You see, despite the fact that I had come to the United States from Brazil on an athletic scholarship for soccer and swimming…
After only 4 months in the US, I had gained 20lbs of fat.
Back home I had been able to cook all my own meals and be in control of what I ate.
But now that I was eating the oil drenched unhealthy foods at our school cafeteria...
And my roommate’s mom was stockpiling our mini-fridge with poptarts of every flavor…
I was gaining weight every week so fast I barely had time to stop it from happening!
So - in an attempt to lose all the weight I had gained - I had been exercising more than ever before. But when that didn’t work, I started forcing myself to throw up almost every night after dinner for the past few months.
And on this particular night in 2009, my body was at the breaking point.
When I walked to the mirror after my nightly routine of vomiting in the far stall of the bathroom…
I saw a total stranger staring back at me.
The happy, joyful, athletic and loving girl I was used to seeing in the mirror had disappeared.
Now the woman who stood in her place looked like she had been stolen straight out of a horror movie.
Her eyes looked empty and hollow...
Her skin was pale and sagging off her face like someone 25 years older than me…
There was blood streaming out of her nose covering her mouth and neck…
But the scariest thing about the woman in the mirror was that she was no stranger at all…
She was ME.
And despite running for miles at soccer practice 2x per day during the school week...
...and going to the gym 2x per day on the weekends…
...and forcing myself to throw up almost every night...
...I was STILL almost 20lbs overweight!
This story might sound a little intense to you…
Maybe it’s not the “PG fitness story” you’re used to…
But it was my reality back in 2009.
And the sad truth is that this isn’t only my story…
There are women all over the world who work themselves to the bone (just like I used to do) hoping to lose weight and finally step into that lean, confident, bikini body that every woman dreams of.
You know, the kind of body that you feel comfortable and proud to show off at the beach…
The kind of body that makes you confidently take your clothes off around your partner…
The kind of body that gives you a sense of confidence and power in EVERYTHING that you do...
But unfortunately, most women spend their whole lives trying to get a lean body the WRONG WAY.
And it’s not even their FAULT!
Women, just like you and young Isa, have been brainwashed into thinking that if we severely limit our calories and do enough cardio to rival roadrunner from Looney Toons then we’ll be able to get the bodies we really want.
We’ve been taught that if we do a 30-day restrictive diet challenge…
Or spend a few hundred dollars on weird supplements and juices…
Or buy a Peloton bike so we can pedal for miles and miles every week...
That we’ll finally be able to get a body like our favorite fit models and celebrities.
But this is a LIE that has been told to women on purpose so big fitness companies can make more money!
Their goal is to keep selling you temporary solutions so you always have to come back and buy more stuff from them.
And if they confuse you with “hacks” instead of teaching you how to train to build a leaner and stronger body that lasts a lifetime...
Then it’s just more job security for them.
And back in 2009, I was struggling to lose weight for this exact reason!
I was Googling all the new diets and workout “hacks”...
But when nothing helped me lose weight and keep it off, I thought there was something wrong with ME.
And that’s why I found myself looking like a woman stolen out of a horror movie in college over a decade ago.
But luckily for me, that one night in 2009 at Salem International University is not where my story ended...