About Jennifer McCay

Jennifer McCay, healthy weight loss coach and author of the LeanGreenMama blog

Who are you? Just what is this Lean Green Mama website all about?

Here’s the short version:

My name is Jennifer McCay, and I’m a nutrition and life balance coach who helps overweight moms develop constructive habits that help them stay sane, eat well and get happy (and maintain that happiness in the longer term!) in this mad, mad world we live in.

I started this blog to offer my fellow moms helpful advice on the healthiest way to eat, lose weight, stop feeling crazed and feel balanced.

Now for the long version:

If you had met me even just a few short years ago, you would have discovered a different person entirely.

• I was 50+ pounds overweight, and my self-esteem was about as low as it could get. I hated looking in the mirror, and I spent lots of money on shoes because at least they fit even though even my “fat clothes” were getting frighteningly snug, and I’d all but abandoned the idea that I could ever be a healthy weight again because I couldn’t stick to diets for more than a day or two. I thought weight problems “ran in my family,” so I stopped trying after a while.

Insecure …

• I suffered from multiple severe chronic illnesses including asthma and allergies so rough that I was pretty much forced to take 4-5 medications daily in order to breathe, and I had to spend all the warm months of the year indoors protected by an air conditioner and special air filters designed to clean the air I breathed. I felt like the girl in the bubble!

• I had fallen into a fairly deep depression and spent much of my time eating to mask my pain and keep myself busy, sleeping to avoid reality and crying at the slightest setbacks.

• At the age of 30, I literally felt old and decrepit. I was completely physically exhausted and caught every cold and flu that went around. It was almost impossible for me to be physically active beyond a little walking.

  

  overweight …

• I had just left a successful career as an advertising creative director to start my own business, and though I enjoyed the new business, my life had no balance, and I spent far too much time working and not enough time enjoying life.

• And last but not least, though I had a wonderfully supportive husband who was my rock, I was otherwise completely dissatisfied with my life and didn’t have an inkling of how to dig myself out of what felt like a bottomless pit. I felt totally helpless.

And what’s worse — I had promised myself that I would have tackled at least the weight loss issue by the time I turned 30, and there I was, 30 years old and still overweight (actually even more overweight than I’d ever been!) and unhappy.

and very unhappy.

Why this matters

I’ve painted a pretty bleak picture of my former life here, I know, and I haven’t even begun to elaborate on the half of what I went through. But I didn’t mention these things to upset you, get your sympathy or feel sorry for myself. Anything but!

I mention them because I was in a dark place in my life where it felt as if I had no escape, and yet here I am, completely on the other side, perfectly healthy, thin and — best of all — happy. I’m living proof that if you want to change your life and health for the better, you can.

How did I change my life? How did I go from sickly and miserable to happy, thin and healthy? I start what I like to refer to as …

My own personal “health and happiness bootcamp”

Summer 2008, enjoying life with my son

There’s an episode of the TV sitcom Seinfeld in which George Costanza, known for being largely unsuccessful at everything he attempted in life, decides to change his life by doing everything differently from the way he usually did.

In other words, if he ordinarily have said “no,” he’d say “yes.”

If he normally would eat steak, instead he’d eat salad.

If he normally would back off cowering, instead he’d aggressively pursue whatever was in his sights.

And instead of being rejected, getting the dregs, getting anything but what he wanted, in that episode everything suddenly began going right for him.

Though I didn’t see the rerun of that episode until well after I was on my own path to health and happiness, that’s pretty much what I did — did things differently from how I had before.

But that’s a huge oversimplification, of course!

In essence, I started making small, but significant changes in my lifestyle, reading everything I could get my hands on about diet and fitness, how to feel connected and happy, how to achieve a life full of balance. I also worked with a life coach, which helped me stay focused.

And after being overweight and ill for most of my adult life (and most of my childhood as well!), in 2006, I managed to discover a way of eating that allowed me to:

• lose 50+ lbs. and reach my ideal weight (as a size 2/4)!

• overcome all of my health problems — in fact, I have been completely meds-free for over 2 years now and no longer have any asthma or allergy problems whatsoever

Several of the meds I used to take daily to control my asthma (but not all that I used to take!). Since fall of 2006, I haven’t needed any meds at all!

• break out of that dark depression once and for all

• gain tremendous energy and stamina

• finally become happy with my physical appearance

And that’s just the nutritional side of things!

I also worked to find more balance in my life so that I could live the life I truly wanted and found myself deeply happy. In essence, I had to unlearn all the mind tricks I thought were helping me that were holding me back from health and happiness!

I’m talking about unhealthy ideas like:

1. That nasty “all or nothing” attitude that holds many of us back because we mistakenly think if we aren’t perfect (and who’s perfect???), apparently, the world will come to an end, so we might as well eat that ice cream.
2. “I can start tomorrow.” The more  you put off, the longer it will take you to make progress. Start right now, right in the middle, no matter if it’s the “right place” to start. Any change will yield results you can learn and grow from.
3. “I don’t deserve happiness.” Yep, I’ve been there, and actually, oddly, :) happiness is there for all of us if we find ways to experience it in our daily lives. And eating healthy foods can help us get even happier. In my case, it allows me to live a life doctors told me I never could — meds-free and completely healthy despite a diagnosis of “lifelong” asthma. (And I get to buy clothes in small sizes right off the rack without any concern for whether they fit my hips — not a small added bonus!)
4. “It’s too hard to change.” Anything worth having in life typically requires a good bit of effort, but it’s totally worth it. And the right support system can help you work less and get there faster!
5. “But if I change my diet, I won’t get to eat my favorite foods!” This one in particular can be a deal-breaker because we’re often so caught up in food issues that we can’t see that those favorite foods are actually what make us fat, unhealthy and full of nasty cravings. I know this might sound crazy coming from someone who makes her living helping others eat healthfully, but food really is just food. As you change your diet, you begin to feel better, look better and enjoy healthier foods FAR MORE than junk.

And there were plenty of other silly things I used to tell myself that kept me unhappy and unhealthy. But now those top 5 offenders are just a list on the screen and not rules for living my life. Excuses seem so real at the time, but they just hold you back!

Fast forward to the present

Now, in my mid-30s — well into the “it’s supposed to be tough to be thin” years! — I weigh in at around 110 lbs. (I’m 5′3″) and I’m full of confidence, energy and health. I finally got well enough to consider having a baby, and my son is the light in my life.

What’s more, I love to cook healthy food (though I have little time to do so now that I have a little boy to chase after), stay very active, love to travel and typically spend more time outdoors in a single day (in the warm months — brrr! I’m not too fond of the cold) than I used to be able to in a month or more back in my sick and overweight days.

This body and mind transformation I went through has changed my life forever, and now I coach other moms on how to achieve the same health and happiness that I have. Because every mom deserves to feel like a Lean Green Mama, not just me! :)

I’m based in a suburb of New York City in Westchester County, NY, and work with busy moms all over the U.S. via telephone and e-mail, helping them lose weight, get fit and create a life that brings them joy. After all, life’s too short to spend it unhappy, overweight and unhealthy.

One of many much happier times I've had getting my picture made since losing the weight!

If you’d like to learn more about my coaching services just for moms, head to my Coaching page.

And if you have any suggestions on how I can improve this blog, topics I should focus on, etc., feel free to shoot me an e-mail at any time.