About Us

I have been the fat kid.

As a teen, my favorite grandmother and a wonderful seamstress, had to buy me “chubby” sized patterns.

Through my adult years I tried all the diets and have yo-yo’d with the best of you.

My quest to gain control of my weight started at about 9 years old. My other grandmother, the petite, blue eyed one—a size 2–put me the bathroom scale and had me stare down at the number. I don’t recall the number but her words burned a lasting impression in my psyche. “See that number? You’re fat” she said. I’d never felt “fat” before. I wasn’t sure what it was supposed to mean but I knew it wasn’t good. And I knew I was meant to change somehow.

This one event—I’m sure you’ve got one—set off a decades long desire to “not be fat.” Losing weight in those days involved deprivation. I became a model student of deprivation to please the adults and rebellion against that way of life.

Even when I wasn’t “fat” I was sure I wasn’t thin enough. If however I was in my heavy mode and someone suggested I cut back I did the opposite.

If I felt I looked good at whatever weight the scale said, I had no idea how I achieved it. I lived in fear that at any moment I would once again become fat.

And I did. I got fat and I got thin. Can you relate? The diets came and went: the banana and skim milk diet, the Drinking Man’s Diet—you can google it. It was my first introduction to something like Atkins. I did shakes, diet pills and fasted. I read books and listened to experts with conflicting opinions trying to make sense of it all.

To what end? A burned out metabolism, poor health, and an emotional burden I was no longer willing to carry. Somewhere around my early-40’s I’d had enough. I knew I had to crack the code to healthy eating for a healthy weight.

Funny thing was–I thought I was a healthy eater. It felt like 90% of what I did was healthy. On the surface it all looked good but I had no idea why this menu plan sometimes allowed me to stay at the weight I wanted and other times it failed me. I blamed it on being lazy, not working out enough, “slipping” and eating half a bag of veggie sticks at one sitting.

Here’s a little 411 for you. One half bag of veggie sticks does not a jiggly thigh make. However—and this is one of the magical bits of science I learned recently—if your metabolism is broken, like so many of ours are by midlife, that one half bag can send the scale higher! And you’ll feel bad about yourself, which just adds to the hormonal cascade leading to weight gain and fat storage.

Lucky for me I started looking for answers when I did. By 47 I was thrown into the crazy body changes that can knock even the most dedicated of fitness types who eat well off track. At the same time, more of my female clients were asking about weight loss and getting back the bodies they once knew. I had more incentive than ever to find the answer to this midlife mystery of weight gain, fuzzy thinking and broken thermostats.

Here’s what I did. I read countless books on food, diet plans, and healthy living. The cost? Easily a couple of thousands bucks to buy them and at least that many hours to read them all. I spent 5-figures on expensive programs to get in touch with my inner warrior and master the secrets to success. I traveled the country interviewing and studying the smartest healthy living experts in the country. Add in the days and dollars spent eating like Atkins, living in The Zone, or South Beach, the supplements which promised to block carbs and boost calorie burning god knows what all else, I finally got to the truth about the midlife woman’s body.

Not only have I found the Missing Midlife Manual but I’m proof that it works.

These days my weight is consistent and easy to maintain for the first time in my life. I kid you not! Have you ever just relaxed about your weight and felt you knew how to eat like a normal person? At long last I do. Let me show you how.

As a certified life coach and weight loss coach I have helped clients remove hundreds of pounds and fall in love with the person they see in the mirror.

They are then free to get back to the business of living and enjoying their lives.

You can’t be completely happy and fulfilled when you are at war
with your butt, belly, and thighs.

I can save you the years, the tears, and the trial and error. When you are ready to get the weight thing handled you’ll learn exactly what it takes to heal your metabolism so you can lose weight.

These days I’m best known as the go-to-gal if you want to feel and look your absolute best at midlife and I’d love to help you.
On my way to medical school—at least in my dreams—I discovered a love of cooking. I followed that and was one of the early female graduates of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. Food as medicine has always been an interest so I’ve been a nutrition student forever.

After 20 some years of cooking in restaurants I longed to return to my college era love of psychology. Instead I was introduced to the concept of coaching. What a perfect fit as it allows me to marry my knowledge of food and nutrition with a way to work with women and help them feel better.

I was certified as Life Coach by Coach Training Alliance. My Weight Loss Coaching certification is also through CTA with nutrition/weight loss expert Jonny Bowden, Ph.D.

My writing has appeared in Better Homes and Gardens Special Interest publications, Agency Magazine, Sell!ng Magazine, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, For Women First Magazine, The San Diego Union Tribune, Homes of the Hamptons, Bottom Line Health, and others.

I’ve appeared on The Mike and Juliet Show, CNN, NYC news affiliates for Channels 5 and 9, as well as San Diego’s Channel 8.

For more information or to contact me directly please call 631-728-2456.

You can email me at: gregory@midlifewithavengeance.com.
My blog is Midlife With A Vengeance.
www.midlifewithavengeance.com/newsletter/archives.htm

To Your Health,

Gregory Anne