Hi everyone, I am often asked what the story is behind the Lose Baby Weight and Healthy Mummy brands so I thought I would give you all the story – right from the very beginning as it really is a story of implementing change, following your dreams and doing something that will ultimately make you happy – and that is what we all want right?!
So, here is my slightly long story from the beginning…

Unhappy, Stressed, Corporate Job

I was working in a senior role in Corporate media company. I had been in media for 12 years and worked long long hours.
I had been in my current role for 7 years and it was the most full on and stressful one I had ever had and I was at burn out mode.  I worked 15 hours day. I worked weekends. There were office politics galore.
The company was ruled by fear and in 2007/2008 staff were even more frightened than usual of redundancies due to the GFC and I seemed to work even harder to protect my own staff and ensure my own department was always secure.  It was not a pleasant place to be and other than an always healthy pay packet, the job was having a disasterous effect on my life.
My health was at an all time low. Through stress, bad living, too much drinking wine, no exercise I had gained around 10kg
I was unhappy, unhealthy and had no idea what I was doing.

Back to basics

So I decided to look at my health first as I felt terrible. When I got on the scales I couldn’t believe I was so heavy. I had a double chin. I had rolls on my tummy and I had been neglecting myself and focusing on my ridiculous job for too long – and then turning to alcohol every night to de stress
So I decided then and there to take control of my body AND CHANGE. I had the power to control what I looked like and my health.
So I started studying an online nutrition course and I literally threw myself into it. I also went cold turkey and stopped drinking alcohol. That was in 2008 and as I write this in 2016 I have literally had about 10 drinks in that time. I used to turn to alcohol all the time – in happiness, sadness, stressed times etc – now I never do and it has no control over me. The only time I have any is for a special occasion if I am with a friend and if I really fancy it.
I also started viewing food in a whole new light. It started me thinking about weight loss and diets in a whole new light and how 99% of diets are AWFUL and unhealthy and how the focus everyone should have is on excellent nutrition and balance rather than deprivation.
It became my absolutely passion and I threw myself into it.
By educating myself on this it changed my whole mindset on everything – on life, my body – and my job. I also lost the 10kg – thank goodness!

The next chapter

For the next 6 months or so I was still at my media job but my mindset had changed. I had started down a new path which was health, fitness and nutrition.  I didn’t yet know what I was going to do with it, but I kept studying and learning on my new found passion.
I then discovered I was pregnant with my first little boy – hooray!!! And this forced me to make a decision about what I was going to do.
I knew that I was not going to be able to continue in my role when I was a mum and that I wanted to do something that enabled me to work around my baby.

So I spent a long time thinking, researching, talking to mums and then more thinking and I woke up in the middle of the night with my light bulb moment with “Lose Baby Weight”
I literally jumped out of bed and woke my hubby to say I had my vision and my idea.
I wanted to help mums to lose weight post baby in a healthy way and to live a healthy life on going. I also wanted an educational approach to food and weight loss that wasn’t faddy and that fitted into family life
There were so many unhealthy and fad diets on the market and all of them were unhealthy and most not even based on good nutrition.
Not to mention nothing was safe for use in breastfeeding
My vision was to create a huge community of mums, weight loss plans created for busy mums, and weight loss products that took into account sleep deprivation, breastfeeding, mums with 2 or more children, exercise plans for time poor mums, exercise plans for mums with special considerations post birth
Then, the next week, I took the plunge at 6 months pregnant I left my job. Everyone thought I was completely crazy. But I believed in myself and in my idea and I didn’t have any doubt.
When people said “what if it fails and you lose all your money?, I said,

“then I will go back to work and start again, but at least I followed my dreams and I tried”.

And that is what I did. I gave it my all – and a bit more.
So, to fund the business, I put my house up for sale and 4 weeks before the birth of my baby it sold (which was slightly stressful but it all worked out!)
I then brought on a team of nutritionists and post natal exercise specialists to create all the material on the website and then it was full steam ahead getting everything ready with the team of web designers!
And on October 1 2010, I launched www.losebabyweight.com.au
And of course I used our plans to lose both weight from my two pregnancies – here is my weight loss story from baby number 2 and here is from baby number 1

The Healthy Mummy Smoothie product range followed soon after and since then the Healthy Mummy Range has launched a whole raft of other products from over 22 books to DVD’s to the huge online 28 day challenges we now run which now also has an App. You can see our full range here
Plus we now even have a Healthy Mummy Pregnancy range which is based in healthy nutrition in pregnancy and this is available on our Healthy Mummy site

Take Off!

Since this time the business has grown to an incredible size. And it is not something I ever could have imagined back in 2010!
We now have over 1.5million mums on our websites each month (we have www.losebabyweight.com.au and www.healthymummy.com) and we have over 250,000 mums on our Facebook pages) and there are literally tens of thousands of mums all over the world who use our products, plans and 28 day challenges every day!!
And so far mums have lost over 2,000,000kg on our plans and by using our products
But it hasn’t been all plain sailing. There are tough times, there are times when the pure  volume of work feels incredible or when things don’t go to plan!
But like when learning to ride a bicycle my philosophy is to dust yourself off and get yourself back on – or in more mum friendly speak – go to bed early, get a good night sleep and feel ready to take the day on again tomorrow!

Brand Values

I have always been very passionate about the brand values of The Healthy Mummy & Lose Baby Weight and I really want everyone who is touched by the brand to know what we are about.
The core words that drive everything we do are:

• Achievable
• Realistic
• Family friendly
• Breastfeeding friendly
• Supportive
• Honest
• Non judgemental
• Fact based information – not our opinions
• Realistic & healthy weight loss
• Delicious recipes
• Easy exercises
• Community based
• Value orientated
• Fun
• Relatable stories/images
• Not fitspo images of unrealistic bodies or exercise
• Innovative
• Educational
• Informative
• Made for Mums
• Motivational
• Useful
• Trustworthy
• Reliable
• Customer focused
• Useful products to help healthy living

My Motivation

People always ask me what keeps me going or what is my motivation, and there are a few things.
Firstly, I think it is fair to say that I have a very driven personality. I am very focused, determined and I have an inbuilt chip in me that wants to please others and which is why I listen so much to what customers say and try to implement so much of it.
I am also very passionate about what I do. It gives me great satisfaction to see the business grow and to know the positive impact on the health it is having on so many mums – the passion I have never stops – it just keeps on growing
And most importantly my family are what motivates me every day. The business allows me to live a flexible life to be there for my family.
Yes I work long hours but I get to choose what they are and I love being able to be there to see my little monkeys grow up – and they always love to photo bomb one of my photo shoots!

Proud & privileged

The past 5 1/2 years have been an enormous amount of hard work and I have literally worked every day.
But I have loved every day of it and I feel immensely proud and privileged to have been able to create this company and to have played a part in helping so many mums change their lives.
I am also heavily involved in the company – and no matter how big the business gets I will always remain so.
As well as having an incredible team who work along side me on the business, I work on the business every single day.
I am constantly on our private group and talking to and taking on all feedback and comments from mums so we can create even better products and create more tools and products to help mums live a healthier life.
Customers always have been and always will be number 1 to me and this company
I also check in regularly with our customer service team to ensure I am receiving feedback so I know what our customers are saying – I make it by job to stay in touch with my customers, my consumers and what is happening.
And of course I have a Healthy Mummy Smoothie every single day for energy and their health benefits.

What’s next?

We have sooooooo many things planned. The hard thing is prioritising. Unlike many other business’ we don’t operate in any debt or use any bank loans – instead we invest all the money the business makes back into the company
This ensures that we keep developing and growing – but it does mean we have to prioritise what we do as everything is expensive and we like to do everything well!
We also have lots more investment going into our 28 Day Challenges to continue to make them fantastic and we have lots of website upgrades and new features launching in the coming months too.
We also have other new product launches this year

28 Day Weight Loss Challenge News

In case you don’t know too  EACH month is different. The team work non stop to create a new Challenges and brand new recipes EACH month so you NEVER get bored

FEBRUARY Challenge – this is the UNDER 5 INGREDIENT Challenge! You can still join here too  (the recipe hub will have 1,600 recipes in at this time)
MARCH Challenge – this is the BUDGET Challenge. All meals are budget focused and have a cost per serve per meal – this is going to be a great one to show you how to eat healthy foods an save money (the recipe hub will have 1,700 recipes in at this time)

2ND STAGE OF THE 28 DAY CHALENGE APP IS RELEASED IN MARCH & WILL BE FULLY CUSTOMISABLE WITH MEAL PLANS & EXERCISES

APRIL Challenge – this one is the SUGAR DETOX Challenge and PERFECT for showing you how to reduce added sugar in your diet plus is PERFECT if you have over done sugar at Easter (the recipe hub will have 1,800 recipes in at this time)
MAY Challenge – this one is the FAMILY MEALS Challenge – with the focus on lots easy, healthy and family favourites so you only cook one meal (the recipe hub will have 1,900 recipes in at this time)
JUNE Challenge  – this one is the SLOW COOK MEALS Challenge – perfect to kick start Winter the healthy way (the recipe hub will have 2,000 recipes in at this time)

Loyalty rewards

We understand although most mums initially join the Challenge from a weight loss perspective, 99% of mums stay with the program because it is so much more than just weight loss.
It is the community that we all are so lucky to have, the daily support from over 40,000 mums on the SAME journey as you, the HUGE number of family friendly recipes and customisable meal plans, the NEVER ENDING amount of NEW recipes our nutritionists create EVERY month, the newly released APP, the 350+ exercise routines with videos and the constant improvements and evolvement of how we constantly try and do better.

And all this for $1 a day.

But although this in itself is CRAZY value we still want to give more back
As without you, without your support, without your constant feedback, we wouldn’t be able to do what we do – as we wouldn’t have a business and wouldn’t be able to keep putting the resources back into the business to support you more – and that is our goal – TO SUPPORT YOU in healthy eating and weight loss

The monthly THANK YOU gifts

So EACH MONTH, as a thank you for your loyalty and being here we will be giving active Challenge members (ie you must be an ongoing member and not have cancelled)  a FREE GIFT – and this will always be something that you will find useful and actually want!
And this is what we have coming up as thank you gifts over the next 3 months – each month has a $50 value.
Plus we are also going to giving you MORE exclusive Challenge member specials and discounts.

March loyalty gift – sent on March 2 – BRAND NEW Exercising With A Clingy Baby Exercise eBook & BRAND NEW Easter Recipe eBook

April loyalty gift – sent on April 4 – The Stomach Fat Busting Recipe eBook & The Vegetarian Recipe eBook

Not a 28 Day Challenge member yet – join here
 

Tips for you to make a big change

Making a change can be scary, but it also can be exciting and rewarding. Making a change can relate to your job, your diet, your health, your living place your finances – all kinds of things – sometimes you just need to do it! If you are thinking about making a change, here are some things to consider:

• If you are not happy decide what it is making you unhappy
• Pin point what changes you could make to change your life to be happier
• The change doesn’t need to be over night
• Plan the change
• It could be 10 small changes over 6 months
• Believe in yourself
• Talk to your loved ones
• Write down how you feel
• Do your research/skill up

I hope you found this useful and I hope my own story has inspired you to make a positive change in your own life.
Thanks for reading
Rhian x
You can see our full range here