Hello new friends! My name is Meghann Kirchner and I am 23 years old. I have struggled with my weight ever since I could remember. I used to steal cupcakes from our kitchen and hide in the bathroom to eat them, then I'd flush the wrappers when I was done. My relationship with food had never been good. I was addicted to sugar.
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| 6th Grade |
Around the age of 13 I started dieting... I have tried L.A. Weightloss, Weight Watchers, Adkins, Nutrisystem, Calorie counting, Liquid diets, Smoothies, All protein, All veggies, No carbs, starving myself, binge and purging... Nothing has worked for more than a couple weeks or a couple months. This lead to lots of depression and anxiety issues for me. I was not comfortable in my own skin. I skipped out on lots of fun events other kids participated in. I vividly remember being chanted at in the halls of school when I was in 9th grade. None of this was how I envisioned my life to go. I eventually moved out of state for college in 2010. When I moved all of my support was gone, I was stripped bare and left to find my own friends and take care of myself like an 'adult'. I was not ready. In a series of poor choices I made I became very depressed and alone.
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| October 2014 |
My family missed me so much and I couldn't bare to tell them how horrible I was doing so I acted like everything was fine and I was having the time of my life. This lead up to me having a total meltdown, I'd say it was an anxiety attack but I walked off of my job in the middle of my shift and dropped out of school with 4 weeks left until graduation, packed all my stuff into a U-haul and moved 650 miles back home to be with my parents.
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| December 2013 |
This in itself made me feel like a quitter, I was so disappointing in myself, I wanted to blame the people I was surrounded with in college but it was nobody's fault but my own. I got a job and 6 months after moving back home I re-enrolled in college. I started doing pretty good, getting my life back on track. Then I turned 21 and starting going out and making poor decisions again, spending every penny I had. Somehow I graduated college.
By this time I was still making poor food choices. I got a job working at a bakery again, eating lots of donuts nearly every day. I had lots of cravings, barely any energy, I felt sick and weighed down and none of my clothes would fit. I was 22 years old by this point, wearing size 20 pants and weighed 252 pounds. I was utterly disgusted with myself. I KNEW what good nutrition was, I have a culinary degree, I know what I should be doing for myself but I wasn't doing it.
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| September 2014 |
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| September 2014 |
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| April 2015 |
On July 29th 2014, something clicked. I finally joined that gym I kept driving past. I stopped eating those donuts. Slowly each change I was making, I knew would pay off. My goal was to lose 82 pounds, nobody thought I could do it. I went to the gym at 11 pm so nobody would see me working out. I started to feel better, very slowly. I struggled a lot, but I didn't quit. It was important for me to see this through because I had already been a quitter so many times and I was really sick of starting over. I was convinced this was a lifestyle change, not a diet. Soon after I quit smoking cigarettes and had surgery in August. This set me back a little bit but I didn't want it to be an excuse.
Fast forward to November 2014 and I had done research on sugar, the effects in the body, the amounts recommended to be consumed and the actual amounts being consumed. I was shocked and December 15th 2014, right before everything delicious during Christmas time, I quit eating sugar. I weighed 137 pounds at this point. I had been doing my fitness alone, and not every day. It was hard to be motivated on my own sometimes. I started to plateau and feel stuck.
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| May 2015 |
An old friend from high school reached out to me on Facebook because she had noticed my weight loss. She shared with me her job as a health and fitness coach and I was very intrigued. After a few weeks of talking she got me to join in this incredible journey with her. April 26th 2015, I joined Beachbody. At this point I weighed 203 pounds. I was so enthused to have a support team. I was accepted with such love, I had gained a large group of friends (who are now like family to me) in a matter of days. They all wanted to see me succeed and support me. I was drinking Shakeology and doing the 21 Day Fix program.
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| June 2015 |
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| July 2015, The Fearless Empire |
I felt on top of the world, like I had purpose. Other people started noticing my success and wanted to join me. God's plan was finally showing, I started to attend church on a regular basis and work on ways to be a better version of myself. I smile, run, laugh, cook and share great information with friends and meet new people as often as I can. Now as I write this, I reflect how much Beachbody has done for me. I am so thankful to be a part of something so wonderful, it is such a blessing in my life and has the bonus of helping me financially. I used to envy the girl that runs for fun, the one who wears fitness clothes all the time and bright Nike shoes, now I AM that girl and it feels just as great as it looks, if not better. To date I have lost a total of 60 pounds and have 22 more until I reach my final goal. Each day I am taking strides forward to reach my goals.The most rewarding part is being able to help others through this same journey. To watch someone morph into a greater being is incredible and I can never be grateful enough to Beachbody for giving me all these opportunities. I can not wait what the future has in store for me! I can honestly say this is the happiest I have been in my entire life!
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| Part of my LOVELY team, The Fearless Empire |
So I love granola bars; they are a quick on the go snack. However, I have found MANY bars have sugar in them and obviously most are not gluten free (if they are they are way too expensive). So I have come up with a solution! I made my own! This recipe is SO easy, there is NO cooking involved! I love recipes like that, don't you? Let's get to it!
2. In a food processor, puree the raisins until they become a paste (it will look like fig newton filling). 
VARIATIONS: 
