Today we’d like to introduce you to Nancy Leeds Gribble.
Hi Nancy Leeds, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I finally felt like I was on the verge of having it all. I was a highly successful realtor. I was happily married, had a beautiful young son, dog and living on the water. I felt like things in my life had finally turned around and life was shaping up exactly as I had always imagined it would.
Then in October 2008, everything changed. My husband suddenly became ill and was diagnosed with Glioblastoma – stage 4 brain cancer. Our lives were instantly turned upside-down and despite almost a year of trying to stay optimistic, my husband eventually succumbed to the devastating disease and passed away in 2009, leaving me alone with my 4-year-old son, Alexander.
On top of it all, we were facing the worst economic crisis of our century and the real estate market was being hit the hardest. I was not only grieving the loss of my husband but also trying to pick up the pieces of a huge personal financial disaster, while also raising my son. For over two years, I stumbled through life in a fog, not really knowing who I was or what I would do, and just trying to do the best I possibly could for Alexander. Eventually, I made my way back into real estate, but, truthfully, I found it was almost impossible to enjoy the career I’d once loved as now I was a single mom with no support. But, it was what I knew so I stayed. I was lonely and depressed in a deep, dark funk.
One day I looked at myself and realized I’d lost my joy for life. I looked bad, I felt bad and I was making bad decisions about the way I was treating myself. I did not recognize the person in the mirror. I knew I couldn’t control all the external events in my life but I could try and take better care of myself again, if for no other reason than to ensure I’d be around as long as possible for Alexander. I had a few hand weights and some workout videos so I cleared a small space in my garage and began to workout again. It was tough at first, I was out of shape and lacked energy, but I stuck with it and slowly I began to feel like myself again. I even dared to go out with someone new and soon we became quite serious and got engaged. Life, it seemed, was back on the upswing.
Now they say lightning doesn’t strike in the same place twice, but I’m not so sure.
Without much warning, my new finance’ suddenly died of pancreatic cancer. It was another devastating blow, and I remember thinking, “Are you kidding me, God?” Besides dealing with grief all over again and that of my son (if you’re a mother, I’m sure you can only imagine the pain I felt watching my son deal with grief yet again), I had lost my faith. Was I not worthy? Was this karma for mistakes I’d made along the way? I kept asking “why, why, why?” I fell back into a funk, wallowing in self-pity and self-sabotage.
But not for long, I realized I couldn’t let years go by again feeling like I had before. I couldn’t let myself go back to that lonely, depressed, out of shape, place again. I had to dig deep. I knew I had to shift my focus to what I needed to do to be the best version of myself for my son. My love for him drove my motivation. I had the faintest flicker of a memory of how I used to feel when I worked out so I decided, if nothing else,I would do that again. Some days I cried my way through my entire workout, some days, I would give it my all. But what was consistent was every day I showed up in my garage at 5:00am.
And soon the transformation started happening – not just physically but also mentally. My workouts became my therapy. I started caring about myself again, not just as a mom, but also for me. I began eating better, reading personal development books, thinking more optimistically about my future and switching my focus forward toward where I wanted to be. Having been vegetarian and vegan for over half my life and remembering everything I read about food as medicine during James illness, I decided to go back to school and enrolled at the Institute of Integrative Nutrition which began the start of my new career in mid-life (an entire other story of that challenge!)
I also knew I could no longer rely on others to provide joy and happiness in my life, they could enhance it, but it really had to be an inside job. So I let my energy gravitate in the direction of the things I loved: health, fitness and the water. I’d always loved boating and water skiing and being by the water – but you needed other people for that. But I wouldn’t be held back; I went online and found a paddleboard class and signed up there and then. Being back on the water made me feel more adventurous, alive and playful than I had in years and I realized that, by paying close attention to my body, the things that bought me joy and the ways I wanted to feel, I felt more and more in alignment with my inner-self. I not only lost weight, but I gained energy, confidence and the mindset to live an unstoppable life.
And I want that for other women too! My first 40 plus years of life I always focused on being skinny, not healthy. I tried every diet out there, every diet pill out there, and was constantly on the roller coaster of weight gain/loss/gain. It’s exhausting and frustrating. And I know so many women, especially as midlife hits, feel the same. And maybe wonder if things can really ever be different because they have “tried it all before”. I am here to say YES! And as I have continued my education becoming a Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist, Master Level Precision Nutrition and Certified Faster Way To Fat Loss Coach and currently studying Culinary Nutrition, I have the resources and skills to help guide them on their personal journey to feeling their best!
It’s never too late and we are never too old to start taking care of ourselves. We all have our stories and they don’t define us, but they do shape us.
I know first-hand how nourishing health and fitness is for the body & soul, and how learning what your body needs, especially in midlife as it changes, can create profound shifts not only in your physical health but also in your mindset, your relationships, your creativity and more.
Some quotes that I love:
“It’s not just about adding years to your life, but life to your years”
“We don’t stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing”
“If you have your health, you have a thousand dreams; if you don’t, you only have one”
“It’s not about the weight you lose, but the life you gain”
“The best is yet to be..”
“Health is the greatest form of wealth”
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My story for how I got into this field is what I shared. My story with my weight, and opinion of myself, that’s an entirely different one. I constantly worked out, starved myself, and went on every diet fad possible with the only desire to be skinny. I was trying to fix what I did not like about myself. When my focus shifted to the deeper “Why”, which is that I loved my son and he deserved the best version of me possible, then everything changed. I loved him and knew I needed to be healthy and strong for him. He did not care about my skinny issues. And then it turned into loving myself, and wanting to be healthy and strong for me too. Of course, the road from beginning to now has not been easy, but once I decided to make decisions based on how I want to feel, how I want to live…it became much easier. I still had to do the work, but it wasn’t about some fad. It was creating the lifestyle I wanted by eating healthy and taking care of myself. And trust me, mid-life hormones added a whole new level too! I had to learn, and I remind the women I work with – be patient. Trust the process of eating whole foods, exercise, nutritional strategies and personal development. Seek to add joy to your life. Get off the scale for the majority of your journey. You are not a number. And no comparison! It is the thief of all joy. And whether you have 5 or 50 plus pounds to lose, just want to eat healthier, or begin exercising….start now. Don’t wait. This is not a dress rehearsal.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a Midlife Metabolism and Fat Loss Coach/Plant based Culinary Nutritionist*. I work with women who have declared “enough is enough” and help them lose the weight, even if they feel they have tried it all before, and without starving themselves or spending countless hours working out. For most women around my age we grew up in a society that focused on being skinny, eating less and working out more. It can be a hard mindset to shift, I know firsthand. Then as we enter mid-life and our bodies change, it’s what we feel we need to do. But it’s actually the opposite! We need to fully nourish our bodies – strategically.
What sets me apart is that I know what’s it like to be stuck, in fact to a point where nothing mattered and I felt hopeless, to feeling unstoppable and creating a body and life I feel great living in. I continue to learn so that I can teach and guide other women to thrive through mid-life and hey, why not make the second half of life so awesome the first half gets a little jealous!
What matters most to you?
What matters most to me is my Faith, family, health, friends and living life with joy and purpose.
I have held the hand of three people I love immensely as they took their last breath of life. All from cancer. I have had other personal hardships that have tested me to my core. I also have incredible blessings. My faith is my testament to God that I believe in him, I believe in eternal life, and I am thankful for the life I have. Nothing in my life works without God, and I seek to strengthen my relationship with him daily.
My family (including my friends that are family to me) are everything to me. They have been with me through thick and thin, they are my heart. I am currently engaged to an amazing man, Wes, and my son is soon entering his final year of high school. This new season of life has been wonderful (and challenging with a teenager) but I love it all and am thankful.
Health is paramount! I know personally that we cannot take it for granted. One day everything can be fine, the next your world just changed dramatically. It is the one area that we do have some control over so, for me, I will do everything I can to ensure I take care of this one body I have…and help others do the same too!
Joy and purpose go hand and hand! God doesn’t want us to live our life just surviving through it. Yes, he will test us (over and over) but he also wants us to find the joy in all he created. Joy is felt deeply. For me it’s knowing who I am, what I love, living life, and giving back. It’s feeling aligned to my calling.
And let me not forget, life is about having fun! Being a seeker of play. We all know life can be hard, so yes, sometimes you have to go and seek that fun, it won’t just come find you. Find what lights you up, what makes you forget to look at your watch (or phone these days), what allows you to abandon yourself to the moment.
Get out there and live!
Contact Info:
- Email: nancyleedsgribble@gmail.com
- Website: www.NancyLeedsGribble.com
- Instagram: @NancyLeedsGribble
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/nancyleedsgribble
- Other: https://www.fasterwaycoach.com/community#NancyLG
