“I truly believe that our habits make up who we are, and we have the power to become anyone we wish to be. “
Bekah Shaffer is an emotional eating and healthy habits coach. In 2022, she became certified as a health and life coach, and through that came Illuminating Wellness. How Bekah became a coach is quite a story, one that includes many different variables that made Coach Bekah who she is today.
To start, let’s dive into her health journey! In 2016, Bekah set a New Year’s Resolution to lose weight, and she did, but what she gained along the journey was far more valuable and powerful than any number on the scale. She found herself!
Bekah has done the work. She’s lost weight. She’s tackled, and still working on, her own emotional eating and overeating habits. She’s felt the pain and anguish of waking up after a binge and feeling the shame that comes with it. She carried 100 extra pounds on her body when an athlete was screaming to come out. Her story is similar to most, but Bekah wanted to pay it forward and help others in the areas she struggled with most of her life.
At age 13, in the summer of 2005, Bekah went to Camp Kingsmont, which is more or less a ‘fat camp’. Camp Kingsmont is similar to most overnight summer camps, but they weigh you weekly, portion your food, and keep you active with sports and other activities. They also offered a nutrition class to help the campers take home some knowledge to support their new ways of eating in the ‘real world’ once summer was over. Bekah returned to camp the next two summers, gaining weight at home and losing it again at camp. She felt lost most of the time. If someone weren’t portioning her food or monitoring her exercise, she would regain her weight, clearly unable to support herself.
Throughout high school, Bekah experienced obesity and often felt overwhelmed around her peers, so she usually ditched gym and health classes. Upon graduating in 2011, Bekah enrolled at The Restaurant School at Walnuthill College in West Philadelphia, PA. She majored in Restaurant Management and began to dream of owning a small restaurant. While attending restaurant school, Bekah developed a tremendous culinary background and learned her way around the kitchen. While at school, Bekah gained more weight, needing a Chef’s white jacket size 2xl and pants sized at men’s 42. Bekah gained all the weight she had yo-yo’d around during her camp and high school years. After graduating college, she went to work in the service industry, learning how to run a restaurant in ‘the real world’ and getting hands-on experience. Those who have worked in a restaurant might know that most establishments allow you to taste the food and eat for half off, if not for free. Needless to say, Bekah was getting bigger, and eating became a way to not only enjoy the industry she was passionate about but connect with the people around her.
In 2013, Bekah moved to Washington and began working at a Chili’s, where french fries, unlimited chips, and salsa were her emotional support team. That is until New Year’s 2016. Alone in her apartment, Bekah finally said, “Enough is enough.” She was utterly unhealthy and dissatisfied with her life. She may not have realized it then, but she can now say that was the year she rebuilt herself.
In June of 2016, Bekah was already down about 40lbs. She was gaining muscle and finding routines that allowed her to thrive more than ever. She was finally getting it! Bekah was meticulous when counting calories, both coming in and being exerted.
Obsessed would be a proper word to describe what she was doing with calories, getting incredibly good at planning what she would eat. But when night fell and Netflix was playing, binging began. It wasn’t until years later that Bekah decided to become a coach that she realized how often she turns to food out of the habit of numbing emotions and escaping her boredom.
Today, Bekah teaches and guides her clients through a 12-week transformation program that helps them unpack why they feel like they can’t just ‘lose weight.’ With no calorie counting or macro counting, Bekah helps guide you on how to build the best food plan for you. Because our ‘diets’ are as individualize as we are.
Bekah believes our habits create who we are, and when we can imagine the health and lifestyle of our dreams, we can make that lifestyle through the actions we execute day to day. Building healthy habits around your food choices will help cultivate a stronger relationship between you and yourself and your food. Let Bekah show you how!
Schedule a conversation today with Bekah to learn how to break free from emotional eating, kick feeling stuck in old diet mentality, and grow into the person inside of you dying to get out!
“Food is all around us; it’s tied to emotions, society, and community, nourishing and fueling our lives. I teach my clients to have a healthy relationship with the food they eat and not carry the guilt or shame that can come from enjoying a sweet treat at a birthday party.” – Coach Bekah.
Illuminating Wellness 