Sharing My Story: Embrace The Teachings of My Hunger Drive

Sharing My Story: Embrace The Teachings of My Hunger Drive

The idea of my social media arm was too funny to resist. I am a one-woman venture, guided by a strong educational vision and personal commitment to sharing my story. I have no email list, no institutional affiliation, and no sponsors.

I do have this website and a growing audience through my Facebook at Transform Shadows, my Instagram at transform_shadows, and my YouTube at Transform Shadows.

I also have Eat When Hungry, my Signature Series with Dr. Doug Lisle where he interviews me as my Transform Shadows guest. Somehow, this role-reversal makes sense in the content we share. Check it out on my YouTube channel.

My social media arm has been working late with Transform Shadows to encourage you to register for the Thrive Against All Odds Summit. The whole Transform Shadows team encourages you to register. (Just to be clear, that means me, myself, and I lol.)

My story will air on October 25. I previewed my interview last night, and it truly was an honor to interview with Tim Kaufman. He and Heather Barlow Kaufman are doing great educational work. The conversation I had with Tim is authentic and real around making and sustaining significant lifestyle changes.

This is my first step into this world of online interviews for other people, and I have learned a lot in the process. My health, wellness, and weight loss journey has taught me a lot my own strengths and fallibility, and this new experience adds to that learning.

I am still learning how to tell the autobiographical parts of my story. If you watch my interview, you will see that learning in process at the beginning. I know that this interview takes me closer to knowing how I will do that, but I am still uncertain what the specifics will look like for future public speaking.

One recurrent themes in my story is to discuss my failures as a central part of my success. I share a lot about my failures in this interview with Tim. Failure is feedback, and embracing that learning helps me succeed.

Of this I am certain: I am not telling a story of trauma, of self-hatred, of victimhood, of bullying, of being broken, of fixing myself, of finding an easy answer, of gaining a magic answer to lose half my weight and find a healthier way of living.

I know these themes well in my own journey. For years, I tried to understand myself through trauma, victimhood, self-hatred, bullying, brokenness. Several times, I thought I had answers, but they never felt true to my life, to why I struggled and still struggle with a healthy lifestyle. In hindsight, I contorted my story to fit the tropes of the moment.

My story centers around understanding my hunger drive. That content comes out in this interview. The processes of understanding, making changes, and sustaining these changes have been among the most complex, ongoing processes of my life. And, this interview covers some of what that means.

I never imagined speaking publicly about my weight. I can do so now because I have uprooted many of the aforementioned messages of mainstream media around weight, food, obesity, and healthy eating in my own life. I speak now because I have a new understanding of my hunger drive, how it works, and how to override it.

I have a clear action plan that always works: eat plants and avoid processed foods. In my eating, I take a narrow pathway for myself, and my only regret is that I did not do this earlier. But I also take a wide view of self-improvement and wonder what would have have happened if I had made a fraction of these changes earlier in my lifetime.

My approach is not the answer that I want in day-to-day life, but it has created the most incredible feeling that I call a sensuality of wellness. This feeling has everything to do with eating simple, unprocessed plants and avoiding salt, sugar, and oil, which are my central triggers. And, I talk more about avoiding these triggers in my interview.

Being a work-in-progress is a significant part of a self-improvement process. I embrace that in this moment. My laptop angle was funny, so you may want to go for audio if you decide to register. Good learning for the future, should I ever get an opportunity to speak like this again.

In my own self-improvement journey, I got a lot information from Summits just like this one that helped me find a much healthier way of living. Many of the plant-based doctors that Tim interviews are ones whose information helped me Transform Shadows to live a healthier life.

If you sign up, you can pick and choose which speakers you want to listen to. You typically get 24 hours of access free to each speaker, so you can come in and out as you wish. When I signed up for Summits like these in the past, I rarely watched the interviews, but listened to them like podcasts while working in the kitchen or around the house.

Below is the official write-up that I have been asked to share about the event – with a few edits to remove the advertising feel since I have no advertising clout.

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Health doesn't have to feel like a constant uphill battle...

Over the last few years, we've learned how to prevent and even reverse chronic conditions, how to lose weight without counting calories, how to reprogram food triggers and cravings, and how to go from sedentary to thriving without hitting the gym... And the best part: it doesn't require a ton of time or effort to see your first results!

Speakers include Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Michael Greger, Dr. Joel Kahn, Cyrus Khambatta, Chef AJ, Dr. Michael Klaper, Ocean Robbins, Dr. Doug Lisle and many more...

Thrive Against All Odds is hosted by Tim Kaufman, who went from 400+ pounds, 20 meds, and little hope to becoming a thriving triathlete. Plus, you'll get to learn from other turnaround stories each day, giving you the tools and tips you need to turn health science into action.