IAM083 – Nutritionist & Coach Helps Women Reclaim Their Bodies from The Diet Industries’ Unrealistic Expectations

Melissa Ronda is a certified weight loss nutritionist + wellness coach who helps women reclaims their bodies from the unrealistic expectations of the diet industry. Since launching The Honest Weigh in 2014, she has helped over 500 women lose well over 17,000 pounds and counting! Even more important than that, they keep it off with the mindset shift and systems learned from the program. Melissa is a lover of all things girl power, she’s a meal prep maven, and hopefully your new best friend!

• CEO Hack: Get a community especially if you're an online entrepreneur
• CEO Nugget: Invest in a top quality coach
• CEO Defined: Getting to be in your own zone of genius all of the time.

Website: http://thehonestweigh.com

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TRANSCRIPTION:

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:27

Hello, hello, hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Melissa Ronda of the Honest Weigh, Melissa, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Melissa Ronda 0:37

Thank you for having me.

Gresham Harkless 0:38

No problem and what I want to do is just read a little bit about Melissa so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing and she's been able to accomplish. Melissa Ronda is a certified weight loss nutritionist + wellness coach who helps women reclaim their bodies from the unrealistic expectations of the diet industry. Since launching The Honest Weigh in 2014, she has helped over 500 women lose well over 17,000 pounds and counting! Even more important than that, they keep it off with the mindset shift and systems learned from the program. Melissa is a lover of all things girl power, she’s a meal prep maven, and hopefully your new best friend! So Melissa is great to have you on the show. Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO Community?

Melissa Ronda 1:21

Hi, I am

Gresham Harkless 1:23

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, the first question I usually have is just if we could learn a little bit more about you, and what kind led you to start your business your CEO story.

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Melissa Ronda 1:31

Well most people, their journey starts somewhere in their 20s or 30s. Mine started when I was six weeks old. Sounds crazy, right? But my mother, brought me to a Weight Watchers meeting when I was six weeks old. And I mean, I was a chunky baby brash, but like I was not there to be on with waters, but my mom was she was nursing.

So she brought me with her and the lady that was running the meeting, like circa 1979, she holds me up in the air and she says, Ladies, you could lose this entire baby and all the ladies claps because I was like 15 pounds at the time. And so I was really indoctrinated into like this diet lifestyle very early and I watched my mom either be on Weight Watchers, or be eating fried chicken, beyond Jenny Craig, or entire bags of potato chips, so I had learned that there was definitely this feeling of like unrest and never being enough always wanting to be smaller and not being able to consistently obtain whatever that idea, beauty and skinny and little body was.

So I grew up obese, and I grew up really insecure. And that really affected so much of my life. I actually did not get into this version of my body until I was about 32. And I just had enough at that point. And I decided to go at things differently. It changed my life so dramatically that I quit my job, I was a paralegal, and I quit my job, and I went to get my certification. And I decided to start my own business because I had such a message that I wanted to speak so loudly to women that I knew I had to make a dramatic shift in my career. And that was how I started the honest way.

Gresham Harkless 3:30

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, it's great and definitely, courageous of you to be able to tell that story but also to be able to kind of redirect your path as to how your environment was going. Because I know sometimes we become a product of our environment, but for you to see that you wanted to make a change and actually do that. I definitely think you're doing something awesome.

Melissa Ronda 3:48

Thank you.

Gresham Harkless 3:49

You're welcome and now I wanted to hear a little bit more. I know you have your story. And I know there's a lot of people that are probably dealing with similar stories or similar kinds of expectations that they're trying to reach or to fight with. So could you tell us I guess a little bit more on like, what you're doing as far as helping out your clients and how that goes?

Melissa Ronda 4:06

Yeah, I think that you know, there are these expectations out there. There are a lot of programs with women with rock-hard abs telling you what you should be doing to look like them, when really what we need to do is say what do I want my life to look like? And I think that's really the difference is that I really encourage people to say what is your endgame? And I don't mean, what's your endgame? Like, I want to be in a size too. I mean, how do you want to live your life? Do you want to go to a baseball game and eat nachos? Do you want to have popcorn at the movies? Do you want to have cake at your daughter's birthday party?

So if that's the case, then like let's deconstruct it from there and start practicing skills of flexibility instead of looking at restrictions because a lot of times we want to look like the size of a fitness model but we don't want to have to do what she has to do to look like that. And so there's a really a misconception out there for ladies. And we really, so we just feel like we're never enough, and for me that I hate the feeling that women feel that way. And so I really worked with them to just really undo all of that garbage. That's the best way to put it up.

Gresham Harkless 5:20

Right, right, right, then it makes perfect sense. And having those expectations and trying to kind of patting yourself according to that, but then not wanting to kind of want to do the things that it takes to do that. But it's good because it sounds like sometimes I use a word like lifestyle changes. So it's things that you can kind of continue to do for the rest of your life. But you're not just trying to do that just to fit into your bikini for this summer or something like that. Is that correct?

Melissa Ronda 5:20

Yeah, absolutely. And you've got to love the whole and entire process, I think what happens is we get an unrealistic expectation of what we think we're going to look like, and then the whole process, we're changing, we're growing, we're becoming so strong, such amazing women, but we're never happy because we don't look like that woman. And the fact of the matter is, a lot of us have had kids I was obese. My goal body is the body that I have now. And it's never we can't keep looking at other women's bodies and thinking that we're less than others because we don't look like that.

Gresham Harkless 6:21

Right, exactly. And I imagine that a lot of the industry probably pushes those images in order for people to feel like they have to take that next fad or do that next diet in order for them to of course generate more revenue.

Melissa Ronda 6:32

Yep. And that's what it's about for them and it's really disheartening. When I see those ads, scroll across Facebook all day.

Gresham Harkless 6:39

Yeah, but it says great that you're doing something about it. So a lot of people aren't in it's awesome that you're able to kind of try to combat that as much as you can. So now want to ask you for what I call your quote unquote, secret sauce, or kind of what you feel kind of distinguishes you or makes you unique?

Melissa Ronda 6:55

Well, it was really important for me to have the word honest in my name because I am extremely honest. And it's pretty funny that some of the stuff that I post, I really try to speak to like what women are actually thinking maybe not exactly what they're saying. So that's definitely something that I'm known for on Facebook, for sure. But I also think that I don't like to get really fancy with science or complicated ingredients. Because for the majority of us, we can still get the results we want by eating chicken tacos, we're just going to eat chicken tag goes a little bit different way than you're used to.

So I really work to create meal plans that are very exciting for women and not intimidating. It's very obtainable changes that we can make. So I like to just keep it really simple and not overcomplicate it.

Gresham Harkless 7:50

Yeah, that makes it I guess, probably you can definitely let me know if this happens with your clients where it's also more, they're able to execute it a lot better just because it's not like they have to get out there. I guess, the periodic table or something to figure out exactly what needs to go into what dish should actually do it in a very simple way. So it kind of lowers the barrier and lowers the kind of fear of wanting to do that.

Melissa Ronda 8:13

Yeah, and sustainable that way too. Because you can keep up a game for like three weeks, you could do that 21-Day Fix, right? But what if it's too far away from what makes sense for you and your family? It won't last. So it has to be so simple, that just takes one less obstacle out of your way.

Gresham Harkless 8:35

That makes perfect sense. Awesome, awesome, awesome. And now I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you about what I call a CEO hack a CEO hack could be a book or an app or a habit that you have. But it could be one thing or a few things that you do to make you more effective and efficient. As an entrepreneur business owner.

Melissa Ronda 8:52

I would say get a community I have the most amazing friends in business and I think that specifically working from home when you have an online business can really be lonely because you're spending so much time building this dream and people around you might not get it, they don't understand how you can eat sleep and breathe this thing. So my hack would be to find some friends that get new because that has been invaluable to me to be able to bounce ideas off or just have someone that understands my excitement level and my level of passion. And when you can surround yourself with like-minded people, it's a rising tide everyone benefits from it.

Gresham Harkless 9:42

Yeah, that makes perfect sense finding your tribe because you know, entrepreneurship and owning a business is lonely in and of itself. And then when you couple that with starting an online business where you know, sometimes you're spending time in front of the computer or in front of social media sites and it can be even more lonely. So I definitely think that's a great CEO hack about trying to find your community and to be able to kind of lean on them and build off of them.

Melissa Ronda 10:05

Yeah, because you spent a lot of time talking to your dog otherwise. Not that's bad. He just doesn't tell me anything.

Gresham Harkless 10:12

That's exactly the same problem with my dog. She doesn't give me any good advice, she just barks at me. So I guess that's gonna be a good or bad thing I just can't translate. Now, I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. And this CEO nugget could be a word of wisdom or piece of advice or something that you would tell your younger business.

Melissa Ronda 10:32

So oh, man, this one. I love this, okay, because so I was afraid to invest in my business for a long time. And I would just take profit and that was my paycheck. And I will tell you hindsight is 2020 but if I would have invested in a really top-quality coach earlier, I can't even imagine where I would be now, I think that sometimes feel afraid to ask for help, or we're afraid to invest in that commitment. But the commitment is actually what catapults you to that next level. So for the first time ever, and now I have a business coach for the first time in 40 years, and my growth has just been insane. So know that you don't need to know everything. No, you don't know what you don't know and hire someone who knows the things that you need to know.

Gresham Harkless 11:27

I love that, I love it. Yeah, again speaking on how lonely it can be to own a business or run a business to be able to have somebody can get, they can hold you accountable. But also making sure that you're reaching your goals, and you're doing all the things that you need to do to reach your goals is definitely important. So I think that's a phenomenal CEO nugget and now I wanted to ask you what is my favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO, So, I have different CEOs on this podcast I wanted to ask you specifically, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Melissa Ronda 11:55

Well, to me, I look at it as if I get to be in my zone of genius all the time. When you run your own show, you can tap into like, there may be specific days that say I love to create all my own content, and so one day, instead, I'm feeling really inspired to share some sort of word of wisdom. That's when I write and when I am looking to create new recipes. And I'm like, yes, it almost falls, and maybe I should create some new cold weather recipe. And I do that, and when we have a career that we're forced to live by someone else's rules and expectations, we are pushing against the tide of what's natural. And we all have flows of creative genius at certain times. And so being a CEO, to me really means that I get to do what I want when I want, which means I'm always giving my best self.

Gresham Harkless 12:53

I love that. I love that. It's all about authenticity, and of course, honesty, right? So I think that kind of reigns home rings true to most CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners. So unless I truly appreciate you for taking some time out of your schedule, what I wanted to do was see if there is anything additional you want to let our readers and our listeners know and how best they can get a hold of you.

Melissa Ronda 13:11

Well, I think the best place to find me is at thehonestweigh.com. And we spell Weigh as you weigh yourself, that's definitely where you can find me. I spring my love in there.

Gresham Harkless 13:24

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much, Melissa, we'll make sure to have those links in the show notes so that anybody can follow up with you, and thank you for being completely authentic and completely honest. And I truly appreciate you and all that you're doing to help out the world and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Melissa Ronda 13:39

You too. Thanks for having me.

Outro 13:41

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co

I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

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