Episode 76: What Finally Worked After Decades of Dieting: The Truth About Food Noise & Sustainable Weight Loss

In this powerful patient interview, Ray and Lisa open up about more than 25 years of weight management struggles, even while “eating like a mouse” and strictly following traditional dieting guidelines. They describe the emotional toll of feeling like their bodies were working against them—until they finally learned about food noise, the brain-driven hunger signals that make portion control and willpower-based dieting nearly impossible.

Guided by their PCP and cardiologist, they began a GLP-1 medication and immediately discovered that their challenges weren’t due to lack of discipline but physiology. They explain how GLP-1 therapy helped quiet food noise, curb impulse eating, and make portion control feel natural for the first time in decades.

But their transformation didn’t come from medication alone. Ray and Lisa share how combining GLP-1s with consistent strength training, intentional daily movement, balanced nutrition, and sustainable habits led to life-changing results — from better cholesterol and blood pressure to increased stability, stamina, and the ability to fully engage with their grandchildren again.

Their story is a relatable, inspiring roadmap for anyone navigating weight loss after 40, metabolic changes, thyroid issues, menopause, emotional eating, or long-term dieting frustration. This episode highlights the science behind food noise, the importance of muscle maintenance on GLP-1s, and why a whole-body, personalized approach creates lasting change.

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Transcript

Zoë (00:21)
back to the Pound of Cure Weight Loss podcast. We are here with another patient interview story, so we are very excited to welcome Ray and Lisa to the show this morning, welcome.

Matthew Weiner (00:32)
Hi

are you doing today?

Good. So why don't we start off by just telling us a little bit about your weight loss journey and just kind of where you started and what you've struggled with kind of coming into this and just kind of give us some background on your struggles with your weight in the past.

Ray And Lisa (00:53)
guess I could start off by saying that initially we worked quite a bit on weight loss and had ⁓ difficulty, I guess you could say, with the discipline part and the...

I don't know, shutting off the brain and... The food noise? The food noise, I guess is the right way to say it. And I don't know, Lisa, please add if you have something to add. But we were up and down. We did the roller coaster thing probably over a period of a number of years and had some success and then not.

and just decided it was time to put our foot down and do something definitive. After consultation with our ⁓ PCP, he referred us to you folks and the possibility of a GLP-1 and we went from there.

Zoë (01:57)
How long ago was that that you first got that referral from your PCP?

Ray And Lisa (02:01)
Right out about a year ago. shy, it took us a while just to navigate the system and appointments and stuff like that. then also just Ray had consulted his cardiologist as well because we wanted to make sure that we weren't...

risking anything and he gave us, I mean, five stars for pursuing this and said, you can't go wrong, please go do this. And so that just like pushed us over the edge. ⁓ Kind of my weight loss journey is, ⁓

I've been an elementary PE teacher the first part of my career for about 20 years

Matthew Weiner (02:46)
you

Ray And Lisa (02:48)
and 40 hit and my thyroid decided to not cooperate with me. And for the past 25 years or so, I struggled with that weight has just kept creeping up and ⁓ metapause, life hit, all those other things. And it's just been a struggle ⁓ doing that. And I've always felt like

I was eating like a mouse and starving ourselves when we did go on a weight loss journey. And ⁓ even though I felt like we were following well-known guidelines and stuff, it was, I didn't understand what food noise was until of recent.

Matthew Weiner (03:30)
Yeah.

Ray And Lisa (03:31)
And it finally

makes sense now that I understand that why I struggled with not just being able to push the table away. And it wasn't just about willpower, there was more going on for me. And I believe Ray as well, because I feel like you've always been a little bit overweight. You've struggled with that some as well your entire life, though. Absolutely. And coming from a very large family where it was clean up your plate, clean

up your plate, fill your plate, clean

Matthew Weiner (04:03)
you

Ray And Lisa (04:04)
up your plate. ⁓ That was, I mean, ingrained, so to speak, and ⁓ very, very difficult to manage portion size. It's just raised wrong. Well, in understanding that the GLP-1—

Matthew Weiner (04:14)
you

Ray And Lisa (04:24)
helps us manage what our body's doing, but it's not the only tool that you're gonna have success. ⁓ You need to do that strength training. You need to be active. You still need to do that. You need to have the nutrition piece. So I think it's more of a tripod that is effective. And if you, I think,

Matthew Weiner (04:44)
you

Ray And Lisa (04:54)
As we kind of, if we went up and down just a little bit during this past year of using the medication, if we didn't do the other two elements of the tripod, we weren't as successful. And we felt a difference in that, And the GLP-1 experience has been the management of impulse, the impulse.

Matthew Weiner (05:08)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You used the word, Ray, you

Zoë (05:17)
Bye.

Matthew Weiner (05:20)
used the word discipline. And I kind of cringed a little bit with that word because I think that this has absolutely nothing to do with discipline. Quite frankly, if it was a discipline problem,

you wouldn't need GLP-1s. And this really, you know, this is about physiologic drive. And when we have this food noise, this drive to eat, and we live in our food abundant environment where essentially some really smart people have figured out how to get you to eat as much as possible so you buy their products, that you really don't stand a chance. None of us do.

Nobody really stands a chance. The only people who are able to stay thin in our current food environment are those people who are resistant to the weight gaining effects of our processed food environment. And so, if it was a matter of discipline, there'd be a lot less people struggling with their weight because I find most of our patients are disciplined. And that was something that kind of struck me about you guys because yeah, we got you started on the meds, but what I really loved was

what you've done with the lifestyle, the nutrition and everything there. So why don't you kind of share some of the befores and afters and how you leverage GLP-1s to improve your lifestyle.

Ray And Lisa (06:42)
always been ⁓ active, very active, not so much focused exercise, specific exercise programs, but canoe paddling, hiking, ⁓ yard work. mean, very, very active, physically active, building rock walls. Lisa was a championship. ⁓

Matthew Weiner (07:05)
Ha ha.

Ray And Lisa (07:08)
canoe paddler and we paddled outrigger canoes together. And so we've been very, very active ⁓ for our whole lives. And I think probably for me, the biggest help has been the portion control and in the moment of preparing a portion of food, being able to say, so I

Matthew Weiner (07:36)
you

Ray And Lisa (07:36)
have to do it the way I was raised. It's okay to have a smaller portion. And we haven't, and

I don't think we've spent a lot of effort on focusing on ⁓ the Mediterranean style of eating or any special eating. ⁓

dietary plan. It's mostly for me a portion control. And we've always eaten well. We've always had a rounded nutritional

with some backsliding with carbohydrates. I love sugar. ⁓ So that's been the biggest aid for me is the ability to catch myself, catch the impulse, fill the plate, and ⁓ being perfectly comfortable in saying, no ice cream today.

As far as the exercise aspect of it, yes, we have been active, but I really feel like in the past year that the focus needed to be on more on strength training and a balance of that. And so that has been another real focus for us to be able to say, no, we're going to put that in the routine, even though we're going to be active with we're doing some yard work today and all those other things. And I mean, it's a 30 minute workout. We're done.

It's bingo. And that for the last year has been specifically. Well, and Zoey, you've kind of talked about it, but I think I put it in different terms when we've done some of your workshops. When I taught, I would educate kids to say that there's no, there are some everyday foods.

And there are some sometime foods. And I think when you start looking at it that way and saying, gosh, it is OK if you have a bowl of ice cream. No, you don't get a bowl of ice cream for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. But finding that that acceptance is OK to have a little. And what's nice now is a little is really satisfying. I don't want that huge bowl or whatever.

And when we go out to meals, we start with looking at each other and going, OK, we're going to share this. Or we have the to go bag where the meal gets cut in half and it gets placed on the side. It comes home and those are been some of the order. Order a go a go box when we order the food, right? Yeah, and it just gets moved across and with the GLP one. I can say that the discomfort associated

with overeating is very

Matthew Weiner (10:39)
you

Ray And Lisa (10:40)
⁓ real. No, it's very real. It's very helpful, but it's ⁓ very impactful. Partway through a restaurant meal and you're going, God, I'll be sick if I eat the rest of this. And it's so much easier to

Matthew Weiner (10:43)
Mm-hmm.

Zoë (10:51)
It's not worth it to get to the point where you're so uncomfortable.

Matthew Weiner (10:55)
Yeah.

Ray And Lisa (11:07)
The GLP-1 has made it so much easier to manage that. And the awareness that you're going to feel bad if you overeat has been very, very helpful. The other aspect that we've found in meeting with ⁓ Rays

cardiologist is that, I mean, he's super happy with his numbers. He, so the analytical data is showing that this has been beneficial for him in lots of ways, blood pressure, cholesterol.

Matthew Weiner (11:37)
you

Ray And Lisa (11:52)
Triglycerides, mean, ⁓ that's been amazing. And even with your sleep apnea, you've said that those numbers are much more consistent of being. ⁓

on target if anything somewhat improved too. And all of those ancillary quote unquote factors very positive, very positive impact. The blood pressure numbers are better than they've been in 20 years, 25 years. The ⁓ cholesterol, of course I'm on cholesterol medication, but at the same time marked improvement.

Matthew Weiner (12:38)
Talk to us a little bit about your strength training routine because I think that was something that I really picked up when we met last about what you guys were doing right and what I thought was a fantastic model for other people. Because you're into your 60s and 70s, but you haven't let that mean that, I'm not gonna train strength. So I would love for you and Zoe to kind of

Ray And Lisa (12:39)
nothing but compliments from the cardiologist.

Matthew Weiner (13:08)
Go, you know, to hear both of your thoughts on how this works and how you do it and how important it is and what it's done for you.

Ray And Lisa (13:18)
So what we've done is we have the membership with Beachbody. It's also called Body B-O-D-I now, more of a politically correct name versus Beachbody. We'll get rid of all that might come with that image of it. And we're doing what's called a 630. So it's a six day a week, 30 minute routine that involves

strength training and Cardio, so there's combinations. There's also mobility and stretching So it's balancing of all of that with upper body lower body strength as well of range of motion ⁓ And again the mobility aspect that you need to be able to move through those

you need to be able to move because if you can't move then that's going to defeat that. And that we do know by the GLP-1s that's one of the things that might get lost. And the benefit is that you have to really focus

Matthew Weiner (14:24)
So,

Ray And Lisa (14:25)
on the strength. And we know that strength is related to, ⁓ gosh, just staying upright. If you have the strength.

Matthew Weiner (14:36)
Longevity.

Ray And Lisa (14:37)
Yeah, longevity, the strength that.

Matthew Weiner (14:39)
Muscles the fountain of youth.

Ray And Lisa (14:41)
Yes, exactly. And it's made a huge difference when we didn't focus on it right away. We felt a difference when we started that and change that aspect of it. And I like it because there's a moderator involved. You work the weights you want to. We actually found out about this particular 630 program through our nephew who's in his 40s and.

He's a beast, former military, but we found it, but we went, okay, wait a minute, we can modify and be our age and still make it work for us. didn't, we're not where our nephew is.

Matthew Weiner (15:13)
Okay. Hmm.

Ray And Lisa (15:21)
at 40, 45. So it's been a nice blend for us because ⁓ Ray's comfortable in doing it and it's not all dancy. Well, I'm the one with arthritis pain. And we don't religiously do a workout every

Zoë (15:34)
in it.

Yeah.

Ray And Lisa (15:42)
morning. We're probably every other day. ⁓

It's just an easy, it's fast, it's legitimate. ⁓ Work out with two pounds if you want, work out with 10 pounds if you want. Speaking of the little dumbbells. ⁓ And it fits into our lifestyle because we're up and rolling early and we do our exercises and then get on with yard work.

Matthew Weiner (15:56)
you

Zoë (16:12)
Yeah,

I love that. And I really appreciate you guys sharing what has worked for you. It's 30 minutes. You can fit it into your day. It's not going to the gym for two hours. That can be very intimidating for a lot of people. But we do get a lot of people, whether it's questions on our social media, we talk all the time about the importance of strength training. And it's one thing for Dr. and Weiner and I to talk about the importance of strength training, but to hear

how much of an impact it has made in your GLP-1 journey I think is really important. What are some non-scale specific wins or changes that you've noticed, maybe body composition-wise, strength-wise, endurance-wise that you've noticed as a benefit of combining that strength training with your GLP-1 over the past year or so that you've been doing it?

Ray And Lisa (17:03)
Keeping up with our grandchildren. Yeah, for me, I've always, for the past 25, 20 years, I feel like I've lived in somebody else's body and that I carried somebody else's. And it's the comfort of feeling like I am who I was for 40 years and I'm back being her.

And that is huge for me. ⁓ That, yeah, that one. That that kind of. Yeah. Other wins, gosh, specific. Well, I can tell you that now I can put my pants on standing on one leg. I did before. Well, in more recent years, the. ⁓

Matthew Weiner (17:33)
Wow.

Hahaha.

Zoë (17:54)
That's great.

Ray And Lisa (17:57)
I'm a hiker and a hunter and the stability, the impact on stability has been very, very evident. I always walk with a walking stick, but the dependency is greatly diminished.

that for me is the most evident. do feel like I'm weaker than I was when I was 65, but I'm 75. So I think that's probably, I can't blame that on the JLP-1.

I'm an archer and I got to the point where I bought a brand new bow and pull as strong a weight as I have ever pulled.

I feel more alert, more engaged, the brain functions

Matthew Weiner (18:48)
A lot of people say that. So what do you think? Someone's in their 60s or 70s, they're looking to start a GLP-1 or are on a GLP-1. What advice are you giving them in terms of preventing muscle loss? What's an appropriate level of exercise? How do you kind of fit that into somebody's plan?

Zoë (19:06)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, well, it goes back to always meeting the patient where they're at. if they're starting out, let's say, maybe just going for a morning walk. And that's great. We want to continue doing that. But can we add in that strength training? And like Ray and Lisa are working out for 30 minutes at home, maybe they're doing six days a week, but we wouldn't start with that. Can we just start with?

Ray And Lisa (19:33)
you

Zoë (19:34)
30 minutes following along with a video or an at home body weight even, if you don't have any weights yet, program two days a week. And then once we build that momentum, adding onto it, know, ultimately we can prevent muscle loss with, you know, doing intentional strength training three to four times a week. I'd say if you're trying to actually build muscle, we might need to be doing a little bit more than 30 minutes, three days a week. However, again, it's all about

Ray And Lisa (19:43)
Mm-hmm.

Zoë (20:03)
identifying where you are and making that sustainable, realistic next step because it's not about having more discipline. It's not about having more willpower. It's about creating something that works with your lifestyle. Just like Ray and Lisa have done, you guys have done an amazing job of fitting it into your lifestyle and something that you do on a regular basis. That's what I would recommend starting with somebody who's just getting

Matthew Weiner (20:28)
do you think you can build muscle in your 60s and 70s?

Ray And Lisa (20:31)
Yes.

Zoë (20:32)
I think you can. I think it would be, it's gonna be much harder and we need to be doing it in a much more maybe intentional and safe way than if you're trying to build muscle in your 20s, right? Building muscle in your 20s, maybe you're going really high volume and pushing yourself really hard multiple days, almost every day in the gym. In your 60s and 70s, we need to be more careful of joints and injuries and

making sure that we are taking care of the whole body. I mean, obviously we want to be taking care of the whole body no matter what the age is. But I think in order to see significant increase in muscle in your 60s and 70s, we will need to have a very intentional strength training program. We will need to make sure you're eating a great diet, an adequate protein, and not just adequate protein, but adequate in all of the nutrients as well.

You know, looking at supplementation is something that I generally wait to do last because we can't out supplement a bad diet. But there are some, you know, potentially some supplements that could help with especially that healthy aging, depending on how your labs look and to help with the building of muscle as well.

Ray And Lisa (21:51)
was going to say with the strength training and the nutrition, ⁓ I think anything you do, I think will be more sustainable if you ease into it. We didn't jump into everything all at once. We worked ourselves into it. So we were creating those things a little bit at a time and felt like we could sustain them and then added something else. And that helped us as well.

we started off with an online program that was ⁓ easier quote unquote it was yeah we did it's a different program yeah yeah

Zoë (22:31)
beginner that's where you were at that's

Matthew Weiner (22:34)
Hmm.

Zoë (22:34)
great what are you guys working towards right now do you have any big you know events or goals or a big hike coming up or a new body composition goal strength goal are you working towards anything now that you are you know a year in your journey you're feeling really good weight wise anything that's up next for you guys

Ray And Lisa (22:54)
I think ⁓ just maintaining what we're doing for one and I think for us we can always do better with the nutrition. That's my tougher part in modifying. I just go to the quick easy stuff and I know that that's something that would be a goal for myself moving forward. Any big things to do?

Matthew Weiner (23:07)
you

Ray And Lisa (23:22)
gosh, I want to go snorkeling with my grandkids in Hawaii.

Matthew Weiner (23:27)
That sounds fun.

Zoë (23:27)
⁓ that'd

be great.

Ray And Lisa (23:28)
Again, yeah. So that's one of the goals is to ⁓ get back and do some more things with them on the in and on the ocean. Well, and I. Again to.

Zoë (23:40)
Love it.

Ray And Lisa (23:46)
Echo Lisa, we're in the, we're in the maintenance phase now. We, from my experience was I lost four pant sizes and 35 pounds. ⁓ We're in new wardrobes. So, old and I have hunting coming up that I want to be prepared for.

Matthew Weiner (24:04)
Yeah

love it. I loved hearing your story. I think that you guys are a real testament to being able to stay active through your entire life. I think the value of these medications when combined with a thoughtful strategy of nutrition and lifestyle changes. I want to thank you guys for coming on the podcast and ⁓ sharing your story. I think it's an inspiration to a lot of people out there who...

are struggling with their weight and they think, maybe I'm gonna be overweight my whole life and maybe I'm just gonna kinda, the aging process is just gonna kinda keep accelerating. And I think you guys have really shown that it's possible to reverse that process. It sounds to me like you feel younger now than you did a few years ago.

Ray And Lisa (24:52)
Absolutely. That's a safe statement. ⁓

Matthew Weiner (24:54)
Yeah. And so, yeah.

Zoë (24:54)
Yeah, I love that. Awesome.

Matthew Weiner (24:58)
So I loved, I love

seeing that.

Zoë (25:01)
Thank you guys so much for being here and for sharing your story and keep up the good work because now you're in maintenance like you said and that's where we want to be spending the rest of your life and so keep up the good work, keep up these habits that you've built so beautifully over the past year and your life and I know that you guys will continue doing great things.

Ray And Lisa (25:11)
Yeah.

Well, you're very welcome and I can tell you that your team has really been so helpful, well, grateful for all your guidance and steering and encouragement and we couldn't have done it without you.

Matthew Weiner (25:37)
Thank you. We appreciate you guys.

Zoë (25:41)
All right, well, we will see you next time on the show and make sure that you share this episode with somebody that you think would find it valuable. See you next time.

Matthew Weiner (25:50)
See you next time.