Our guest is Anne Via Zakielarz
Featured in Fitness Magazine’s “I Did It” April 2007

Anne Via Zakielarz is someone who has found she has much more determination in her than she ever thought she had, and now at almost 40 she is healthier then she was at 18.  Anne went from what seemed like a healthy lifestyle and healthy diet to a journey with gradual tweaks and small increment changes.  By doing so she was able to lose 105 pounds and maintain that weight loss for over 8 years.  She has learned more about herself through the process and found that if she wanted something badly enough and had a plan she could achieve it by taking one step at a time.

Part of Anne’s challenge was not to get overwhelmed with the big picture of losing 100 pounds and not let her goal deter her from the day to day things she knew she had to do.  She realized she couldn’t stress about dropping ‘this much weight, or this much body fat.’  All Anne could do for herself was to focus on what needed to be done today, to set a small goal of what she wanted to achieve to and give it all she could that day.  With each passing day, week, month and year she has achieved more than she set out to do.  She now passes as a sister of one of her daughters who is 18.

Our guest is Wendy Kadner

Wendy Kadner is a minority partner in a successful consulting firm, which requires her to travel.  She is also a single parent, owns a dog-boarding business as her hobby, and is involved in several community activities.  (Multi tasking was her middle name!)  Her commitments created a schedule that left no time for her.  Yet she wanted to find a way to be fit and eat better.  She turned to a lifestyle coaching approach to fitness and intuitive eating and experienced initial success, but making it a long-term solution eluded her.  As a goal-oriented individual this bothered her. 

Realizing she needed to do something different, she took a hard look at her priorities, thoughts, and situations and focused on why she was unable to make time for herself and why her health was not always up to par.  To her surprise it wasn’t forcing herself back into exercising that worked.  It was getting in touch with herself and making time for self care.  She has found the right lifestyle balance without giving up the things she loves and has dropped from a size 16/18 to a 10/12. 

Our guest is Gillian Hood-Gabrielson

Gillian Hood-Gabrielson is a young active entrepreneur woman who walked the talk as a fitness and intuitive eating coach.  However in September of 2004 she was forced to slow down and look at things in a new light.  She broke her leg during a fall and was hospitalized for 10 days.

She was unable to walk unassisted for 6 months, went through 2 surgeries and focused one year of her life in just being able to walk, become pain free, and have enough energy to work a couple days a week.  With low energy and dealing with immense pain all her energy was focused on healing.  Through her personal ordeal she learned it was ok to let others help her.  She also saw that being healthy and strong shouldn’t be taken for granted and that there is more to life than work.  She made a full recovery and feels blessed with how her life turned out.  She wants others to know there is hope when dealing with a seemingly impossible challenge.

Our guest is Heather Van Nest

At 29 Heather Van Nest, anchor-woman for Tampa Bays Evening News, was shocked to get a melanoma diagnosis.  She had a fully body skin exam after interviewing a dermatologist, but didn’t expect she would actually have any problems much less cancer.  The news put her into action.  She got informed and learned that healthier habits was her ammunition to avoiding a re-occurrence.

During the next five years she overhauled her lifestyle and learned to take better care of herself.  She forces herself to get in bed right after her midnight shift so she can get 7 hours of sleep.  She now grocery shops on her dinner break to make sure she has fresh, organic vegetables and food at least once a week.  She says, “Because it costs more money I feel guilty letting it go bad, so I make a huge pot of stew on Sunday nights.”   With her investigative reporting skills being put to work she no longer trusts the big food companies and tries to buy foods that are not processed or preserved in chemicals.  She is cancer free and determined to stay that way.