Emily D. Baker, a former deputy district attorney, has transformed her life in recent years, embarking on a journey that has taken her from the courtroom to YouTube stardom and a commitment to a healthier lifestyle. This article explores her career change, entrepreneurial pursuits, and her dedication to weight loss and overall well-being.
From Law to Legal Commentary
Baker grew up in Manhattan Beach, California, and earned her Juris Doctor degree from Southwestern Law School. She worked as a deputy district attorney before transitioning to a career as a legal YouTube commentator in 2020. Her coverage of the Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard trial catapulted her to fame, attracting a large audience to her YouTube channel.
Baker's success on YouTube has allowed her to become a full-time content creator and legal analyst. She provides commentary on legal issues affecting online businesses and shares her experiences as an entrepreneur.
Embracing Entrepreneurship
Baker's journey into entrepreneurship began after the birth of her youngest child in 2012. She realized that she wanted to create a different life for herself and her family. This led her to retire from her legal career and start her own business.
Baker and her husband are both self-employed and are raising two boys. She understands the challenges of balancing work and family life and shares her insights on how to make life easier as an entrepreneur.
Read also: How Emily and Kobe lost weight
Weight Loss and a Healthier Lifestyle
Baker's commitment to a healthier lifestyle is another significant aspect of her journey. She has openly discussed her struggles with weight and her efforts to transform her health.
The Turning Point
Emily Conley Baker, a 34-year-old mom, felt that being overweight was simply her destiny, something genetic. Her father's death at 61 served as a wake-up call. The thought of her own children losing their mother motivated her to make a change.
Weight-Loss Surgery
Inspired by her brothers' success, Baker underwent weight-loss surgery in May 2021, weighing 320 pounds. In the first month, she lost 30 pounds. After a year, she reached 185 pounds and has maintained it since. She says, “I feel like the surgery saved my life. It really helped me get my life back on track.”
Mental Shift
Losing weight has helped Baker feel better in her body from the inside out, and it's also helped her shift the way she thinks about herself. “Mentally, before, I had conversations in my head about my physical body and appearance. It wasn’t good,” she says. Baker is no longer burdened by the negative self-talk and body image issues she once was. Plus, she’s no longer resigned to an early death - she has hope for her future.
Running Journey
Baker started running in early August 2021, after recovering from weight-loss surgery. She began with just 15 seconds of running on a treadmill, gradually increasing the duration. She challenged herself to run a 5K by her birthday and eventually transitioned to outdoor runs.
Read also: Ashley Park: A story of resilience and success
Baker joined a running club and trained for a half-marathon and the New York City Marathon. She found that running improved her mental health and helped her achieve her goals.
Mindful Eating
During marathon training, Baker ate a lot of carbs. Now that she’s running shorter distances, she’s balancing her proteins, fats and carbs: “I allow myself to eat what I want when I want, but I listen to my body.” She aims to eat whole, nutritious foods most of the time.
Baker has learned that while something like mini-pizzas might not be the healthiest choice, it can be a part of her overall diet. “It doesn’t work in our house to have multiple dinners, so I make sure I’m eating something the kids will also eat. We’re not perfect 100% of the time. That was a mindset I had to change - before, one bad meal would have derailed me,” she says. “Now, I don’t even want to call it a bad meal. I’m allowed to eat something that might not have as much nutritional value and still have a nutritious meal the next time. I’m looking at food differently. It’s like I’m taking the power away from the food.”
Support System
Baker emphasizes the importance of having a support system. She joined a running club and found a coach who helps her with her mind, body, and everything in between.
"For so long, I felt so alone in my struggle with my weight and how I felt,” she says. “Now I’m in an environment where people are motivating and encouraging and feeling the same way, and that’s what’s helped me more than anything else,” she says. "I couldn’t get enough of it because it was just people exactly like me … it kind of lights a spark within you, you have this moment of like, wow, they’ve made themselves and their movement a priority today. I want to go and do that for myself."“They’re total strangers, but they’re rooting for you. There’s so much value in that,” she adds.
Read also: Postpartum Weight Loss Journey
Self-Prioritization
“I’ve learned that when I make myself a priority, it allows so much more room for me to then make my children a priority, to make the people I care for a priority, and to make my goals a priority. You have to care for yourself. It’s not selfish. You can’t pour from an empty cup,” she says.
Baker, who is now a running instructor and a certified personal trainer, also wants her children to learn from her example: “I want my children to understand you can make good decisions about your health and you can change your life at any point.
Slimming World Success
Another weight loss journey worth mentioning is Emily's experience with Slimming World. She had been overweight for a long time and had tried calorie counting before, but she found it too restrictive. She discovered Slimming World Online and decided to give it a try.
Meal Planning
When I joined, I learnt all about Slimming World’s Food Optimising eating plan and was given so many tools to help me stay on track. I realised that, for me, planning was key, and the online Planner made it easy to see how my meals fitted into the plan. I still use the barcode scanner on the app whenever I’m at the supermarket - I just scan as I shop, so I know I’m making the right choices for me.
Enjoyable Eating
I also love browsing the huge online recipe collection for inspiration, and there’s always something new to try. Joining Slimming World has really brought out a passion for food and now I’m cooking from scratch most days - things like chilli meatball bakes, Mexican chicken mole and home-made bacon and cheese burgers. I really enjoy making ‘fakeaway’ versions of my favourite takeaways, too. Though if I do want to eat out or enjoy a takeaway, Food Optimising is so flexible that I can do that and still lose weight.
Gradual Exercise
Within just four months of joining Slimming World Online, I’d lost around 2st and felt able to start adding some activity into my routine. Slimming World supports members to get active through its Body Magic programme, and you can log your progress and work through the set of Body Magic awards online. I got off to a bit of a false start, as I took up running and immediately suffered with awful shin splints - so I switched to long walks instead. So many everyday activities count as Body Magic and the point is to get moving more, in a way that’s manageable and enjoyable, and to build it up bit by bit. As I continued to lose weight, I soon felt able to give running another go. Now I run between five and 12km every week. I used to find that the weather was a barrier to me getting outside, but these days I actually prefer running in the rain to jogging on hot and sunny days! And if I really can’t get out, I do a quick 20-minute workout in my living room to get my heart pumping. I found that being active boosted my motivation to stay on plan, and within a year of joining, I’d lost 4st 7lbs and hit my target weight!
Emily felt so much more confident and was thrilled when she found the dress of her dreams. The big day finally came in October 2021, two years after starting her slimming journey, and it was absolutely perfect. I felt amazing in my beautiful dress.
Jayne Jones' No-Sugar Journey
Jayne Jones, a lawyer and baker, faced a life-threatening health scare that led her to completely transform her diet and lifestyle. After experiencing severe diabetes-related complications, including temporary blindness, Jones embarked on a journey to eliminate sugar from her diet.
Diagnosis and Dietary Changes
Jones was diagnosed with diabetes and severe hyperglycemia after suffering from intense stomach pain and vision problems. Her doctor warned her that she had only a few years to live if she didn't make drastic changes to her nutrition.
Jones followed her doctor's recommendations, which included:
- Eating half of every plate with lettuce and a low-sugar dressing.
- Consuming a quarter of the plate with a protein of her choice.
- Eating a small portion of a "good carb," such as a small potato or spoonful of rice.
- Drinking half her body weight in water (in ounces) daily.
- Quitting all diet teas, drinks, and fruit-flavored beverages, even if they are sugar-free.
- Practicing intermittent fasting, starting at 7 pm each night for a 12 hour period.
The Soup That Started Her Comeback
A few months after her diagnosis, Jones started experimenting with sugar-free recipes. She created a sugar-free version of cheeseburger soup for her family, which was a success.
An Unexpected Following
Jones' daughter encouraged her to start a blog called "The No-Sugar Baker." She shared her recipes and experiences with eliminating sugar from her diet. She says, “I’m not going to be the person who is a fitness model saying you can never have a candy bar again in your life,” said Jones. “I’m the real deal - I understand. Every single day I wake up thinking ‘Okay, what are you going to use as fuel for your body today?’”
Sugar Substitutes
Her recipes include a few distinct swaps that allowed her to continue her love for sweet treats, while sticking to her life-saving plan:
- Swapping Swerve, an all-natural root vegetable sweetener, for sugar, available in confectioners, granular, and more.
- Switching to sugar-free chocolate chips (she prefers Lily’s dark chocolate chips, with no sugar added) for regular chocolate chips
- Using “no sugar added” deli-style fresh peanut butter, which just uses ground peanuts, in place of peanut butter
- Transitioning to other types of flours over all-purpose, such as almond flour, high protein flour, etc. However, if it has to rise, she recommends avoiding almond flour.
Favorite Recipes
Jones continues to modify new recipes that she loves as a part of her no sugar lifestyle. Here are a few of her favorites:
- No Sugar Baker’s Holy Smokes Pumpkin Bars
- No Sugar Baker’s Lemon Raspberry Crumb Cake
- No Sugar Baker’s Turtle Brownies
- No Sugar Baker’s Christmas Morning Blueberry Scones
The Importance of Commitment
“I can’t cheat. The second I cheat, the eyes are going to go. Knowing that feeling? It sucks. I couldn’t see my daughter on the volleyball court,” she said. For those reasons, she says the weight loss journey was actually easy. She’d decided in that defining moment that this was now a way of life, for the rest of her life. “If I miss that 40 minute walk each day, everything is off-kilter,” she said, adding that she now eats because she’s hungry, instead of “because it was lunchtime.”