My name is Lisa and I’m a 37-year-old mother of two. My weight has always been a struggle, but the past few years had been especially hard because of multiple surgeries on my feet. I was about 280 pounds, had high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

A repetitive routine developed with my doctors telling me I needed to lose weight – and they weren’t always nice about it either. I’d tried well-known weight loss programs in the past, but those don’t teach you healthy habits. As soon as you break from their prescribed diet, it’s kind of hard to maintain. This is where Restore is different.

One of the program’s key philosophies is working around your lifestyle. While nutrition was the lifestyle factor that really impacted my change and helped me lose weight, I was restricted when it came to exercise. My Restore coach, Sarah, was great about helping me modify workouts for my injuries and limitations.

Learning to identify my internal struggles was the best thing I learned about myself while on the Restore program. I was dealing with a lot of stress coming into the program, but I never realized how some of my negative habits were reactions to certain stress triggers. Now, I take a deep breath and think of how to deal with the situation rather than running to the vending machine or grabbing a drink.

Beyond the initial phase of the program, I’ve now lost just shy of 115 pounds.

At the start of the Restore program, the simplest thing I wanted to do was go down a playground slide with my kids. My bottom now fits on any slide!

When you can’t physically fit on things like playground slides, you have to stand and watch. I felt like I was watching the world move by around me, but now I feel I can do anything. My best advice for going through a behavior modification program like this: Be prepared and listen to your body. If you don’t feel good, change something. Don’t be too hard on yourself either. We are our own worst critics, but we have the power to be our own best coaches.