My Health, Wellness and Weight Loss Journey | Dominique Sachse

[Music] hello and welcome to this week's video it is a true journey and testimony of health wellness and weight loss I'm going to share a lot of very deep and personal things with you because I feel that this is a very deep and personal issue I think it's something that we women struggle a lot with in our lifetime I think eating and exercise and the whys behind decision-making it's very important to look at with a critical eye and analysis to understand why we do what we do and to help us be healthy and well because in the end that is the ultimate goal is self-care and doing the best things for ourselves internally to be healthy and well externally so I'm gonna walk you through really my life story in this regard and kind of give you some backstory and some things that are very deep and raw that I've never shared before but most certainly play into this lifestyle of mine and how I got to where I am today I will share that as a young girl I was naturally very lean very athletic gravitated to a lot of sports would run a lot ran track in middle school played volleyball played tennis I was a lean mean moving machine and you know genetically both of my parents are pretty slim as well so I think that already there was a predisposition but it's not to say that our behavior and choices can't override that predisposition and I'll get into that in just a minute but as a grade schooler per se I was really lean and healthy even as I entered into high school sort of now that I reflect upon it starting to taper off sports a little bit as I entered high school and focusing more on academics I never really played a competitive sport in high school so that tapered off and that definitely had an interesting role in what was about to transpire fire during my high school years my family suffered some financial hardship we went through pretty difficult times I have worked ever since I'm 13 and a half years old and I have worked consistently and annually ever since I never stopped working I did so for two reasons number one the joy of being productive and bringing home my own paycheck that is always resonated with me number two I had to during that time in order to have any spending money because it was a difficult time and it took a toll on my parents marriage took a toll on us as a family as a whole it was around that time I would say probably junior year of high school I really started to notice that my eating had shifted there was a lot of emotional eating going on I was gravitating to serotonin releasing foods you know those feel-good foods the carbs the breads the starches the sweets and I didn't know then what I know now I was using food as an emotional tool I was using it as a pacifier and I was trying to soothe with it but the pounds most certainly started to creep on especially senior year in high school here I am pictured with my best friends and you know you can see it in my face I mean granted you know high school everybody's eating junk and cookies and candy and all of that but I just I took it to a whole new level so as I left for college I was already leaving heavier than I had ever been and my first semester at college I decided to become a vegetarian which on the outside sounds really great but the problem is when you go off to college you are restricted to college food and local food which in and of itself wasn't so healthy and so as I gave up meat I wound up increasing my carbs that much more so and fresh produce just wasn't easy to find so it was more bread pasta fish and chips I mean on and on it went not to mention the late-night grilled cheeses while studying I will never forget when I came home during Christmas break my parents picked me up at the airport and my there stood there like this I mean I think it was shock and awe for her because you know you've heard of the Freshman Fifteen well I think I made that the freshman 20 so I was at the heaviest I had ever been in my entire life now going through college and my college years are you know pretty much defined as yo-yo you know up up 5 pounds down 5 pounds very inconsistent trying to limit having some progress putting it back on in fact one of my best friends from my college years Mansour joked we saw each other just the other week and he said do you remember after all of our classes you would drag me over to Wendy's to get your large frosty and large fries yes I did I went there and he came with me for the ride but that's what I was eating I would go all morning not having a thing and then the first thing I put in my mouth would be a large frosty with large fries and that was setting the stage for you know the frozen yogurt and the waffle cone that would follow and more carbs more sugar more dairy and on and on it went so now we're moving into my early 20s when I've graduated from college and I'm working and I was working in radio at the time but my salary was very low and I needed to supplement with other income so I went on either Jenny Craig or Weight Watchers or probably both I think and I lost a bunch of weight signed up with a local modeling and talent agency to be able to do print work commercial work voiceover work things like that on the side diets work but I'm not a believer in diets because the minute you get off you haven't really learned a lifestyle so I would diet I would have success it would hold for a little bit and then sure enough I'd pop back up again and then I'd go on a new plan and it would work and then everything would pop back up again so I was still even though I was learning about portion control I was still being drawn to the wrong foods and so clearly there needed to be some analysis as to why I kept gravitating to these foods that would sabotage the desires that I had for myself and that required a lot of soul-searching and a little bit of therapy so I went to see a psychologist who had me dig a little bit deep and I had always struggled with my relationship with my father you know he's old-school from Hamburg and you know back then the father's role was the provider but not necessarily an emotional caregiver or somebody who was nurturing or who was present a lot so I I struggled with that and my therapist told me he said you can write a letter and get everything out purge tell your story tell how you feel you know where your father fell short in your eyes things that you just need to get off of your chest things that you've been holding internally that have been weighing you down let it go and then ultimately you can decide if you want to mail that letter or if you simply feel good enough just getting your thoughts out of you and looking at it on paper well I'm a writer so I wrote and I wrote and I wrote and I wrote and I poured my heart out and I cried as I wrote and I got rid of a lot of things that had been a burden to me and I folded up that letter put it in the envelope and I mailed it I'll never forget a few days later I get that call from my dad and I can hear in his voice that he had received the letter and it immediately became a conversation of me not understanding him and where he came from in his background and there was no apology or no you know I'm sorry you feel that way nothing it was completely reversed now initially I was hurt upset and frustrated obviously but there was something very interesting and something very freeing that happened and it wasn't overnight it was a process but I learned to forgive I learned to forgive my dad for the shortcomings for the lack of knowing the lack of investing in me in that regard and as I forgave there were a couple of really incredible things that started to happen there was a weight that was being lifted from my shoulders this this deep hole that was not only impacting my relationship with my father but also impacting the type of men that I was choosing to be in my life at that time not necessarily healthy and good relationships also as I forgave I was opening up my heart to allow a new and different relationship to form with my dad which it most certainly did over time and as you know because I've shared my father with you on this channel he passed away April in of 2016 but in his later years we really developed an incredible bond and closeness and I don't think it ever would have happened had I not gone there with that letter and just in dealing with that internally so so that happens and and I start to feel better and I start to see food differently and when I got now into my 30s I really started to kind of grab the bull by the horns as we say here in Texas and start prioritizing my health I was anchoring the morning show at the time and my friend from college Mansoor who I would drag to Wendy's for the frosting and fries said to me you need to take care of yourself you need to get more rest you need to exercise you need to prioritize your health and you know what he was right and so I went to a gym and I started to train and I was at a real trainers gym where people would get ready and compete for shows and so I would see trainers and clients going through this incredible transformation physical of just you know getting lean and cut to the point of just so precise they were machine like almost but it showed me the incredible power of food and exercise and how transformative it can be for the body so I really started to learn about nutrition and make some big changes in my 30s eating smaller meals more frequently throughout the day getting rid of all those starchy carbohydrates lots of protein lots of vegetables a little bit of fruit but it was more of a healthy balance and I was also starting to work out do some cardio do weight works weight workouts and I was seeing a difference in my body I mean things really started to get lean and cut and I was beginning to figure out that piece of the puzzle and I also wasn't missing out emotionally on those foods that I needed before I didn't have that craving to mask and put a bandaid on something so then I'm 38 and I finally get pregnant and I'm so excited and then I throw all caution to the wind because I'm so happy to be pregnant and I had been so focused on working out and eating right that I felt like I just needed a break and a break I gave myself so I really kind of honed in on those cravings that I was having for some reason chicken salad sandwiches were top of that list I don't know why it's the most random thing ever never ate them before haven't eaten them since but all I could think about were chicken salad sandwiches and cheese okay so welcome to being pregnant and I I loved it I loved my pregnancy I loved just feeling my baby grow inside of me and it just you know I didn't care so I let it go and I gained 45 pounds during my pregnancy and what I quickly learned is that what took nine months to put on would soon take a year and a half to get off did not go off as quick as I thought it would but that's okay it was it was a process and it was a freedom and a gift that I allowed myself to to indulge and to let go and not punish myself for it knowing that once it was over I knew the tools I had tools in my toolkit to get me back where I wanted to be and so from that point on from then until now it's really been a series of good choices continuing to learn continuing to hone in on what feels good for me and really listening to that voice inside and if you if you put your ear up to it she will scream loud and clear as to what it is that you need and so I remember you know back in the day was the low fat craze well we soon learned that that was about the worst thing that we could do ourselves for ourselves that was the time when Americans really started to get heavy because we learned that it wasn't about fat it was about inflammation and what foods triggered that inflammatory response and in fact good fats are what you need to sustain when you're cutting out simple carbohydrates you need your avocados and your nuts and your healthy oils to be able to get you to last throughout a day my daily meal plan looks a lot like this it is a lot of fresh produce that is the the dominant part of what I eat a lot of fresh produce the greener and the more colorful the better I love my as you know my egg with my Ezekiel muffin with a little spread of natural fresh butter and avocado on that I eat my complex carbohydrate first thing and I usually eat at 11 o'clock and then from then on its produce produce produce with some protein and some grains whether it's quinoa or barley but that's it and then my favorite dessert is nature's candy mixed berries I absolutely love those now this isn't to say that there aren't moments where I'll cheat if you saw my New York vlog you know we went over the moon happy for the pizza that was in New York and I am fanatical about wedding cake I mean I'm all happy for the bride and the groom and love is a great thing but there is nothing like good wedding cake and I'm holding out for it so yes I have my moments yes I will indulge yes I will you know get off of the wagon but I will say this I'm on the wagon about 90% of the time and what I have learned is that what you eat 90% of it affects how you look how all that physical exercise that you have invested in will show meals food diet I hate to say the word diet but you know what I'm saying here is 90% of how you're going to look and so I have been physical now and have been since my 30s and I have figured out how to eat to fit my body and it finally shows and let me add this to the package here things change when you hit your mid 40s late 40s and now early 50s something called perimenopause and menopause when your hormones start to tank and your sleep starts to shorten these are things that I had to address in myself because they were impacting my overall health and well-being sleep is a priority for me and when I started losing it because of perimenopause symptoms I marched right over to my wellness practitioner and talked it out and started a hormone replacement program that included for me estrogen and progesterone for hormonal balance I take melatonin at night to help me sleep but those things have been critical and sleep is a critical in this whole scheme of health wellness and also your your physical attributes because if you don't get enough rest you your body will produce more cortisol the stress hormone and that stress hormone causes us to hold on to weight so prioritize your sleep prioritize eating right prioritize your movement make sure that you're doing it and also if hormone replacement needs to be something to be looked at for you then I encourage you to do it and to talk to many different practitioners until you figure out something that suits you and fulfills your needs but today my training takes me from the gym to the yoga studio to the swimming pool I like to mix it up if you've been following me on social media I've been posting a lot from the yoga class because my body lately has told me that's what it needs you know the the traditional movements that I had done in the gym over the years we're now starting to cause some chronic pain up in my neck and my shoulders and you know that's my body saying it's it's time to figure something else out so I've altered things and I have now incorporated flow yoga classes and that strength training and stretching using my body has been transformative for me and I can honestly tell you at the age of 52 I have never been in better shape I have never felt better and I have never felt more confident in understanding how all of this works and realizing that it's a system and that a lot of things are in play first and foremost your thoughts and your emotions which then lead to actions and then from there it has to be consistency and staying the course but I can tell you that when you figure out this journey maybe you are right now and you're experiencing that joy or maybe it's something that you're wishing for yourself I want to use this I want to use my story for you as encouragement that it can be done that I had issues and struggles and you saw some of the things that I had to overcome but I was able to do it and certain things had to happen in order to get there but you can get there you can do it but it might require a little bit of unzipping a little opening up a little bit of dealing coming to terms with certain things and then also figuring it out listening to that internal voice staying the course and holding true even if others don't quite understand it or try to sabotage it you need to walk your own walk because in the end we all need to be happy and comfortable with who and what and where we are I hope this very transparent video helps you in some way offers little guidance and a little assistance and if anything will make you feel that you are not alone and we are not in this journey we share so many things so many things that we go through we all relate to and I appreciate you allowing me to feel comfortable here to share mine comment suggestions ideas as always let me know what it is that you need from me if you like the content on this channel please subscribe ring the bell that means every Thursday at 1:00 p.m. Central Standard Time when I release a video you'll get notified in your inbox that I am and it is here as I always say go out be bold and be blessed and I look forward to seeing you next week and I thank you [Music]

Channel: Dominique Sachse

Views: 1,049,204

Rating: 4.9276671 out of 5

Keywords: Dominique Sachse, Dominique Sache, Dominiquie Sashe, Dominique Sachse tutorials, short hairstyles, Dominique sachse 2018, makeup tips, Dominique Sachse hair, Dominique Sachse Makeup, Channel 2 news, dominique sachse 2019, weight loss journey, women's health and wellness, over 40, over 50

Id: IQA8QM0WmoQ

Length: 20min 41sec (1241 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 24 2019