Magda went from feeling ugly to feeling beautiful in 6 months.
Six months ago, Magda couldn't sit on her own sofa without something over her belly. Now she writes: "I feel strong, and I like it." It took six months of 1:1 coaching, and none of it was about getting smaller.
Programme: EMPOWER 1:1 coaching
Time with me: 6 months
Who she is: A working mum with a young daughter
Where she started: Ranking herself against every woman in the room, and feeling ugly
Where she is now: "I feel strong, and I like it."
When Magda first came to me
I'll never forget our first call.
Magda has a full life, a job, a daughter, friends she loves. And every time she walked into a room, her head did the same thing. "I'm doing a hierarchy and I try to see where I am."
She ranked herself against every woman there. Thinner than her, not as thin as her. By the time she'd finished, the verdict was in. "I always lose in comparison." She told me she felt ugly. Just like that and it broke my heart.
The mornings were the worst of it. She'd look in the mirror, dislike what she saw, and carry that mood around all day, sometimes not even remembering why.
And then there was the sofa. "If I sit down on the sofa, I need to have something on my belly, a pillow or something." Sit with that for a second. She couldn't even sit down at home without putting something between herself and her own body.
It cost her the moments she was meant to be enjoying. "I miss the entirety of the moment because I'm focusing on something like this." She was in the pictures, and she wasn't really there.
It cost her her clothes. "I dress more to not be at the center of the attention and to cover my belly." The only part of her wardrobe that was really her was her earrings. "My earrings are real Magda. The rest is not."
Then she told me what scared her most, and it wasn't her belly. It was her daughter. One day, she said, her little girl would walk past a mirror and pull up her shirt to check her own belly. "She will just get from what I am, not what I say."
This was never just about a body. It was about what she was afraid of passing on.
Why she hesitated
Magda didn't jump in, and honestly, I love that about her.
She'd put years into working on herself. She'd spoken to another coach. She was scared it would be "too much, just an app," and she wanted to know what the mindset work actually looks like when you're the one sitting in it.
Then she told me the thing she was most afraid of. "I'm worried that it will fade away."
She knew her own pattern. She wanted fast results, and when they didn't come she'd lose motivation and quit. She worried she'd go quiet on me, because who messages a coach to say they didn't train today? She told me exactly how she might fail before she'd even started. That took guts.
I told her what I tell everyone. That fear isn't a reason not to start. It's the work. And you can never message me too much.
I believe you can do this.
The six months
April: "I don't know how she dresses"
At our kick-off call, Magda set her goals. For the one she called her "empower" goal, she wanted to "dress to rock" and like herself. Then she told me what was underneath it: "I like to dress like the real Magda, but I don't know how she dresses."
She didn't know. That's what years of hiding does.
A few weeks later she joined our call in a colourful jumper. "One of the few pieces that I think it's really Magda." And then the part I keep thinking about: "Once I wear it, I forget that people see me."
For a few hours, she forgot to worry about being seen.
That same month she did my identity work and wrote down who she wanted to be. Not a size. A woman "other young women could look up to, respected, strong." Free of fighting with her body. Free of people pleasing.
May: nobody cares
Magda gave her inner critic a name, and started telling it to shut up. She stood at the mirror and said, "I look cute, I like my hair." Small words, and huge for someone who'd spent years doing the opposite.
She wore a belly free top at home, and was ready to wear it out that evening. Her biggest fear had been that people would think she was stupid and vain. "Nobody cares. Nobody's telling me that I'm vain." The kids loved it.
She changed what she scrolled, too. "My Instagram is just about which games can you do with your kids. And every size is beautiful."
July: "Wow, you're strong"
Her daughter stopped on her bike near nursery and wouldn't move. So Magda picked up the bike and her daughter and carried them both. Another parent said, "Wow, you're strong."
She told me, "I felt like, yes! I am strong!"
The woman who used to cover her belly was carrying her daughter and a bike. And she felt strong.
Her daughter started painting her nails, two at a time, wonky. "I'm learning that I don't care." She wore the glitter to work.
On holiday, she did something she'd never done. "I'm less obsessed this summer to get brown and beautiful. I'm just playing with the sand or the water." In her words: "That's completely new for me." She used to chase the tan so she'd look thinner. This time she played in the sand with her daughter.
She bought a bracelet because she liked it. She'd always needed a reason to wear one, because it felt "too feminine." Now: "I just have a bracelet because I like it. And that's a big step for me." She tried lipstick for the first time.
One day everyone else had an ice cream and she didn't. Her husband said she was doing really well. "It's not that I'm forcing myself not to eat it. I'm just listening."
The moments that used to be lost
At a wedding she wrote, "I could focus on the fun of the moment, instead of on my belly." And then: "My yellow details were really Magda."
On a family holiday: "I focused on my hair and my dress, and I liked myself."
Then came the week she bought shoes that were "really Magda," put on "strange" make-up twice, and wrote three words.
"I felt beautiful."
Six months earlier, she'd told me she felt ugly.
I remember holding that joy with her at where she was now!
What we actually worked on
You can't out diet a poor relationship with food, so we started underneath it.
Who she is, not what she weighs. Magda did my identity work: who am I, who do I want to be, and which roles am I playing. It showed her how much of what she did was about winning other people's approval, and that her real taste had only been allowed out through her earrings.
Her beliefs about her body. We used limiting beliefs and the belief breaker work to test the stories she told herself about her belly, and to find the evidence against them.
The inner critic. She learned to name that voice, separate from it and answer back. "And yet" became one of her tools: I'm ugly, and yet that guy flirted with me.
What she took in. We changed what she looked at each day. She followed a woman with a body like hers who simply wore the tight dress, and began to accept more of what she saw when she looked at other women.
Food, added to, not overhauled. Her meals were already good, so the focus was protein. She learned how much she needs, filled her salads with tofu, lentils and chickpeas, and found a way to take the mental load out of planning new recipes.
Movement that survives a bad week. Her workouts came with options, not a single plan, so missing one session didn't mean the week had failed.
Me, in between. Weekly check-ins with voice-note feedback, calls whenever she needed one, and a space where she could tell me the truth.
Where she is now
I had a call with Magda this week, and she was a different person. She was glowing. Her sparkle was back.
Her wardrobe has changed from a place to hide to a place to play. She wrote to me, "Sometimes I even looked at it and thought, uhhh, what could I wear today? Instead of, oh my god, how can I cover my belly today?" She's wearing the favourite dress she never wore, and the nail polish without feeling ashamed.
She can be in a picture and see the picture. "I can focus on the moment a picture describes, instead of on my belly." She was honest about that too: "Not completely, but better than before."
Her daughter loves how strong her mum is. That's the one that gets me, because it's the exact thing Magda was afraid she'd pass on, and she's passing on something different.
And on our last call she told me what had really changed: "the real thing that changed is why I train and why I eat what I eat." She said she now sees her body as "a partner in life."
Magda is leaving the programme with a body she lives in, a wardrobe that looks like her, and a daughter who gets to grow up with this version of her mum.
In Magda's own words
This is what she wrote at the end of the programme.
"I leave this week and this program with many wins. I learned how much protein I need, and my salads are now always filled with tofu, lentils, or chickpeas. I wore my favourite dress that I never wear. I can help myself during the outfit crisis by focusing on and playing with other colourful details. I wear nail polish at work, without feeling ashamed. I recognised, vocalised, and many times broke my patterns around food. I feel strong, and I like it."
If this sounds like you
If you walk into rooms ranking yourself, plan outfits around your belly, or miss the moment you're in because you're watching your body, I know exactly where you are. I was there, and so was Magda.
Six months from now can look different.
Any questions?
I'd love to chat further and to get to know you and see how I can help.
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