I want to thank Amanda Kunard, Founder of Go Slim U! for spending the month of February with us here at SugarSobriety! I always like to wrap up the month with an interview and just ask some questions of our guests. Here is how Amanda is leaving us! Please feel free to reach out to Amanda and tap into her knowledge. She really is an amazing source for all of us! Her info is at the bottom of the post.

What inspired you to get healthy?

Luckily for me, I have always been healthy. I am blessed to have grown up in a home with a stay at home mom who made almost everything from scratch and who’s hobby was “health food”. This is back in the 70’s and 80’s, before Whole Foods, when the health food store was two towns over in an obscure location.  We would go over there every few weeks to buy weird things like wheat germ, roasted soy beans, and carob.  I only kind of realized this was not normal because my friends would be eating Oreo’s and I would have carob brownies.

Who is your hero?

My mom is my hero.  She is 75 years old and walks faster than I do and plays tennis two or three times a week.  She walks every day and is always trying out nutritious recipes.  Plus she is an award winning watercolor artist.

What specifically keeps you motivated to make healthy choices?

I am pretty sure that I am going to live to be about 120 years old, since all of my grandparents lived to be at least 90.  This means that I have more than 70 more years to live in this body.  Having seen the difference that lifestyle makes in the health of your mind and your body, I would much rather be walking every day rather than stuck in a nursing home for the last years of my life.  It is entirely up to me to take care of myself so that later in life others will not be taking care of me.

When you are coaching people, what is the most common complaint?

The hardest thing for people seems to be the motivation to make the change to healthy choices.  The actions and choices that we make on a daily basis have become so ingrained in us that it is challenging to make changes (this applies to everything!), so there has to be a really strong reason to want to make a change.  (I have even met men who have neuropathy and face amputations, but still are not motivated to make changes in their lifestyle.)

This is where it becomes helpful to have someone to keep you accountable and encourage you to keep moving forward with healthy changes.  As a health coach, the first thing I find out about someone is why they want to lose weight.  Then, in the future, when choices come up, I am able to remind them why they are working on improving their health.

What is your favorite recipe?

This is a hard question!!  And, I don’t always cook from a recipe.  But, I really like flavorful spicy foods, with lots of vegetables, and recipes that are easy to prepare, so there are a few Asian-inspired recipes that I love.

Do you have cheat days, and if so, how often?

I do not always eat the healthiest choice, but do not have “cheat days”.  If I have an opportunity to eat some high quality, well prepared dishes, I will eat some, regardless of the fat or sugar content.  But I do not eat a lot.  One healthy habit that I have adopted is eating 5 small meals throughout the day.  This means that I can’t eat a very large portion of anything without feeling stuffed and gross. 

For me, a bad eating scenario would be if I am feeling lazy, I may want to eat some low-quality food just because it is easy.  But to mitigate this, I try to always have easy-to-prepare healthy snacks and meals on hand, especially in my car.

What do you do for fun?

My favorite thing is to have friends and family come over to our house for games, movies and/or meals.  One of my other favorite things to do is gardening.  We have a pretty big yard, and I can spend hours out there pruning, trimming, weeding, etc.

Tell us about your favorite success story of a client of yours.

This is another tough question.  My favorite current client is a woman who has lost over 120 pounds so far, and this has been life changing for her.  She is now down to 213 lbs and is planning to lose about 70 more pounds.  We have been working together for about two years and she inspires me so much because she just keeps on going.

My favorite success story of a past client is a man who lost about 30 pounds, about two years ago.  The thing that is cool about his story is that he and his wife really embraced the healthy lifestyle.  After losing the weight, he felt so good that he realized he would rather get to bed early, instead of staying out late drinking, so that he could get up in the morning and go surfing or hiking.  And he starting changing the lifestyles of his friends too so that they could all get up and go surfing or hiking together.

Have you had struggles with sugar?

Luckily, I do not have a sweet-tooth.  And, believe me, I realize how lucky this is.  I attribute this to my mother not feeding us sweets when we were kids – again, thanks mom! 

But, I do love salty crunchy foods.  I can ignore a bag of candy for months, but a bag of potato chips does not last more than a few days in our house.

What is the plan for Go Slim U! in the future?

The vision of Go Slim U! is to educate people on simple nutrition and health topics.  Our future plan is to offer more seminars on healthy eating and weight loss, while continuing to work one-on-one with weight loss clients.

How can we benefit from your program?

If you are looking to follow a more nutritious eating plan, I have a program for that.  Many people approach me asking if I can help them with a meal plan and teach them to eat better and coach them on health habits, and the answer is yes!

Or if you are looking to lose weight quickly and easily without exercising, I have a program for that.  The beauty of either of these programs is that the cost is almost nothing, and they are designed for busy people so they are really easy to follow and therefore are very successful!

I always offer a complimentary initial consultation to get to know someone’s health goals to see if I can help them or not, or refer them to someone else, and they can determine if one of my programs is right for them.  Just call me at (858) 800-SMILE (7645) or email amanda@GoSlim U.com to set up a consultation.