As January comes to a close, many of us are saddled with the potential reality that our new years resolutions, many of them fitness and health related, are falling by the wayside.
Susan Ozier, a Health and Fitness Coach, knows how many of us feel when it comes to this reality and is using her personal experience to fuel passion and productivity to give back to others in a way that helps them achieve their goals.
She is passionate about helping other women learn how to eat healthy and in turn feed their family healthy foods because when a person gets healthy it affects every aspect of their lives. They have energy and confidence they didn’t previously have and that transfers into their family life, their job, and even their friendships. Susan loves to see how, through her help, mothers are able to regain energy to play with their kids and then become an example to their children of what a healthy lifestyle looks like.
Here is Susan’s story:
Last winter, I felt like I had not hit my groove as a mom of two kids under three and still had about 10 lbs of baby weight to lose. I wasn’t happy with the way I was feeling about myself and decided to make some “real” New Years’ resolutions. For the first time, I decided to write them down with specific goals and accomplishments I wanted to achieve in 2014. I went on a date with my husband and shared them all with him so he could help hold me accountable to the spiritual, financial, marital/parental, and physical goals I made. For the first time, my physical goals weren’t dictated by a number on the scale. Instead, I wanted to feel comfortable in my clothes and confident in a swimsuit by that summer with a focus on being healthy, not just being skinny.
I started researching and looking into different diets, nutrition plans, and workouts, using my background knowledge and experiences from my exercise science and nursing degrees to help inform my new plan. I did a lot of research on clean eating and weight lifting which were both new ideas for me at the time. I had previously stuck to more traditional diets that deprive particular food groups and added massive amounts of cardio for exercise because I wrongly believed I would bulk up if I lifted weights. I lost weight quickly at first as I dove into this new nutrition plan of eating mostly clean foods and kicking my Diet Mountain Dew habit. Heavier weights than I was used to along with high intensity interval training totally transformed my body even when the number on the scale quit moving I was seeing progress in the way my clothes fit and the new strength and confidence that I felt. I felt healthy, strong, and more confident than I had ever felt before I had kids because I had taken control and implemented real change in my life.
As people started asking me what I was doing to lose weight I decided I wanted to share with people what I had learned over the past year. I became a Beachbody coach to help others reach their health and wellness goals because I know what a difference being healthy and learning to take care of my body has made in all aspects of my life, and I wanted to do the same thing for other women.
As a coach, I hold monthly challenge groups that provide specific workouts, nutrition plans, and most importantly, accountability and encouragement from me and the others participating in the group. You can have great nutrition and workouts, but without the accountability it is a lot easier to fall off track. I love helping others learn how to be fit and healthy which doesn’t have a thing to do with weight, but focuses more on eating clean, staying active, and feeling good about yourself.
It isn’t easy to live a healthy lifestyle in today’s world of convenience and fast food, but I have found it to be easier with accountability and support from a network of like-minded people, and I want to provide that for others. I want to be honest and real and show people that living a healthy life is doable and worth the hard work.
Even with my background in Exercise Science and Nursing I never had anyone to hold my hand and walk me through the little changes I could make. I had to learn them myself over time and now I think it is important to share my knowledge and passion with others so that they can get healthy and in turn get their families healthy.
To learn more about Susan and the work she is doing, check out www.SusanOzier.weebly.com or visit her Facebook page.
