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Transcript Begins:
EPISODE 212
INTRODUCTION]
00:00:09] GM: Welcome to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy, a production of flagandbanner.com. Through storytelling and conversational interviews, this weekly radio show and podcast, offers listeners an insider’s view into the commonalities of successful people and the ups and downs of risk-taking. Connect with Kerry through her candid, funny, informative and always encouraging weekly blog.
Now, it's time for Kerry McCoy to get all up in your business.
EPISODE]
00:00:34] KM: Thank you son, Gray. My guest today are Bridget Shinn and her daughter, Hilary Downey, who have been in the national spotlight for their successful weight loss program. Their stories are those of countless other women. Mom Bridget calls herself a chronic fad dieter, while daughter Hilary found herself overweight and tired after her first pregnancy. Online, Hilary looked for solutions and discovered the app Lose It for tracking her eating habits. Soon, Hilary was having noticeable success with little food sacrifices. Her mother took notice.
Over the next two years, Bridget lost a 100 pounds by following her daughter's advice and counting her daily macro nutrients. Though their struggle with weight loss is common, their methodology is different. So much so that they have been featured on the cover of Women's World, featured in Today's Show website, in People Magazine, on Access Hollywood, and soon to be on The Doctors.
Now as a certified nutritionist, daughter Hilary Downey shares her experience, knowledge and education with the world on her website, Balanced, by Hilary. It is my pleasure to welcome to the table the inspiring mother-daughter duo, Miss Bridget Shinn and her now famous daughter, Miss Hilary Downey. Hello, ladies.
00:01:54] HD: Hello, Kerry. Thank you for having us.
00:01:56] KM: We’re so excited to be here.
00:01:57] KM: You guys are killing it. I am fascinated by your success story, and not just your weight loss success. That's great. But your entrepreneurship. Mom, let's start with you. You said, “I had been up and down my entire life. If it's a Monday, I was on a new diet.” Talk to us about that.
00:02:17] BS: Every Monday, like clockwork, I started a new diet. By Wednesday or Thursday, I was done. I was off the rails and looking to the next Monday for what new diet I would start.
00:02:32] KM: I think a lot of people do that.
00:02:33] BS: Absolutely.
00:02:35] KM: Why was it not successful?
00:02:37] BS: Because the diets that I tried came from a point of deprivation. Everything was focused on what I could not have. I never focused on what I could have. When I saw Hilary losing weight and going out to dinner with us, we would have pizza, we would have Mexican food. She'd have the chips, the dip, a margarita, a glass of wine. I thought, okay,
inaudible 00:03:04]. Yes. What am I doing wrong? After a very serious health scare, then my doctor said, “You have got to lose weight this time and no more playing.” I turned to Hilary and said, “Help me. What can I do? You're doing it. Tell me what to do.”
00:03:22] KM: That's a role reversal, isn't it? Mom asking daughter for help. You had two surgeries.
00:03:29] BS: I did. I had two weight loss surgeries. I certainly did. Neither were successful. The first one was the lap band. I lost weight, but it was a forced bulimia. I ended up – the lap band eroded my stomach and I was septic. I had an emergency removal. Then, I gained all the weight back. Then I had the gastric sleeve, and I only lost 14 pounds. I decided that, no more surgeries. I was done.
00:04:05] KM: Didn't you have your part of your colon removed? Was that part the septic?
00:04:09] BS: No. Then I went on to a sedentary, unhealthy life. I tell, gosh, 10 years later, I guess, I started having diverticulitis episodes. I had five in two years. My doctor said, “We’re done. You have got to have the diseased part of your colon removed.” After it was over, he said, “You've got to make some lifestyle changes. You just have to. Losing weight is at the top of the list.” Suddenly, I'm watching her eating all the food and drinking wine and a margarita when we go out and I'm thinking, “Now, wait a minute. I want this. This, I can do.” Instead of excluding whole food groups, knowing I can never have another piece of chocolate. Every day at 10:00, I have chocolate. Two pieces of chocolate with a cup of coffee.
00:05:03] KM: Oh, that sounds lovely.
00:05:03] BS: Yeah, every day.
00:05:05] KM: Hilary, let's hear about your story. You had an aha moment.
00:05:08] HD: I did. After the birth of my first child, I had gained about 70 pounds in my pregnancy. t was one of those things I thought, it's just baby weight. It'll come right off. That did not happen. After I had him, I continued to gain weight. I guess, he was about six-weeks-old when my aha moment happened, that I was walking into the grocery store with him and his little baby carrier. I had picked the closest spot to the front of the grocery store, walked in, and I was winded. I mean, so winded that I had to sit down on a bench, because I just could not even keep moving.
I thought, this is no way to live. I'm 23-years-old, and he's going to be up and running one day, and I'm going to have to chase him. I'm going to have to keep up with him. It was definitely my aha moment that I needed to get the weight off, and I needed to have better energy and feel better in my body.
00:06:12] KM: You had had enough.
00:06:13] HD: Absolutely.
00:06:15] KM: What happened next?
00:06:16] HD: I went immediately to work. I did not wait another day. I went home that day. I just started searching through. I was in a support group for moms that were really looking to get healthy. In that group, there's so many different women. There was thousands of women who were sharing their methodologies. All of them were fad diets, for the most part. Like mom was talking about, things where you had to deprive yourself and give everything up. I was feeling pretty defeated thinking, is this really the only way that I'm going to be able to lose weight and get healthy is giving up all these things? I love food. I'm a foodie. I thought, there's just no way I can do that.
Somebody just happened to mention, macros, and that you could count your macros and eat anything you wanted, so long as you stayed within your macros. That was it. I went on a research journey that day and learned everything I could and started logging my food in the Lost It app. That was it. That was the beginning. Never looked back.
00:07:24] KM: What was your favorite part about that suggestion, the fact that you could eat anything you wanted?
00:07:28] HD: Absolutely. Being a foodie, I love going out to eat. I love cooking. It's my love language for people. I love holidays. I love food, period. It's such a source of enjoyment in my life that I knew I wasn't willing to go on a diet, where I couldn't have pizza, or Mexican food, or a glass of wine. With macro counting, all of that is on the table. All foods fit in.
00:07:58] KM: Did you think about your mother at all?
00:08:01] HD: Absolutely. She was the biggest source of motivation for me to not get caught up in that fad diet cycle, of extreme restriction and fighting against my body. My weight loss stemmed from a place of love. I loved myself enough that I wanted to feel good in my body. I didn't want to be at battle, and at war with dieting and my body. With this approach, I just felt there was such a sense of love for yourself. I wanted to be an example for my son and show him that you could have a healthy relationship with food.
00:08:43] KM: I love this paragraph under your story. On your website, it says, “We didn't pursue weight loss, because we didn't love ourselves. We made changes, because we did love
ourselves. We wanted to take care of the one body we are given and what says self-love more than that? Make no mistake about it, we've always been worthy. Now, we're just strong, healthy and confident, too. Low energy, serious health issues and poor quality of life spurred changes in us. Sure, we lost weight, but we gained so much more.” Who wrote that? Both of you.
00:09:23] HD: Yeah. I was going to say, it sounds like something I wrote. Then mom ended up editing for me.
00:09:28] BS: It’s that English teacher thing.
00:09:28] KM: That is good. I never hear anybody talked about weight loss as anything other than deprivation, and I don't love myself. This is actually, I do love myself.
00:09:40] HD: Absolutely.
00:09:41] KM: All right, this is a great place to take a break. When we come back, we'll continue our conversation with the dynamic mother-daughter weight loss influencers, Bridget Shinn and Hilary Downey of Balanced by Hilary, a 28-day macro counting challenge that will change your life and reset the way you think about food. Still to come. The details on macronutrients and the 28-day challenge, how to sign up and what to expect and my favorite, the business of weight loss. How did Hilary grow her online presence? More to come after the break.
00:10:12] GM: You're listening to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy, a production of flagandbanner.com. Over 40 years ago, with only $400, Kerry founded Arkansas Flag and Banner. During the last four decades, the business has grown and changed, along with Kerry's experience and leadership knowledge. In 1995, she embraced the Internet and rebranded her company as simply flagandbanner.com. In 2004, she became an early blogger. Since then, she has founded the non-profit Friends of Dreamland Ballroom, began publishing her magazine, Brave. In 2016, branched out into this very radio show, YouTube channel and podcast.
In 2020, Kerry McCoy EnteIrprises acquired ourcornermarket.com, an online company specializing in American made plaques, signage and memorials for over 20 years. In 2021,
opened a satellite office in Miami, Florida. Telling American made stories, selling American made flags, the flagandbanner.com. Back to you, Kerry.
00:11:16] You're listening to Up in Your Business with me, Kerry McCoy. I'm speaking today with weight loss influencers, Bridget Shinn and nutritionist, Hilary Downey, who are teaching people how to ditch the fad dieting and lose weight for good on their website, Balanced by Hilary. Okay, before the break, we talked about both of these ladies, mom and daughter, Bridget, and Hilary, how they had their aha moment, where I'm going to change my life, how they went online. Hilary first, got into mother's group, learned about counting macros and thought, “I can do this. This is not a life of deprivation.” This is a life of love. Now, we're going to talk about what you did first. Started logging your food. How did you begin?
00:11:59] HD: I downloaded the Lose It app. It gives you a recommendation for calories and macros. I ended up using an online calculator that calculated mine. Honestly, this is where a lot of people end up getting a professional opinion. Having a professional like me calculate their macros. I did it myself. I already loved science. For me, it was fun to use the formula, plug in all the numbers. Once you have your macro numbers, you just start logging your food, and that's really it.
00:12:37] KM: How do you get a macro number? Is that funny?
00:12:42] HD: Sometimes we talk about it so much that then I forget. Okay. In order to get your macros, they are individualized to you. Every person is going to have different numbers. What it's really based off of is it's a professional formula that you use and that professionals are trained to calculate. What it does is it looks at your anthropometric measurements, so your height, your weight, it looks at your age. It also looks at your lifestyle. Are you active? Are you sitting all day for your job, or are you heavy labor, moving around? Then it accounts for your exercise, and how often you are moving your body.
Basically, what you're doing is you are taking the amount of calories that you need to be eating in order to maintain your weight. Then you subtract a little bit and you move into a calorie deficit, which is how we lose weight.
00:13:43] KM: That is so complex. All right. Break it down a little bit. What are macro nutrients, first of all?
00:13:50] HD: For macronutrients, what you're looking at is protein, fat, and carbs. All three.
00:13:55] BS: That's it.
00:13:55] HD: Yeah, that's it. All three of these things –
00:13:57] KM: No calories.
00:13:59] HD: Well, all three of those things add up to your calorie amount. If you look at a food label, you'll see there's the fat listed, there's the carbs listed, and there's the protein. If you do a little math, all of those numbers add up to the amount of calories that you see at the top of that food. When you're counting your macronutrients, what you're doing is you're adding all of the numbers up in the macronutrients of the food that you're eating throughout the day, and you're trying to hit specific targets.
When you log your food, you see all of this. In the Lose It app, what you have is you're logging your food, and it shows you your total for the day, how much protein you've eaten, for example. You can see, “Oh, I've eaten 80 grams of protein, but my goal is a 100 grams of protein. I need 20 grams more.” It's a little bit of a puzzle that you're going on that you're trying to wiggle around your food options to hit that number.
00:14:50] KM: You can’t figure out your own amount you need? You need some nutritionist to figure it out for you, or a personal trainer, or somebody?
00:14:56] HD: Only nutritionists are qualified to in this. There are online calculators out there. That's what I was saying. That's what I used, that are – it's a computer doing it for you. Or you can have a professional calculate them for you. There's a lot of resources out there on how to do it yourself, which is how I did mine when I started. If you're looking for something more accurate, having a professional calculate it is the way to go.
00:15:22] KM: When I was getting ready for the show, I heard you talk. I learned about body types. You hit on it just then. I learned about the ectomorphs and the endomorphs and the mesomorphs. For people that don't know, the ectomorphs are the skinny, leans, sinewy people and the endomorphs are more squatty and round and the mesomorphs, which I could never be are athletes. They can put on muscle. They can put on fat. They're really great. I don't care how much I worked out. I could never put on muscle. What are you?
00:15:55] HD: I don't know. I will tell you, I don't subscribe to the body type thing. I know. We get a lot of questions about this, actually, and it's not something that I subscribe to. Because there is there is hard science about how we put on muscle and how we lose body fat. So long as you follow those paths, no matter what your body type is, it might be harder for someone to put on muscle mass. Typically, it's the same route that you're going to take no matter what. To me, that just complicates things.
00:16:28] KM: You can't use that as an excuse.
00:16:32] BS: No excuses around here.
00:16:35] KM: Well, I don't know. I guess, I'm going to have to work out more.
00:16:37] GM: I was about to say, no excuses anymore, mom.
00:16:40] HD: Genetics come into play. It's not like, that's not – it's not completely unfounded. I guess, what I would say is just that, to me, it complicates things. Whereas, really, what you need to be focused on is just making sure that you're being consistent.
00:16:57] KM: List again what you take into consideration when you're –
00:17:01] HD: Anthropometric measurements. Your height, your weight, your age, and your activity level.
00:17:07] KM: Do you work at a desk?
00:17:08] HD: Right. Then you add on to that your exercise routine and habits, but also, we work with women. We also are looking at, are they nursing? That's going to add more calories. Different things, too. I take it a step further. I'm very thorough with mine. I asked you if you know how many calories you've been eating, and that's going to affect your numbers. Again, the online calculators do a overview. Whereas, when you have a professional look at these things, you're going to get more accurate numbers.
00:17:41] KM: All right, so what is the difference? How long before you start to see the results? You love food, and you still lost weight. How long was it before you begin to really see – and you're saying, you didn't necessarily count calories. Because if you count the macros, it counts calories for you.
00:18:05] HD: Exactly. What I like to explain to people is if you can count calories, you can count macros. It's just an extension. Just a little extension. Instead of just focusing on your calories, now you're going to focus on how your calories are made up.
00:18:17] KM: What kind of calories you're consuming.
00:18:19] HD: Exactly. Exactly. Exactly. It makes a difference. Weight loss protein is very important. You can be eating a certain amount of calories, but you're filling it up with carbs, and fats, which is what most women do. That's just our Western diet. Protein is absolutely crucial for weight loss success. You're taking it a step further, really enhancing your results by counting your macros.
00:18:45] KM: How long before you start seeing results?
00:18:46] HD: Definitely, it took me a couple of weeks to really see the changes. I would say, probably two or three weeks before. I was weighing myself daily on a scale, because I wanted to – because I had done my calculation myself, I wanted to gauge my progress and see the changes happening. Overall, weight loss is not a straight line. It took some time, I would say, about two weeks before I really started to see the changes and see the scale move in a downward trend.
00:19:19] KM: Then, at what pace did it go after that?
00:19:21] HD: I lost about 1 to 2 pounds a week, which is good, healthy, sustainable weight loss.
00:19:26] KM: Mom, how long – Bridget, how long before you started going, “Okay, she's onto something”?
00:19:32] BS: Oh, immediately. When I saw her body changing and she was healthy and she had energy, she started working out, I thought, wow. I mean, whatever she's doing, it's working.
00:19:47] KM: Bridget, had you ever worked out before? I mean, Hilary had you ever worked out before?
00:19:51] HD: I was a cheerleader growing up, but in my adult life, absolutely not. I was sedentary. I was actually prior to getting pregnant, a chain smoker, who –
00:20:01] KM: What?
00:20:01] HD: Yes, absolutely. Lived on fast food and Coca-Cola and energy drinks.
00:20:09] KM: Oh, sounds like a good life.
00:20:12] GM: Live fast, die young.
00:20:14] BS: Exactly. We were dying quickly.
00:20:18] HD: Yeah. I had the college kid diet. My pregnancy is what definitely obviously pulled me out of those habits. No, I didn't exercise. I didn't have any exercise knowledge.
00:20:28] KM: Bridget, how did you start?
00:20:30] BS: Well, after I was released from the hospital, I was on a special diet that my doctor had given me, to ease myself back into eating.
00:20:40] KM: This is after a part of your colon had been removed, right?
00:20:42] BS: Mm-hmm. Then when he said, “You're released. You can resume a normal diet.” Well, I knew I needed to lose weight. Of course, I went back to my 1,200 calorie a day diet.
00:20:57] KM: Deprivation diet.
00:20:58] BS: Oh, absolutely. Hilary said, “Mom.” Also, because he had advised that I had to start working out, exercising, some kind of exercise. Well, 1,200 calories and exercise don't go together. That's when I asked Hilary, “Can you please help me? I’m lost.” She calculated my macros, and I joined a gym. First, we just would walk. She would walk with me. Then I joined a gym. Started strength training, but it was very –
00:21:40] KM: Lightweight.
00:21:40] BS: Very lightweight. Mostly, it was flexibility and motion, because I had none.
00:21:46] KM: Well, anything's better than nothing. I mean, that's the thing that people don't understand. If you're doing nothing, anything is better.
00:21:52] BS: Right. Exactly. Then, I started Zumba and fell in love with Zumba and became a certified Zumba instructor.
00:22:00] KM: What?
00:22:00] BS: Yes.
00:22:01] KM: At what age?
00:22:02] BS: 62.
00:22:05] KM: That's hard.
00:22:06] BS: I love it. I mean, I love to dance. This was dancing and burning calories. Then, I started doing 5Ks. Then, I did one 10K, and that was enough. It was a lot.
00:22:24] KM: Are you talking about running? Are you talking about running?
00:22:25] BS: No, I power walk. Power walk. Now I do spin. My goal this year is to become a certified spin instructor.
00:22:36] KM: Very wonderful. Happy new year for all of that. How about it? Hilary, when did you decide that you wanted to become a nutritionist and go back to school? Had you been to school already?
00:22:46] HD: I had. I was one semester away from completing my psychology degree. Whenever I got pregnant, decided to stop right there at the very end, raise my kids and I knew I'd go back and finish. When I decided, I had built up this little social media following had come –
00:23:09] KM: About your weight loss?
00:23:09] HD: Yeah, from sharing my journey online, in the same Facebook group that I got my information from when I started. It was a support group, so people would share their daily inspiration and posts, ask questions, look for support. That was such a crucial part of my journey. I had people watching me as I was sharing, saying, “What are you doing? What are you doing?” I would share. I would tell them about macronutrients. a lot of them were fad dieters. I was really trying to bring them over to the good life.
I can still remember to this day, I always remind her, the first person that messaged me and said, “Can I hire you? Can you help me?” It was in that moment that I was like, “Oh, my gosh.” I love sharing this. I've been sharing it for a couple years. I guess, two years at that point. I thought, I can make a business out of this. This can be the rest of my life. I was following so many people who did that, who had a business, doing what I saw myself doing. I realized, I did want to be a professional.
There was a lot of nutrition certifications, things you could do online. I really pride myself on being an expert at something, and I decided to go back to school, finish the psychology degree and tack on a nutrition degree as well.
00:24:34] KM: Those go really well together.
00:24:36] HD: They do. So perfect. I tell people all the time, in my business and my coaching, I use my psychology degree far more than I use my nutrition degree, because when it comes to behavior change, which was always my interest in psychology, when it comes to behavior change, that's the tough part for so many people is building habits, breaking habits.
00:25:01] KM: Talk about listening to life and going where life leads you. Y'all made some tough decisions and got out of your comfort zone. You did good. This a great place to take a break. When we come back, we'll continue our conversation with the dynamic mother-daughter weight loss influencers, Bridget Shinn and Hilary Downey of Balanced by Hilary, a 28-day macro challenge that will change your life and reset the way you think about food. Still to come, paying it forward, founding Balanced by Hilary, her weight loss and support website, details on the 28-day macro counting challenge, how to sign up, what to expect and their free support. We'll be right back.
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00:26:27] KM: You're listening to Up in Your Business with me, Kerry McCoy. I'm speaking today with weight loss influencers, Bridget Shinn and nutritionist, Hilary Downey, who are teaching people how to ditch the fad dieting and lose weight for good on their website, Balanced by Hilary.
Before the break, we talked about their journey, how they got here. Then, we talked a little bit about macronutrients and what they are and how it's digging deeper into counting your calories. It's not just about counting calories. It's about what kind of calories you're counting. Now, we're going to talk about her online business, Balanced by Hilary. What's the name of the website?
00:27:04] HD: The website is hilarybalancedlifestyle.com. If you're looking for me on social media, Balanced by Hilary.
00:27:11] KM: You've got a Twitter account. You got an Instagram.
00:27:15] HD: And a Facebook page.
00:27:17] KM: And a Facebook page. Your home page says, “Lose weight eating the foods you love.” Then it bought these items, which I think speak to a lot of us. Sustainable weight loss for women. I guess, no man, since there's balanced babes. I don’t guess you have balanced –
00:27:34] BS: No men allowed.
00:27:35] KM: No men allowed.
00:27:35] GM: Balanced bros.
00:27:36] KM: Balanced bros.
00:27:38] BS: Somebody wants to do a spinoff.
00:27:39] GM: When you’re ready to expand. Yeah.
00:27:40] KM: Gray wants to take that one on.
00:27:41] GM: No, no. No, no.
00:27:43] KM: Sustainable weight loss for women. Learn to count your macros. Group coaching. Is it 21-day, or 28-day?
00:27:49] HD: It is 28-day. We just relaunched as 28-days.
00:27:55] KM: It's a macro challenge, group coaching, and then free support in the balanced babes community. I love how everything says babes on it in there. What is balanced babes?
00:28:07] HD: Balanced babes, it's really our brand. We wanted to create a community. I mean that's what it came down to. That was so important for my journey to have support and other women going through it, that we just wanted to create a community. We have this free online community. It's a Facebook group. Then also, if you follow me on Instagram, I give a lot away, a lot of good free resources and information. That's really what the Balanced babes community is. It's our free Facebook group.
00:28:41] KM: It says on your website, about this 28-day challenge. Whether you've tried counting macros on your own and been unsuccessful, or you don't even know what a macro is, this challenge will teach you exactly what you need to know to implement macro counting to reach your weight loss goals. We start you off with a personal macro count, and then take you step by step through how to count your macros with an abundance of resources to help you lose weight for the long-term. I'm a person who has heard about you have visited your website. Now what do I do first?
00:29:17] HD: If you want to sign up for the 28-day macro challenge, you can sign up on the website. What you will get is I will calculate your personal macros after you fill out a little questionnaire, giving me the information. Then, we actually have our own app. You have access to our app when you join the challenge, and everything is hosted in there. We walk you through step by step. We have a proven framework for how to learn how to count macros, because it can be overwhelming. It's a lot of information. We break it down and we make it simplified, and we walk you through in the order that you need to go in.
Really focusing on laying the foundation first, how to log your food, how to focus on your calories. Then, we really dig in in the second week with the macronutrients, and we focus on one macro at a time, protein first, because it's the most important. then we hit carbs and fats.
00:30:19] KM: The coaching questionnaire, is it personal? Or actually, there's a questionnaire. You see, when you first go that you calculate, that’s a questionnaire and you fill out for your macros. Is that the same as the coaching questionnaire? Or is that a different questionnaire?
00:30:32] HD: The questionnaire you fill out for the challenge is, so that you can get your personalized macros.
00:30:38] KM: Is it very personal? I mean, if I went on there and started to do it, would I be like, “No, I'm not telling you that?”
00:30:43] HD: No, no. It's the things that I was saying, your height, your weight. Just the information I need to calculate your calories.
00:30:49] KM: About how many questions?
00:30:52] HD: Probably six or seven?
00:30:53] KM: Oh, that's nothing.
00:30:55] HD: Oh, yeah. No. It's not an in depth – it's just what I need to know in order to give you an accurate calorie count.
00:31:04] KM: You do it.
00:31:06] HD: Yes. I did about 80 yesterday. I’m not going to lie.
00:31:09] KM: How many?
00:31:10] HD: 80.
00:31:11] KM: You had 80 people sign up yesterday?
00:31:14] HD: I had 80 to do, because we had, yeah, we had a big –
00:31:18] BS: This is our biggest group.
00:31:19] HD: This is our biggest group yet. January's always our biggest group, as you can imagine. This is numbers we have not –
00:31:26] KM: Tell our listeners what a group is.
00:31:29] HD: You join, each month we run one. If you join, you're part of the January babes group. That's just a group of women from all over the world that come into the group that that's going to be your little community and support system, you're going through that journey together for 28 days. We open it, and then we close it when it starts, and then we open up a new one for the next month. We've got one every single month.
00:31:54] KM: I guess, you're trying to replicate what happened to you when you were in that moms’ group, and you had all that support and it helped you. Is that where the idea came from?
00:32:01] HD: Absolutely. It's so crucial to have that support system and have – It's motivating to see other people's success and have that.
00:32:11] KM: I've gone to your website. I've heard this interview. I've gone to your website. I’ve joined the 28-day. I filled out my questionnaire. I've joined the January babes group. Now what?
00:32:24] HD: Now, you're going to download our app. In the app, you've got several different things. You've got a forum, and that's where you post. It's like a Facebook feed, where you're sharing and asking questions. We walk you through day by day. There's a dedicated section in the app. That's a group feed that are the posts that walk you through the macro counting journey. Every day, there's at least one post that literally gives you directions and tells
you where to go. We have a portal of resources already built, a carb guide, a how to eat out guide. We give you those resources right upfront, and then we're walking through day by day, those 28 days.
00:33:07] KM: What if everybody's macros are different?
00:33:09] HD: Everybody's macros are different. They've all got the same goal to lose weight. Everybody's macro numbers are different, but that's okay. I mean, you don't. I don't need to know what your macros are in order for you to count macros. I don't need to know what mom's macros are. We're all still doing the same thing. We're all still counting our macros. Our numbers are just different.
00:33:28] KM: It's not a recipe of what to eat that day. It’s not tell me what to eat.
00:33:32] HD: No meal plan. No meal plan.
00:33:32] KM: No meal plan.
00:33:33] HD: We do have sample meal plans for different calorie ranges, if you like to look at something like that. We are very anti give a meal plan, because a meal plan doesn't teach you anything. It's not sustainable. Because you follow it, and then what? Then what? What have you learned from that? The goal is to teach you how to eat the foods that you love. Everyone's different. Mom’s are different, single, so you get –
00:33:58] KM: What do you get in that first Facebook thing? It's not a meal plan. Everybody's is different from each other. How can one blast go out a day that everybody can relate to?
00:34:08] HD: It gives you the resources. We give you all of the education in little bite-sized pieces. We have guides and videos and trainings that show you how to hit your protein goal, or how to use a food scale to weigh and measure your food.
00:34:25] KM: It's a class.
00:34:26] HD: It is a class. That's it.
00:34:28] KM: That's what it is. Okay. I know you had to say it twice for me to get it, but that’s okay. You actually are getting a class. Every day, you're getting a new project to do and you go in there and you see how you relate to that project and what part of that project fits you.
00:34:41] HD: Absolutely. It's really broken down by week. In week one, you're focused on the first step of our framework, which is logging your food and staying within your calories. Then the next week, we turn it up a notch. Now that you've logged a food, and you've learned how to stay within your calories, now you're going to focus on hitting your protein goal. There's resources and trends trainings directly related to hey, now we're focusing on protein. Here are tips and information about what the protein foods are, and how to hit your protein goal.
00:35:10] KM: This is not real expensive, is it?
00:35:13] HD: It's $99 for the 28 days.
00:35:17] KM: I mean, you could eat that in one meal out.
00:35:18] BS: Oh, absolutely. It's a steal.
00:35:22] KM: It's very affordable. I don't even need to lose weight, but I'm just curious. Are there people going on there that just want to be healthy?
00:35:31] HD: Absolutely. We have a lot of women who are just looking for body composition change. Maybe they're at their goal weight, but they want to maybe have more of a toned look, so a little more muscle mass with maybe a little less body fat. Then a lot of people, yes, are just there to learn how to have a balanced diet.
00:35:49] KM: And get energy. If I was to go on there, mine would probably be about energy.
00:35:55] HD: That's one of the biggest feedbacks we get is that even if people don't see astronomical results, the energy increase that they had alone was worth it.
00:36:04] KM: What happens after 28 days?
00:36:06] HD: After 28 days, we have a monthly membership right there within the app. You can move into our monthly membership. That is really fun. We run –
00:36:17] KM: More fun than that?
00:36:20] HD: It's a subscription-based. It's that after care, after you've done the challenge, you've learned all of the things, you can move into monthly membership and we run challengers, little challenges within there. We've got monthly coaching call, Q&A call. We bust out new resources every month in there.
00:36:40] BS: We have workouts.
00:36:41] HD: We do. We’ll do live workouts in there. Yeah.
00:36:45] KM: Well, I couldn't quite put all that together on your website. I could see the 28-day challenge. Then I could see all these extra things. You have goals, meal trackers, recipes, weekly newsletters. Then there's something called the coaching questionnaire.
00:37:00] HD: Yes. At this time, we're not doing this. I have actually stepped away from one-on-one coaching to give all of my focus to this group covering.
00:37:11] KM: That was my question today. How do you do that? You got too many people now.
00:37:16] HD: Yeah. I realized, I want to make an impact. I mean, that's my goal. I want to change the way that people diet. When I'm giving so much energy to 1 person, I love one-on-one coaching, because it's so rewarding. You have to give a lot of energy and you can only impact one person at a time. With the group setting, I can reach hundreds and thousands of women with the same amount of time.
00:37:44] KM: That sounds like a lot of maintenance. Who takes care of your website?
00:37:47] HD: Well, I do the website. I don't do as much on the website. I have app developers that I work with that help me run my app.
00:37:53] KM: Who posts all the stuff you do?
00:37:54] BS: I do.
00:37:55] KM: When you're talking about the fun stuff, the ongoing, that's you?
00:38:00] HD: The 28-day is –
00:38:02] BS: Set in stone.
00:38:03] HD: It's set in stone.
00:38:03] KM: You’re done with that.
00:38:04] HD: This time, no matter how many – we have a lot of people that repeat it, so we have a lot of people that don't necessarily get it all down the first time, so they do it a second time. That one is set in stone we make little tweaks and improvements to it always. With the monthly membership, yes, it's a new topic every single month. This month, we're focused on mindful eating, and so there's new content being built around that each month.
00:38:31] KM: Lose It Do you still use your Lose It app?
00:38:34] BS: Every day. Every single day.
00:38:36] KM: Are they paying you for all this?
00:38:38] HD: We do affiliate with Lose It. Yeah, that's a brand that we affiliate with. I don’t get paid.
00:38:46] KM: Do you have very many – You don't get paid?
00:38:48] HD: I don’t get paid.
00:38:49] KM: Well, you should talk –
00:38:49] BS: But they present opportunities for us.
00:38:51] HD: You go and pay it. They are so amazing, they plug for us at every chance they get. That's how we got our People Magazine article. Yeah.
00:39:02] KM: Do you have a link on your website to Lose It, says use this?
00:39:05] HD: I do. I have, where you can use my code and do seven days for free. There's a link on my website to get that sign up.
00:39:14] KM: Oh, that's good. If I do the 28-day challenge, I've got to use Lose It, don’t I?
00:39:17] HD: You don't have to. All of our content is built around Lose It, just as far as tutorials and showing you how to log your food. We have so many women use My Fitness Pal, or some other food logging app.
00:39:30] KM: I couldn't log it myself with a pen and paper.
00:39:32] BS: You could. It would be a lot of work.
00:39:36] KM: All right, this is a great place to take a break. When we come back, we'll continue our conversation with the mother-daughter weight loss influencers, Bridget Shinn and Hilary Downey of Balanced by Hilary, a 28-day macro counting challenge that will change your life and reset the way you think about food. Still to come, what she thinks is going to be the future of Balanced by Hilary. We'll be back after the break.
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00:40:53] KM: You're listening to Up in Your Business with me, Kerry McCoy. I'm speaking today with weight loss influencer, Bridget Shinn, and nutritionist, Hilary Downey, who are teaching people how to ditch the fad dieting and lose weight for good on their website, Balanced by Hilary.
Before the breaks, we talked about the same issues that every woman out there has. We talked about those aha moments when you think, I've got to do something. I've got to get healthy. Then we talked about how the website, Balanced by Hilary, came about. Then we talked about the processes. If you missed hearing the processes about counting macros, about her class, her 28-day class, she calls it a challenge. I call it a class. Then, which I think I'm going to try just for the curiosity, because I'm curious about everything, then you should go back and listen to it, or check out her website. What's the name of your website again?
00:41:48] HD: It's hilarybalancedlifestyle.com.
00:41:51] KM: I said earlier that I love this paragraph, and I'm going to read it again, just because I think it's worth reading. We didn't pursue weight loss, because we didn't love ourselves. We made changes, because we did love ourselves. We wanted to take care of the one body we are given, and what says self-love more than that? Make no mistake about it, we've always been worthy. Now, we're just strong, healthy and confident, too. Low energy, serious health issues and poor quality of life spurred changes in us. Sure, we lost weight, but we gained so much more. You love what you're doing.
00:42:23] BS: Absolutely. It’s a dream job.
00:42:25] HD: It shows in everything you do. I think, you said this is for every woman of every age, of everybody type.
00:42:33] BS: Absolutely.
00:42:33] HD: We have an 18-year-old and an 84-year-old in this January group.
00:42:36] BS: Yes. We do.
00:42:38] KM: Hilary, a lot of people are actually using apps to help them be successful. It made me not just weight loss, but other things who would like to share the good news of how they found an app online that helps them, but they're not ending up partners with them, like you did with Lose It. How did Lose It find out that you were using their app successfully?
00:43:00] HD: Whenever one of my followers would ask me what app I used to track my food? I would answer that question on social media. I would be sure and tag the Lose It account and just consistently did that over time.
00:43:15] KM: You think Lose It was noticing. They were being tagged by you. Had you already owned your website by then?
00:43:22] HD: Yes, I had.
00:43:23] KM: You already had a following on Facebook. Are you talking about tagging them on Facebook?
00:43:28] HD: It was on Instagram.
00:43:29] KM: You ended up with all these followers on Instagram, because you got into this mother's group that ended up being successful, and all these people in this mother's group ended up talking about it. You ended up sharing it on Instagram, and then you ended up tagging Lose It and it just snowballed.
00:43:44] HD: That's correct.
00:43:45] KM: Well, I appreciate you telling us how you did it, because I think there's a lot of people out there that want to share the good news of something that they're doing, and they're not really sure how to get noticed, or how to be found out about. I think, the future of a lot of small entrepreneurs is using the internet and networking and using it wisely. You are doing such a great job with what you've done. I really wish you all the luck in the world.
00:44:09] HD: Yes, thank you so much. Good Morning America called us, so we'll be on Good Morning America next week.
00:44:14] KM: Are you kidding me?
00:44:16] HD: I'm not kidding.
00:44:17] KM: Hilary, this whole thing has blown up. It's all because you were successful with the Lose It app. You were sharing your good news on Instagram. You were tagging Lose It. They found out about it. They ended up sharing the good news with their media marketing group. Now you're on all kinds of platforms.
00:44:36] HD: Absolutely. That's exactly right.
00:44:38] KM: Is there anything that we have not talked about that you think this really needs to be said?
00:44:45] HD: I do want to add that if you're not quite ready to join the 28-day macro challenge, maybe the group setting is not for you, but you want a professional to calculate your numbers, I do offer a macro count with our ultimate that resource bundle. What I'll do is you'll fill out your macro count questionnaire, I will give you your personal numbers, and then you get eight of our best resources. That has our macro guides, our protein, carb and fat guides, you get video tutorials. It's basically all of the resources, without the support group and the live coaching calls and things like that. That's nice for people who are self-motivated and want to learn and teach themselves, but aren't necessarily looking for the 28-day challenge, or the group setting.
00:45:33] KM: What's that one called?
00:45:35] HD: That is the macro count bundle.
00:45:38] KM: Where is that on your website? You think it's in a drop down across the top?
00:45:42] HD: Yes.
00:45:42] KM: It's definitely one of those drop downs across the top menu. It's the macro count bundle. I think that's really more what I would like, because I'm a self-motivated person.
00:45:49] HD: Yes, absolutely. A lot of people go that route. They want to know that their numbers are accurate.
00:45:54] KM: How much is that?
00:45:56] HD: That is $30.
00:45:57] KM: Your mom, right before we went on, her alarm went off and asked her, “What are you doing?” She said, “That's when I make a wish every day.”
00:46:05] BS: Or I'm thankful for something. Yeah. Every day. It's to put out and attract good. To put out good and attract good. Some days, I'm grateful. Some days, there's something I'm asking for. I have a wish.
00:46:19] KM: Do you feel this website, this –
00:46:23] BS: What's going on now is more than I ever imagined.
00:46:28] KM: I always tell people to dream big. Because you never know.
00:46:31] BS: It's true.
00:46:34] KM: What's your next dream, Hilary?
00:46:36] HD: I think, the next dream for me is to continue to do press, honestly. It occurred to me about this time last year that there are a 1,000,001 weight loss companies out there. We have something special, because we are a walking testimony of our program. We truly care about the women that come into our community. I think that that shows, and I hope that that is reflected in our business.
00:47:07] KM: How big is the weight loss industry? It must be huge.
00:47:11] HD: It’s so big. It’s booming right now with the New Year’s.
00:47:14] KM: When you dream now, Bridget, you can dream in the billions maybe now.
00:47:19] BS: Yes. I'd also like to be in a Hallmark movie, but that’s –
00:47:22] KM: Is that true?
00:47:23] BS: Yeah, that's very true. Oh, yes. Our big joke is, what's mom's dream? To be in a Hallmark movie. Just an extra.
00:47:30] HD: If anybody out there sees this.
00:47:32] BS: Yes, please. Consider me. I have a little acting experience.
00:47:35] KM: That was my next question.
00:47:37] BS: It was in high school, but it counts.
00:47:41] KM: Before we go, I want to tell our listeners that your son works for me, and that that's how I know you and that your son is on the spectrum. I'm not sure how to say it.
00:47:50] BS: Yes, he is. He’s on the spectrum.
00:47:51] KM: Of autism. He's just a pleasure, a joy to be around. During the break, you told me a story about him, about how he had lost his job and came to work at Arkansas Flag
and Banner, and I hired him. Like I said, we really enjoy him. He does really good job. He's just got a great attitude. I think, the story you told me that I want you to retell to our listeners speaks again, to you and your daughter's life. Tell the story of how Austin came to be at Flag and Banner.
00:48:27] BS: Yes. He had lost his job and was devastated, because he had been with that company for a while. I advised him to sit down and script the job that he wanted, and speak and write as though he already had it. It was his job.
00:48:44] KM: You said, for the law of attraction.
00:48:46] BS: Yes, it's for the law of attraction. Then, I also told him to pick an affirmation, spoken as I am working at my dream job. Write it 33 times for three days.
00:49:00] KM: Why 33 times for three days?
00:49:02] BS: That's just again, like 11/11. there are just certain numbers. You could do 55 times for five days, but boy, your hand gets really tired. That one. Then it gets tired. I moved to 33 times for three days. Austin did. Here you are. You came into his life, and so I can't thank you enough.
00:49:24] KM: You're welcome. We'd love working with him. Why are you so faith-filled?
00:49:29] BS: I don't know. I just did, because it's worked for me. I read a law of attraction book and started embracing some of the techniques, and it's worked. I wrote a cookbook. I've sold many, many of those cookbooks, and it’s just –
00:49:48] KM: What’s the name of your cookbook?
00:49:49] BS: Grab and Go Breakfast. It's just been little things. I speak it and it happens. Yes.
00:49:59] KM: Well, did you speak it for Hilary?
00:50:00] BS: Yes. She spoke it for herself.
00:50:01] HD: I did. I followed the same philosophy that yeah, that you can manifest the body, the life, the job, the relationship. I have seen it come through every single time at 100%, that everything I scripted, manifested has come true.
00:50:19] KM: I love that.
00:50:19] HD: You affirm it and it’ll happen.
00:50:21] KM: Hear that, people? Every time when those negative thoughts comes into your head, push it away. Push it away. Put it on a shelf.
00:50:28] BS: Replace it with three positive thoughts.
00:50:31] KM: Three positive thoughts. I enjoyed visiting with y'all so much.
00:50:34] BS: Thank you so much.
00:50:36] KM: You can tell that all of this is coming from your heart. It is just wonderful. I'm just honored to meet both y'all. I can't wait to follow you and your progress. I can't wait to take – I'm going to try the macro count bundle, because I'm interested in learning about counting macros. I think that's really interesting. We obviously have been doing it wrong for a long time, because I don't care. There are a million weight loss businesses out there. They're obviously not doing very good.
00:51:03] BS: That's why there's a million.
00:51:06] KM: I have a gift for you.
00:51:07] GM: One for each of them.
00:51:09] KM: All right.
00:51:10] BS: I love it.
00:51:10] KM: Is that a US, Arkansas and Texas flag?
00:51:12] GM: That’s correct.
00:51:13] HD: It’s cute.
00:51:13] KM: Who’s from Texas?
00:51:15] BS: Me.
00:51:16] KM: You are.
00:51:16] BS: I am.
00:51:17] GM: I have an understanding that you have a long history in Texas.
00:51:20] BS: I have a very long history in Texas. Thank you so much.
00:51:23] KM: There is your base. Okay. For our listeners, it's a desk set.
00:51:27] BS: I love this. Thank you.
00:51:28] KM: You're welcome. It's a desk set with a US flag and Arkansas flag and a Texas flag.
00:51:34] GM: Oh, see. She knows how to do it, too. US in the middle. Yeah.
00:51:39] KM: Good job. Good job Up in Your Business staff of getting them the perfect gift. Thank you all very much for coming and I’ve enjoyed it.
00:51:46] BS: Thank you for having us.
00:51:48] KM: You're welcome. In closing to our listeners, thank you for spending time with us. We hope you've heard or learned something that's been inspiring, or enlightening, and that it, whatever it is, will help you up your business, your independence or your life and help you lose some weight. I'm Kerry McCoy and I'll see you next time on Up in Your Business. Until then, be brave and keep it up.
END OF EPISODE]
00:52:08] GM: You've been listening to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy. For links to resources you heard discussed on today's show, go to flagandbanner.com, select Radio Show and choose today's guest. If you'd like to sponsor this show, or any show, email me, Gray. That's gray@flagandbanner.com. All interviews are recorded and posted the following week. Stay informed of exciting upcoming guests by subscribing to our YouTube channel, or podcast wherever you like to listen. Kerry's goal is simple, to help you live the American dream.
END]
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