Princess Jacie

My absolute favorite part of portrait creation is when pieces like this serendipitously develop, for clients like Jacie, who are brave enough to trust the process. It’s not that Unveil your Cinderella clients come to me and and say, “can you make me look like a statue of a strong golden Greek goddess?”  It’s just that gloriously, when everyone is fully engaged, we are all bowled over by what begins to develop through the process.

Jacie had shared she was not a ‘girlie girl’ and didn’t think our tulle bottoms would be a fit for her, but she was open to my ideas and suggestions.  I’ve learned that my Unveil your Cinderella clients are as different as the day is long.  But, what they often share in common is that they are hard working, hustling, get it done kind of women who often have a hard time slowing down and taking care of themselves.  They often get to a point where the realize they need to stand up to be counted and show up in the story of their life, for just one day, in a way they will love for the rest of their lives.

Jacie came to create custom portraits because she wanted to celebrate her 65lb weight loss over the last year and a half, which also happened to coincide with her turning 40.  It’s a crazy beautiful miracle to be in the best shape of your life at 40, but that’s exactly where Jacie is.  She’s done hiding and ready to embrace the strength, fitness and joy she’s found at 40.  Two years ago, 65lbs heavier and feeling awful, she knew something had to change.  She determined that there was nothing she could do about turning 40; however, she could chart a course to improve how she physically felt each day.  She noted during her View & Choose that the 2nd portrait above symbolized the woman who accomplished what she hoped.  She charted her own course and set out boldly to change the direction of her life.

Jacie has been a competitive athlete her whole life.  And by competitive, I mean she’s in McDaniel’s Sports Hall of Fame for her softball and volleyball records!  She has worked out her whole life, but the toning she sought was elusive. Who would have thought that would come at 40!  “My senior year of college was basically a constant workout (guessing that’s one of the key ingredients to the path into the Sports Hall of Fame) and my goal at the end of the year was to be toned and tan…I only got one of those,” she shared.  Her friends all want to know the secret to Jacie’s weight loss.  Was it shakes, the gym, supplements, pre-packaged food??? None of the above.  Jacie jokingly said, “People always say, ‘nothing tastes as good as skinny’–I call BS on that because pizza tastes amazing and so do about 1000 other foods!”  What compelled Jacie into change was how horrible she was feeling carrying the extra weight and dealing with out of control blood sugar issues.  She had zero energy by 6:00 every day and felt like she was missing out on life with her kids when she collapsed to the sofa everyday after work, unable to will herself back into action.  She was being unsuccessfully treated for high blood sugar and her frustration was only mounting.  She watched her young daughter Keegan’s concern over her own body begin to mount and this sent alarm bells through Jacie.  She wanted her daughter to be proud and confident in her own skin and she knew she would be the primary role model for that. Jacie steel will was ready to take control of how she felt and make changes.  She was not stopping until this was resolved.  Her early attempt to regulate her blood sugar resulted in her increasingly feel worse, with more sugar issues and weight gain.  It took the pharmacist to realize that she was being treated for high blood sugar instead of the low blood sugar she should have been treated for.  As time marched on she was taking 60 glucose tabs a month to try and stabilize how her body was handling sugar.  Jacie knew this was not the answer for her.  It felt like she was the only one taking this seriously and she realized it would have to be her who figured out how to turn this ship around. Jacie did not think  one more prescription was the solution for her, but that was reoccurring theme to the advice she received.  She began scouring the web for diabetic research.  She wanted to wrap her brain fully around what diabetes was and how it affected her body personally.  She came to the conclusion that she needed to attempt cutting out all sugars.  She told herself, ‘ok, I’ll give it two weeks.  See how I feel and re-evaluate.’ Two weeks passed and Jacie was down 8 lbs.  More importantly, she was feeling good, for the first time in a long time.  That was incentive enough to keep going.  She tracked her diet and how she felt and realized her body could just not handle sugar anymore.  This was the opposite of diet attempts Jacie had done in the past.  She had tried low fat diets and never found much success and certainly not the toning she now has.  On her new sugar free journey, she was sometimes caught off guard when she’d start to feel awful not too long after eating.  She’d think, “wait I got the grilled chicken strips at Chick Fila…why do I feel so bad?  Little bit of sleuthing and she’d realize, ‘Oh, it’s the dipping sauce!  It’s loaded with sugar.’  So it’s the hidden sugars that most people never give thought to…and even many of our “diet” foods that are sabotaging weight loss right and left.  Today Jacie eats a fairly high fat/low carb/low sugar diet and loves it. She is also off all diabetic meds. With regards to all the muscles–that started small for Jacie.  She just started working out in the shower every morning.  No program, she’d just start doing squats, push ups against the wall and tricep dips on the seat in her shower.  She said she’d do as many as she could.  That meant she started with 4 or 5 push ups and squats.  Today she has worked up to 100!  Most importantly to Jacie is how great she feels and her daughter sees the power of taking back control over her own life.  Keegan sees fitness as a pursuit of life and all it’s best, not a diet that comes and goes, only to disappoint.  Jacie wants Keegan to see the awesomeness in developing her own muscles and not deciding that ‘skinny’ is a goal but an active life where you feel good and strength is valued.  What an incredible blessing to pass on to your daughter Jacie!  Best wishes as you continue in your journey of health, strength and joy!  You were an absolute delight and we loved rocking out to the 90’s jams with you!