In 2014 I started a weight loss journey and lost 32lbs. This is my story. I’d love to hear yours too!
The host greets the audience, notes the livestream context, and offers a content disclaimer that this is their personal weight-loss journey and their experiences are opinions; viewers should take what resonates.
The speaker recounts being very depressed in the mid-2010s, partying, a basic job, and a severe ankle injury that limited activity and contributed to a downward spiral and weight gain.
The host explains moments of awakening—books, messages, and therapy—that helped, and emphasizes beginning with one small good thing each day like a walk, bath, or meditation as the start of recovery.
This section details tools used to move stuck energy—breath work, meditation, shaking, and self-awareness about inner chatter—and encourages consistent small actions and restarting after setbacks.
The speaker discusses letting go of stories and relationships during change, describes the process of clearing samskaras, and frames service and connection as the outcome of becoming lighter and more expansive.
The host shares available coaching and hotline resources through the organization, reiterates core lessons—do one good thing daily, let go, serve—and closes with practical tips like drinking water, kindness, and more vegetables.
Hello, happy Friday, cadre. So great to see you, whether you're tuning in now or later. Really, really glad to have you here on such a beautiful day in Minnesota. So wondering if it's, hopefully it's beautiful where you are rather, and I am really excited. Hello, the witness. really excited to kind of dive into my weight loss journey if you're curious. And so full disclaimer, want to share that this is a personal story and these are just experiences and opinions that I've had and take what resonates with you and leave anything else that doesn't work.
But back in 2014, I was very, very depressed. And I, you know, 2024, I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. And as often 20 somethings do, you know, was partying too much and just kind of scooting along in like a pretty basic job. And it was it was really tough. I was very just depressed and You know, I'm curious if you guys have ever felt depressed or what depression shows up for you as if you feel inclined to share it through in the chat, because it's different for everybody. I have known a lot of people, especially in my family, that have suffered from depression and mental illness, and everybody has like a different flavor.
And for me, it became couch sitting on the couch and part of that was because I had a really severe ankle injury I've always been an athlete and I got it pretty bad one summer and then again which I tweaked it and then again in the winter with skiing and snowboarding. And so I was just kind of out and down for the count. And if you have to sit on a couch all winter, I'm telling you it's a recipe for disaster. The witnesses said, the witness said, I'm depressed right now. I see it in the body. That's why I clicked on the live stream.
Amazing. Thank you so much for being here, showing up and being vulnerable and sharing that. And where in your body do you feel that? Because for me, And what I was gonna share today is depression is very much associated with heaviness. In fact, that's often why people that are depressed gain weight. And at least that has been historically the story for myself, my family, and many of the clients that I've served over the years. It's an interesting pattern, but it makes sense, unfortunately. And I hear you because it's a really hard time.
It's painful, it's debilitating. You're kind of stuck in this freeze where you're just like, you don't want to do anything, right? And nothing, you spiral, nothing seems to help, and you don't really know what to do, so you end up doing nothing. And the thing that kind of woke me up was Eventually people change when they get sick and tired of being sick and tired. And that is exactly what happened to me. It came into a book, thankfully, that helped. But keep your eyes open for things that might speak to you.
It could be a sentence somebody says, it could be a billboard, it could be Like I got an e-mail, I'm on James Clear's newsletter and he said something that just lit me up yesterday and I was like, I exactly needed to hear that. So being open to having that come is something that can help get us out of these really, really, really low times. As well as speaking to a professional, I spoke to many therapists over my years since I was like 10 and I attribute a lot of my success to many of the good therapists that I have.
So please use those. But the biggest thing that I learned from that time of just kind of packing it on, being sad, just so much sad girl energy. And, you know, in my feelings and in my head, I eventually realized that after multiple days of doing nothing for myself, I realized like something kicked into gear where I was like, okay, I need to do one good thing for myself today. Like whether that was going on a walk, even though it was really painful at the time because I was hobbling due to my injury or if it was taking a bath or meditating or listening to like something uplifting or praying, whatever it is.
I knew I had to do something. And so I started to do one thing for myself like every day, and that was a win. And I feel like sometimes it's hard to do that, especially when things are tight. Thank you again for expressing. That's a great not great contribution to kind of help goes along with my story actually. I gained about 30, 35 pounds as well. It was something like that. And yeah, you don't want to take pictures. You don't want to go out. You don't really want to be seen by anybody. And the thing that changed was me just starting with one little thing a day doing something good for myself.
Even if it's one minute of something, making one healthy meal. It could be calling somebody you trust. It could be going to therapy that day. Whatever it is, one good thing for yourself, I promise if you continue to stick with it, it will pay off and you'll want to do more of those things because you'll slowly start to like, it's like it takes all this like guck and unveiling of harsh deep energy that we've accumulated and didn't process or we couldn't handle so it blocked us. And so honestly doing some energy work, some breathing techniques to help just move energy, shaking is one of my favorite things to do.
Like get crazy with it. Just shake. We are mammals. We are meant to shake. And that doing one little thing every day can add up. If you miss a day, no big deal. Just start over and pick it right back up where you left off. Once you start doing that and you're in a better mental place, we have to start to like let go of what's keeping us stuck down, which is tough because it could be like an identity change as well. So notice the story and just slowly train ourselves to let go. Oh, there she's going again.
I call my mind Beatrice. And I'm like, Beatrice, I don't have the time for today, but you're funny. Thank you for trying to bring me down. It's all good. Like move on, like try not to get stuck. And hopefully those gaps will get shorter and shorter. And that is what happened. It was. I was trying to notice and do breath work and meditation and all the things to get out of this that I could control, right? Like there's a lot of things that weigh us down and there's a lot going on in my life that I could not control.
But I focus on what I could control so that I could change. When we're changing, a lot of things will happen. We might have to let go of some friendships. you will have to let go of some friendships. You might have to let go of relationships. It sounds like there's really hard. I had a very tumultuous relationship with my mom at the time, like being it's very hard. So understand that sometimes things get worse before they get better. And that's where a licensed professional comes in too. Definitely.
Work with a therapist to help with all this but notice notice the chatter Because I think I was like on my walks was when I would like pray and connect with nature and then I would come in I was really into baths because and I needed to soak because my injury and all that I Really really really Started noticing noticing my body noticing my mind's inner monologue and I was like man, she is not kind mm-hmm like and I kind of just had it and The more that I've worked on my self-awareness the more I was able to control when I followed that voice and when I decided to Watch her just drift off or create a new narrative.
So I would highly recommend trying to Just hear your, when it's talking, just be like, I'm the one aware of it talking. That's not me talking. You know what I mean? So it's, and again, work with a therapist because they're always going to be able to help you let go because that's the second thing. Do something good for yourself and then constantly work on letting go. Let go of the heaviness. Let go of the stories. let go of old identities, like we're humans, we're meant to let go. It's uncomfortable, but it's just part of it.
Once we get to that phase where we're letting go pretty regularly, then it's time to get back. It's time to serve. It's time to listen and be there and go higher, right? We've been down here for a long time. We're working on ourselves. Now we finally have built the capacity to handle these tumultuous things that are coming up. It's all these in yoga, they're called samskaras. They're coming up and sometimes it's vengeance, man. Like it gets nasty in there and it gets painful in here. So letting go, leads you to free up your energy and open and be more expansive and lighter.
When we're finally in that spot, then we're actually able to be of service, which is what humans are here to do anyway, right? Learn, treat people well and be of service. So and connect to something greater than yourself. But those are like the three lessons that I learned the most going through those really, really hard times. And I'll emphasize that it wasn't just like in my 20s that I was struggling. I was struggling my whole life with depression and being on different medications and all that.
So it was like, yes, the medication saved my life and it also was ruining it at the same time. So they're a lot better about medication now these days, but back then they weren't. And so I would say that like working with a professional that you trust and that you like mesh with is going to be the biggest, biggest thing in biggest help for you right now. And navigating these really difficult aspects of being human is part of our experience. And so learning to get tools to handle when the hard stuff comes up, because it will, it always will, that's when we can start to get out of survival and more into a more steady state and handling life.
with clarity and compassion. So those are my takeaways from my journey is always do something good for yourself every single day. I still live by that mantra. I still do it unless I'm like totally like really sick, but I'm doing it then, right? We have to lay down and relax. Taking care of ourselves, doing one good thing for ourselves every day. Letting go. Just let it go. It's easier to let it go than to hold on to it and let it fester. And finally, serve. Go higher. Give. So I hope that that helps and if there is someone you want to talk to, here at CADRE we have professionals that are happy to coach you and guide you through this.
Otherwise, we have a hotline as well that you can reach us at and we can actually connect you with a mental health professional too. So please let us know, let us reach out. for you. We want to get you in the right place and have you feel connected and because you matter and you have something that nobody else has that's very important and special. So let's find it together and Yeah, we'll we'll hopefully connect with you soon here. So thank you so much for for tuning in whenever you have if it's if it's live, thank you the witness or if it's later.
I hope that it finds you at the right time and I hope you have a great rest of your day. And as I always end it, drink a lot of water, spread kindness, eat more veggies. Peace.
