Sometimes the snowball of change begins to roll when we are least expecting it. That’s what happened for Simone and Sean.
It started at Lululemon, where Simone had gone to buy a birthday present for her husband, Sean Patrick.
“She’d gone to get me some fat pants,” Sean jokes. “I was running out of stuff to wear.”
“No,” Simone interrupts. “Not fat pants!”
They laugh.
Even though this happened over a year ago, Simone doesn’t want to insult Sean about his former girth.
Of course, we say “former” because Sean no longer needs “fat pants”.
Sean & Simone’s Transformation
But she can’t deny that she was checking the stock for running gear in a larger size.
While she was browsing Lulu’s lycra-laden shelves, she happened to bump into a friend, Bryce Thomas.
Together with his wife, Lisanne, Bryce had recently completed Precision Nutrition Coaching. And he looked amazing.
Ordinarily, Simone would have welcomed this unexpected opportunity to catch up with her old friend. But today, she felt a little awkward.
Because there Bryce stood, glowing with health and vitality, apparently about a decade younger than the last time she saw him.
And there she stood, with a pair of extra-large running shorts dangling from her hands, and an uncomfortable sense of pressure at the waistband of her own jeans.
Meanwhile, out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Bryce was shopping with a companion — a beautiful blonde. Who the heck was that, she wondered. Was it his sister? Maybe a friend?
Maybe even… horrible thought… another woman?
Or at least, that’s what Bryce believed she was thinking, judging from the expression on her face.
Simone insists now that she never seriously doubted Bryce.
But whether she imagined the worst of him or not, she was certainly feeling puzzled and vaguely uneasy.
Still, she hugged him in greeting. After all, what else was she going to do? She could hardly fly out of the store with those unpaid-for “fat pants” still in her hands. And she could hardly pretend she hadn’t seen the guy.
Mid-hug, the mysterious blonde came up, tapped Simone on the shoulder, and said hello.
“I turned around and I think my mouth fell to the floor,” Simone says.
Because it was only then — at the sound of her familiar voice — that she recognized her friend, Lisanne.
“I couldn’t believe the legs on the girl! She was wearing shorty shorts and tall wedge heels. She looked like a twenty year old!”
At the time, it was all a little hard to process.
“You have to understand,” she tells me. “I hadn’t seen Lisanne since she was about nine months pregnant. And back then, she certainly hadn’t looked like this.”
Since then, Lisanne had given birth to her daughter and completed Precision Nutrition Coaching, emerging as one of our winners.
“I think that’s what tipped something, for me,” Simone says. “Realizing that I hadn’t even recognized her.”
And it wasn’t just the way she’d looked. “It was the amount of energy and fun in her. She was bubbling over with joy.”
Something wonderful had happened to Lisanne. And, in the split second after their surprise encounter, Simone realized: “I want some of that.”
Reeling a little, she took Sean’s “fat pants,” paid for them as fast as she could, and rushed out of Lululemon as if her life depended on it.
In a way, maybe it did.
When she got home, she did some more thinking. Then she talked to her husband. And within a couple of days, they’d both signed up for the next cohort of Precision Nutrition Coaching.
Funny thing was, up until that day, Sean and Simone had never really thought about Precision Nutrition’s programs.
They hadn’t thought much about any weight loss program. It’s true, Simone had been through Weight Watchers in the past. But she wasn’t obese, and neither was Sean. Nor were they obviously unhealthy.
In fact, a lot of their friends probably considered them “the healthy ones.” You don’t need to lose weight, Simone remembers people saying.
Still, she and Sean were heavier than they wanted to be. Neither of them was happy with the status quo.
And both were ready for a change.
While their decision to join Precision Nutrition Coaching might have seemed rash, for Sean and Simone it was a considered choice.
They aren’t the type to enter into new experiences blindly. And in this case, their familiarity with Bryce and Lisanne gave them important information.
“They have three kids; we have three kids,” Sean says. “They’re in a creative field, we’re in a creative field. Lisanne works from home; Simone works from home. I run a business; Bryce runs a business.”
In other words, Bryce and Lisanne were similar to Sean and Simone in some relevant ways. So they could identify with their friends’ experiences.
And knowing a couple who’d been successful in the program as a couple helped them believe that they might achieve similar results.
Because it’s one thing to see anonymous before-and-after photos. It’s another thing to see people change before your very eyes.
And it’s something else again to experience those changes — as Sean and Simone soon discovered.
Precision Nutrition Coaching consists of a structured program of short daily lessons, biweekly nutritional habits, and regular assigned (or self-chosen) workouts.
It’s really a straightforward process. You check your home page, complete your lesson, follow the habit and all the previous habits, and most of all, move.
It sounds simple — and it is. But it’s not always easy, and it’s difficult for different people in different ways.
Take exercise. Sean loves it. He’d always been the “active one” of the pair.
So, on the first day of the program, when he saw his first habit and first lesson and noticed there wasn’t even a workout scheduled yet — or not what he considered a workout — he thought: Is this it? Am I in? What have I signed up for?
Simone, meanwhile, was having the opposite reaction. She felt enormously relieved.
“I hated exercise,” she says with a laugh. “I mean I really hated it. So I was glad that we were going slowly. It gave me time to adapt.”
Differences like this persisted throughout the program.
Sean sometimes doubled up on his workouts on the weekend, when he had more time available. Simone did hers during the week, when their kids were at school.
Sean loved the lesson that asks participants to “clean out” their kitchen cupboards, ridding them of junk food. Simone hated it — perhaps fearing all the conflicts it might raise between her and the kids.
Simone struggled to establish a sleep routine; Sean found it relatively easy to get enough rest.
And so it went.
But whatever their differences, they were in the program together. They were a team.
They encouraged one another. Motivated one another. Talked about the habits and the lessons.
“They were a topic,” Sean says. “Something to discuss.”
If one of them was tempted to dismiss a certain idea, the other would take the opposite view and they’d bat it back and forth. If one of them felt inclined to ignore a healthy habit, the other would give a little push.
It was a shared adventure. Something they were doing together, like raising kids, or some of their creative work. Working through the program brought them closer.
“Years from now, our kids will probably joke to each other about the time that mom and dad did that Precision Nutrition Coaching thing,” Simone says.
Every week in Precision Nutrition Coaching clients measure themselves — or in this case, each other.
“Remember when our son walked in while I was measuring your boobs?” Sean says — and they erupt into laughter again.
There were many moments like that — funny, silly, intimate, and real. Maybe, when you get right down to it, that was the best part of the program, for them.
The rich and complex and completely unique and unrepeatable experience.
Meanwhile, they were steadily losing weight, gaining strength, and beginning to feel more energetic and alive.
They started walking more. They found ways to build activity into their daily lives.
“Working out used to be a… thing,” Sean says. “A big thing. A difficult thing.”
“Especially for me,” Simone adds with a wry laugh.
But their coaches helped them look at exercise in a new way.
“So you missed a workout,” says Sean. “Get over it. Just get out there and do something. That’s what coach Brian St. Pierre encouraged me to think.”
It’s obvious to Sean now, but at the time, it came as a revelation.
Now, it amazes them both to think that such a small shift in attitude could lead to such significant results.
Because even with the inevitable setbacks and plateaus, it seemed like no time at all before Simone was making another trip to Lululemon.
Except this time, she wasn’t in search of a larger set of workout clothes. This time, she needed to look for a smaller size.
In fact, by the end of Precision Nutrition Coaching, Sean had to donate his old suits. They were far too loose to save through alteration.
You need a strong relationship to go through Precision Nutrition Coaching together.
It takes two people who love each other and want the best for each other, they say. Two people who are committed to supporting one another through growth and sometimes uncomfortable change.
Because — as the two of them gradually came to understand — weight loss is only a part of it.
In fact, Sean believes that it cheapens the program to talk about it purely in terms of fat loss.
“It’s so much more than that. It’s about a shift in thinking.”
Since they’ve completed Precision Nutrition Coaching, people are always asking them about their “diet.”
“People are always talking in terms of what we ‘can’ or ‘can’t’ eat or do,” he says.
“But everything I’m doing is my choice. It’s not that I have to eat this or that, or have to exercise. I want to.”
“This is who I am now. It’s who we are as a couple. How we are together.”
Sean and Simone love to laugh — but as artists, they’re also reflective thinkers. And Precision Nutrition Coaching prompted some serious reflection.
As a busy mom, Simone had grown accustomed to taking care of others first — almost without recognizing it.
“But the program taught me about loving myself. Caring for myself,” she says. “Not pampering. That’s different.”
True self-care isn’t about buying stuff. It’s not about self-indulgence. “It’s about figuring out what’s truly good for me,” she says. “And doing it.”
Meanwhile, Sean, as an entrepreneur, had faced more than his share of anxiety.
“We all want success,” he explains. “Of course we do. But the truth is, we fail every day. We fail repeatedly towards success. So we’ve got to learn to love the failure. This program taught me how to do that.”
He pauses. “Think of it: I fail every day and that makes me better. How often do we hear that in our culture? Yet it’s such an important lesson.”
“This program punched my wife in the face when she was holding a pair of extra-extra-extra large running shorts,” Sean says.
The universe could hardly have sent the pair a clearer message.
Now that they’re wearing smaller sizes again, they’re glad they listened.
Want to read more great stories like Sean and Simone’s? Then come meet a few other men, women, and couples who lost weight, started eating better, and took control of their health.
Want help becoming the healthiest, fittest, strongest version of you?
Most people know that regular movement, eating well, sleep, and stress management are important for looking and feeling better. Yet they need help applying that knowledge in the context of their busy, sometimes stressful lives.
Over the past the past two decades, we’ve used the Precision Nutrition Coaching method to help over 150,000 clients lose fat, get stronger, and improve their physical and mental health… for the long-term… no matter what challenges they’re dealing with.
It’s also why we work with health, fitness, and wellness professionals (through our Level 1 and Level 2 Certification programs) to teach them how to coach their own clients through the same challenges.
Interested in Precision Nutrition Coaching? Join the presale list now. You'll get a free gift today, save up to 54%, and have the chance to secure a spot 24 hours early.
We’ll be opening up spots in our next Precision Nutrition Coaching on Tuesday, January 14th, 2025.
If you're interested in coaching and want to find out more, join the presale list below. Being on the list gives you three special advantages.
- You’ll pay less than everyone else. Join the presale list and you’ll save up to 54% off the general public price.
- You’re more likely to get a spot. To give clients the personal care and attention they deserve, we only open up the program twice a year. By joining the presale list you’ll get the opportunity to register 24 hours before everyone else, increasing your chances of getting in.
- You’ll get a free gift—plus an inside look at the program. When you join the presale list today, we’ll send you a free 35-page ebook: Your Best Nutrition Starts Here—a complete guide to building a health plan for your body, goals, and lifestyle (no calorie-counting or restrictive dieting required). Plus, you'll get our new Enrollment Packet, giving you an inside look at the PN Coaching program, complete with stories from past clients who’ve overcome huge obstacles and achieved the transformation of their dreams, and more.
If you’re ready to change your body, and your life, with help from the world’s best coaches, this is your chance.
[Note: If your health and fitness are already sorted out, but you’re interested in helping others, check out our Precision Nutrition Level 1 Certification program].
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