Podcasts > Pursuit of Wellness > How I Transformed My Life: 90 Pounds Down with Discipline and Goal Setting

How I Transformed My Life: 90 Pounds Down with Discipline and Goal Setting

By Mari Llewellyn

In this episode of Pursuit of Wellness, Mari Llewellyn shares her transformative journey of overcoming mental health struggles and embracing a holistic approach to wellness. Born in London and raised across several cultures, Llewellyn delves into her challenging childhood and the adversities that manifested as issues like alcohol abuse and self-harm in college.

Mari's pivotal decision to reclaim her life marked the beginning of her wellness path. She courageously confronted past traumas, adopted a healthy lifestyle, and ultimately shed 90 pounds. This success paved the way for Llewellyn's viral following and her transition into launching her own fitness brand and supplement company, driven by her passion for empowering others.

How I Transformed My Life: 90 Pounds Down with Discipline and Goal Setting

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How I Transformed My Life: 90 Pounds Down with Discipline and Goal Setting

1-Page Summary

The Speaker's International Upbringing and Challenging Childhood

  • Mari Llewellyn was born in London and spent her early years in Geneva and England before her family moved to the wealthy Westchester County, New York when she was 10.
  • The stark cultural differences left Mari feeling like an outsider, a feeling exacerbated by her parents' separation during her senior year of high school, Llewellyn shares.
  • While struggling academically in traditional schooling, Mari excelled in subjects like English and art when exposed to alternative teaching methods better suited to her needs.

Mari's Mental Health Journey and Path to Wellness

  • In college, Llewellyn experienced mental health issues including alcohol abuse, self-harm, and suicidal thoughts. She was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and prescribed medications with severe side effects.
  • After nearly dropping out, Mari made the choice to reclaim her life. She stopped drinking, adopted a healthy diet and intense fitness routine, Llewellyn recounts.
  • Working through past traumas in therapy, Mari courageously confronted her emotions and pain instead of avoiding them on her path to recovery.

The Rise of Mari's Fitness Brand and Business

  • Sharing her 90-pound weight loss journey online led to a viral following, with followers requesting Mari's workout and nutrition guides.
  • Leveraging this success with her partner Greg, Mari transitioned into creating her own fitness products and eventually her supplement brand Bloom, Llewellyn states.
  • Mari was deeply involved in all aspects of the business, from product development to branding, driven by her passion for helping others through health and wellness.

1-Page Summary

Additional Materials

Actionables

  • You can explore your own cultural background to foster self-awareness by creating a visual timeline of your life, marking significant events and cultural shifts, and reflecting on how these have shaped your identity.
    • This activity helps you understand the impact of your upbringing on your current beliefs and behaviors. For example, if you moved cities or countries as a child, draw a map showing these moves and annotate it with memories or feelings associated with each place. This can reveal patterns in your social interactions and personal growth.
  • Start a personal development project focusing on a skill or hobby that aligns with your interests, like writing or painting, to discover alternative learning methods that suit you.
    • This strategy encourages you to engage with subjects you naturally excel in, which can boost your confidence and academic performance. For instance, if you enjoy storytelling, you might start a blog or join a local writers' group to improve your writing skills outside of a traditional classroom setting.
  • Create a simple, structured plan to make incremental lifestyle changes, such as incorporating a new healthy habit each week, to gradually improve your well-being.
    • This approach breaks down the overwhelming task of lifestyle overhaul into manageable steps. If you're looking to eat healthier, you might start by adding one serving of vegetables to your dinner each night. After this becomes routine, you could then focus on reducing sugary drinks the following week, and so on, building a foundation for lasting change.

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How I Transformed My Life: 90 Pounds Down with Discipline and Goal Setting

The speaker's personal background and life experiences

Mari Llewellyn shares her diverse and challenging personal history, from an international upbringing to family turmoil during her formative years in the United States.

The speaker had an international upbringing, living in several countries as a child and experiencing different cultures.

Born in Chertsey, London, Mari was a much-anticipated child by her parents after three years of trying. She spent her early years in Geneva, Switzerland, where she absorbed the local culture, attending a French nursery and cherishing memories of sunflowers and singing French nursery rhymes. After her sister's birth in Switzerland, her family returned to Guildford, Surrey, England, where she continued her education until the age of 10.

The speaker's family moved to the United States when she was 10 years old, which was a major culture shock for her.

At ten, Mari's life took a drastic turn when her father's job as a British diplomat led the family to move to Scarsdale, Westchester, New York. Her knowledge of America, based on TV shows like 'Friends' and the stereotype of obesity and fast-food culture, didn't prepare her for the reality of living in one of the wealthiest towns in the US. The drastic cultural differences, combined with her use of British slang, contributed to her feeling like an outsider, further amplified by her shyness and anxiety.

The speaker's family life was tumultuous, with her parents separating during her senior year of high school.

The family's move to a new house in the US was disrupted by her parents' separation, which caught Mari off-guard and destabilized the only sense of stabi ...

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The speaker's personal background and life experiences

Additional Materials

Actionables

  • Explore your own cultural identity by creating a personal map that includes all the places you've lived or visited, noting how each has influenced you. This can be a simple drawing or a digital collage, where you mark each location and write a few sentences about the customs, foods, or traditions you've adopted into your own life.
  • Reflect on a challenging period in your life by journaling about the experience and the coping mechanisms you developed. Write down the emotions you felt during that time, the support systems you had, and how you've grown since then. This can help you understand your resilience and how you handle change.
  • Identify your academic or professional strengths by condu ...

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How I Transformed My Life: 90 Pounds Down with Discipline and Goal Setting

The speaker's mental health struggles and journey to recovery

Mari Llewellyn openly shares the personal challenges related to her mental health struggles during college and her subsequent journey towards recovery and well-being.

The speaker began experiencing mental health issues, including self-harm and suicidal ideation, during college.

From childhood, Llewellyn felt emotionally on edge and anxious, a feeling that deepened with her parents' separation and led to the use of alcohol as a coping mechanism. In college, her overdrinking resulted in academic and social probation at Drexel University. She revealed that her therapy, which began at the age of 14 due to her parents' divorce, was ignored as she canceled meetings during college. After an episode of drinking, Llewellyn self-harmed for the first time, driven by feelings of shame and invisibility. Encouraged by a person named Greg, she sought professional help following this episode.

The speaker was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and put on a cocktail of medications, which had negative side effects.

Llewellyn recalls the diagnosis of borderline personality disorder and the subsequent prescription of a medication cocktail typically for bipolar disorder. The medications led to severe dissociation and an even further disconnect from reality, culminating in her senior year with failing grades, significant weight gain, and a sense of being completely out of her mind. With her life unraveling, Llewellyn made the difficult choice to drop out of college a semester before graduating.

The speaker made the decision to get healthy and take control of her life.

The speaker stopped drinking, developed healthier eating habits, and started an intense fitness routine to improve her physical and mental well-being.

Determined ...

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The speaker's mental health struggles and journey to recovery

Additional Materials

Actionables

  • Create a personal progress journal to track emotional and physical well-being, noting patterns that emerge over time. By regularly documenting your feelings, activities, and coping mechanisms, you can identify triggers and progress, which can be invaluable during therapy sessions or self-reflection periods. For example, if you notice increased anxiety on days you skip meals, you can adjust your routine to include regular, nutritious meals.
  • Develop a self-care toolkit with activities and items that provide comfort and distraction during stressful times. This could include stress-relief exercises, favorite books, a playlist of uplifting music, or tactile objects like stress balls. When feeling overwhelmed, you can turn to your toolkit for a healthy way to cope, rather than resorting to negative behaviors.
  • Engage in a structured physical activity program that alig ...

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How I Transformed My Life: 90 Pounds Down with Discipline and Goal Setting

The Development of the Speaker's Successful Fitness Business and Brand

Mari Llewellyn's personal fitness transformation inspired a business venture that evolved into a burgeoning fitness brand, guided by her own journey and the community she built.

The Speaker's Fitness Journey and Transformation Inspired Others, Leading Her to Start Sharing Her Story Online

Mari Llewellyn's dedication to fitness, nutrition, and her own 90-pound weight loss journey resonated with a vast online community. After she shared her before-and-after photo on Instagram at the encouragement of her partner, Greg, the post went viral, catapulting her to internet fame. Starting with just 900 followers, Mari's content struck a chord, and she found herself with 20,000 followers while working at Orange Theory Fitness. The community engagement was immediate and powerful, with her notifications "exploding" as her story and progress were shared widely across social media platforms.

The Speaker's Before-and-After Photos and Fitness Content Gained a Large Following on Social Media

The viral nature of her transformation story caught the attention of people across the fitness and weight loss communities. Mari's visibility increased tremendously, thanks to her before-and-after photo showcasing her incredible transformation, leading to widespread sharing and reposting on various fitness and weight loss pages.

The Speaker's Community of Followers Requested Workout and Nutrition Guides, Which She Started Creating and Selling

The engagement didn't stop at likes and shares; her followers began requesting workout and nutrition guides. Mari responded by compiling her routines into a PDF and started selling them via PayPal. The demand for her guides was so significant that her partner, Greg, had to step in to assist with the workload.

The Speaker and Her Partner Leveraged the Success of the Guides to Launch Their Own Fitness Supplement Brand

With the success of her workout guides, Mari embraced entrepreneurship, transitioning full-time and no longer working at Orange Theory Fitness. The proceeds from the guide sales allowed Mari and Greg to fund their new business ventures, which included creating and selling physical products like resistance bands.

The Speaker Was Deeply Involved in Every Aspect of the Supplement Business, from Product Development to Branding and Marketing

Driven by a passion for quality nutrition and dissatisfaction with store-bought supplements, Mari and Greg decided to launch their own brand, Bloom. Mari was hands-on in every as ...

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The Development of the Speaker's Successful Fitness Business and Brand

Additional Materials

Actionables

  • Document your personal growth journey through regular social media posts to build a supportive community. Start by choosing a platform where you feel comfortable sharing updates, such as Instagram or a personal blog. Share your goals, the challenges you face, and your progress. This can lead to creating a network of people who relate to your journey and offer support, which can be invaluable for motivation and accountability.
  • Create a simple feedback mechanism to understand what your audience needs, like a Google Form survey. Ask your followers what kind of content, products, or services they're interested in. This direct line of communication can help you tailor your offerings to what your audience actually wants, potentially leading to a business opportunity that aligns with your personal interests and the needs of your community.
  • Engage deeply with the p ...

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