Everyday people doing extraordinary things: Everyone meet Jane Robles.

In these posts, I will introduce some influencers in my life who I recommend you getting to know. Many of them have or are on their way to accomplishing big things in their life. I hope that with their story, they can teach, inspire, and motivate you to also make some changes for the better.

.

1) Please introduce yourself: My name is Jane and I have been with my husband for 14 years and happily married for 3 years. I married my high school sweetheart and we have a beautiful, energetic, independent 2 year old son.  I am a full time legal assistant for 11 years now, and also a full time mommy as soon as I clock out.  I enjoy photography very much and still take photos in my spare time, however did not love the business side of it so decided to stop. I am now a health coach part time, and I work that around my life because it is something I fell in love with right away. I enjoy helping people reach their health and fitness goals at the same time help them believe in themselves again. For me, this part of my life does not feel like a job.

. 
2) When did your life take a new turn for the better? When I went to the doctor for a full check up. I was extremely overweight. The heaviest I’d ever been. I knew something was wrong but avoided it too long. My husband and I had been trying to get pregnant for 2 years and with no luck. My doctor told me that I was at risk of diabetes and that being over weight could be playing a huge factor as to why I couldn’t conceive. Knowing this, I made the decision to go hard and completely change my lifestyle. I started eating clean and working out 5 times a week. After a year I was already down about 60 lbs. I was so proud of myself but I was still 60 lbs overweight. Later that year, I had a miscarriage.  It was probably the best and worse day of my life. Although I was devastated from the entire experience, It hit me that I was able to get pregnant! I know the miscarriage was out of my control, but I made the decision to keep going and to put my health first, and focus on that from now on.

.

3) What has helped you during this process? I was clean eating for over two years, with the occasional cheat meal once a week. I lost the weight I wanted but I never felt good inside. I was still tired all the time, the struggle to work out got harder and harder and eventually I let myself go again. I got pregnant in 2013 with my son and pretty much gained most of my weight back. I was back to over 240 lbs. I was devastated. I promised myself that I would lose the weight and get to pre-baby weight before my son turned one. By my son’s 1st birthday it didn’t happen. I saw the photos of myself and became really depressed. Then a month later, my friend Rachel asked me to try a 3 day trial from Herbalife. At this point I swear I knew it all, so I told her I didn’t need it. She told me it was $20 so I figured what did I have to  lose anyway? Since my husband gained weight too during and after my pregnancy, he decided to join me too. After trying it, we realized how much easier it was than the clean eating, and prepping we were doing the last 3 years. We weren’t slaving away in the kitchen food prepping every Sunday anymore. Our food prep time went from an all day event to now 2 hours max for the both of us. Our lives completely changed after that. We were not only getting the results we wanted, but most importantly we were feeling so good inside and out. We learned more about nutrition and what to fuel our body versus just consuming anything that seemed “healthy”. In a year, my husband and I were able to lose almost 40 lbs each. We figured out how to balance our lives with a healthy active lifestyle and maintain our weight, versus gain it all back slowly.

.

4) What are some of the biggest obstacles you have faced during your new health journey? The biggest obstacle I’ve faced during my journey was the death of my grandma. A month into my journey I quit because of the loss of my grandma. I went back to eating everything in sight and drank alcohol pretty much every day, then every weekend. I was spiraling back down and I realized every moment as it was happening. It took me a month to reevaluate my life and if this is what my grandma would want for me. I was the type of person who would let life get to her. I would choose any reason to quit. Whether that be a personal issue or work issue. I have always been a big girl. I found comfort in food. Not only that, I would beat myself up and instill the belief that I was not capable of having a small figure. There will still be times when my life is really stressful and I will shut down, but honestly, having the responsibility to be that support for someone else has helped me immensely. This is what makes this journey different from anything I’ve ever done on my own. This time, I am not alone. I have people I need to hold accountable, and I have people holding me accountable too. The thing is, your mind is so powerful. I know that if I don’t work on myself mentally, I will still feel fat at 130 lbs. So, being able to work on myself physically and mentally has changed my life forever. I now make it part of my lifestyle to work on myself daily.

.

.

6) Do you have any words of advice that you would like to share? DREAM BIG. When we were born our parents and teachers always taught us to dream big. There was absolutely no dream that we could say that was out of reach or crazy. So why, as we get older, most of us settle because society says that our dreams are impossible? That there are more important things than what we really want. That we have to set our dreams aside. We were not born to be average and we are not defined by our circumstances. We all have the capability to be exceptional the second that we were born. In the last year, I’ve grown more than I have in the last 10 years of my life. So don’t ever stop working on yourself. Work on yourself daily, and watch your life change. Once you change your mindset, you’ll see everything so differently. If you want something that you’ve never had, you must do what you’ve never done. We are in full control of the choices we make. So if you’re sad, it’s because of you. If you’re happy, it’s because of you.

.

.

.