By Sam Elliott
Linda Hoopes has amassed years of experience helping others lose weight, but the Fishers resident’s latest endeavor has her and her clients focusing on a healthy lifestyle and healthy food plans — and just letting the weight loss occur naturally from there.
“There are no weigh-ins. People can weigh themselves whenever they want,” she said of her Hoopes 4 Health lifestyle coaching initiative based out of Launch Fishers. “I don’t tell people which diet to go on … they pick out one they feel would fit their lifestyle best. They actually make the choice of which diet they’re going to go on and what food plan they’re going to use. It’s really a lot more focused on health and instead of losing weight — although there are a lot of people who come to the meetings because they want to lose weight — but the nice part about it is if you eat nutritionally then you naturally start to lose weight. It all works together and works out.”
A certified health lifestyle coach, Hoopes spent six years as a Weight Watchers leader before resigning to launch Hoopes 4 Health, which operates on a more personal and individually tailored basis.
“What I found is that there’s no one diet that works for everybody. It’s so important for everybody to understand what their personal needs are and come up with a diet that’s better for their particular lifestyle,” she said. “I saw a lot of people fall between the cracks if certain diets weren’t working for them and they weren’t successful. They think they failed, when really the diet failed them. This is all about them learning what particular food plan is best for their particular purpose.”
An Ohio native having lived in Fishers for 11 years, Hoopes was first inspired toward a healthy lifestyle after seeing family members become upwards of 100 pounds overweight.
“So I knew that’s where I would end up, too, if I wasn’t doing what I’m doing now,” she said. “This is an opportunity to pay it forward. I can bring this service to other people and help them maybe do it quicker and better than I did.”
Hoopes 4 Health offers a 10-week series with weekly meetings at Launch Fishers, 12175 Visionary Way.
“What I encourage every single person to do is come up with their own personal goals for how they want to eat, their personal goals for activity and personal goals about behaviors,” Hoopes said. “There’s no particular diet you go on, and it really takes a lot of introspection. We cover a different topic every week and then it’s really focused on lifetime or permanent healthy lifestyles instead of going on a diet, losing the weight, putting it back on again and going on another diet. That gets frustrating and tiresome.”
For more, visit Facebook.com/Hoopes4Health.
