How Derek Lost 50 lbs by Healing Emotional Blocks

Hello, heroines! This is Alex. Happy— what are we— Tuesday to you. I hope everybody's having a fabulous day, and today I have with me a special guest. This is Derek Raymond. Derek and I know each other from another group, but I was inspired by his story, and I thought, heck, you guys probably would want to hear what he has to say. So welcome, Derek!

Thank you. It's great to be here.

It's nice to have you. So let's just keep it simple. Let's get started with tell us a little bit about who you are, what you do, and where you're from.

Okay. Uh, I'm Derek Raymond. I live in Los Angeles, California, and I call myself a holistic fitness coach. So I help people transform their body, their health, their weight, whatever their issues are, from the inside out. And it's more than just diet and exercise. You know, we go through a whole system where we help you change your mindset, you know, change your beliefs, and get you going and creating healthy habits for you that are easy to do and sustainable for a long time.

Yeah, and I love that you throw in the mindset piece because I feel like it's almost more about that than it is really about anything else. Um, how do you, how do you feel about that?

Yeah, I 100% agree. I mean, you know, you'll go to a, like a trainer or maybe even a nutritionist or dietitian and it's one size fits all, right? They, they tell everybody the same thing and you know, for Somebody, you know, down the street, it works great. But for you, you're doing the exact same thing. Maybe you're even dieting a little stricter or exercising a little harder and nothing's working for you. And it's because we have, you know, different mindsets. We have emotional blocks. We have— everybody has something different that's— that we're holding on to the weight and holding on to different health issues.

Yeah, and I want to come back to that in a second, but how did you get started on this journey?

Yeah, so it was in 2019. I was not in a good place. You would think, you know, because I was talking to you earlier, I'm an animator by trade. I work in animation and visual effects. I worked on a lot of the superhero TV shows, so you've probably seen stuff I've done on TV, The Flash, Supergirl, all that DC stuff. And I was living my dream, but I was miserable and I was overweight. That year I was constantly getting sick. Like there was always something new happening. And I had been in the past one of those people that I didn't need, and it rarely got a cold. Like I never got sick. And that year, just like I I had this infection that wouldn't go away in my, in my eye. I had, you know, I was just always sick. And then I realized I was not happy. So I booked this trip to go to East Africa for 5 weeks. And it was, you know, this was my plan. I was going to change everything, right? So I, I trekked with the gorillas in Uganda. I did safaris in Kenya and Tanzania. I hiked up Mount Kilimanjaro. I made it to the top, and then I ended the whole thing in Zanzibar, you know, to relax on the beach for a couple of days. And it was just— it was amazing. It was this great trip. And I got home and I hated my pictures. I was so embarrassed of how I looked, like, even my— not just because I was overweight, which I really was, but because, like, my energy, like, I looked like I was sad even though I was doing all these amazing things. You know, and I'm— so I didn't want to show people the pictures with me in it. So I was like, what's the point of doing these amazing trips if I can't share it with people that I did these cool things? So I said, all right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna change. I'm gonna, I'm gonna get fit. I'm gonna get healthy, and I'm gonna, I'm gonna improve my life. So I found a fitness coach online, and he helped me get started with diet and exercise. And he's— it was great. I was really liking it, but it was really a slow progression. Like, in fact, I started off kind of gaining weight a little bit first, which sometimes that happens to people. But, you know, I gained a little weight and then it was like very slow. But then I found an energy healer, and the energy healer found all these like emotional blocks that I was carrying. And he helped me change. He, we, he helped me change these beliefs that I had, which cleared the emotional blocks. And all of a sudden the weight just kind of melted off. Like I lost in about, since I started, you know, about 6 months later, I was down almost 50 pounds. And I just, I felt great. I just felt amazing. And I love the energy healing part so much. That I got— I stuck with it. I got certified. I'm now one of the advanced practitioners. It's called Awakening Dynamics, and I'm learning some other modalities too. So we incorporate all that stuff in, and it's to help you, you know, remove emotional blocks and move, you know, change your mindset and change your beliefs about, you know, who you are and where you're at in life. Because the, the key that I found with I think, you know, most people, most of my clients, myself included, is you have to love yourself and where you're at in order to make changes and make progress. And how do you love yourself and love where you're at when you don't like what you see in the mirror every day? So that's where all this work comes in and is really helpful.

So when you work with someone Um, do you work first on the mindsets and the energy and the limiting beliefs? Do you work on the diet and exercise? Do you do kind of combination depending on who, who you're working with? How does that work?

Yeah, it's primarily a combination of all the above. Um, but we tend to start with the mindset to get you going. So, and everything is slow. We take it easy. You know, and we help you build healthy habits. So, you know, I say in my program there's no bad foods, right? Because you might love something that may not be great for us, but you're not going to stop eating it just because I told you it's not going to work out. So we're not going to eliminate—

like, because who wants to stop eating pizza?

Exactly. Or chocolate, or You know, ice cream, right? You don't, you don't want to get rid of that stuff. You're not going to. So, you know, we just add some of the better foods, you know, and if you're still hungry, have, you can have some of the, you can have some more pizza, right? So, it's a, we take it slowly, we make it easy, and we make it sustainable.

So when you work with people who are, let's say, in transition or who are going through a difficult time emotionally, like maybe some of the ladies in the group, is there a particular, one particular thing that you find works best or one particular way that you find works best? Are there, do you work with them differently than you would work with— let's say normal clients, so to speak, or whatever normal is these days, right?

I don't think there is a normal client. Everybody's a little bit different. You know, I have a similar approach, obviously, um, for everybody, but, you know, everybody, like I said before, everyone's holding on to the weight or holding on to their health issues for different reasons. So we're going to find those reasons. I use a tool called muscle testing. It's also known as applied kinesiology, and it's a way we can test your subconscious beliefs through your body. So, you know, I could ask you a question here, you might tell me an answer, but our mind, our ego, it's just going to tell you what it wants, what it thinks I want to hear, or what it thinks you want to hear. But our body never lies. So, um, you know, chiropractors use, uh, muscle testing, other doctors use muscle testing. So it's, it's proven that it works, and we use it to test your subconscious belief where you're at. Then we use some of the energy healing processes to change it, and then we can muscle test again to verify that the belief actually changed.

I have a friend who also does muscle testing, and whenever I work with her, she actually muscle tests for me because my responses are not very— what is the word I'm looking for— like obvious, right? Like, and part of me also doesn't trust it because I don't know if it's— is it my body or is it my head that's telling my body to move a certain way? So How, how do you, yeah, so those are deal with women like me.

So those are beliefs that we can, we can change and we can fix. And I've definitely had clients that were just like you and said muscle testing doesn't work for me. And we've, we've helped make muscle testing work. So also there's different ways to muscle test, you know, there's probably, you know, a hundred different ways. I don't know how many exactly there are, but we'll find one that works for you.

Yeah. And I do, I do believe it works. I don't always trust what I quote unquote say, right? I don't always trust what, what my body says, but I think it's fascinating. I think just being able to tap into your body like that, where, because we all have that inner wisdom, which is free of ego and free of whatever is going on up here. Um, it's just sometimes I find it a little bit hard to listen to that because of the noise that's up here.

Exactly. That's the noise up there. And I think muscle testing is just a beautiful tool in itself, you know, you, because you could go to like the grocery store and maybe you don't know which brand to buy and you can test, this brand is better for me, you know, and One thing I like to make sure my clients are aware of is muscle testing isn't necessarily truth. It's what your subconscious believes. So it's not necessarily how some healers, practitioners will say it's the higher truth, but I don't believe it is. I believe it's what your subconscious believes to be true because we can muscle test the lottery, right? Right? And it's going to give you answers, but I've never met anybody that's successfully muscle tested the, the correct, uh, line.

Powerball numbers. Yeah.

So if you, if you know anybody that knows how to do that, please let me know because I would love to, to know how to do that.

That'd be a hell of a trick.

Yeah.

Oh my God, that's so funny. So when I love, like I said, I love that you do both, you know, the mindset and the physical piece. What's your favorite way to tackle a problem for one of your clients?

That's interesting. I had never really thought of a favorite way, but I can tell you One of the things that I really like is, you know, what the thing that drives me, that gets me, you know, keeps me doing this, is that, that moment, that aha moment, that awareness when they have found whatever that belief is that's been holding them back for so long, when they finally realize what it is and then we let it go, you could just see that they, the whole, you know, whether you can read energy or not, you just can see their whole face light up. You can see all the weight, like, from their shoulders just release. It's just, it's just amazing. It's so fun. It's, it's, that's what I live for.

So what are some of the common limiting beliefs that, the most common, I would say, limiting beliefs that you've come across in your time working with, with people?

Yeah, well, like I said before, the number one is self-love, right? We, we have to love ourselves first, you know, and that's part of my shift even as a healer, as I've been doing this, is I've been trying to be more heart-centered and, and love myself. And I've been working on that. I mean, it's not easy, like I said, when you don't always love what you see in the mirror every day. So, you know, I've definitely become— I'm happier with what I see in the mirror every day. I really enjoy it. And, you know, I'm in a good place. But, you know, Still, you know, we grow up with these limiting beliefs. You know, people maybe, you know, gave us a hard time about something as we were growing up. And, you know, it's hard to let go of certain things.

Do you feel that there's a difference between people who— how can I ask this? Because I'm trying to get to something. So one of the things that I grew up doing, especially when I moved to the US, because I was a very unhappy teenager, I used food to self-soothe, right? Do you find that there are commonalities between people who self-soothe with food versus people who don't? Or like, is it because the mindset, I would assume, must be a little bit different.

Yeah, it's that everyone's a little different, right? But I think it comes back to love, right? So we, we soothe ourself with food. So we just find another way to feel loved besides food, you know? So we can test, that's, uh, something we can test. Food. I feel loved with food or something to that. You know, food, food create— I know the difference between food and love. So we can test things like that. And we can change them so you can, you know, move forward and find, you know, we can help you change, you know, exercise. I love exercise brings me love, you know, things like that.

Okay. Okay, cool. So any final words for our heroines before I release you into the wild?

Uh, you know, I'm release— I just launched my new Facebook group and we're doing some great things. So if you want to join, I'll put the link in the comments here, but it's, um, Nourish, Heal, and Thrive. And yeah, we're talking to people, we're helping focus, you know, just like you're doing here is we're, you know, we're highlighting the members and we're being more heart-centered. And, you know, if I have to leave you with anything, it's, yeah, love yourself and everything will, will work out for you. And I'm here to support you if you need it.

Thank you. I think that's a beautiful message. So thank you so much for sharing that, Derek.