FAQ: An Interview with Jennifer McCay

Please take a moment to review these frequently asked questions about Jennifer’s coaching philosophy and weight loss/healthy eating programs.

How did you become a nutrition and life balance coach?

It’s difficult to answer this question without sharing my own weight loss story. In essence, I spent the first decade after college pursuing a successful career in advertising, where I was a creative director for Sony, Adobe and other big brands, and then I opened my own small business coaching firm. But while I was good at helping my clients boost their bottom lines, my own bottom line suffered (as in the physical one)! I found myself 50+ pounds overweight and suffered from severe asthma and allergies that required 4-5 medications daily to function at a very basic level, despite doing everything I could to alleviate the symptoms and following all my doctors’ recommendations.

At that time, my life centered on energy, or lack thereof – there was never enough because I was always exhausted, out of breath and so run down that I got every virus imaginable. Finally, my doctors actually advised me to change climates in hopes of getting a small reprieve from the asthma that kept me inactive and locked indoors at least 6 months of the year. I also had had little to no self-esteem and was in a deep depression, without any knowledge of how to break the cycle and live a happy, balanced life.

Not sure how to move forward, and without a role model, one day I decided enough was enough and decided to change my life. As I began to tackle this huge "construction project" (constructing an all-new life!), there was no single volume of information that provided all the necessary answers. So I immersed myself in books and courses on everything that seemed relevant to helping me get healthy and happy.

Prior attempts to change my lifestyle too dramatically had always failed miserably, so I began tackling one aspect of my life at a time to move in a better direction. In essence, I started making small, but significant changes in my life.

And after being overweight, ill and unhappy for well over a decade, in less than a year I:

discovered a way of eating that allowed me to reach my ideal weight (as a size 2/4) without ever going hungry or taking dangerous supplements
got rid of all my health problems
stopped taking medications for asthma because I no longer needed them
broke out of the dark depression once and for all
gained tremendous energy and stamina
finally became happy with my physical appearance

Furthermore, for the first time ever, I felt balanced, happy and ready for anything life threw my way thanks to tackling the mental stumbling blocks, beliefs and behaviors that had held me back from happiness all that time.

During this time of incredible personal growth, I began giving back, sharing what I had learned along the way with others near and far in hopes that they could benefit from my experiences and knowledge. I learned that others gravitated to my advice on healthy eating, weight loss and self-improvement and found inspiration in my successes.

After having a baby in 2007 (another benefit of these healthy lifestyle changes), I took a leave of absence from my small business and realized my real passion in life was in coaching, but of a different kind – assisting and inspiring other women, particularly moms, who needed the kind of help I once did to lose weight healthfully and achieve a happy, healthy, balanced life. That’s when I decided to open the doors of BodySoul Balance Coaching, and since 2008 I’ve been helping women find peace with food, their bodies and their lives.

What are some of the common reasons why I might need coaching?

Coaching itself (with the right coach!) is a powerful way of ensuring that you reach your goals because you have the guidance and help of a trusted mentor, the accountability aspect of “reporting in” regularly on what you’ve accomplished and also positive feedback and encouragement as you go. Even though I’m a coach myself, I also work with a coach because it allows me to stay laser-focused on goals that I set for myself in my professional and personal life.

That’s not the full answer to the question, though. I firmly believe everyone can benefit from working with a coach. But more importantly, how I can I help you specifically? Some common issues my clients work with me on include:

emotional eating issues, such as overeating out of boredom, depression, frustration and other psychological reasons
creating healthy new habits in place of the old, unhealthy ones, which is one of the main reasons it can be hard to lose weight on your own
food cravings that have made it challenging to stick to a new way of eating in the past
motivation-related challenges that make it difficult to stay focused on healthful eating long enough to get all the weight off
time management problems, which make it seem impossible to fit healthy eating into your lifestyle
nutritional questions for busy moms who don’t have the time or inclination to stay up on the latest nutritional advice and want me to help them

And of course there are plenty of other topics that come up in coaching, such as recipe recommendations, advice on phasing into healthful eating, how to overcome common and not-so-common obstacles to healthy eating such as travel, unsupportive loved ones, and really any issue impacting your ability to change your eating habits and lose weight.

As your coach, I am open to all challenges you present to me, and we work together to discover the best, workable solutions that fit into your lifestyle in as painless a way as possible. And I also challenge you as well so that you can branch out of your comfort zone and begin creating the life you really want for yourself.

How does coaching work?

First we have a one-hour Elite Jumpstart Session via telephone so that I can get to know your needs far better. Though most clients come to me with one of the challenges listed above, you are unique and always come with your own lifestyle, work, family and household needs, so it’s critical that I get to know you fairly well. During this initial session, after assessing your current situation, we decide how best to move forward together.

As part of our coaching together, I provide you with nutritional knowledge that helps you lose weight easily, get healthier, avoid specific health problems such as those due to food allergies, stop the cravings cycle and anything else nutrition-related that you might need assistance with. This might mean I will share nutritional information, recipes, tips on how to make healthful eating easier in your busy life and so forth so that you can succeed!

Secondly, I collaborate with you to help you recraft your lifestyle so that you can achieve your health, weight, fitness and life goals. We might work together to help you have less fear, frustration, overwhelm or indecision in your life, or perhaps you simply want to enjoy far more confidence, freedom, clarity and abundance on a daily basis. We start where you currently are and work to move you forward to a life in which your body and soul are in balance.

Who are your clients?

I work exclusively with moms who need help losing weight easily, effectively and healthfully. As a mom myself, I know that we are the least likely to take care of ourselves until all the rest of the household is cared for, and I help other moms find ways to take care of themselves that are manageable even within the time constraints that being a mom entails.

What kind of clients do you work best with?

I prefer to work with women who are intelligent, ask questions and come to each session with honesty and a commitment to taking action. A sense of humor also helps! It helps immensely if you come to coaching with an open mind and a willingness to try new things. We will get much more accomplished if you have a vision of a happier, healthier life that you are committed to achieving, even if it currently seems out of reach.

For what type of person is your program NOT going to work?

Please note that I hand-pick all one-on-one coaching clients for my Elite Access™ Transformation Coaching program to make sure that we’re well-suited to work with one another. If I don’t feel we’re an ideal match, I will let you know that I don’t feel we can achieve the results you want.

Secondly, my basic recommended nutritional approach entails a mostly (though not necessarily entirely) vegetarian, plant-based whole foods diet because this is the most health-promoting way of eating, which also happens to be the best way of losing weight. I am strongly influenced by The China Study and the work of Dr. Joel Fuhrman, whose groundbreaking book Eat to Live gives the best overview of nutrition, weight loss and disease prevention that I have ever come across in all my reading and research.

In other words, if you want to attempt to lose weight while eating 12 oz. steaks for lunch and dinner every day, we’re not going to work well together. You certainly don’t have to become vegetarian in order to lose weight, and I often work with clients who are not vegetarian, but it is necessary to moderate how much meat, fish and dairy you eat according to my recommendations because I am committed to helping you get not only thinner, but also healthier (and happier too, but that’s another issue entirely).

Last but not least, I tend to work with motivated women willing to take action, not those who whine or complain more often than not or regularly make excuses about why they haven’t followed through. Life definitely gets in the way sometimes despite our best intentions, and some dietary changes in particular are more challenging than others; I’d be the last to say anything to the contrary!

However, you will not be getting everything out of our coaching if you challenge everything I recommend or don’t do your best to follow through on your weekly assignments (all of which are developed with your particular needs in mind, and we always agree on them in advance so that if something seems too difficult, we will scale it down into manageable chunks). To get results, you really need to do the work or at least try your very best.

What is the BodySoul Balance™ approach to weight loss and healthy living?

There are 2 key elements involved in getting healthy, thin and happy.

1) To lose weight or simply change your diet successfully, it will help you immensely if you have the right mindset. I work with my clients on this so that they have a constant "bucket" of motivation to fall back on; we also tackle the Dieting Mindtraps that can otherwise keep you from following through with dietary changes in the longer term.

2) You need to follow the right eating plan that is designed not only to help you lose weight efficiently, but also get you healthy. Anything less than that will keep you constantly hungry, craving bad-for-you-and-your-waistline foods, and won’t help you feel better as you go. I show you the healthiest way of eating, which happens to make it easier to lose weight, and help you ease into the new plan so that it becomes your lifestyle.

Both of these exclusive factors work in concert to achieve a happier, healthier life in which you can be thin and feel your best.

I refer to these as body and soul. To succeed in your quest for health and weight loss, it is your best bet to get your body and soul in balance. For me, this concept of BodySoul Balance™ has proved so powerful — and has been so critical to my own health and happiness and that of my clients — that I named my entire business after it and call my entire methodology of coaching BodySoul Balance Coaching™. Why? Because realistically, if you’re struggling with your weight, you need help with how you eat AND how you approach the changes it takes to get the life and the health and the BODY that you want!

What sets you apart from other weight loss coaches?

First of all, I only work with other moms, so I know your needs and time constraints far better than a generalist would.

Secondly, I see weight loss and healthy eating as part of an overall healthy, happy lifestyle. In order to lead that healthy, happy lifestyle, you need to learn some simple, yet profound principles of success that will help you follow through on your weight loss goals, develop the discipline you might not think you have (but is really just a set of habits that can be learned quite easily), eliminate stressors from your life that detract from your overall sense of well-being and become the Lean Green Mama you’ve always wanted to be!

Thirdly, I am not a registered dietician or medical professional, so I am not focused on a "medicalized" perspective on weight loss. In other words, some of what I share is not the mainstream approach of "eat more chicken and olive oil," which doesn’t work to get you truly healthy. (And in fact, the diet that the American Heart Association prescribes doesn’t actually cure heart disease either! So I don’t go along with that common approach to eating that most dieticians take!)

Likewise, I also am opposed to the standard "take Alli (weight loss medication), statins (cholesterol-lowering drugs) and blood pressure medication" approach that most U.S. doctors recommend. None of those things will get you healthier and happier, and none of them teach you the best possible way to lose weight, get healthy and feel better than you’ve ever had in your life.

I also won’t recommend you take any crazy diet pills (though I’ll be happy to share which very few supplements I take personally to make sure all nutritional bases are covered), nor will I recommend dangerous techniques of any kind.

Instead, I am an experienced coach who understands human psychology, behavior and how to get the best results from the least amount of effort — ideal for a busy mom who needs all the breaks you can get, right? Though I opened the doors of BodySoul Balance Coaching in 2008, I’ve been mentoring and coaching others professionally since 2001.

As your coach, I am committed to helping you take the actions that optimally get you to your goals for your body, your soul, your life. It is my greatest joy and passion to help you achieve YOUR passions! And I’ll refer you to the physicians I trust most if I discover that you need medical attention at any time.

What results can I expect?

I make no promises about results because it completely depends on the individual and her needs, lifestyle and how her body loses weight. We’re all a bit different in that regard. I also can’t make anyone do anything they don’t want to do, so your actions will dictate how quickly you lose the weight. But I will say this: It is much, much easier to lose weight when you have a trusted mentor who can guide you past the potential pitfalls, helps you push past plateaus and tackle the lifestyle *and* dietary *and* mindset challenges that have held you back in the past.

So while I can’t say definitively that you will lose 10 lbs. in 2 weeks or 50+ lbs. in less than a year as I did personally, you *will* get where you want to go much sooner and much less painfully when you follow my recommendations as your coach.

But once we begin working together, you can expect the following benefits:

You’ll no longer feel trapped in a body you don’t like! As your body loses inches, you feel freer and happier.
Every day will be calmer and more peaceful because you won’t be feeding food cravings that lead to emotional ups and downs. Instead you’ll be nourishing your body with healthful, healing foods
You’ll feel much more self-confidence … and let me tell you — it feels incredible to feel great physically every single day too!
Not only will you love how you look in the mirror — you’ll finally have the kind of relationship with food that you can be proud of and you can be thrilled for your kids to emulate
The gradual mindset shifts that lead to a healthier body also lead to a healthier, happier mind!
You’ll finally see yourself as the capable, disciplined, accomplished self-starter that you truly are
Every day will help you experience more and more joy as you embrace new activities and possibilities for your future

Together we will help you create the life you’ve always wanted for yourself as a thinner, healthier, happier, more balanced you!

What if I’ve tried other diets in the past and not succeeded?

If by not succeeding, you mean you didn’t lose the weight or lost the weight but couldn’t keep it off, that doesn’t have to be your destiny once we work together. I always educate you on the habits you need to cultivate in order to successfully lose weight and become healthier, and we work together to implement these healthy new habits into your lifestyle so that they "take" for good. That typically is NOT what is done on other diet plans, and it’s a key reason why you may not have done as well as you wished in the past.

With my help, if you put in the effort and are willing to make some changes in your way of eating and your lifestyle, we WILL get you the body you want and a happier, healthier, more balanced life too!

What if I decide I don’t want to continue working with you?

Regarding my Elite Access™ Transformation Coaching program, I offer you a simple, straightforward promise: If during our first month of coaching you decide that you are unsatisfied with my assistance, you may request a full refund at any time. No questions asked — it’s that simple. Just contact my office before the first 30 days are up and we’ll take care of it.

Jennifer, based on everything I’ve learned about you and heard from others, I know you’re the right coach for me. What are my options for getting started?

Though there are several new coaching plans in the works, I currently offer one-on-one Elite Access™ Transformation Coaching for 3, 6 or 12 months as my premier plan for clients who want personal, individualized consultation with me several times a month. I recommend that you learn more about this coaching option, and if it looks like a good fit for you, simply follow the instructions on that page to apply.

If you’re not ready for one-on-one coaching, I strongly recommend that you join my LeanGreenMama™ Inner Circle™ Coaching Club, which gives you monthly group coaching by telephone geared to your needs as a busy mom in need of advice on weight loss, motivation and creating a healthy lifestyle for yourself and your family. In addition, you can also call in to monthly Q&A calls with me to ask your most pressing questions, and you’ll receive digital recordings of both calls each month, as well as discounts on Elite Access coaching, upcoming seminars and products, and much more! Learn more and join the Inner Circle here.

Though the two options above are my top recommendations for working with me (depending on whether you want my personal, one-on-one attention or simply need monthly insights to stay on track and kickstart your weight loss results), in case you need further clarification or wish to discuss a few specific issues without committing to a longer-term coaching option, you should consider having a Flash Access™ Coaching session with me. In this half-hour one-on-one phone session, we will discuss any questions, determine whether you’re a good match for my longer-term coaching and learn more about how we can work together to get you on track for weight loss success and a more balanced lifestyle. Get more info and sign up here.

I’m ready to move forward, but I have a few questions. What should I do?

If you’re considering Elite Access coaching, you’re welcome to send basic policy-type questions about how my coaching options work to contactus@bodysoulbalancecoaching.com or call 1.877.203.7787 (toll-free), and we’ll be happy to help you.

If you know you’re ready for Elite Access, please fill out the application for this coaching program to reserve your spot. You’ll find it at the bottom of this page. I always set up a time to spend 10-15 minutes speaking with Elite Access applicants before moving forward with coaching; this gives both of us a chance to determine whether we’re going to work well together or not, and you can get clarification on many questions during this call. Please also keep in mind that the first 30 days of Elite Access coaching are guaranteed or you can request a complete refund (later cancellations would be refunded at a prorated rate), so there is no risk whatsoever to get started.

Need additional time to make your decision? My Flash Access™ Coaching session is designed explicitly for this purpose if you need a full half-hour to determine whether we’re a good fit. Get more info and sign up here.