217: 90 lbs Lighter And No Longer Looking For A Quick Fix with Tara Linerode [“I Did It” Series]  

Introduction 

You're listening to Biceps After Babies Radio episode number 217.

Hello and welcome to Biceps After Babies Radio. A podcast for ladies who know that fitness is about so much more than pounds lost or PRs. It's about feeling confident in your skin and empowered in your life. I'm your host, Amber Brueseke, a registered nurse, personal trainer, wife, and mom of four. Each week, my guests and I will excite and motivate you to take action in your own personal fitness as we talk about nutrition, exercise mindset, personal development, and executing life with conscious intention. If your goal is to look, feel, and be strong and experience transformation from the inside out, you, my friend are in the right place. Thank you for tuning in, now let’s jump into today’s episode.

 

Amber B  0:48

Hey, hey, hey,  welcome back to another episode of Biceps After Babies Radio. I'm your host, Amber Brueseke and I'm back with another Friday edition of the “I Did It” Series where we share stories of women who have done it or are in the middle of doing it and them sharing the lessons that they have learned along the way so that we can continue to learn from each other. And today, I have Tara on the podcast and Tara has an amazing story that she's going to go into. And I'll spoil it a little bit for you but over the last nine years, she has been able to lose 90 pounds and is in a completely different mental and physical headspace than she was back in 2013 when she started this journey. And to hear Tara talk about it, it was really interesting when we got on the call one of the things that I  always ask before I start an interview is, you know, is there anything that you want to come out of this episode? Like is there anything you want to make sure by the time we end this episode, what is the thing that you really want people to know? And man she like landed right in and she's like the mental work, the mental growth, everything goes back to mental and so you'll hear that in the episode as she talks about this journey and how much mental growth she's had. And yes, I think it's always so funny because when you live with this idea that she lost 90 pounds like that is an incredible physical feat. And yet so much of that physical feat, she identifies as being a mental feat. And when we can start to link those and recognize that the mental and physical journey is way more interwoven than most people even think, we can start with doing the work that's really going to create that physical transformation. And it very rarely has only to do with the food that you're eating and a lot more internal work that needs to be done. 

 

Amber B  2:45

During this conversation with Tara we also talk about Coaching Academy. Tara went on to go through Coaching Academy and learn how to elicit and shift beliefs and really work from that like transformational level with clients. And if you are interested in joining Coaching Academy, we have a webinar on Tuesday. So this upcoming Tuesday, May 31 I will go through the process that will go through why becoming a transformational coach and working from a deeper level with clients get them much better long-term results. And we'll open up Coaching Academy on Tuesday as well. So if that's been something that you're interested in, I highly recommend going and registering for our free masterclass. It's at bicepsafterbabies.com/becomeacoach, all one word, becomeacoach. And you can come to class on Tuesday, learn more about transformational coaching, more about Coaching Academy and come and join us inside and learn how to be able to coach other people through some of the mental work that needs to be done to create a physical change. 

 

Amber B  3:45

I am so excited to welcome Tara to the podcast. Tara, welcome to the “I Did It” Series.

 

Tara  3:54  

Hey, thank you for having me. This is awesome. 

 

Amber B  3:57  

It's gonna be really fun. Okay, let's start by just introducing a little bit about you. So tell us a little bit about Tara, a little bit about your journey, and some of the significant points along the journey.

 

Tara  4:07  

Okay, so I found myself I , I'm a nurse, went to nursing school and some weight had slowly crept on. 

 

Amber B  4:16  

I didn't know that. 

 

Tara  4:17  

Yes, yes. 

 

Amber B  4:18  

What kind of a nurse?

 

Tara  4:21  

Well, I'm a nurse, but I technically don't act like a nurse now. I'm a spine rep. So I own my own distributorship. I own my own company. And I do stem cells and spine hardware and spine tissue growth.

 

Amber B  4:34  

So cool. Okay, I’m kicking out. Keep going.

 

Tara  4:38  

That's why I love all of this because those science part really appeals to me and I get it. Yeah, our science brains love this stuff. So in nursing school, I think I gained that was kind of like the beginning of gaining. I have kind of felt my weight my whole life. All of my family is like heavy and just grew up in the South. I'm from Texas, live in a small town with Virginia in Texas. Fried foods, all that stuff growing up. And so that's just what I knew. I always fought with my weight and then it slowly crept on in my 20s. And in nursing school, I think it started coming on more. And then once I became a nurse, and then I think got married, it just all came on what seemed very quickly, but when you look back at it was quite a bit of time. And so I found myself in 2013, we took our Christmas pictures, and I looked at those pictures, and it just like a light went off. I said, That's it, I've had enough. I'm done. I'm doing something about this. And so it was very much kind of like one of those New Year's resolutions, but luckily, mine stuck. And I started looking online, and I was actually looking up a neutral system. And I needed something to be fully done for me. And as I was literally looking it up and saw how expensive it was, I have my laptop on my lap, a Weight Watchers commercial came on TV. And I ended up signing up for that. And I lost 60 pounds, and got pregnant, gained it all back and then lost it again. And then I got down to it was and this is several years and I got down to where I had like my last chunk of weight that just wasn't coming off with diet. So I realized that working out was just like the only last thing that I could do to finally make it come off. So I joined a small gym here in La Verne State fitness, and it's a small female-owned business. And I worked out with a small group of girls and just fell in love with them. I fell in love with the community, the positivity, everything that came along with it. And then the mental aspect of it blew my mind because never in a million years that I realized how exercising and health and choosing foods plays such a big part in your mental health and your clarity and just the way you feel mind through your body. 

 

Tara  07:15 

So it's been a long journey. But then the gym came and I lost some weight, my body's changed some. But then at the end of 2020, in October, I went to visit my cousin Christy and she was like, she's like, I'm sort of doing this thing with macros. And so she's like, she talked about this chick named Amber. And I look her up. And I'm like, we uncovered like the biggest secret that shouldn't be a secret, which was macros. And she, like, showed me I did the calculations, and I immediately went into a cut, I'm gonna probably shouldn't have, but the weight started coming off, like immediately. And I mean, it blew my mind and a matter and I was still working out three days a week, like I had been for two years already. And all of a sudden, within my gosh, like six weeks, I was seeing cut in my shoulders, cuts in my arms. I was seeing my body transform, and it blew my mind. And I also remember the first week, I was texting my cousin like, Oh my God, I've had like three tortillas in a day. I haven't had this many tortillas in three years. And I just watched it transformed my body and in the matter of five or six, so I did the cut, then I went into maintenance, or what I thought was maintenance, I don't think it quite was. And it was just like this glorious thing. I mean, I just, there's definitely something to be said for being in maintenance. Because so many of us have never lived there before and you've talked about this a million times. But it's just all a glorious thing that I feel like, just want to scream from the mountaintops that every woman should be living this life and we should not be torturing ourselves anymore. So that's kind of my journey. It's long, but not macros is the final thing hopefully that I still genuinely like I feel this is how I'll live the rest of my life. Like I feel like I'm no longer looking for the fix, no longer looking to get that little bit of weight off. Like I still see myself doing this when I'm 60 that I know how to eat, I’m educated on how to do it. I'm educated on what my body needs. And if it's summer and I want to lean up a little bit more I want you to do that. And if I just know how to tweak some things now. I just feel like I have this massive tool bag that I'm going to have forever and it is legitimately saved my life and transformed my body in ways that I never even thought were possible.

 

Amber B  10:07  

That's huge. That's awesome. So you lost a significant amount of weight? I don't think you shared, what was how much? 

 

Tara  10:15  

I've lost 90 pounds.

 

Amber B  10:16  

So that's a lot of weight, right? That's a significant change. And for somebody else who is listening to this, who, because I get this question a lot people are like, does macro counting only work for people who have like 10 to 15 pounds to lose. And so I think for those people who are listening who have 50, 75, 100, 150 pounds to lose, what is your best piece of advice for that journey? 

 

Tara  10:44  

It's attainable. It seems so far off. And this is where it gets emotional for me because I've fought those demons. And I know what those demons are. And you have somebody talking to you in your head constantly that never stops. And those women, I want them to sit still right now and close your eyes, and picture yourself in the grocery store, you've got a great pair of jeans on, you've got your dream body. And you've got your great pair of jeans and your wedges. And this is like you're walking down the cereal aisle, and you have the body of your dreams, and you're feeling good about yourself. And that mean girl from high school, she's coming down the aisle toward you. And you can see her watching you. And you're like, “Oh yeah, this is my moment”. And she comes up and she says, “Wow, you've lost a lot of weight.” And you're like, “You know what? I have. Thanks for noticing.” And you chuck your Cinnamon Toast Crunch, because you can have it in your basket. And you start off knowing, damn, I look good. And I put in all this work. And this is so worth it. So I don't care if you are 100 pounds overweight, or 200 or 15 or 20. Like it is attainable. 

 

Tara  12:13  

And when I was in that position, I didn't think it was attainable. But now that I look back at my pictures, it's incredible, it is so exciting. But even though when you feel like you don't have hope you do it. I mean, each day is a new day. Start today, quit making excuses, you have to make the decision. And this starts with mental work. You got to work on your mindset, you have to start there, you have to control what you're consuming. Podcast books, the influencers, the people around you. Follow people that inspire you, that want you to make you want to be a better person that makes you want to grow, what you consume matters, and who you're surrounded with matters. If you have friends around you that are constantly talking about weight, you is diet, or how bad they feel, you have to make the choice. And sometimes this is hard because you have family, friends, and family that make this difficult for you sometimes, and you just have to make the choice to do it for yourself. You have to put yourself first. And if that means kind of pushing some people back, making space for yourself, asking your partner to watch the kids while you go on a 30-minute walk. I don't know, too many families, husbands, spouses that wouldn't want their wife to be happier. Because when mom is happy, everybody's happy. So just know it is attainable. But start with the mindset. Start there, find a podcast, listen to your podcast. Obviously, if they're here, they're here for the right reasons already. Control what you consume, get off a Facebook watch the junk and put the powder donut down, like right now and then put the mustard on it in the trash can so that you're not gonna go back and get it because I know you will. But what you consume and who you follow and who you surround yourself with, I think matters tremendously. You, it's your whole environment that feeds you, that fuels you. And it's not, you just have to make those choices. You have to make the decision to be better for yourself. And to put yourself first you have to because it's going to make everyone else happier to you.

 

Amber B  14:44  

Yeah, that's huge. What would you say are some of the biggest mindset shifts that you had along the journey that made a difference for you?

 

Tara  14:53  

I had to tackle some negative beliefs about myself. I was really hard on myself growing up and always on my body. And I think I really had to kind of quit worrying about what other people thought about me.  

 

Amber B  15:12  

How did you do that? 

 

Tara  15:14  

I actually started following an influencer, I started following it. I watched I read the book everybody was reading five years ago, Girl, Wash Your Face by Rachel Hollis. And I sort of followed her, and she really impacted me, I've done a lot of self-growth and personal growth, lots of self-work in the last few years. And it really started with that book, to really look inside and just realize some things and realize, we want to live this for ourselves. You know, she says, she got that from somewhere else that know, someone else's opinion, is none of your business. That's such a valuable piece of advice. Started with that and the more I worried less about others, and put the work in myself, just the happier I felt, the more motivated I felt, the more I just felt this push to be better, be stronger. And at the end of your life, you look back, and those people didn't live it for you, you lived it. And don't you want your kids to look up to you and say, Wow, I watched my mom do that, I want to be that kind of person. The impact that you leave behind you is big. 

 

Tara  16:31  

And doing a lot of just self-work, journaling, podcasts, listening to that sort of thing, just putting positive things in front of myself, actively making those choices to listen to a motivational podcast instead of the radio on the way to work. And the choice to do some reading in a book that gives you some motivation, or some tips to use for certain things like motivation, or choices to make for yourself that may make your life better taking the hour and a half that you spend on Tik Tok or Facebook or Instagram. And just putting 15 minutes of that time into reading something valuable for yourself. That starts to slowly chip away, and access into your mind. And it's not a quick process. But wow, like, just in a month, you'll turn around and say, Well, I feel like I feel better. I feel like I've grown some and then six months down the road a year down the road three years down the road. I was in a depression several years ago that no one knew about. And I put on a good face but there was a lot going on. And after I started kind of working on this and got started working on my mind. It just now I just feel this joy in my chest that I haven't felt legitimately probably since I was a kid. And working on your mind is the biggest thing I think for your general well-being but weight loss and it's primary, it has to be put first. That's where it starts. You got to make a choice. And you got to choose to just be better and try to get better because like, wouldn't you rather just spend? Like what do you rather take a month or two and see what happens versus spend another two or five or 10 years and say, God, I still feel the same way I did 10 years ago and you've never done anything about it? 

 

Amber B  18:48 

Yeah. So, what I'm hearing you say a lot of it, but I think it's so important that people hear is this idea that like we're always consuming things, right? Whether you're being intentional about what you're consuming or not like you're consuming things in your social media feed and the things you read and listen to and hear. And what I'm hearing you say a lot is like the more intentional you can be about that of filtering, what is influencing you filtering what you're reading or viewing or listening to, the more intentional you can be about that the more growth that you can have. And I love the quote that says, we overestimate what we can do in a day and we underestimate what we can do in a year. And that's what I like getting from you is like it's a little each day. It's not like we're not reading a book every single day. We're reading like 15 minutes of a book. And yeah, maybe nothing changes in that first 15 minutes or the next 15 minutes or the next. But after a month of 15 minutes after six months of 15 minutes after a year of 15 minutes, that's what like starts to create that monumental shift in your life. And then on your personal 90 pounds lighter, you know like yeah, like that's how it happens. 

 

Amber B  19:58  

One of my favorite quotes all the way back in episode three, I interviewed Becca Jackson. And she lost 50 pounds and one of the things that she said, I loved about what she said is she said, I didn't lose 50 pounds, I lost one pound 50 times. And I think just that perspective of like you said, initially, when you look at it, it's like, Oh my gosh, I have 90 pounds to lose, like, that's so far away. That's like, so it's just so daunting to think that I have 90 pounds to lose. But when you break that up and say, No, I'm just focusing on losing the next one. And then I'm focusing on losing the next one. And then the next one, and that breaks it up into something that's much more achievable, attainable.

 

Tara  20:38  

Absolutely. Yes. 

 

Amber B  20:41  

So you took the next step, and you came in and joined us into Coaching Academy. So what was that experience like? What did you learn there that was a continuation of what you had already started to learn? 

 

Tara  20:56  

Oh, my goodness, what I loved about Coaching Academy is that it's, you think the same way that I do about the mental aspect of things. My pipe dream, well, hopefully, is to own a company that helps women with weight loss, that treats it as an addiction, treats overeating as an addiction. Because it is, it is no different for us that have been that heavy, we will grab a cookie the same way someone would grab a drug, or a glass of whiskey. It is an addiction, and it needs to be treated as such and that starts with mind and healing. And so my kind of pipe dream is to have a company that houses a licensed therapist that specializes in addiction and to have a licensed therapist that focuses in addiction, and eating disorders, because that has to start there. So I would like to have a therapist, a dietitian or nutritionist and a personal trainer that can help someone and make them like it's not an option, you have to see the therapist and the nutritionist. And the nutritionist has to believe in macros. And this is what you're going to do because I want to heal you and we need to start healing the proper way and go through it in the right process. 

 

Tara  22:33  

And Coaching Academy just comes at it that way. It's all about beliefs and your mindset and what you need to do to tackle your mindset and the questions you need to ask yourself, and all these things that you learn about yourself along the way, if you haven't gotten there yet, that help you learn what to ask your clients and the questions to ask them to help them get better. And when you've been down that road, God, it just makes it so much more valuable. And the personal connection that you have to your clients. I know if I went somewhere that someone's been down the same road as me, you just have a connection because you're like, Girl, you've been there. I trust you, I get you. I mean, I was in, I got a new nail girl like six months ago, and she and I walked in one day and she's like, probably 150 pounds overweight. And by the end of that nail appointment, we were both in tears because we felt like God brought us together that day that I needed to touch her life in a way. She had just started a diet like a week before and thought that it wasn't attainable. And she didn't believe me when I told her I lost 90 pounds. And I pulled out my phone and she was like, in disbelief.

 

Tara  23:58  

Just Coaching Academy allows you to really understand. I almost feel like it's like going to school and studying psychology because the mental aspect is huge. And once you can tackle that and learn to fix those negative beliefs and you know the things to look for that you need to stop in your mind before they go any further. You learn to address those things in a way that it's permanent. You're getting a permanent tool to be able to help yourself. Coaching Academy does that for you and allows you to help other clients do the same. Everything starts with the mind and Coaching Academy treats it that way. And that's the biggest thing I got out of that as soon as I started your academy and I got through the first couple of episodes I was like this is the right click where and it you know all through your other stuff like in MACROS 101 and stuff. Like stuff mindset was mentioned, but not to that extent. And so as soon as I got in a Coaching Academy and heard that that's just your frame of thought, and that's where we need to tackle, and that's where we need to start, it was perfect. I knew it was, that's where I needed to be.

 

Amber B  25:14  

Yeah, we definitely go deep into, like, the behind-the-scenes on beliefs and shifting them and eliciting them and all of those things was there. What did you learn about yourself during that process? Either being in Coaching Academy and learning more about coaching or during macros? Like what have you learned about Tara, through this process,

 

Tara  25:37  

I have a lot more willpower than I ever thought I did before. For once, in my entire life, of trying to lose weight and trying to deal with weight and body image issues and all of that, I finally feel like I'm in control, I finally feel like I have the steering wheel. I had surgery at the end of December, and I had actually hired another company to help me find it, I was in reverse and trying to find my maintenance right about the time I was going to have the surgery. So I hired this coach to help me find my true maintenance and then helped me through the six weeks of recovery that I wasn't going to be able to work out because I was freaking out that I don't know when my mind was going to like gain 30 pounds back in six weeks or something. And during that time, I ended up, I didn't gain weight, I think I was kind of maybe put in a bulk a little bit. But either way, the point of this is during that time, I actually got back up to 199 pounds. And I had been living in the mid to low 180s for a while now. If this was three years ago, and I saw 199 pounds on my scale, I would have been a mess, you would have had to pick me up off the floor. But it never bothered me, because I knew I was going into a cut soon. And I'm like in week three of a cut right now. At all along I was just like, Okay, I don't like the way my clothes fit and I'm getting ticked off about that. But the number on the scale didn't really bother me because I knew, as soon as I was able to go on a cut, that weight was going to come right off. I knew that I had control of it. And it is the first time I ever felt like I had control. That's been control of it. 

 

Tara  23:34  

And then I can make conscious decisions on what to put in my mouth, you have a story about like, you're not really crazy about sugar cookies, but to like eat them, like the Christmas cookies or whatever, because they would be there. But then once you do this thing, there's so many things that I you just used to put in my mouth just to put in my mouth. And since I've been doing macros, it's kind of funny. There's several times including, like all the great food at Christmas that we have, I would like take a bite or two and then I would just think, oh, this really isn't that good. It's not worth it. And I would throw in the trash. And then there's days that you're like, Yeah, this is good. 

 

Amber B  28:13  

This is totally worth it. 

 

Tara  28:16  

I have a really funny story. My son and I love raw cookie dough. And I buy like the Pillsbury package that's kind of in the package like hamburger meat shakes or whatever. And so we'll just like cut it off. It never makes it into the oven. And so we'll just have pieces. And one night, I was like, Oh my God, I want some cookie dough so bad. And I was already pretty close to my numbers for that day or whatever. And I went to the fridge, and I bet you there was probably like, almost a half a roll left, right? I take it out, and I cut a piece off. And I'm not even kidding you. I like hold it up, and I pull the wrapper back and I just take a bite of it. And in like 15 minutes, I feel that wrapper back as if that thing was a banana and I ate that entire cookie dough. I felt like crap afterward. But I intentionally chose to do that. And I didn't beat myself up about it. I actually laughed about it, and then went to the gym the next day and told the girls about it. And they thought I was crazy. Because they were freaking out like Oh my God, and I'm like, it's no big deal. I just got back-

 

Amber B  29:29  

You made that choice and yeah

 

Tara  29:30  

It's fine. I intentionally chose. Yeah, I made the choice and it's fine because you can do stuff like that. And just once you learn all of this about yourself and you learn what you have that you have full control of the gas pedal and the steering will, nothing else matters because you know what's in your full control. So, if you want, if you feel like that donut is gonna serve your body today, then eat the doughnut. It's fine. If it fits, you know.

 

Amber B  30:02  

Yes. Oh, it's so good. So awesome. Tara, thank you so much for sharing your story with us, your wisdom, the knowledge that you gained along this journey. It's so awesome to be able to see you with such hope and vigor and excitement for the future. And you know, think about how far you've come over the last, you know, several years and it's just amazing. So thank you so much for sharing your story. 

 

Tara  30:29  

Of course, it was my pleasure. Thank you for having me.

 

Amber B  30:33  

I hope that you enjoyed learning from Tara and her story, and all the wisdom that she shared about her journey, about losing 90 pounds, about the mental aspects of the journey, and what she has learned. There were so many great takeaways from her sharing her story. That wraps up this episode of Biceps After Babies Radio. I'm Amber now go out and be strong because remember my friend, you can do anything.

 

Outro

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