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See What Happens When Twins Makeover Their Diet The Food Babe Way! {Lisa & Laurie’s Story}

This week has been a bit surreal to me. I’m celebrating the 5 year anniversary of FoodBabe.com (yeah!) and reflecting on all that has happened since I first started this blog. Never in my wildest dreams did I envision all that the Food Babe Army has come to be! Changing multi-billion dollar corporations for the better, educating families across the world about what’s in their food and changing so many individual lives. To say I have my dream job, would be an understatement – there’s nothing more in the world I would rather do.

The most rewarding part of it all is YOU. When you send me an email and tell me that one of our campaigns has raised your awareness about a crazy food additive in our food supply that you now avoid… or that you have been following the 21 habits in my New York Times Best Selling book The Food Babe Way and feel and look so much better… or that you are loving the recipes and tips in my Eating Guides… it totally makes my day and lets me know that what I’m doing is making a real life-changing difference. 

That being said, I have a super inspiring story from a reader (actually two readers!) to share with you today! I know we all could use a little bit of motivation and I love reading real life stories of people who have succeeded at changing to a healthier diet and lifestyle – and are reaping the benefits! Don’t you? I’m going to start sharing more stories like these with you all, so get ready!

Last Summer I started communicating with Lisa, who reached out and told me that she was doing something very exciting. Lisa, a 39 year old identical twin, decided to do a Food Babe Way challenge with her sister Laurie for the next 6 months. Lisa was already a dedicated Food Babe reader and would be following Food Babe eating habits, while her sister was a bit resistant to change and intended to continue with her typical lifestyle. I provided Lisa with a Food Babe Eating Guide Program Membership to help give her all of the tools that she would need to be successful… and she really has been! I’m so floored and inspired by what a difference they both have made and I’m sure that once you hear their stories you will feel inspired too! 

Meet Lisa & Laurie:

Laurie & Lisa

Lisa’s story: 

My name is Lisa, and I live in Ballantyne, NC. I am 40 years old, a wife, and mother of 3. I work full-time as a nanny of 2 children, and also attend college. I am pursuing a career in Nursing.

Last year I noticed my body was changing – my normal routine of being active only occasionally, and not paying attention to the foods I was eating on a daily basis was beginning to show. Six months before my 40th birthday I decided it was time to make a change!

I came across the blog written by Lisa Leake, from 100 Days of Real Food. I was so impressed with the meals, especially the lunch ideas for my kids, I took the pledge and my journey to eating healthy began. I became acquainted with Vani Hari on the blog, began researching, and discovered foodbabe.com – this took my eating habits to an entirely new level. The research Vani does and the impact she has on so many lives immediately drew me in and furthered my commitment to living an entirely healthy and new way of life…..the foodbabe way!

Not only have I seen improvements in my body, skin, and hair, but I feel happy! I used to feel emotional a lot, stressed out, tired, and just unhappy with everything around me. I can only express that I feel peaceful, completely less stressed, even with the added activities and more of a busy schedule than I had before. I find time to work out consistently, cook for my family, and have an overall happier family as a result.

The most important thing I have learned is to read my labels. I am now aware of the harmful chemicals in our food and products we use. Also I have learned the difference between GMO and NON-GMO, organic and non-organic. My main goal is to just eat food that is living and will take care of my body.

My sister Laurie and I challenged each other to making the biggest improvements we could in the 6 months leading up to our 40th birthday in February. We formed a facebook page to allow others to follow our effort and also to drive some additional accountability. We both saw such great results and had so many friends interested, we decided to continue on to June 1st. We have an amazing group that joined us on our continued journey to a healthy lifestyle – for me it’s the foodbabe way all the way!

~ Lisa

Laurie’s story:

My name is Laurie, I am 40 years old, have been married for 17yrs. and am the proud mama of three. I am a survivor of depression and today I celebrate being medication free for 8 years. Battling depression without medication was the first step I took on my journey to being whole and healthy. I was blessed with good genetics, for the first 26 yrs. I never exercised and I ate whatever I wanted…some could say I was lucky, but I was naïve. I had no idea that another battle was just beginning….my battle to become healthy!

An obvious first step I had to change my diet. Green leafy foods, well, let’s just say they weren’t a staple in my diet. Fortunately my twin sister Lisa had begun her own journey by following the foodbabe. I am not fond of following rules…I am, quite frankly, a rebellious rule breaker. For months I thought my sister was crazy with all the facts she would send me. I knew I needed to change my diet but it was not until I educated myself on what I was putting into my body that I came to appreciate the value of nutrition. It was then that I joined the foodbabe army!

Besides diet I had to exercise, so I started with yoga. I thought yoga would be easy, but quickly found out yoga is not for the weak! At the age of 37 I became a certified yoga instructor. I became strong physically and during the meditation/quiet time my mind was healing too. My desire to look cute in my yoga pants was additional encouragement to eat healthy, but it was a struggle and took years even to incorporate diet and exercise improvements into my daily life. I’ve come to realize though, that when you know better you tend to do better.

Last November I hit a wall. Though I was now 39 yrs.old and medication free, I was not feeling good about any area of my health. I believed I could do better. Lisa was facing the same wall. We challenged each other to a competition ‘Twin vs. Twin fight to forty’. For accountability we posted our challenge on FB and quickly had followers. It worked! Lisa and I celebrated our 40th birthday with great results.

We were so encouraged that we decided to do the challenge again and to invite our FB friends to join in. The interest was overwhelming and Lisa and I quickly found that this community of smart, strong women were struggling just like us. Together we celebrate each other’s accomplishments, share recipes and workouts, but most of all we share our hearts, and I am privileged to travel this journey alongside them. That, the unexpected privilege, was the trophy I received at the end of our challenge. I began on a quest for a six pack, and ended with the blessing of communion.

On this journey, I have learned to love myself…in a way I never did before. I feel like I am just getting warmed up, that this is just the beginning. I’m pretty excited to meet the Laurie that has yet to be revealed. Looking back I can see a pattern; when I reached a goal I quickly set a new one. These became milestones on my journey thus far, they are permanent marks of great progress on my road to recovery and living a life of wholeness and health. They remind me just how important taking one more step can be.

Stay tuned!  

~ Laurie (changing the face of the desperate housewife, one workout and meal at a time)

Laurie (left), Lisa (Right)

Laurie (left), Lisa (Right)

Lisa

Laurie (Left), Lisa (Right)

A Healthy Outside Starts From The Inside!

I hope Lisa & Laurie’s story inspires you to know that you can make a change. If you haven’t already joined my email list – make sure to do that first over here. I’m sending exclusive FREE info just to the special people on my list – I don’t want you to miss the breaking health information I share every week!

Need Help Making A Change?

Check out everything we offer in the Food Babe Eating Guide. This is an all-encompassing program with everything you need to succeed – including live webinars with yours truly to coach your way to success! Whether you want to make a change to your diet and don’t know where to start or if you know what to eat but just need a little push to go that extra mile, this is the program that will do it for you. See all that this program has to offer here

Want To Inspire Others?

Share this post with those you want to inspire and if you have a success story of your own to share, let us know here! I can’t wait to hear from you too! 

Xo, 

Vani

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28 responses to “See What Happens When Twins Makeover Their Diet The Food Babe Way! {Lisa & Laurie’s Story}

  1. Congratulations to the twins on a job well done. The pictures tell a hundred words. Great bodies to live a long and full life; keep up the good work.

  2. Not only do you look healthy on the outside but you are truly healthier on the inside and your faces show it. Now if I could just get off my lazy butt and do the same.

  3. What a great testimony by two sisters especially since they are twins. Two of my there brothers are trying to get my health back on track. The Food Babe newsletter has help inspired me…

  4. Congratulations on your 5 year anniversary Vani – you are a true success story!! God bless you and all the wonderful work you do!!

  5. That is so awesome. With a little motivation and effort, healthier changes can give you a nice healthy sexy figure. Thank you Food Babe.

  6. I LOVE this post!! Congrats to Lisa and Laurie, and congrats, Vani, on 5 years! Small, incremental shifts can lead to BIG changes!! Thanks for this post!

  7. Thank you for sharing your wonderful, inspirational story. I am so glad you chose to improve your health, which will allow you to live a more energetic fulfilling life. There is one thing that did not change in the before and after pictures….the beautiful radiance of happiness on your faces!

    1. I agree with Tracy! Wonderful inspiration…truly beautiful women, inside and out!
      So grateful for the example Vani has set for us all!!!

  8. Vani do you actually follow the eating guides? How many of the meals do you make each week or month? You look amazing so if you actually follow them I would buy them.

    1. Yes! I do! This is exactly why I created the program, to make meal planning more simple and provide new recipe ideas. I actually stole one of my favorite recipe/menu developers who used to work at my favorite farm to table food truck 🙂 When I am traveling, I am less strict about following it exactly, but do take favorites from every guide! 🙂

  9. Thank you Vani for sharing our story! I am more committed than ever to continue this transformation! Though Lisa and I share the same DNA….our stories are obviously different as are all of your readers! But one thing is the same. We want ro take control of our health!! I am so proud to be a part of the Food Babe Army…..it truly saves lives!

    1. I know Laurie and have met Lisa. I am impressed by their determination to improve their health. Congratulations to Laurie and Lisa and all the other ladies on their journey.

  10. WOW! I have been getting the Good Babe way newsletters for a while but you know, just didn’t DO IT! After seeing the twins Lisa and Laurie’s photos, I was REALLY impressed, especially since my backside looks like theirs did! Great job and glad you stayed committed!
    Where do I start? Throw stuff out of the cabinets?

  11. You can find our FB page by searching TWinspirational
    This is not our previous page. We had to respect the privacy of others on it. So we created a new one for our new food babe friends.
    We will update it weekly as we once again begin a journey of maximum wellness!!!
    Joiners beware…..we are 100% transparent. We can be pretty and a little “not so pretty”.
    Our goal is to inspire and support as we educate ourselves through Vani’s hard wook….we get the benefits!

  12. What a wonderful inspiring story. Congratulations Vani on 5 years. You have helped me and my family live a healthier life. Thanks for putting on the gloves and fighting for us and the future generations.

  13. Love this motivational site…we all seem to hit a wall…before we wake up…to how important what we eat can kill or heal us. I had a life changing event..back in 2011 ..a brain tumor…plus had grown to 220 lbs because of the tumor…nearly lost my sight and life. Lost 95lbs and regain my sight…a miracle in many ways. Now working on getting my husband who has leaking gut ..many food intolerances..needing recipes ..for gluten free..dairy free..wheat free…garlic…ginger just to name a few…has candida also…a challenge to say the least…he has had a itchy rash for the last three years..finally got the food tests last month…want happy healthy husband…Food Babe here we come!

  14. The “after” photos were taken from a flattering angle and they are tanned which makes them look more lean…Also, the last photo looks like it was severely altered. They look happy, but other than that, I don’t see a great change in their bodies.

  15. These two beauties have such incredible stories and inspiring paths that people would look up too! It’s very important to know what’s in our food so that we know how it will benefit or degrade our bodies!!

  16. Thank you Lalita for your honest comment. I can assure you that our photos are not altered. The goal was to be transparent. And yes we both treated ourselves to a light spray tan (a gift to ourselves for our 40th bday).
    You are correct. The physical results are not that dramatic. But for the short period of time that we gave the exercise 100%…we were thrilled with the result.
    Our goal was to change from the inside out…and looking a little toner is a bonus!
    We are still working on changing our workouts …it takes time to see how your body reacts to what you are doing.
    Clean eating is our #1 priority. And all the positive results from that is a bonus!

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