Hello, I’m Karen Blaisdell Bailey—the face behind 15LBS DOWN & BEYOND
My
Values
Have I lost all the weight I need to lose? Not yet. I’m about halfway as of the end of 2023. So why do I think I can help you lose weight? Because I have learned that getting stuck in guilt, shame and struggle are NOT helpful in the journey to get healthy. Trust me! We are taught we should feel bad if we can’t “do what it takes” to lose the weight but that is simply not true. I decided sharing my story might save unnecessary suffering for someone else. I decided it was time I put myself out there to show others that the “messy middle” is just part of the journey of getting healthy. I feel strongly that we need to remove the shame from “struggling”. And I want you to know that for the FIRST time in my life I KNOW I will lose the weight and more importantly I will KEEP IT OFF! And that my friends is a huge success in my book!
Transparency
Innovation
It all begins with an idea. Last summer I decided it was time to tackle this struggle with weight and figure it out once and for all. I wanted to develop a program I could teach to others so started a BETA group of women. I ran a couple FB groups and worked with men and women just like me one on one. I learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t through the process. I will teach you what I have learned. I will teach you how to combine Balancing your Body and Managing your Mind so that you have tools for success that you have never had before.
Compassion
I have traveled and am STILL traveling the path of losing weight and getting healthy so I understand how it feels to struggle. All those emotions rooted in shame are part of the path of losing weight but getting stuck in them just slows us down. Now I know what it feels like to finally drop the struggle in the “messy middle” and move forward in confidence. And I can teach you how.
Respect
I respect your right to choose. I have come to understand that the pressure to lose weight and get thin only works against us. For most of us it causes a lot of self- sabotaging behaviors. I have created a program where you get to choose your pace. I will show you the path and you get to decide if you want to RUN, JOG or WALK toward your goals. And I will help you give yourself PERMISSION to go at the pace you choose without judgement and guilt. Because in the end the runners, joggers, and walkers can ALL cross the same finish line!
My name is Karen Blaisdell Bailey. I am a Speech Therapist turned Life Coach and here’s my story.
I have struggled with my weight for years. I thought my “weight problem” started in my 40’s but the truth it started long before that. I’ve never been a “thin girl”, but I kept my weight under control in my 20’s and 30’s. I remember taking my 40th birthday trip to Sedona with my girlfriends. It is still one of my all-time favorite trips. We went up in a hot air balloon, took a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon and rode jeeps through the red rocks. It was a blast! I was healthy and fit but not “skinny”. I thought I needed to lose some weight and now those are my “skinny pictures”.
You know what I mean?! It was downhill from there.
I had a demanding job working 60-70 hours a week and I was a stress eater. So, the pounds started to pack on closer to my mid 40’s and the lose/gain cycle began. I would lose 20 lbs., only to find them and a few more, 2-3 years later. Then I would feel guilty, frustrated and/or disgusted with myself. I worked long hours and didn’t have time to take care of me, or so I told myself.
Winter of 2022 the day came that I knew I had to make a change. There was no turning back, so I quit my job a couple years before planned. I just knew I desperately needed a change! SO now I had all the time in the world. And I could finally take care of me!
Guess what happened over the next 6 months?
Umm, I gained 10 lbs. and hit my highest weight ever. How could that be? I was overweight because I was a “stress eater” and now I had NO STRESS!?! I had already started my training as a Certified Life Coach and that’s when I began to figure out why. It finally started to make sense. I learned that NOTHING is wrong with me. I learned that getting stuck in guilt, frustration, disgust was not necessary. And it actually worked AGAINST my goals.
This all led me to create a unique approach to losing weight and getting healthy that does not include the restrictive diet mentality, the guilt and the mind drama. It combines the body and the mind working together for lasting success.
Did you know over 90% of people who lose a significant amount of weight will gain it back within 2-3 years? Don’t believe me? Google it! It is because diets don’t work. They are a short-term fix and rarely address the true cause of the weight gain in the first place.
Now I feel a strong passion and a calling even to find people like me who are struggling and have even given up on their journey to get healthy and help them. I want you to know there is hope!!! I want to share with you the tools that have forever changed my relationship with food. I want to help you take the pressure out of the path to weight loss and health. All it takes is a DESIRE for something different and then a DECISION TO START to transform your health.
