Hey Lady!

So this will not be an exact transcript of what I say in the Podcast, in fact, it will be nowhere close! This is the written version of my the episode base on the notes I drafted. =)

To start I would like to welcome you to the You Can Too Podcast! [blog too] Every week I offer lessons on diet, health, wellness and work life balance for working moms! My goal is to help you get what you want, be the example to you kids, and make it a lifestyle. I know it is busy, I know it is crazy at times, and I know it can be hard, but if I can do it, then you can too!

Today I’m introducing myself to you. I want to tell you where I’ve been, where I am, and I want to tell you where I’m going.

This is not my first attempt at creating a podcast (or blog). I have created a podcast 3 times now, and each time it wasn’t right. It wasn’t good enough. It didn’t sound like me. It didn’t serve a purpose or person. (Embarrassingly enough, if you look for them, you may find the old episodes I originally created a while ago…)

My name is Tabatha Reid. I’m a mother, a girlfriend, daughter, student, coach and friend. I’m a recovering people pleaser and a developing overachiever. I coach working mommas on health and wellness, as well as work life balance and time management. As a mother with a growing family, working on her degree, maintaining friendships and working a business coaching, working full time, and miking time for herself, I understand what you are going through.

When I started my coaching practice, my goal was to give up settling and take the ultimate control and ownership of my life and future. I wanted to push myself to the limit for the first time in my life. the beauty of that is that I can offer you what I’ve learned, and what I provide to my clients.

I previously mentioned I started this 3 times. Most of those happened before I had decided on my niche. I knew I wanted to work with ambitious, working, mothers, but I wasn’t clear on how to help them and with what. I had an idea of health and wellness before, but I has some twisted ideas about it before I started. I thought that if it felt fun and came naturally, then it was like I was cheating. I thought if it wasn’t business focused, then people wouldn’t take me seriously, I would make no money and my work would be a joke.

It wasn’t until I actually took serious ownership of my life, my work and my happiness, that I had the faith in myself to create the future I wanted and enjoyed. It wasn’t until then that I decided that my future would be fun and that the service I did would be fun and the creation would be soul food.

The reason why I love health and wellness starts from a humble and pretty dim past. I failed to mention that I’m also a recovering “self-abuser.” It started in high school, or earlier than that, when I started over eating. I was raised being praised for eating man sized meals as a little girl, and for clearing my plate every night, because that meant I was healthy and growing.

During my parents divorce at 12, amidst the bulling I received at school, I began the habit of mindless eating after school. Home alone and bored, I would sit and enjoy chips and salsa, every day. I would eat an entire bag and jar of Tostitos. I started to gain weight, and for the first time I was aware of my pudgy body, but with no role model and no one to talk to, I just continued to gain weight.

Sophomore Year

Home Coming (I’m the one in red ;) )

My first diet started in high school. At 15, 5’5 and 180 lbs, wearing a size 13, I was disgusted with myself, and actually mistaken for pregnant. I remember “jazzer-sizing” in the dark living room after everyone else went to bed, rejecting dinner and only eating a slice of white bread with mustard and a pickle to stave off the hungry. All of this while fantasizing of the woman I would be when I grew up. I would be beautiful.. Like a model.

This was also the time of my life I developed the self depreciating habits of looking for love in all of the wrong places, in all of the wrong ways. Hind-sight being 20/20, I know now that I was only looking for validation and love. That if a boy liked me and stepped up as my prince charming, then that meant I was worth something. I would be accepted if I was beautiful and I wouldn’t be alone.

I also started looking for the “best” guy, hearing my mom’s words that, “we attract our own sickness.” I thought if a great, sexy, smart, accomplished man would love me, then that meant I was those things too. I couldn’t find that guy. If I did, I would push him away because he wasn’t “enough,” in what ever way.

I left for college and this is when I made friends with a gorgeous girl, everyone seemed to like. She liked me and for whatever reason, we just got along. I think I was more like a sidekick, but she taught me how to dress better, and also introduced me to working out. She came from a good family, and had learned from their example, how to be healthy and take care of her body. I remember she started teaching me because at some point a friend took a picture of us and I had hated what I saw.

Eventually I dropped out of college to escape the dangerous lifestyle I was creating, (I lived in San Fransisco, in college, as an attention seeker… you can put 2+2 together) and joined the Navy at 19. This is when things began to turn around for me. I started to sober up, and I started to exercise. It was after passing my first fitness evaluation, where I had to run a mile and a half in 15 minutes, that I had the thought - I ran a mile and a half in 15 minutes. Other people will run 5 miles or more a day! I can get there if I wanted! I can do a mile and a half a day!

The Navy saved me. It was thanks to the Navy that I started learning to take care of myself, and it was learning to take care of myself, that I started raising my standards about the guys I spent time with, but I was far from where I am today. It was during the Navy that I tried throwing up after meals for fear of gaining weight and losing my progress. I would binge eat then try to throw up, but hated it so much, I decided to just avoid the food in the first place. Thus began, the ritual of punishing myself with starvation only to binge eat later.

I used to have a “boob cup.” My struggle with my body image meant I wanted to look like a Victoria’s Secret model. So I taped pictured of them to a cup for inspiration. I used to think, “If I look like that, if I’m beautiful like a perfect ‘10,’ then I’ll find the perfect man. Then I’ll be happy.” I was all still on the search for validation and acceptance.

While I was in the Navy I had my daughter. This would be the next major chapter in my life because she flipped my world. I left the military as a single mother (still friends with her father) and moved to a city where I had no friends or family. I went through a bought of depression, where my binge eating and body shame intensified.

During my last year in the Navy I had starved myself down to my smallest size of 135 lbs and a size 4. During my first year in a new city, I gained it all back and then some. I hate the idea of working out. I couldn’t think of a reason to eat healthy. I ate everything in sight. I was lost and miserable.

It was about a year later that I discovered coaching and I spent the next two and a half, to three years being coached, and coaching myself, and learning about myself. This is when everything changed.

I stopped the cycle of starving, binging and dieting. I stopped dating and fell in love with myself and learned about me. When I did start dating again I did so with new standards of how I wanted to be treated. I met my now boyfriend. I stopped looking to media to tell me how I should look, and I stopped comparing myself. I became a better mother and I started to understand my potential, despite my past failures and missteps.

Coaching led to ownership of my life and control of my mind and body. Ownership and control led to rapid evolution. I was able to love and understand my past and actively start creating my future. Which brings me here to you today.

My name is Tabatha Reid. I am a Life Coach for working mommas, who want to lose weight, improve their health and wellness, and be better at balancing their work and home life, while maybe even adding a side hustle to the mix. I’m a working mother who FINALLY figured out how to give up sugar - effortlessly, and we still keep the ice cream in the fridge.

My future is still developing. I’m working on a 6 pack by summer of 2019, because I’ve never had one, and I think it would be pretty cool! I’m also going to serve hundreds, if not thousands or hundreds of thousands of women! Some I may never meet! I’m going to transform lives and create incredible change for women who have never thought it was possible! I’m going to be an example of what is possible. I’m going to aid others in creating happiness.

I’m excited for the future… and I’m excited that you’re here!