Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sheri Traxler. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Sheri, thanks for joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.
I was in the bathroom. Terrified.
Why?
While growing up I suspected I had developed an unhealthy relationship with food – and sometimes even exercise. But it was years later at a work potluck Christmas party that I knew I absolutely had a problem and had to change.
Everyone else was at the buffet ooh-ing and ah-ing over different dishes colleagues brought.
Instead, I was in the bathroom terrified.
“If I eat that _____ I’ll have to workout extra tomorrow. Who knows how many grams of ____ it has.”
“I want to try ____ but if I do I’ll probably not be able to stop eating it. I’ll lose control.”
“I’ll be good and just have the veggies I brought. If I break my diet I’ll be bad.”
I realized I was the only one, apparently, who did not feel she could enjoy the food, the people, or the party and I stayed as far away from the table as possible. Why? I thought something was inherently wrong with me.
Truth? By that party I had spent almost 20 years fine-tuning my “diet mentality,” through the various diet and exercise rules I “learned.”
And I wanted freedom. Desperately.
I wanted to exercise just because it felt amazing and made me strong and healthy.
Not because it burned calories I’d eaten the day before.
I wanted to eat a balanced meal because it was satisfying.
I wanted to enjoy a cookie without fear of eating five.
I wanted to go to a party and enjoy it all.
Scratch that.
I didn’t even know that was possible. All I could fathom was maybe not being consumed with worrying about every morsel, gram, or repercussion after a party.
Thankfully, that part of me is a distant memory, because …
I found a way to break out of food jail.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Hello, I’m Sheri.
I’m one of those unicorns who knew from childhood what I wanted to do: help people stay well.
At the breakfast table, I’d devour the back of the cereal boxes, learning what the vitamins do in the body.
I was unique (some say, weird) that I actually enjoyed 7th grade biology.
But my passion for exercise and healthy eating took a not-so-healthy turn in my childhood, with dieting, disordered eating and symptoms of anorexia by middle school.
I enjoyed exercise and how it gave me energy and made me feel strong. But because I worried about weight, I was constantly counting calories and fretting about food. I went on my first diet – to lose 2 pounds – at age 9. And I continued dieting until my mid-twenties when I read the books “Breaking Out of Food Jail” and “Diets Don’t Work.” Through those books, the world of “normal eating” opened up to me.
Over a 10 year struggle, I broke out of my own food jail.
And I stayed aware of the good nutrition information I had learned in my college courses, but with a healthy relationship with food.
So, I have a personal understanding to help people who want to stop yo-yo dieting and learn to eat intuitively & healthy. Eating intuitively includes listening to the “health signals” from your body…so the concepts are actually related.
And I help my clients get free fast.
With support, they accomplish in months what took me years.
The problem I solve:
-Dieting is stressful.
-When you are on-and-off diets, you cannot have your fully present in the rest of your life.
-With me, you will get healthy and break up with diets once and for all.
My Master’s Degree is in Health Promotion. I’m an A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer, an AASDN Nutrition Specialist and a Certified Intuitive Eating Counselor. I am a national speaker for the Medical Fitness Association and have taught fitness episodes for Viacom Cable.
I worked as an Exercise Physiologist, Membership Director and Weight Management Instructor at the Vanderbilt Health and Wellness Center for 12 years. I left Vanderbilt and began health coaching, personal training and teaching wellness workshops through her business, ViREO Life. I’ve been training and coaching private clients for over 30 years.
I’m here to help you …
Find Your Path. Fulfill Your Potential.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
Top Three: John Michael Morgan – Brand Against the Machine
Jim Collins – Built to Last
Jim Collins – Good to Great
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
Whether it is because I was raised in the South or “just my nature” – for years I believed that when someone’s feelings were hurt because of confrontation, that was harmful.
Through managing at Vanderbilt and coaching my breaking-up-with-diets clients, I’ve learned it is the opposite.
Not confronting, trying to “just be nice and encouraging”, more often leads to harm.
We (all of us, including me) don’t easily do what we know to do.
So, encouragement – and sometimes asking hard uncomfortable questions – lead to growth and freedom.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.thevireolife.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thevireolife/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sheri.traxler/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sheri-traxler/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/vireolife
- Other: Podcast – Real Wellness http://www.thevireolife.com/podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/real-wellness/id1645393124