How to Become a Certified IdealWeight Coach
How to Stay on Program While You Travel/Vacation
How to Stay on the S.A.A.B. Program When Eating Out
How to Break Through a Plateau
On my blog, I write a series, “Why I’m the luckiest person on the planet.” Last I checked I was up to Episode 24. One of the reasons I feel so blessed is because I meet the most amazing people. My possibility posse attracts really awesome people. People who inspire me, people who are doing life-changing things.
MK Mueller is one of those people. When she stumbled into our Sunday group (well, she didn’t actually stumble), I knew right away that this was someone I wanted to know. She spoke truth. She spoke miracles. She spoke love.
And as I’ve gotten to know her, my respect for her has only grown. She’s doing big things. She’s making a difference. She’s shepherding in the more beautiful world we all know is possible.
I’m honored to write this foreword for her new book. I can say wholeheartedly that her 8-step IdealWeight process based on her 8 to Great book is well, great. And I know that anyone who gets within range of MK is going to be catapulted into a whole new way of living.
Thanks, MK, for your life-changing wisdom and, most importantly, for never wavering, never failing to walk the talk.
Pam Grout,
#1 New York Times bestselling author of E-Squared, E-Cubed, Thank and Grow Rich and 15 other books
In August 1986 I was lost. The counselor on the phone had just told me I was in a domestic violence marriage and that my life was in danger. Then she gave me the address of a shelter where my daughter and I would be safe.
My denial was thick, but I had too many secrets to share them with anyone else, so I trusted that she knew what she was talking about and packed up a few things for us. After my husband left for work the next day, we left.
That month-long program changed my life forever. Where my degree with honors from a prestigious university had given me knowledge, my counselors at the shelter gave me wisdom.
Four weeks later, as I re-entered my world, I didn’t want to forget what I’d learned about honoring and standing up for myself, so I decided to start a support group. I put notes in 10 neighbors’ mailboxes, inviting them to my living room on a Saturday morning for the very first “Taking Care of Me” class. Five people showed up that day, and although none of them were in a domestic violence situation, the empowerment message resonated with all of them.
Soon I was hosting classes in church basements and small businesses, regularly hearing the same request: “Please put this in a book.” My reply that I wasn’t “a writer” got weaker as time went on, and eventually my first book, “Taking Care of Me: The Habits of Happiness,” was published.
The journey from those early days of watching women and men reclaim their happiness and personal power to today as a Life Coach and International Keynote Speaker has been a glorious one. For the past three decades, I’ve been coaching people of all ages - from business leaders and educators to CEO’s and Moms groups - to happier and more successful lives through my 8-step process, “8 to Great.” Today I’m so proud that over 2500 PowerCoaches are living and sharing that process around the world.
So in January 2014, life was good. I lived every day in gratitude, but also in fear. I woke up every day afraid of what I might eat, and went to bed every night guilty about what I’d eaten. I wasn’t consuming food, food was consuming me.
Meanwhile, what my audiences didn’t see on stage was that my energy was low and getting lower. Getting through a day of speaking wore me out. Playing tennis after a day of writing was just not an option, and I watched my life become more and more sedentary. My weight continued to increase, but I couldn’t bring myself to go back to counting calories or points. I attributed it all to getting older, and resigned myself to believing it was inevitable.
It was at that point that my chiropractor and friend, Michelle Robin, D.C., suggested I consider a dietary change - release sugar’s hold on me.
“But I don’t get sick!” I challenged, dreading the thought of having to give up my fast food breakfast and daily dose of diet soda. What I didn’t tell her was that I was successful at only one thing with diets - failing. I had tried every weight loss gimmick available for 30 years. Like 90% of women, I’d gone on more than 16 crazy calorie-counting and point-counting diets in my 30’s, 40’s and 50’s. None of them had been sustainable.
“You’ll feel and look years younger, MK. Just give it a try for 2 weeks.”
I trusted her, so I watched the documentaries “Fed Up” and “That Sugar Film.” I was stunned when I found out how the big food industries had stacked the cards against us by putting addictive levels of sugar in almost every processed food.
Instead of getting depressed, I got mad. I had been the “Sugar Queen” who had to have my favorite candy every day and had been tricked into a life of fat and fatigue. I trusted the mountain of new research findings - that if I just gave my body a few days to “detox,” and started checking food labels for added sugars instead of calories or fats, I would be on my way to a lifetime of freedom.
I purchased the hottest new diet book on lowering my added sugar intake and gave it a try. (I remember feeling really dizzy for the first 24 hours. My body’s detoxing really took it out of me, so I was glad I’d chosen a weekend to start it.)
But there was a problem. Over those next two weeks I could barely keep up with all the “rules.” The diet didn’t just limit my added sugars, it required 10 daily supplements, 30 minutes of exercise each day, daily detox baths, a media fast, no dairy, no caffeine, keeping records of sleep, food intake, etc. I told my friends it felt like a part-time job just trying to remember it and get all my homework done.
By the 14th day, I had released 7 of the 20 pounds I wanted to lose and I had no sugar cravings, (no small miracle!) but the rest of the program was just too much. I couldn’t sustain it. Within a month I had gone back to my old ways and gained back the weight.
I felt like a failure again, and I was angry.
I knew that removing added sugars was good for me. Why couldn’t someone offer a program that was easy, that worked in everyday life for normal people, and that would be a way to eat for life rather than for a few high-deprivation months?
That day I