Women2Women - Spring 2018 - 44

Health2Wellness

Balancing Act

an Interview with Linda Barilani,

President/Owner at BeBalanced Hormone Weight Loss Center, Wyomissing
By Sara Frassinelli, Marketing Associate, GRCA

Q. How did you become associated with
BeBalanced Hormone Weight Loss
Centers?
A. I was franchise shopping and I'm on the

more "natural" side of things. I think if you
have a balanced body, you're healthier. I went
to Lancaster and met with Dawn, who is the
founder [of BeBalanced]. I wasn't going to
buy the franchise if it didn't work. At that
point in my life, I slept maybe three hours
a night - and not for lack of trying. I tried
everything: hops, lavender, you name it, I
tried it. I just couldn't sleep. I also had night
sweats and thought I could lose ten pounds
or so, happily. Well, I went on the program.
I lost sixteen pounds, so shame on me for
thinking I only had ten! I sleep like a baby,
I don't have any night sweats anymore. It
literally changed my life, so I bought the
franchise. It's a very fulfilling job to see these
women come in here miserably unhappy and
come back... well, we just had a client who
couldn't wait to take her coat off and show
us the new her!

Q. Tell us more about hormone balancing.
What is it and how can it help with
weight loss?
A. It's important to have your hormones

balanced for your health, not just weight
loss. Progesterone and estrogen should be
level. When they're not, estrogen can become
dominant in women. Estrogen dominance is
responsible for a lot of fun things, like low
libido, vaginal dryness, weight gain, insomnia,
mood swings. We help to get the progesterone
back up and in balance with the estrogen. For
someone who doesn't want to lose any weight,
we put them on a cream program where you
use an adrenal support in the morning and a
progesterone at night. Everything we do here
is all natural and homeopathic. There are no
chemicals or drugs involved. That progesterone
will help bring the levels up to the estrogen
level. And there would be counseling also

44 Women2Women Spring 2018

Dawn Cutillo, founder of BeBalanced, Linda Barilani, owner of Wyomissing location of BeBalanced and
Kelly Rickenbach manager of Wyomissing location

on how to get the stress hormone, cortisol,
down. Cortisol robs our progesterone. As
for the weight loss, we do an eight-week
program. We give them a list of what they
eat and tell them how to eat it. We suggest
organic, because it is all about good eating.
After the 28-day diet, they do "maintenance"
for 21 days. That maintenance is when they
lock in their weight. In maintenance, we also
have the ladies go on the cream to keep that
progesterone going up and to support the
adrenals. After maintenance, we go through
lifestyle to find out the rapid weight-gainers
and what their food sensitivities are, and
then teach them how to live and incorporate
things back into their life. It's not just, "here's
a diet," it's a whole program and we help them
understand what's going on. What we see is
a lot of food sensitivities where people will
come in here with awful pain and they'll leave
with no pain and they're off their medicine.
It changes their life.

Q. As such a new business, what are
your goals for 2018?
A. I want to spread it to as many women as

possible. Men, too, but I'm kind of partial
to women. They have a bigger challenge
than men do, let's face it. When men go on
the program, they lose weight much more
quickly. But, to spread it to as many women
as possible, just to help them.

Q. What should women know before
beginning their entrepreneurial journey?
A. Look at everything, do your homework. I

looked at other franchises, seeing what they
were doing, how successful they were. We spoke
with corporate numerous times, wanting to
know: do they have your back, are they going
to be there for you, that kind of thing. And, be
prepared, because there's a lot of money going
in, but also the time and effort you have to put
in, so you really have to love what you're doing.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Women2Women - Spring 2018