Finding your true self is about transforming your mind, body, and soul and integrating all aspects of your life.
Fit Mother Jessica, a full-time minister, wife, and mother of 10, found a way to do all of that, and it changed her life for the better in so many ways!
Jessica and her husband Ralph have been on our Fit Father and Fit Mother programs and made amazing physical changes.
But what’s unique about their journeys is that they’ve been fully integrated transformations — spirit, mind, body, and soul.
Jessica was raised by her grandmother, which helped shape her eating habits and her lifelong relationship with sugar.
Jessica was also raised without hearing the word ‘no,' and those feelings of entitlement played out as she started marriage and parenthood, and within her home and ministry.
But, she found a way to change all that, and her story is truly inspiring!
Listen to Jessica's Story on the Fit Mother Project Podcast:
Unlearning the Unhealthy Patterns of Childhood
As she readily admits, Jessica was brought up with a lot of entitlement.
She says she was spoiled by all the love she received from her grandmother.
“When kids go to their grandparents’ house, it’s all about cookies, Coke, and whatever they want. Being raised by my grandma, that was how it was always. If I wanted cookies, I got them. If I wanted ice cream, I got it. When I was five years old, I drank about three or four cups of coffee filled with sugar and cream. That was something that I was used to. She always made sure to never say no to me for anything I demanded.”
Jessica talks about her detrimental early food habits and attributes such an upbringing to her sugar and junk food addictions.
“That’s where my beginning started with sugar. I learned to rely on sugar to cope with my feelings rather than to talk them through. I grew up with the mentality of eating, but I only liked processed food. I didn’t like fruits. I hated drinking water.”
However, while growing up, Jessica was never overweight.
After getting married, her successive pregnancies worsened her entitlement as she ‘ate for two.'
She was always feeling sick throughout her pregnancies because she was not eating healthy and resorted to sugar whenever she had a tough time.
“I had terrible heartburn. My stomach and bones would hurt all the time. I would wake up and couldn’t open my fingers because it was like they were balled up in a fist and would hurt so bad. It was affecting my deliveries, too, as most of my babies were born prematurely. I think out of 10 babies, only two were born full-term. And I know that much of that has to do with my health and how I treated my body.”
Jessica had lost her grandmother by her seventh baby, and she started gaining weight.
“My grandma passed away. She used to call me every day after I gave birth, asking if I was taking care of myself or not. She was very concerned about my appearance and whether I was still looking good. After she passed away, I no longer had someone calling me every day. And that was really when I started to put on the weight. I stopped trying to take care of myself and exercise. After my seventh pregnancy, everything got worse. We had several miscarriages also.”
Jessica hit a low point with her health and constantly felt tired.
She thought it was normal because she had babies and had to breastfeed.
At one point, she and her husband, Ralph, both found themselves trapped in endless fatigue and wanted to climb out of that cycle.
They had tried many diets and workouts previously, but nothing ever stuck. They were never sustainable.
Hear about Jessica’s journey, tying faith and fitness together to become a healthier version of herself!
Finding Your True Self
While watching barbecue videos on YouTube, Ralph chanced upon a Fit Father Project video, showed it to Jessica, and signed up for the program.
After seeing incredible changes in him in a month, Jessica started contemplating her health and appearance.
“A month after Ralph started the program, I saw the changes in him. He was getting fit, slimming down, and gaining muscle. I wanted to look good too. And I had this epiphany that I needed to change something because I felt tired. I also wanted to break my entitlement to feeling tired because of delivering kids.”
It was in Jessica’s nature to be independent and go in a different direction than most others.
So, she tried different things and was able to lose 20 pounds, but nothing could truly inspire her to keep going.
“I didn’t want to do what he was doing. I have rebellious tendencies. So, I wanted to do something else myself. It was my independent attitude.”
After resisting joining the same program as her husband, Jessica says she heard the holy spirit telling her that it was time to follow her husband and realized that the Fit Mother Project program was what she was looking for.
In a span of 30 days, she battled her entitlement and gradually tried to move away from her unhealthy habits.
“I kept falling back to the entitlement, but I realized I had to break from that. So when we started with the Apex 10, I wanted to quit. But something happened during that time because I was fighting another layer of rebellion at each level. And that, to me, was a big growing exercise, not just physically but also spiritually, mentally, and emotionally. It’s hard for me to persevere because of the entitlement attitude. So, I had to keep fighting for it.”
Having given up processed food, Jessica often had withdrawal symptoms.
“One day, I was literally shaking and sweating because I wanted a burger so bad. That’s a withdrawal symptom, truly. I was actually crying. I called my husband to calm me down.”
However, she did not succumb to her impulses, thinking that doing so would undo all her progress.
Jessica went through a difficult period where she had several miscarriages and then contracted COVID.
But she bounced back and credited the Fit Mother Project Sisterhood Facebook community for it.
“My FMP sisters were constantly encouraging me. They would check in every once in a while and always be so kind. And through this process, they have all been such a blessing to me in helping me keep going. They have been an inspiration throughout. They’re not competitive at all but instead promote mutual growth.”
Several phases down, Jessica had overcome several health problems and felt healthier.
“I was feeling so much better night and day. The pain in my bones and stomach was gone. My relationship with Ralph improved dramatically, and we’ve had weekly date nights ever since. I have grown physically, emotionally, and spiritually and have gotten rid of many layers of entitlement, bitterness, and competitiveness. I don’t feel tired anymore and have more energy.”
So what would Jessica say to someone looking to join the Fit Mother Project?
“Just say ‘yes' to the process because there’s going to be immense growth. It will be a blessing for your life and the people around you because they will get the ‘real’ and not ‘exhausted’ you. So, in continuing to live a lifestyle of unhealthy eating, we are depriving the ones we love the most because we are depriving them of the best of us.”
3 Key Takeaways From Jessica's Journey
To summarize, here are three key lessons you can learn from Jessica’s successful health and fitness journey:
Lesson 1: Unlearn Your Unhealthy Tendencies
Jessica’s fitness transformation was based on shedding a few pounds and gaining strength and breaking unhealthy old habits and patterns.
We learn a lot from her as she took it upon herself to combat her childhood feelings of entitlement and unhealthy lifestyle to bring about a mental and emotional reformation as much as a physical one.
Lesson 2: Fitness Is a Physical, Mental, Emotional, and Spiritual Process
Jessica calls the Fit Mother Program a “vehicle of grace” as she tapped into it to align her life’s physical, mental, emotional, interpersonal, and spiritual aspects and became one with her actualized self.
Health is the foundation of all the other areas of life.
Improving health leads to a positive ripple effect in all these areas.
Lesson 3: Make Life a Learning Experience
With successive miscarriages, Jessica could have been in a place in life where she would have given up on everything.
But she took this as an opportunity to turn her life around for the better.
Understand that life will always throw curve balls at you.
Instead of being suppressed under their weight, take them as challenges to push your way ahead gloriously.
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If you’re a busy mom who wants to finally lose weight, get healthy, and actually keep the pounds off for good, this is the simple program you’ll love sticking to…
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