the Self-Sabotage

DAY 23 Schedule Sleep Time

DAY 24 Implement Better Stress Management Tools

DAY 25 Check Your Hormones

DAY 26 Remove Food Sensitivities

DAY 27 Detox Your Mind, Body, and Spirit

DAY 28 Try EFT, EMDR, or Hypnotherapy

Myths and Frequently Asked Questions About Weight Loss

Recipes

Thank You

About the Author

Introduction

Growing up, I focused on school, my physical appearance, and fitness. My grades were always exceptional. At the start of seventh grade, my father promised to reward me with monetary compensations if I kept an A average and stayed on the honor roll. This was an added incentive to continue excelling scholastically. I graduated from high school with honors and with multiple academic scholarships. I was the first one to graduate from college out of five children. After college graduation, I joined the workforce as a chemist. Within two years, I was promoted three times due to my extraordinary work ethic, my ability to lead, and my capacity to grasp information swiftly. Two years later, I followed my calling and enrolled in medical school. I earned my medical degree within four years and walked the stage with my original class, despite being the mother of a one-year-old due to an unplanned pregnancy at the start of my third year of medical school.

Meanwhile, my physical appearance and fitness were at the forefront of my focus. Between childhood and early adolescence, I was preoccupied with my outer appearance, skin color, hair texture, and height, but never my weight since weight was not an issue. I constantly sought after and yearned for others’ approval and acceptance because in my eyes I was not perfect. In my late teens, I discovered a love for physical fitness and competition and immersed myself in that world. I found a trainer and began to train to become a body builder. While training at the gym, I was also training on the track with an All-American track runner. He taught me drills, and helped me increase my speed and build my endurance and stamina. By the end of my second year of college, I was toned, fit, and loving it.

Subsequently, after a decade of not accepting myself, I finally had the courage to embrace my skin tone, beauty, and well-built physique. Validations from others were added bonuses. I felt secure and comfortable enough to enroll in modeling school, thrilled to be accepted, and ecstatic to build my modeling portfolio. Being the center of attention was exhilarating. Both my personal and professional life was flourishing. However, everything changed a few years later postpartum.

Succeeding an emotionally draining pregnancy and a rough birth, I began to gain weight immediately postpartum. My hormones were out of whack and I was severely unhappy with my life and my circumstances. My confidence took a dive. I no longer enjoyed or took pride in my physical appearance. I hid from friends and family members to avoid their judgments and criticisms. I was ashamed, embarrassed, and apathetic. I hit my lowest point when my clothing size reached double digits and I was failing not only in my physical fitness but in my business and personal relationships as well. All of the insecurities I felt during my childhood re-emerged. I was not good enough, pretty enough, or strong enough to handle the woes of life and living. I was depressed. I felt unloved, unaccepted, and unmotivated to work on myself, my business, or my relationships. I dreaded waking up in the morning. Yet, life had to go on.

One day, I realized that I had been addicted to weight loss for over 25 years. I thought about it year-round and it was a motivation for every season. For instance, I had to lose weight to fit into sunflower dresses in the spring, swimsuits in the summer, tight jeans and tall boots in the fall, and a well-fitted winter coat. I was addicted to weight loss because I was obsessed with my outer appearance looking physically lean, thin, and fit, and I had to get there at any cost. Consequently, I developed an eating disorder where laxative use, starvation, and binging were not foreign practices. I felt uncomfortable in my body, so I focused solely on the physical while neglecting my emotional wellbeing. No significant changes occurred until 10 years postpartum when I got tired of merely existing and needed to say yes to life and living.

I had several emotional and physical breakthroughs over the years, but my most profound breakthrough came after I moved to Alaska in 2017. I found me again. I worked on my mindset, adopted healthier eating practices, and included exercise in my daily routine. A few months later, I lost the extra pounds, ran a few races, built a successful practice, joined a business coaching program, and worked on developing better relationships with others. This time, I focused on all aspects of my being––mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual.

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My personal struggles with my weight, self-confidence, and self-esteem led me on a journey to help ease other women’s suffering. I recognized that I felt the best when I was helping other women feel and be their best. I offer natural solutions to women who are 20 to 50 pounds overweight so they can develop the courage and confidence to love themselves and their lives while learning to manage their weight. I have a unique approach where I promote more than just weight loss. I promote health. I promote a way of life, a change in mindset, and a shift in perception to let go of self-limiting beliefs and self-sabotaging practices. I teach women how to use food as medicine to heal and nourish, not as therapy. I help them discover their inner and outer beauty to create a healthy lifestyle that they can enjoy without limitations and setbacks.

It is my hope that after reading this book and applying the strategies, you will be freed from weight loss addiction, finally attain your weight loss goals, and be able to maintain a healthy size that you are happy and comfortable with without the constant need to diet.

Choosing the Right Diet

According to Google’s data metrics, the top 10 most popular and trending diets of 2019 included the Intermittent Fasting Diet, Dr. Sebi Diet, Noom Diet, 1200 Calories Diet, Keto Diet, GOLO Diet, Dubrow Diet, Sirtfood Diet, No Carbs No Sugar Diet, and Endomorph Diet. The popularity of those diets depended on many factors such as celebrity endorsements, costs, marketing tactics, etc. Most had little to nothing to do with the efficacy of the actual diet and the results obtained. Therefore, choosing the right diet can be a daunting process. After all, which diet is right for you? Is there such a thing as one size fits all in the diet world? Does dieting actually work?

Let’s be real. When most people hear the word diet, they hear restrictions and giving up something they love to eat for some other alternatives. Although to succeed at weight loss, you don’t have to go on a diet per se, but you do have to change your eating habits. You must ditch unhealthy eating practices and remove sugar and processed foods to implement healthier choices. And before starting any program, ask yourself these questions: is it sustainable? Is it another fad diet? Will I gain the weight back once I quit the diet? Will it teach me how to eat to sustain health and longevity?

While all diets are not created equal and do not fit everyone’s lifestyle, most of them do work because of the focused effort associated with them. Let’s take the Ketogenic Diet as an