Marie-Line's story - ''You MATTER and you're IMPORTANT!''

I've been a member on and off since September 2016. In the last 7 years, a lot of life events happened; got married, changed career, moved 3 times, and had two precious little boys that are currently 4.5-year-old and 2 years old.

YWWL has helped me remain accountable throughout the years especially during both pregnancies where I managed to keep my weight gain very reasonable.

Despite being a member for a long time, I only officially found "my way" January of last year. Two years ago, when my second son was 6 weeks old, we learned the very difficult news that he had scoliosis and that he would require major spine surgery before age 2. We were also told that he would require subsequent surgeries every 6 months until age 12. You can just imagine how overwhelming this news was and how much it had and still has an impact on my mental and physical health as a mother. Six months after he was born, I knew I had to start taking very good care of myself to be able to be the strongest version of myself to overcome what the future had in store for me and my little family. I decided in that moment that playing the poor me card was not going to change anything and was certainly not going to be in my best interest.

Since then, I really changed my approach because I no longer had time to keep up the habits I had prior to having kids. I was always trying to chase the lifestyle I had before becoming a mother, however, that “way” was no longer sustainable with my current reality. That’s when I decided to change my focus and created a lifestyle that's easy to maintain and most of all SIMPLE!

My "way" consists of the following:

• I portion control everything I eat. This was and still is by far the biggest game changer! It makes daily meals so much easier.
• No food is off limits! This created an abundance mindset.
• I have no timeline; this lifestyle I created for myself is for life.
• I refuse to implement anything that I can't sustain forever.
• I always try to adapt, adjust and be gentle with myself when life gets hard, because it always does at some point regardless of who you are.

A special message to all the young mothers out there that are loss in motherhood:

You MATTER and you're IMPORTANT! You can't pour from an empty cup so make yourself a priority because you DESERVE it!

Weight January 2023 : 196 lbs

Current Weight : 159.8 lbs

Total Loss : - 36.2 lbs