Julieanna Hever - The Choose You Now Diet

Many lifelong personal circumstances led me to pursue the secrets of weight loss. I was raised in Los Angelesthe epicenter of emphasis on physical appearanceand body image has always brought with it an unignorable pang. This is a loaded idea, as it is undeniably a luxury to even have this as a concern. It is a blessing to live in an environment with adequate food to eat, to generally be healthy, and to live in a safe-enough nook of the world that body image can even matter. And yet, within that microcosm, with the naivete of a young girl, it fueled my desire to understand and solve this problem.

I began dancing before I could walk, according to my mom, and spent many years in ballet and other dance. When I was around 10 years old, my body started changingchanges that were witnessed during the hours spent in front of the mirrors in dance class practicing plis, tendus, and pas de bourres. One day, my teacher called out in front of the class, Its time to cut out your snacks, Julieanna. I wanted the floor to swallow me and make me disappear. I began my obsession with diet and hating my body right then and there. I spent the next years experimenting and exploring, full of self-recrimination and frustration.

During my teenage years, like many in Los Angeles, I was an aspiring actress. I attended a performing arts high school (much like the television series Fame in the 80s), performed and toured with a couple theatre companies, and auditioned and worked a bit in television and film. I had agents and managers, headshots and auditions; and endured the bombardment of people telling me I was too fat or too thin, too brunette or not brunette enough, too tall or too short, too talented or not talented enough. When I showed up to auditionsespecially for commercials or modelingthe other candidates all looked eerily similar. We were all brunette, around 5 feet 4 inches tall, and have similar features. But the worst of these experiences for me were when my manager or agent reminded me I needed to lose weight, Just a few pounds. For the camera. It was as though my career and my acceptability in the world were based on a number on the scale and how I looked.

Ironically, this discovery did not lead me on an unrelated career path. I did not become a lawyer or accountant, as my dad so deeply wished for me. Instead, I decided to become a personal trainer, so I could learn all the secrets to achieving and maintaining a healthy, fit, and strong body without a constant struggle. Despite leaving acting in search of pursuing a path to help others who had struggled with their weight, once again, people decided whether to take me seriously after looking me up and down to determine how I managed my body shape and size. And I didnt stop there. When I began training clients and they persistently asked me what they should eat, I was certain I did not want to simply recite facts I had memorized in my personal trainer handbook or from the hundreds of books I had studied over the years. This was my opportunity to really dive into the science and finally find the secrets that I knew must be hidden somewhere. I applied to graduate school to become a registered dietitian and pursue a masters degree in nutrition. Surely, I would get to the bottom of the conundrum of easy, healthful, sustainable weight management and then be enabled to help others resolve their struggles once and for all.