Today we’d like to introduce you to Laura Guilmain
Hi Laura, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I’m so grateful to do the work that I do. It’s an extension of my heart and the intersection of my professional training, personal story, and the deep need I saw in the world to bring holistic healing and sustainable well-being practices in the areas of breaking free from diet culture to nourish well and finally experience the lasting peace, ease, confidence, and health that people are seeking when they hop from diet to diet.
I’ve been a registered nurse for 17+ years, and I’m also a certified mind-body eating coach, certified life coach, yoga and meditation teacher, and diabetes educator.
I know the desire, confusion, and frustration of diet culture and emotional eating firsthand. It was my story for years. I went from the girl who could eat anything… to the girl who over-analyzed everything (allegedly in the name of health)… and judged myself every step of the way. I’ve seen the scale fluctuate close to 30 pounds because of my misaligned food rules, using control with food and exercise to regulate my emotions and grief, and my inner “mean girl” mentality.
Back then, I felt alone in my struggle; from the outside, you couldn’t see my pain.
And as a nurse, I can’t even count the number of hands I’ve held at the bedside, bearing witness to the disconnect and confusion between what my patients wanted… versus what they actually had with both their physical and mental health.
I saw firsthand how toxic diet culture was for so many people (especially with my experience treating patients with disordered eating behaviors).
I also saw the opposite extreme, where the empty advice of “just accept yourself” was flimsy at best and harmful at worst.
I knew the solution needed to be holistic. Education, the body, and the mind all needed to work in tandem to help people find food freedom and deeper fulfillment in daily life.
Through my private practice and work in corporate wellness, I’ve taught 10,000+ people how to use nutrition and psychology together to find food freedom and body respect while overcoming body image challenges, chronic dieting, binge eating, emotional eating, overeating, and more.
Using my holistic approach, I’ve also witnessed how mindset challenges and emotions around food tend to play out in other areas of life—like work, goals, and relationships—and how healing your relationship with food and body image is the key to creating so many other powerful life changes.
How we show up at the table is reflected in how we show up in life and vice versa. It’s amazing to see all of the wins that happen beyond the table and in their daily lives— things like improved communication, more fulfillment with work, increased confidence, self-worth, and daily joy— and more!
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been anything but, haha, but it’s been a soulful, beautiful, and worthy pursuit! And bumpy roads can be fun, right?!
I have seen struggles all along the way, but I’ve learned to expect them and not see them as problems. Just like I normalize the experience for my client to have internal and external roadblocks on their journey, I see the same in mine.
I had this dream in my heart for YEARS before taking action. First, I became certified as a mind-body eating coach, but I loved my work in the clinic as a diabetes educator, so it was hard to leave something great in the dream, hope, and trust of something beautiful.
Thankfully, I received some pretty powerful encouragement that hit me in my heart and helped me take doable, consistent, imperfect action. Within a short time, I received a supportive card from a loved one and had a stranger on a flight share inspiring words—both of which shared the same sentiment, “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great,” which I’ve seen attributed to John D. Rockefeller.
That’s what this business has been built on: asking, “What is my next aligned step?” and taking action from there. I’ve seen roadblocks with finances, learning how to market and sell soulfully and with integrity (they don’t teach you that in nursing school, and I never anticipated being an entrepreneur), and so many mindset blocks and inner narratives that kept me stuck and playing small.
The key for me has been compassionate curiosity, where you’re really willing to look at the situation and prioritize data over drama. When I say data over drama, I mean it’s natural for our brains to create an emotional storyline that doesn’t always serve the direction we want to go in, and there are so many reasons for that. So, I look to distinguish the facts from the emotional story I’m telling myself and value that information to change my approach as needed. Flexibility with the strategy is an essential component to breakthrough and success.
As you know, we’re big fans of Laura Guilmain, LLC. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Through my program Full + Free, I help women find food freedom, respect their bodies, and ditch diet culture for good so that they can feel confident in their bodies and at ease in their minds.
It’s a course, community, and coaching that uses the principles of mindset, holistic nourishment, and values-based behavior change to help women create their strongest, healthiest bodies and emotional and spiritual well-being.
There’s so much beauty, strength, courage, alignment, and evolution to be found when they go through this process of unlearning and relearning. We untangle the wires of diet culture programming and the beliefs and habits that don’t serve them and create ones that do.
The thing is, there’s no one way for everyone to be healthy and reach their goals. So we focus on reconnecting with their clear body-based cues and inner wisdom, finding consistency with the basics and details that matter, releasing the distracting (and often harmful) “hacks,” and customizing their nourishment and movement plan to their values, needs, preferences, and lifestyle.
This method creates the space for sustainable transformation and leaves my clients feeling confident about maintaining and even upleveling their results for life. The community is filled with heart and soul, and it’s a gift to support people in reaching their goals and feeling good in the process.
This process feels more like holistic self-care rather than self-torture, which we’ve all had enough of, to help women enjoy their lives and bodies more. There’s clearly a lot more to my method than your typical 14-day meal plan or 30-day quick fix. But what Full + Free provides is the solution women are ultimately after. It’s what they think the quick fix will give them, but it never does.
And the best part is that despite its depth, there’s ease and peace throughout the process because it’s what they’re yearning for. Clients tell me there’s so much love and care infused into it, and the program feels like a homecoming—a complete exhale—a release. And I’m so grateful I get to support women through that experience. It’s beautiful.
There’s something so special about a community of women coming together for the sole purpose of healing and moving past their challenges. I love the community inside Full + Free. It’s high-vibe and real—and that can be hard to find in your other day-to-day relationships, no matter how beautiful they are.
Something I’m most proud of and in awe of is that, in my experience, there isn’t a more sustainable, complete, or joyful way to create and keep the body you desire and the whole life you crave without hours in the gym or giving up foods you love than the strategy and support I give in Full + Free.
I’ve learned that support isn’t just nice to have; it’s necessary for navigating blind spots, growing your self-concept, and helping you better identify what’s distracting and derailing you so you can shift using fresh perspectives.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
There are many ways of defining and experiencing success.
One of the most meaningful to me is being consistently connected to and engaged with what you say matters to you. It’s having clarity on your values and preferences— how you want to live— and having a life that reflects them.
It doesn’t mean a lack of obstacles or everything going according to your timeline or expectations. It’s knowing that what you think, feel, and do are integrated and in alignment most of the time.
I also view success as a life you enjoy waking up to, even in those seasons of “brutiful” messiness, where beauty and challenges are both present—those spaces between where you are and where you want to be. There’s success there, too, because you’re present and engaged with what matters to you.
Pricing:
- Full + Free is a holistic 4-month coaching and education program. I offer payment plans, as well as helping women who are interested see if they are eligible for using their FSA/HSA accounts to pay for part or all of the program. Most often, if you have one of these account and are interested in the program, you end up being eligible to use these funds.
- For more information on the program or pricing, please contact me at hello@lauraguilmain.com
- My highest goal is for you to connect with your best yes, so there’s never any pressure or expectations when connecting to see if the program is a feel-good, aligned fit for you!
- Mention this article for a community discount on my services.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://lauraguilmain.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/laura_guilmain
