Lori Featured in Local Paper

Mrs. AF Grant herself is featured in today's Littleton Independent. Check it out
http://www.townonline.com/littleton/

Turning the tables on living overweight
By Betsy Levinson/ Staff Writer
Thursday, August 31, 2006

Lori Grant was a typical Boston-area single girl. She worked in an IT department of a high tech company in Burlington, and loved meeting up with friends after work and on weekends for a few beers and some buffalo wings before going on to a steak house.
"I was in my mid-20s, and I just overate like everyone else," said Grant. "Pizza, Chinese, Mexican, huge portions, I ate it all because it tasted good."
But Grant spends more time in her Littleton living room now, writing a book and working on a new business brochure for her many clients.
Grant lost over 100 lbs. a few years ago and has turned success into a business that offers one-on-one coaching for those wanting to lose weight. It doesn’t matter to Grant what the cause of the weight problem is, she can advise anyone on how to live in a healthier way because she has made the long, tough journey herself.
She lost nearly 70 lbs. at one point, and met her husband, although she immediately ballooned up again, gaining more than what she had lost.
"I was just the opposite of most brides," said Grant. "I gained weight before the wedding."
In a year and a half after the wedding, she put on 100 lbs. She loved cooking for her new husband, and the two enjoyed getting together with friends, never giving a thought to her weight.
"It was our hobby," she said. "We ate. I was actually feeling horrible, but I was very good at ignoring it."
Grant said she yo-yoed up and down for a few years until the day she applied for a visa so she and her husband could take an adventure vacation in Africa.
"I looked at my picture and it was an epiphany," she said. "I cried for three hours."
The next day she joined a gym, and signed up at Weight Watchers, and over the next year and a half, lost over 100 lbs. and regained her health.
When she reached her goal, the couple took a trip to Katmandu to climb and hike in the mountains.
She is now trim, and super-conscious of whatever she eats, scrupulously reading the nutritional information either online or on food labels. She eats a "ton of vegetables," and keeps an eye on portion sizes.
"I had to relearn how to cook healthfully," she said.
She became a Weight Watchers group leader, but still longed to counsel people on a more private basis. So with a friend from Weight Watchers, Grant opened The Coach Approach, and even though they are dissolving the company next month to pursue individual coaching, the two still agree on the basics of weight loss: watch what you eat, and exercise.
Grant said she doesn’t care what program a client follows as long as the underlying issues for overeating are addressed.
"The key is to do what works for you," she said.
She is thinking of calling the new coaching business "Always Your Weigh." In addition to one-on-one coaching, Grant will offer free workshops at various work sites geared toward "getting people to make changes."
"I go to where they are," she said, describing her weekly visits to a client’s work or home for a weigh-in and a discussion of the problem areas.
"It’s completely confidential," she said. "Clients get what they need." She will, for an extra fee, go to the supermarket, even make a home visit to restock the fridge and shelves with healthy foods. She is developing a tele-coaching service to provide phone sessions.
"I have changed my whole life," said Grant. "I love adventure travel now. I walk every day. I am planning to run the Boston Marathon next year. Everything is different now."
For more information, call 978-549-4279 or visit www.mycoachapproach.com.