Imagine being on a diet for 20 years but having weight slowly creep on until you were 50 pounds overweight. That was Jennifer's story until she started working with Couture Coaching and completely changed her nutrition and exercise habits. In this episode, Coach Jo interviews Jennifer and Couture Coach Janine about how Jennifer overhauled her metabolism and lost 50 pounds and six bra sizes! Listen up to learn:
Thanks for listening, we hope you enjoyed it. Follow us for more tips, tricks, and support in our private Facebook Group, Boost Your Metabolism After Age 30.
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Check at our website and blog.
Grab our free mini course - The REAL Reason you can't lose weight
Want to start boosting your metabolism today? Buy our $79 DIY, self-paced "Master Your Metabolism" course.
Want customized plan for boosting your metabolism? Learn more about our 1:1 coaching
Reserve your spot with a Couture Coach: Buy a 1:1 coaching package
Imagine being on a diet for 20 years but having weight slowly creep on until you were 50 pounds overweight. That was Jennifer's story until she started working with Couture Coaching and completely changed her nutrition and exercise habits. In this episode, Coach Jo interviews Jennifer and Couture Coach Janine about how Jennifer overhauled her metabolism and lost 50 pounds and six bra sizes! Listen up to learn:
Thanks for listening, we hope you enjoyed it. Follow us for more tips, tricks, and support in our private Facebook Group, Boost Your Metabolism After Age 30.
Take our FREE quiz: What's Sabotaging Your Metabolism?
Follow us on Instagram @couture_fitness_coaching
Check at our website and blog.
Grab our free mini course - The REAL Reason you can't lose weight
Want to start boosting your metabolism today? Buy our $79 DIY, self-paced "Master Your Metabolism" course.
Want customized plan for boosting your metabolism? Learn more about our 1:1 coaching
Reserve your spot with a Couture Coach: Buy a 1:1 coaching package
Well, hello everyone, welcome to the podcast. You've just got Joe here, but I have two very special guests on today's podcast. I have Jennifer and her coach, jeanine. Jennifer is probably one of our biggest success stories. I'll touch more on that in a second.
Speaker 1:First, let me tell you what's going on at Couture Coaching. We are in the middle of our October Metabolic Makeover Program. That's our one-on-one coaching package. We will be enrolling for that again starting in December, and it will kick off again in January. If, after listening to Jennifer's story, you're inspired and want to work with one of our coaches in a one-on-one capacity, you'll be able to sign up for that in December. I would suggest getting on a consult call to see if that's something that you're interested in. If you don't want to wait until December, we do have our $79 Master Year Metabolism course and we will walk you through what our coaches would walk you through to help you boost your metabolism. You just won't have the one-on-one coaching support. So that's what we've got going on at Couture Coaching.
Speaker 1:Like I mentioned, I have Jennifer and Jeanine here and we're going to talk about Jennifer's success story from a case study perspective. So Jennifer is going to talk about what was going on when she came to us, and then Jeanine is going to walk us through her strategies as a coach in terms of helping Jennifer get success, and we'll talk about all sorts of other things too. But, jennifer, do you want to talk to us about sort of your before story? What was going on, what you were doing from a nutrition standpoint, from an exercise standpoint, and the results you were getting from those sorts of things, what you were doing before.
Speaker 2:Hi, what I was doing before was Weight Watchers and I had been doing Weight Watchers for almost 20 years. Activity-wise, I just wasn't really doing much of anything. I do some HIIT training, but I wouldn't say it was a consistent program that I was following. In terms of calorie intake, I think I was between 11 and 1200 calories a day. So I was tired, didn't have any energy, just was like blah.
Speaker 1:I was overweight yeah, 60 pounds, 60 pounds, okay, I was going to ask that, yeah. And then we have realized in sort of working with ladies of all ladies, that there are kind of different categories of dieters. So we have the people who are the yo-yo dieters like who've tried every diet known to man. They might be on a diet on Monday and off of it by Friday. We have what I call the Weight Watchers for Life people who get hooked up with Weight Watchers, or maybe Jenny Craig or something like that, and then they're just like on it for most of their entire adult life. We have the Food Scavenger, who isn't necessarily intentionally dieting but just doesn't really put much priority on nutrition, so they catch-of-catch can nutrition. We have the people who fast. The list kind of goes on and on what kind of diet are you?
Speaker 2:Well, I did the Weight Watchers. That's really all I've ever done. I mean, maybe years ago, like years and years ago, I did some other ones, but really the majority has been Weight Watchers.
Speaker 1:Okay, so would you say that you were consistently on Weight Watchers all those years, like did you ever leave the program? Or was it just you were practicing it in some capacity all those?
Speaker 2:years. Yeah, I was practicing it in some capacity. I lost 70 pounds on Weight Watchers and then I started working with them because I didn't want to gain all that weight back, right, and so that's what I did and I kept it off. I had three kids, kept it off pretty much other than being pregnant, and then it slowly started creeping up and creeping up and I'd do whatever like workout or, and it just didn't, wasn't really shifting my weight and it just wasn't giving me any results. And every year, weight Watchers changes their programming, which is more like a marketing strategy, not Not even though they say it's a lifestyle change. When you're changing your dieting program every year, how does that that impacts your lifestyle? Every year and you're learning different calories, different points of foods. All of a sudden, this food doesn't have points, or it does. I mean you have a banana and it was like did you want to have a banana and use those two points for a banana when you could eat something else? And that's just not. I mean it's just ridiculous.
Speaker 1:Now, when I look back at it, Okay, but you were pretty loyal to Weight Watchers and pretty Pretty much doing it in some capacity for all those years.
Speaker 2:It towards the end. I wasn't, but yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, I can understand you're probably very frustrated, okay so, and I didn't do a very good job of introducing you, so tell us how old you are. You said you had three kids and kind of a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'm 55. I have three sons, two in college, one in high school, and I'm married to my husband for almost 25 years.
Speaker 1:I work part-time, okay, yeah, I was going to ask if you work or yeah, I work part-time for a federal agency. Okay, all right, janine, what was Janine as her coach, her amazing coach? Tell us your strategy for getting Jennifer's metabolism back to working order and just things that you were thinking about as you started working with her, and things like that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So the first thing that I recognized was just how low her calories were and we instantly knew we needed to reverse and spend time restoring her metabolism, getting her calories back up, getting her more protein. If I remember, jennifer, your protein was pretty low when you first came to us. As well, excuse me and so we? That was the focus, like from the very beginning. It was okay. If we're going to get to a place of losing weight, we first have to spend the time getting your metabolism back in a better place.
Speaker 3:Now, jennifer, her body actually responded very well to increasing calories where she actually was losing weight through a reverse, which is not everybody does that, but her body clearly was just so hungry for some food and needed some food. And then her following the plan, meaning she's getting her steps in and also lifting her weights and then fueling her body in a proper way. So a healthy balance of protein, carbs and fats not just eating more food really starting to fuel her body with adding protein, I think is really what helps. But the way that we approach Jennifer is we increased her calories for about probably four months, got her calories back up to 1800. It actually might have been a little closer to five months, pushed even higher.
Speaker 3:Then, once we felt like she was eating in at calorie maintenance or higher, for at least a solid three months we went into calorie deficit. We stayed there probably for about 12 weeks. But one thing that was really good is Jennifer really paid attention to the cues that her body was giving her. So we actually got to a point where we could have decreased her calories more if she wanted to. But she was very open in communicating with me and her communication was very strong. Jennifer, I remember the day you and I talked and funny, or just like I'm just tired I've started wanting to take a nap in the afternoon and that's not normal.
Speaker 3:And so that was a cue of your body like kind of being exhausted, of being in this calorie deficit, and we kind of had stopped seeing some results too right. The scale had kind of stalled out and so it was well, we can either cut calories again or we could start reversing. And so after we had spoken and you had kind of told me that you just kind of felt low on energy and just almost like brain fog a little bit right, like not really, but just in that sense we decided to reverse, becca, knowing that that might mean maybe the scale stops moving and stops changing. And it kind of did right. It stalled out a little bit through that second round of maintenance but you knew, based on your first two cycles of what we have done, that it was gonna work and so you stayed committed, I think you I remember you telling me you enjoyed increasing your food again and being able to have your I think it's an American dream nut butter.
Speaker 3:So much at that time so you're able to kind of have more of that. Add that back in right, because you do, you have to. When you're going through your whether you're in a calorie surplus or even out maintenance, you can have more flexibility right and enjoy some more treats, and when you're cutting your calories, you can sell treats, but maybe a little bit. You have to be a little bit more cognizant of when you're having them or what else you're having throughout the day. And then we just we did the cycle again and I think we repeated it about three times over the last two years Of increasing calories and decreasing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Okay, so you would say three periods where you were intentionally getting calories up to of 1,800 calories and then three cycles of cutting. How far, how low did you have to take her calories at any given cycle? Do you remember?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, Jennifer, I don't think we went below like 1,500 calories over. Is that something about 1,000?
Speaker 2:We did go like 1,400 something once. I think 1,400, okay, and I remember just the whole like calories being decreased. I was almost in a panic because I got so used to eating over 2,000 calories and then I thought to myself wait a minute, I used to eat less than this. I mean, you're cutting me, and the lowest you're cutting me, I'm still eating more than I ever ate before.
Speaker 3:So once I got my brain around that I was good and also, I think, too, like we weren't going to stay that low for long, right? No, like you knew, this is a short, a short period of time, right? Yep, yep.
Speaker 1:Mm-hmm. Okay, so several dieting cycles, what? How did you approach exercise with her? What did you have her doing?
Speaker 3:So Jennifer was lifting. Was it three days or four days a week? Jennifer Three.
Speaker 2:I think you started at three.
Speaker 3:Yeah, okay, and so she was doing a good weightlifting plan and she just hit 10,000 steps a day, so we might have implemented. Remind me, jennifer, did we implement hit cardio towards the end? Nope.
Speaker 3:Okay, we never did, because I remember when I talked about it and you really didn't want to, no, so we never pulled the trigger of adding in more cardio. So she just was consistent with her lifting and consistent with her steps Every single day she would make sure she would get her steps. I mean, Jennifer would tell me she'd be walking around the first floor of her house making sure she got her steps when that weather was nasty outside in the middle of winter. So you want to talk about it yeah, before I hit midnight.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you want to talk about commitment. I mean, jennifer was committed, 100% committed, to the plan and then, over the course of the two years, you and your husband decided to make the decision to invest in some more weightlifting equipment at home, which gave us more opportunities to change up your lifts and to continue to push yourself in your lifting. But so that's really that's all that we did. We never added in cardio to steps and lifting.
Speaker 1:Okay, so, Jennifer, what was like the grand result of doing this Like? How can you summarize your results for us?
Speaker 2:in terms of feeling.
Speaker 1:Well, just let's talk. What people want to hear is like pounds lost, inches lost. Let's start with that.
Speaker 2:Oh, you know what? I don't even know. Let's see, I know I lost almost 50 pounds on the inches. I'm sorry, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's multiples, I think, maybe across like all body parts, like, yeah, like 11 inches.
Speaker 2:I mean this sounds terrible, that I don't know. But weight watchers it was all about the scale and that was their only measure. And working with you guys, I learned that that's just one little piece of the pie. Right, it's one measure and it's really a little measure. So just the fact that my body has changed, my body composition has changed. I look leaner, I feel better, I don't have the brain fog that I had at the beginning, I have more energy, All that is a lot more to me. Where people ask me what size do you wear? Now I don't know. I mean whatever, I do know that I went down six bra sizes, which I'm quite proud of. I'm a bra bomber what?
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's it and I think I have to go again and be refit because I know I've changed since then but I haven't strained myself to go because I don't like to go bra shopping. But most women can relate with that to that.
Speaker 1:For sure. So OK, so pretty amazing result. So I always think about you and I think everyone wants to hear, like I said, or most people are like oh wow, 50 pounds and that is a lot of weight to lose. But I think of you as one of our biggest success stories because of how high we got your calories. I mean to take someone from 1,200 calories to over 2,000 calories a day, a working mom with three kids. If you haven't experienced that, you might think like who cares Big deal? But literally from running on fumes to nourishing your body. So can you talk? That's a real to my thinking. Yes, the weight loss is wonderful, but that's a real quality of life changer. Can you speak to that aspect? Just how different and the fact that you got to lose your weight while doing that? But just to me, when we can get someone's calories up, we can improve their energy. That's a better success story than just losing the weight. Do you want to speak to what a game changer being able to eat that much more food was for you?
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, it was kind of. It was just a strange experience, because every week or so Jeanine would change my macros. I'm like, oh my god, she's making me eat more food. There's no way I can do this. I mean, there were times that I was eating like five snacks before I went to bed because I couldn't eat at all.
Speaker 2:And it's not, and it was because of whatever I was doing throughout the day. I just didn't have time to eat or whatever. But I'm sitting here eating my American Dream peanut butter with apples and followed by I don't know, protein, protein bar, whatever, Like all these things. That was just one thing after another that I had to get just to hit my macros and it did help that, and I know it's not a normal thing, but I did lose 18 pounds while my calories were being pulled up, so that was a motivator in itself. But just the fact of the first week that Jeanine had me eat more food I felt the brain fog went away.
Speaker 2:That first week I had more energy. I wasn't needing to nap. So that alone that first week, if nothing else had happened, that motivated me to continue, because I felt so much better in my head. And just the fact that I shouldn't it's not like I'm running a marathon every day that I need to take a nap. I shouldn't be napping. So that alone just made me feel better and made me want to keep plugging away.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just a real game changer for how you feel in life and, like I said, I just think, a real quality of life improvement when you can start eating enough to nourish your body. So, from my perspective, that's why you're one of our biggest success stories, because we really, I think, probably improved your quality of life to a big extent by just eating more. Very true, yeah, ok. So, janine, from a coach's perspective, why was Jennifer successful?
Speaker 3:I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is just her commitment. So her commitment and her open communication with me Every single week that I would sit down and take a look and do a check-in with her. I would come into an email from her, which was so helpful. But she, just from the very beginning and I think maybe it was that first week, jennifer you just made up your mind that this is what you were going to do and it didn't matter how long it was going to take. And I think because you not only saw just the scale and we always just all focus on the scale and what the number of scale is but you recognize and were very aware of all the other positive changes that the program was doing in your life. And so, as soon as you recognize that, you immediately became committed right, because you already proven that you could stick to a plan by doing Weight Watchers but being committed to something different. You did that right away.
Speaker 3:But the other piece of it really was just her open communication, right, and so she would express when maybe it's hard to get my food in this week or I'm struggling with this this week, and we could talk through it together and we could bounce ideas off of each other, right, and say, maybe try this, maybe try that. Being very open about how our body was feeling right. I'm having more energy, this is feeling good, I like this. I'm struggling to hit my fat target, like how many grams of fat I'm supposed to eat each day. So the open communication, I think, was another piece that just helped her continue to stay committed, because it wasn't just like she was hitting her brick wall. I'm struggling with this and I don't know where to go.
Speaker 3:And that's where, jennifer, you said before potentially like oh, I'm just going to get in, I'm just going to learn what to do and then I'll take it from there, sometimes having that coach there come alongside you and be able to guide you along the way. But you ultimately have to make the commitment to take the advice or to ask the question and to seek the advice, and so I think that's where you made it. So it was in some ways, like I don't mean it bad. You made it so easy for me because you communicated so well and we really I felt like we were a great team and you were committed. I knew every single time you were committed. So I think that's really how she became probably one of our biggest success stories.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, okay, so you've coached a lot of ladies. What do you think that the factor or the key factor for success is? Is it how fast their body is responding or how quickly they're getting results that dictates whether someone is successful, or is it something else?
Speaker 3:I think that to determine if someone is successful, it really is, their mindset plays a really big part in this journey, because it does not happen overnight Anything that is worth having, anything that is worth your time. It's not going to be a quick fix, and so I think you have to get in the right mindset and you have to be willing to put the work in and be willing to be honest with yourself about where you're at in your journey and how you got there, and know that if that's not where you want to be and you want to be somewhere else, it's going to take some time to get there too. And so I think that's the biggest thing. I see my clients who can get their mindset in a good place early on in the program and understand that I didn't get here overnight. It's not going to be overnight for me to get out of here. They're the ones who have the most success and also the ones who don't meet themselves up every time they slightly derail.
Speaker 3:Jennifer, I remember there's a handful of times you had things come up and maybe you couldn't track for a few days, or you tracked, but you knew it just couldn't be a priority because of other circumstances that were going on in your life. But you didn't just allow that to let you throw that entire week or even that entire month away. It was let me get through these three days and I'm going to get right back on track on Thursday. And so I think that also having that discipline and that ability to know that I'm doing this for me and I have to get back on track, but also giving yourself a little bit of grace, is really where I see Jennifer and some of my other clients have some really good success.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, well, that raises the next topic. So you mentioned, I think, any coach that you talked to in this space in terms of what the biggest predictor of success is for long term weight loss, physique change, changing your body composition, getting your metabolism into a good, healthy spot, and keeping it there is mindset is the most important thing. Jennifer, do you want to talk about mindset shifts that you feel like you had, that had to happen for you to stick with this for two years, and that you experienced along the way?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, I guess the first thing is I had to be honest with myself that I didn't wake up one morning 50 pounds overweight. You know that weight slowly like crept up on me to. I got to that point or 60 pounds overweight, whatever it was. So I had to realize that I'm not going to just wake up one morning. This weight is all going to be gone. This isn't a quick fix and I had to give myself Kind of like not the excuse, but I had to. I guess, like it was going to take a long time and I just hit and maybe not, but I had to give, give myself the time to do whatever my body needed to do. So I mean, when I originally signed up with you guys, I signed up for, just like you know, three months. I thought I'll just figure this out and I can do it on my own and I'll lose all that weight in three months. Because you know you look online and that happens all over the place. I think people lost all this weight in three months.
Speaker 2:And then I started working with you guys and you know the first thing Janine said was you know you need to, you need to eat more food. I'm like, oh my gosh, she's lost her mind. I have to eat more food, what you know. And as soon as I was like, you know, I'm going to trust the process, so they know what they're talking about. And so I listened to what Janine said and and I had to trust what she said, even though I maybe was unsure or, you know, nervous about it. So I did and I had to, you know. So I worked on that, trusting the process. And then I had to, you know, trust what she said about eating. So you know, all my life I was like, oh, the less you eat, the better, so that you, you know, don't gain weight, and that's really not true. So eat more food. She says. So, eat more food. I did, and I just kept doing whatever she told me I did. I had to be patient, patient with myself, realize that life happens. And Janine did mention about there were sometimes where, you know, things were going on in my life and, okay, I knew that I was going to hit my macros or my macros were going to be way off where they should be, and so I still track them and I just moved on and you know, and then I see, well, even if I did this. This is what happened and it's just almost just data in my spreadsheets that I could see. Well, this is what happened and you know what. I got past it and I moved on and you just have to let. You have to let life happen, and that you know we've all had you have children or you don't have children. Things always happen in life and you can't just use that as an excuse.
Speaker 2:Another thing was and you, you kept drilling this into my head, joe about the scale, about the scale, and that's just one little bit of data that we use. And when you know, I started, I had to weigh in every day with you guys. I was like, oh no, this is not going to happen. And at first I was very apprehensive about doing it. You know, I had to most psych myself up to get on the scale. I mean, now I just get on the scale every day. It's not a big deal, it's just a number, you know. Log it in and move on my merry way. It's not a big deal. It took me a while to get past that and I did have to shift. You know my mindset that whatever is on that scale is really not the end all of anything. So you just have to move on. So that was that's about it with my mind, oh, and that my body is doing science. So you have to be patient. Let your body do what it's doing, and you know, I'm happy I did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, kind of trust that if you give it the right inputs it will eventually cooperate with you.
Speaker 2:And then in terms of exercise, like I didn't have to kill myself doing cardio because that's what I thought you know and that's kind of almost like conditioned for a lot of us. You know you got to get that good sweat going, you have to run and you have to do this and you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Well, you don't have to do any of that and I am happy to say I didn't have to do any cardio other than my 10,000 steps a day, which wasn't cardio, it was just my 10,000 steps. I don't really consider that cardio.
Speaker 1:Okay, next question for you, kind of similar, is that? So lifestyle is kind of a buzzword these days around. Everything calls itself a lifestyle, but but we really do mean it, that this is a lifestyle, not a diet. What do you think the differences between a lifestyle and a diet is? Now that you have worked with us, you've lost your weight. It's taken, you know, a few years. How would you define the difference between a diet and a lifestyle?
Speaker 2:Well, I think of lifestyle is something that you can do without really even thinking about and it's like a normal process. I mean, some of these diets and they're mostly the fad diets, you know, like keto or what was the other one, atkins, or what you just ate meat. Yeah, all these crazy ones that you just eat certain things or you don't eat certain things. That's not reality, you know, people ask me what are you eating that you lost this weight, or what are you not eating? And the thing is, I eat whatever I want and really do you know?
Speaker 2:it doesn't mean I eat four scoops of ice cream at one time, but I might have one, or I might have two, and I can. I just have to be intentional and fit it into my day if it can be fit in. And if I'm in a cut I might not get to eat that ice cream, or I might, or I'll have half of a scoop or whatever it's. You just fit stuff in and you don't deprive yourself. And I think if you deprive yourself, that's not a lifestyle, that's your, it's just craziness and it just derails you because you're limiting yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I've always thought of lifestyle as kind of a collection of your habits, which I guess you know, and at the point that you can incorporate these things that we ask you to do you know, eating to nourish your body in a particular way, lifting weights a few times a week, getting you know not being sedentary Once you, once those become part of your daily habits, then then you have the.
Speaker 1:you have a lifestyle as part of your lifestyle versus diet has always been like very there's like an end point, right, like you're gonna do these a few things for a little while and then, when the weight's gone, you get to go back to your old life and so that's not what this is. You really are changing those key habits around exercise and nutrition. Do you feel like that stuck for you, like that it has turned into a lifestyle for you?
Speaker 2:I mean there are days that like I can't get my lifting in or like something might happen, where you know, because I basically schedule my lifting, you know, and there's certain days I do my lifting or whatever, and I might, let's say, I miss a lifting for the week. I would actually miss it where before I've been like whatever, I feel like crap when I don't do my lifting, you know, and sometimes I have to drag my butt down into the basement and you know, I mean we have it's not, the gym is in my basement, I don't have to go anywhere, but I have to drag my butt down there and I don't want to do it. And as soon as I start, it's like it's not like you're at the spa, but you're like, oh, because you just feel better. You know. It's just a different kind of, I guess, like hi, I don't know, I just I just feel better mentally and physically.
Speaker 1:Yeah, now I totally know what you mean. It's. It settles my brain. That's how I experience it. Okay, janine, anything to add from the coach's perspective, as in terms of what it means for this to be a lifestyle? I?
Speaker 3:mean, I think Jennifer did a pretty good job talking about it from her perspective.
Speaker 3:But I would just say, you know it's it's really like you said to, you know forming your habits, and so you know, like, for my personal experience, you know, on the weekends I tend to make sure I get a little bit more protein, and earlier on in the day, because, before you know, the kids will be, you're busy and active, and sometimes those meals later in the day just aren't as protein heavy, right, and so I've just naturally started doing that and since I've done it over and over again, that's just naturally how I approach the weekends, you know. And so I think, as Jennifer was saying, it's not a matter of cutting anything out, it's just a matter of you know creating those habits that soon become second nature. And you do it because you feel good as a result, right, you feel good as a result of fueling your body properly, getting enough protein, things like that. And so you know, I think, I think that's that's really how it truly does become a lifestyle and not just a diet.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, yeah, okay, well, and on that note, do you, is there a favorite part of your new lifestyle, like, what is your favorite part of your new lifestyle in terms of sound? I mean, your nutrition has changed, your exercise habits have changed. Sounds like your mindset has changed. What what's your favorite part of, I guess, the new Jennifer well, don't have to pick.
Speaker 2:If I have to pick one, it's you'll be eating more food okay, okay, the nutrition piece, yeah, okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, that all makes sense because I always say, like you know, nutrition is it's kind of like money, it's like base energy. Right, I mean it's, it's a real, it is your energy. How what you eat is does dictate. You know how much energy you have and that dictates how you feel throughout the day and sometimes oh sorry, go ahead.
Speaker 2:Sometimes if I'm just like not tracking and like mentally tracking and I start noticing that I'm tired, you know now that it's not that I'm tired, it's a I need to eat more food. And as soon as I grab some protein, it totally changes.
Speaker 1:And I wouldn't have known that two years ago before starting this yeah, I think you definitely have to experience it to understand what we're talking about, how different you can feel. Okay, last thing I want to talk about is, you know, we kind of mentioned this. This was not a quick fix but and so I think some women might hear this and be like two years, I have to wait two years to reach my goal, or a year and a half to reach my goal. No, thank you, I'll go find some different way to do this. So, number one did you have to wait that long to see any changes? No, okay, okay, and so Any physical changes no.
Speaker 1:Any changes, like I mean no Okay.
Speaker 2:Like I said, the first week I noticed the changes with more energy, the brain fog was gone and I wasn't tired. That was the first week of just eating more food and that kind of drove me to continue and as I did. I mean, the good things happened and it wasn't quick and honestly I wouldn't want the quick fix because I just don't think that that would have been sustainable and it wouldn't have lasted. I mean, those weight has stayed off.
Speaker 1:Yeah. What do you think would have happened if you had just tried to do this by just dieting it off, meaning, just, you know, slashing calories, not incorporating the weight training, not doing the dieting cycles? Like what do you think the result have been?
Speaker 2:Oh, I'm sure I've been more. I would have been heavier than I. Okay, I'm sure. Okay, because I wasn't eating enough. My body was just like grabbing everything because I wasn't eating.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, and I guess, even if, by some miracle, doing that would have allowed you to lose the weight, do you think you would have looked just just again by slashing calories, not incorporating the weight training and all the protein and the way that we had you eat? Do you think you would have looked as good as you do now doing it the way that we prescribe?
Speaker 2:No, no, because I mean that's kind of the way Weight Watchers was. I did lose all that weight, but they didn't have any of the lifting as part of their program. So I mean, I did lose weight and I looked better than I was, you know, when I was 70 pounds heavier. I'm not going to lie about that. But I wasn't. I didn't have, you know, my muscles weren't developed or well. You couldn't even really see that I had muscles, but it was just. You know, the physique is a big thing too and it you really can't go by the scale because your fat, I mean the fat, goes away, but that muscle is just like solid.
Speaker 2:You know it's solid you know and it just makes you know when that, when that muscle is formed, it just makes your body look so much better.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I know that, like in your before and after pictures, like your posture is just totally different. Your back, you can just tell, is so much stronger, you're more, you know. You just have better postural support, which, yeah, if you just lose the weight, that's not necessarily going to give you that. So you know, women, a lot of women, just think, well, if I could just get the fat off my body, you know, then everything will be wonderful. But it's really that's not all this is doing. I mean, that's that's not the only goal here.
Speaker 2:No, I mean I'm stronger. I'm stronger from lifting weights, which I. That didn't happen before, yeah.
Speaker 3:And Jennifer, can we talk about real quick like do you feel like you're you're? You just said it right, so you're, probably are you lifting heavier weights than you ever thought you would.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 3:Okay, and so then the other thing too, because the other thing that I get from a lot of clients from time to time is but I don't want to get bulky, so I don't want to increase my weight, sorry, I don't want to get stronger. Do you feel like you have gotten bulky as a result of lifting weights and pushing yourself in your weight lifting? No, no, yeah, right Right. It takes a lot more than people realize to actually get bulky, bulky. Quote unquote right, yeah.
Speaker 2:Right, Right. Yeah, I mean I feel like I just look like quote, unquote, normal, but I don't even know if that's like the right word. You know I do have muscle and in certain pictures you see it and certain pictures you don't. But I feel I'm stronger. I can feel it when I, you know, when I'm lifting or doing, you know, even if I'm doing like a crunch or something like that, it's like, wow, I can do this and I can. I can actually feel, I can feel like the muscles working and it's just really a cool feeling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was. I was listening to a podcast this morning and they talked about how, no matter, just lifting weights makes life easier. No matter what your thing is, what what you love to do or you know you love to run while lifting weights is will make you a faster runner than running seven days a week. Well, not that you don't. You need to be doing some running if that's your thing or you want to get faster. But incorporating weight training into your life is going to just make you do everything better and make life better all the way around. You know, strength makes life easier, I think is the way to put that. So what you again?
Speaker 1:I think that gets lost on people that if you just lose the weight you won't, that won't necessarily make you stronger, or losing body fat is very different than building muscle. It's two different processes in the body and just because you lose the weight, you're not going to gain more muscle. Usually, you lose the muscle in the process of losing body fat, so it's actually quite the opposite. Okay, so what is your best advice for someone who might be listening, who has done something like weight watchers or some locale protocol for a long time? They're, they've hit middle age, they find themselves overweight and sort of maybe figured out that you know they're going to have to spend some time kind of getting their metabolism back into a good spot before they can focus on losing weight. What's your best advice to that person? And maybe they're thinking well, I don't, I don't want to spend a bunch of time, I just let's just get the show on the road.
Speaker 2:Well, I guess the first thing I would say is that you're going to have to suck it up, and you're going to have to do it, and you're going to have to be patient and you're going to have to realize that this is your personal journey. You're the one who's in charge. You can't compare yourself to other people. That's a big thing and as women, I feel like we do. I mean, we look in a magazine and you see some. You know, you see a model and you're like oh, look at her body, I'd love to have a body like that or what you know.
Speaker 2:And you have to stop all that and you just have to focus on yourself. You have to give yourself. You know, you have to be patient with yourself and give yourself the time. You know, once I realized that this wasn't going to happen overnight and I was all in, I attended every coaching call. I've got Joe isms in my head for like ever, and even now, when I'm like sometimes I feel like I'm slacking a little bit, you know Joe ism will come out. You know, stop farting around and it's like. You know, it's a good kick in my butt and and I need it. But you have to invest in yourself and you just have to realize this is a, it's a commitment to yourself.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think our well, Janine. What's your advice to that person? I mean, you've you've coached ladies that come to us, like I said, and all sort of different situations. So what's your advice to someone who might be thinking like, really, I have to eat, I have to spend a bunch of time eating more before I can even think about losing weight, or, you know, let's just get to the weight loss part of this.
Speaker 3:I think you know I just want to be like, just try it right, because everything that you've tried before isn't working. The hardest part is is the mindset piece, like we talked about before. It really is. And so I think you know listening to stories like Jennifer's to see how really investing the time, you know it's one thing for a coach to say it, but to listen to somebody who's lived it and breathe it and you know, you know you're not going to get results and feel so much better.
Speaker 3:I think that's where sometimes we can get the motivation to to be patient ourselves with our results, and so I would probably say that you know, like I said earlier, you didn't get where you are overnight. So you have to be patient with yourself to get out of that place right, because it's not going to happen overnight either. But the other thing, too, is just mean you got to ditch the scale, because I think that's what everybody is so focused on is what that scales is and and, honestly, how they look in the mirror, and you got to know that that's going to change over time. But it takes hard work, dedication, discipline, like, and we all have that within us. We just sometimes have to find the motivation to stick to something. Discipline takes practice. It takes practice. You know, just become disciplined. It takes practice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I always say everyone loves the results of discipline, but it's not fun in the moment to right to do what you say you're going to do Sometimes. You know what I mean. You know it means practicing restraint in some regard. It's not, it doesn't feel fun in the moment, but we all love the results of discipline. So and I think that the other thing and, jeanine, maybe you can speak to this is usually like for the women are like oh, I don't have an entire year to you know, number one, you're not waiting a year to get results, you're going to start.
Speaker 1:It's okay to give, to recognize the wins along the way. You don't. You don't have to wait until you've lost all your weight to let yourself feel better or feel accomplished or feel successful. But number two, the ladies who try to go find some quick fix or like, oh, I'm not doing that, that's not going to happen fast enough. I can't think of a case where they haven't just prolonged how long it actually is going to take.
Speaker 1:You know, okay, let's say you go find some bad diet that gets five pounds off quickly, or something you know. If you've got 50 pounds to lose, that you know, okay, yay, you probably lost a bunch of water weight. It's going to come back on and then you'll spend more time getting that weight off versus just getting started on the process. It almost always always makes the process longer when you sort of deny the reality of your situation. That's just what tends to happen. So I think getting realistic about that is also something that's probably advisable. So, um, okay, well, I think that's all the questions I had for you. Anything that either of you want to add to the conversation or let ladies know about this journey for you, jennifer.
Speaker 2:Um well, just that, if you trust the process and you put the work in, you'll get the results. I mean, it's really that simple.
Speaker 2:You know, I listened to what you said, I listened to what Jeanine said. I made sure to give her feedback every week and and I was truthful about it, you know, because I'm going to hurt myself if I'm not, and I'm not like that anyway. But you know, I wanted to go all in and that means you have to, you have to do everything and you can't really half ass it, right. And so as long as you do it, you'll get the results. And if you take those pictures, you know I don't want to take those pictures, oh gosh, we're gonna take those stupid pictures again, right? But I'm so happy that I listened and I did, because looking back, it's like, wow, that's where I started and this is where I am now. So you will see it. You will see it if you do it, yeah it's again.
Speaker 1:For some people it never happens as fast as they think it should. But and I mean our bodies don't? Our bodies change incrementally every day. So you know, some of the changes I think people expect are just not possible in the time frame. But if you, day in and day out, do the things, your body really can't help. But change is the reality of it.
Speaker 2:So just so people know, because this is another thing besides my age, I'm also in menopause. So some people say, oh, I'm in menopause, I can't lose weight. Well, I did so. There goes that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, a lot of it comes back to again that lifestyle piece and just you know a lot of women who are eating very low calorie, like you were, just don't have the energy to be very active. So you probably were eating very low calorie and actually had a pretty sedentary lifestyle.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:That's not. That's actually a great combo for gaining weight.
Speaker 2:I don't even know how I did that. Looking back now, I can never go back there.
Speaker 1:Never. Yeah. Yeah, I feel the same way. I don't, I don't know. I don't know how any of us did it running on fumes. I really don't know, nope.
Speaker 3:So okay, more food.
Speaker 1:Yes, this has been a great conversation. Thanks, ladies. And yeah, if you are curious about how we might work with you, feel free to book a consult call and we would love to chat and help you figure out how you can get on your path to success. But that's all we have for today. Thanks everyone. Bye, bye, thank you.