Why Weight Watchers Doesn’t Work: Judy’s Weight Loss Story

Hello, friends.

Today, I’ve got a special guest on the podcast, my client, Judy. Judy started working with me in March of 2023, and we ended our coaching in the summer of 2024. Judy is going to talk to you today about how she escaped the cycle of going back to Weight Watchers because she always felt like it worked, and I’m saying worked with air quotes.

Because she did lose weight, but she always gained it back. And she’s going to talk to you today about why she gained it back and what she learned in our coaching that was missing from Weight Watchers.

When she did start working with me, she was starving and hungry all the time. And in this mindset of thinking she had to like save up her points, so she’d be starving and snacky around three o’clock in the afternoon, trying to do as much cardio as possible, trying to eat as low calorie as possible. She really was doing a lot of things that were working directly against her goal of losing body fat.

During our time coaching, she learned how to turn these things around, how to escape the Weight Watchers diet mentality and the all or nothing thinking that was instilled into her from this Weight Watchers diet, which I do see a lot of times with all of my clients who’ve done Weight Watchers.

And if you resonate with some of the things she’s saying today, you’re totally normal. That’s the good news. The bad news is you got to get away from Weight Watchers.

Anyways, I’m not going to steal the show. I want Judy to explain her story and her thoughts so you can hear them from her. And I hope you enjoyed today’s show.

Hi, Judy. Hi. How are you? It’s so good to have you on the podcast.
So great to be here. Thanks for joining us today and telling us all about your weight loss journey. It’s been quite a journey, I know, from our work together.

So why don’t you just give some basic information about yourself, whatever you’re willing to share with the listeners to kind of give some background on you and your life.

So I am 40 years old. I turned 40 while we were working on our journey together, my journey together. I live in Massachusetts, about 20-ish minutes outside of Boston.

I have two kids, so I have a nine-year-old and an 11-year-old. We’re super busy with all their after-school activities. And then I am a school social worker, and I actually switched jobs while I was on my journey working with you. So I was an elementary school social worker, and now I’m in a middle school. So we’re quite busy over here. Yeah, just a little bit, huh? Yeah.

And we’ll talk a little bit more, too, about like some of the things that happened while we were working together, because there were some challenges just lifestyle wise that popped up here and there that had you pivoting a lot. Yes, there were. So before we get to that, though, let’s talk a little bit about your journey prior to our work together.

Talk to the listeners about like what was going on with your weight? What were some of the things you tried? I know you did Weight Watchers and that’s probably something you’re going to get into, but kind of give everybody some background on what you were doing before we start working together. Sure. So like you said, probably the number one thing that I’ve tried was the Weight Watchers.

So I started the first time probably around when I was 20. And then I did that four times, four separate times throughout my life. So around 20, and then I would
Do it for a while and then stop. And then I tried it again. And then again, after each time I had both of my children, I’ve also tried the intermittent fasting and then lots of exercise, just excessive exercise. But probably the Weight Watchers has been the one that’s kind of always my go back to.

So did you lose weight when you did Weight Watchers and some of those things? Yeah. Okay. Were you able to keep it off usually? No. Why not? I just got tired of doing it. And then the weight came back on and then I just, you know, kind of gave up and, or I gave up and then the weight came back on one or the other and then as the week came back on, I just, you know, at some point would get sick of it.

And then that’s when I would rejoin Weight watchers. It was kind of this vicious cycle of getting tired of doing the program and the Weight Watchers program and then having to rejoin because weight came back on. Yeah. What do you think made you tired? Like the stuff that you were doing, was it, you know, maintainable? Do you think? I think it, it was, was very regimented. So no, it got exhausting. And I think also, you know, one or two times I got really close to my goal, but we weren’t really taught then how to maintain. So I would get down to the goal and then I just would be continued doing the same thing and it wouldn’t work anymore. Or, you know, in my mind, it wouldn’t work anymore.

So, you know, then I would give up and that’s when all the weight would come back on. Yeah. Yeah. So you did Weight Watchers over and over again. Why do you think you kept going back to them? I think I kept going back because when I was following the program, it did work for me.

I kind of knew in my mind, okay, I can go back and it’s going to work. And then I wouldn’t, at that time, I wouldn’t worry about like what would happen when I got tired of the program or when I, um, you know, needed to be in maintenance. It was just like, okay, I know I can go back and follow this plan and do it and it’ll work. Yeah. And so then what happened? Like when you found me, what kind of happened that you didn’t go back to Weight watchers?

I would say we just work so much on mindset and, and maintenance. Do you remember how you found me?

I was looking on, I think Facebook or something at recipes, or I saw like an Instagram post that you had, and then I found your website and I started looking up some recipes and then. I saw that you had podcasts. So I started listening to some of the podcasts and a lot of the things that you were saying were just really clicking in my mind and made sense to me. So then I was like, oh, let me check that. Let me check the one-on-one work. And that’s what led me to our one-on-one time together. Okay. So was there a time though that you thought, okay, I can’t go back to Weight watchers. It’s just not working. I have to find something new.

Or was it that you just kind of stumbled upon me? I think I stumbled upon you. And you and I talked about this a lot, almost in every call where my instinct was always like, oh, let me go back to Weight Watchers because I know that that worked, but because of all the mindset work that we did, I kind of was able to stop myself and say, wait a minute, I know that doesn’t actually work. Because I was never, you know, like you had me change my thinking or where it was like, instead of, ooh, this works every time. It’s like, well, it wasn’t because I had to keep going back to it and I was gaining the weight.

So like, it actually wasn’t working. It wasn’t fun to live that lifestyle. And it did, it ultimately didn’t actually work. I wouldn’t have to keep, you know, stopping and then going back and stopping and going back. Yeah. I think that’s a trap a lot of women are actually in. They’re like, oh, this is working. And then they don’t like it when somebody is like, well, how are you ever going to sustain that, right? And they’re like, but it’s working, right? They just think I’m losing weight. So this is working. This has got to be it. Except if you have to keep going back, like you’re saying, right? It’s like, if you can’t maintain it, what’s the point of keep going back?

You’re just kind of running in circles, right? Right. And I think you and I talked a lot about how I know what to do to lose weight. Like I’ve lost weight a bunch of times on Weight Watchers and it was more like living in the maintenance phase and like being okay, being uncomfortable that was so beneficial.

And, you know, my biggest takeaway probably from our time working together rather than the, oh, this is how you lose weight. Yeah. You mean just learning to maintain and how to work on that piece of it. Exactly. Yeah. Well, tell the listeners, I know we kind of jumped around a little bit, tell the listeners a little bit about like, you know, what were some of the things you were struggling with?

Cause I know like snacking and the afterschool, right. You get back from school and you were eating like a lot and there was just a lot of sugar cravings and stuff that we kind of had to work on and then mindset stuff. So kind of talk about like, what were some of the things you were struggling with when we start working together? And then what were some of the things that we worked on? So I, so a bunch of things, but some of the things that stick out are definitely that kind of like that continued Weight Watchers mindset where it was like, oh, you have to save up your points or like your calories because you only have X amount for the day. And I wanted to kind of like maximize them for dinner so I could have like my meal with my family.

So, you know, kind of banking calories for later in the day, but then, because I’m not eating in the morning, I’m coming home at that, you know, three o’clock time and just kind of going crazy with snacks and all the food because I’m so hungry because I didn’t eat enough earlier in the day. And then not necessarily even being hungry for dinner, but eating it anyway. So definitely that kind of like banking the calories for later in the day. And then I’d say kind of like some of that all or nothing thinking like, oh, I have to do this. I have to do that. Or I messed it up, so like today’s ruined, some of that kind of thinking.

Definitely some scale fear just due to, again, the Weight Watchers mindset of like having to weigh in every week and having to have it go down or you’re not working the program.

So kind of all of it just stemming from that disordered eating and thinking from weight being on that district weight watchers for years and years and years. Yeah. So we really had to work on your relationship with the scale relationship with food and fueling your body a little bit differently than banking the calories until the end of the day kind of thing.

What were some of the changes that helped you? Do you think? Definitely focusing on protein, making sure to get, you know, the 30 grams plus per meal, a really heavy protein breakfast, the fiber increase, you know, really focusing on, you know, making sure that my, my meals were more well-rounded so that I wasn’t feeling hungry after I ate them.

And then, you know, trying with, with all those healthy, um, you know, not necessarily needing to have the snack when I get home from school, like right now I’m not hungry at all. So. Yeah. Listen to that. I’m not really hungry anymore. What a change. It was such a struggle before.

And I think that the key was always, you know, all of this is a learning process and everything is data and not necessarily beating myself up over, you know, a mistake, quote unquote, it’s just, we learn from this and move on and, you know, focusing on just building healthy habits rather than taking away, which was the taking away was that Weight Watchers mindset of like, oh, you can’t have that.

Oh, you can’t, you only have this. It’s like, now I’m just focusing on getting my steps in and strength training. And, you know, I wasn’t doing the strength training before. So just, getting the protein and just all those habits that I’m just working on. Yeah. Yeah. We really had to work on a lot of those things. And there were definitely foods, as I recall, that you struggled with that, you know, the snacky foods, you were really struggling with those, but it seemed to like kind of improve once you say, as we started to get you balanced meals and getting you into that habit of eating that protein focused breakfast and a better lunch that was well-rounded really kind of helped you out with all that stuff.

Yeah. Definitely. Yeah. Big difference. More control around food, would you say? Yes, definitely. Especially because, you know, I have the kids, so we have the snack food in the house. So, you know, a lot of people can just not buy it, but we have it here. Is it easier to manage, do you find, even though it’s still in the house? Yes. Wow. Big difference.

So what helped you get all these good habits? Your mindset? The mindset was definitely the key. I know, you know, you and I worked for a very, very long time on the mindset and, you know, I listened to podcasts you sent me and clips and videos and, you know, just kind of having it all click at some point where I, I started to get it like, okay, this, this makes sense.

All these habits and the mindset piece and that, you know, you would say a lot to me, well, you would never talk to your friends like that, or you would never talk to your kids like that. So why are you talking to yourself like that? It’s like, oh, okay. Why am I? Yeah. So having somebody pointed out to you. It wasn’t, I didn’t, there was no reason to be so harsh to myself. I think one of the things that sticks out in my head from one of our calls, I remember you saying, I know a lot of this stuff, like some of the mindset stuff we were talking about. You’re like, I know this because I’m a social worker. Like I talk to people about this.

We talked about that all the time. I’m like, this is my work. I do, I do this. It’s all that cognitive behavioral therapy. We change our thoughts to change our behavior, but I can’t do it for myself. Isn’t that interesting? Yeah. So what kind of things do you think were helpful to you that you were struggling with mentally that maybe other women are struggling with that, that they could learn from? Yeah, I would just say again, just you know, focusing on those healthy habits and just really reminding myself that everything is, I’m learning, I’m growing, I’m looking at the data and, you know, making informed choices based on that and not necessarily, you know, like taking everything so how do I want to say it?

Like not personally, but like significantly like, okay, I step on the scale one time and it’s like, okay, that’s data. And you know, you had me learning how to follow the trend lines and, you know, things that I hadn’t done before when I’m looking at, at the data that I have. And again, learning to live in maintenance, I think was really, really important.

What did you have to change with your mindset though, to get all these good things in place? Just start being kinder to myself. Oh, big one. Kind of checking myself when I was getting into that negative mindset, like, oh, that’s, I’m not, I’m not being kind to myself right now.

Is being kind to yourself, like just eating all the food or is it something else? Yeah. Something else, just kind of taking time to go to bed earlier and, you know, making time to take the walks and just taking time to do all the habits and know that I’m doing the best for my body, whatever the outcome is, and reminding myself that I’m where I’m supposed to be right now. You and I talked about that a lot, too. It’s a process. It’s going to take some time and it’s okay to be where you’re at. It’s a journey. Exactly. Speaking of which there were, it wasn’t perfect sail, you know, smooth sailing the entire time that we were working together.

What were some of the challenges we faced? Oh, so many challenges. A bunch of trips, especially a couple of times during an attempt at a calorie deficit and what else? I had a house construction going on. I started a new job. My husband was gone for four months out of the country and my car was stolen. Oh, I hate to laugh about it, but it was so crazy. So crazy. Your car was stolen. Wasn’t it taken like out of the country or something? Yes. Oh my gosh. And then you had to get a new car is what you recall. Yes. Rental car, then no car, then a new car that took months to come in. Yeah. So all these things happened while we were working together.

Did you just stop doing everything? Stop all your habits? No, I think we just kind of gauged how things were going and I know at one point like I said I you know started a deficit and a couple weeks in you and I both kind of looked at the situation we’re like this is not working right now there’s too much going on I can’t focus on this and I just went back to maintenance and that meant still doing all the habits just eating a different calorie amount yeah.

So let’s talk about maintenance a little bit because you’ve been bringing that up. And I think that’s important. Most people don’t know how to do maintenance. So what’s the big difference between what you’re doing in a deficit versus maintenance?

What do you think? What are you doing different? So me personally in a deficit, I’m increasing my steps and eating less calories, but not, you didn’t have me eating a ridiculous amount of of lower calories. It was a manageable amount. And in fact, when we bumped up to the maintenance counters, it felt like a lot of food at first.

So it’s just a manageable amount of food to eat, right. And necessarily feel like I was starving. And then it was easier to manage. And the other piece, which I haven’t mentioned yet is the weighing the food. So I had been doing a lot of measuring or kind of eyeballing.

And this is just, you know, really more accurately weighing to make sure that I was actually eating the amount of calories that I needed to eat for that day or for that week.

Did you find that to be helpful when you started weighing some things? I think it was definitely eye-opening. Even just the other day, I think… So I, you know, you use the app and I put a piece of pizza in and it’s like one piece of cheese pizza. It’s like 257 calories. And I put it on the scale and it for the grams and it ended up coming out at like 500. Wow, big difference. Well, especially if you’re eating two pieces right there, you’re not accounting for probably almost 500 calories worth of food. Yeah. Yeah. I definitely believe the scale makes a big difference. I’ve made that mistake before too. So wow. Eye-opening stuff. Definitely.

And I think the other piece about the maintenance that was hard for me to get my head around at first or wrap my head around at first is, in my mind, because I’ve been on Weight Watchers for so long, it was like, oh, I’m not losing, so I’m gaining. But I think you had me, once I was comfortable, start weighing myself three days a week. And then… That piece clicked where it was like, okay, I actually am maintaining because my trend line was the same. Yeah. That was something we really had to work on because you still had that Weight Watchers mentality that if you weren’t losing, right, you were gaining weight somehow. It was really crazy. Yeah.

I know. A lot of people do. But it was, that was really eye-opening because that, once it, once it clicked, I was really happy to, it was a relief because to be able to not always have to be in that low deficit, but then to be able to just stay within like that five pound-ish weight range of maintenance. Yeah.

And did your scale weight, just for the listeners, did your scale weight just stay perfectly the same or did it kind of fluctuate up and down, even in maintenance? Yeah. Definitely fluctuated up and down. And does that mean you just gained a bunch of fat? No. No. Just water weight. Exactly. And Weight Watchers never taught you this stuff?

No. No. Okay. Okay. So what’s going to keep you going with these good habits? Because one of the things you said earlier was with Weight watchers, after a while you would stop and then you’d have to go back to Weight watchers. So what’s going to keep you going with all these good habits you’ve established for yourself? They just feel manageable. It feels manageable, so I aim for my 7,000 to 8,000 steps a day, which feels super manageable for me. I mean, I’m already at 7,000 steps today, and the day’s not over yet, so I easily made my steps. I also just keep my meals super simple. I basically eat the same thing for lunch every day, just to keep it easy.

Simple dinners, just, you know, basics, you and I talked about a lot, just keep it easy, because then I know I’m getting my protein, I know my fibers there. You know, I’ve been the one I the last habit I’ve been really trying to work on is sleep, making sure I get enough sleep. And I just feel better when I get more sleep. And I feel better when I follow the habits. So I think kind of that benefit of following the habits and how, how my body feels is really motivating to continue to, to do these habits. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. Did the habits that you were doing with Weight watchers, the stuff you were doing there, did those feel good? I don’t think I really had habits other than eat as little as possible.

Oh, maybe. And also like exercise, all the exercise. So I really shifted what I was doing for exercise with, you know, working with you versus when I was on the Weight watchers. On Weight watchers, it was like, oh, cardio and strength training wasn’t really focused on because you got more points for cardio work. So I was like, oh, more points, you can eat more. Oh, I don’t think I do that. So I really switched up, you know, the way that I’ve been working out. Yeah. Which at least it’s not as strenuous. Yeah. And also helps you control your hunger too more. Yeah. And it’s good. It’s, you know, you and I talked a lot. I’m, I’m a cardio person. So it was a really hard switch to switch to strength training.

I didn’t really like it that much or love it. And now I’m starting to enjoy it. It took a while and lots of kind of figuring out how to best do it and what gym to do. Join and how to get help doing it. But now I feel like I’ve settled into personal training and it’s really good. Yeah, you got a personal trainer. So now you’re learning how to do the strength training piece of it, which is okay, right? It’s just another like milestone in your journey. Exactly. Yeah. Well, good. So these are all doable habits. That’s what we want, right? Doable habits we can do that make us feel good. I think that’s a problem. Like you were saying, at Weight watchers, it was constantly about like eating less, eating less, eating less.

That’s like, to me, that’s like misery, misery, misery, right? I always have to eat less. If you’re always kind of chasing the scale and eating less, that’s just misery. Nobody can keep up doing misery all the time. Exactly. And, and then all that cardio just takes up so much time and it’s so exhausting. And, you know, I learned that that then makes you more hungry and increase your stretch stress level. So it’s like here, I thought all along, I was doing all these wonderful things for my body and I was really kind of undoing some of the things that I wanted to do. So that wasn’t helpful either. Now I can go for a walk and I can, you know, the strength training doesn’t necessarily take as long as cardio was.

And there’s more benefits for me, especially as I’m getting older and, you know, fighting some, a knee injury as well. So the strength training is, is better to support my muscles and, you know, my body as a whole. Yep. Yep. Yep. So we kind of rebalanced everything. We rebalanced what you ate. We’ve rebalanced your mindset. We rebalanced your exercise routine. Right. And we had to kind of work on these things a little bit out of pieces at a time. Right. And some of them are just working on like the strength training is a recent thing where you start working with a personal trainer because it kind of took different things. Right. You were trying different things as we were working together to see kind of what worked with your schedule and all that.

What are your goals now? Like now that we’re done working together? Yeah, so I am really focusing on the strength training right now, especially like you just said with the personal trainer that I just started maybe at the end of august. So I’ve been doing it for a month and a half-ish now, something like that. And really focus on that progressive training where I’m increasing, you know, doing simple basic exercises, but increasing the weight and trying to really, you know, work my muscles to fatigue. And I am doing that in maintenance mode until probably around February-ish. And then I’m going and practicing my habits. And then I’m going to head into a deficit, hopefully around February.

See, look at you planning out your nutrition, you’re phasing everything. That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So do you want to talk a little bit about what are some of the other results you got while we were working together? Sure. So I would say I, so I tried, I think, what, couple of deficits just to kind of and I felt like they were maybe more not that it wasn’t an actual deficit but a practice for me since I didn’t have all the habits lined up yet it definitely took some time but I was able to lose some inches in I think my second deficit and then maybe a or maybe the first and the third. I don’t know. I think I tried three deficits. One didn’t work because of my husband being gone and all the stress.

But in the two that I did have that I followed through to the end, you know, I was able to lose some inches. And I think just being able to feel kind of in control of the journey and and the plan and and you know that I could stop it if I needed to if it wasn’t the right time and mostly that you know that like we were saying that mindset piece and I think in the last deficit I I did I did lose a couple pounds which I know we weren’t focusing really on scale weight as it was one measure but it wasn’t the measure so I really learned about more just measuring my body to be able to know if I was losing body fat right right you lost four inches around your waist since we worked together four inches and you didn’t have that much weight to lose we should probably tell that to the listeners because you know they might be sitting here thinking oh she didn’t lose anything she just lost a couple pounds and they might think you have like 150 pounds to lose you know you didn’t have that much weight to lose right so no no yeah.

So that’s where we had to have a lot of discussions too. Like, hey, we can’t expect massive results. We’re not starving you. We’re not doing the Weight Watchers thing anymore. And we’re trying to put some muscle on you and muscle weighs something. Exactly. So good. So I would say those are pretty fantastic results. Are you pretty proud of yourself? I’m proud of you. I am. It was, yeah, it’s just, I think you and I were talking about it maybe in the last session or the second to last session about just the more of a freeing feeling of not having to always be worried about, oh, like, when’s my next meal? Or what am I going to have for snack? Or what am I going to have for dinner?

Because I was just always focusing on food, food, food, because I was always hungry. And now it’s, you know, almost nearing dinner time here where I am. And I haven’t really thought about food much all day today. So it’s just… It’s just so different. And it just feels freeing. Yeah, I’d say you got free of the diaprism you were in. Yes. Well, and again, it’s all along, every time I went back to Weight watchers, I just thought I was doing the right thing. And, you know, every time I would go to my doctor for a physical, and I’d say, oh, I’m on Weight watchers. And they would say, oh, that’s so wonderful. And it and now I look back and it’s like, oh, all that time, all of that money when I thought I was doing the right thing.

And I probably wasn’t because then I caused all these other problems and yeah. It’s just, I mean, I guess live and learn, but. Right. There’s no failing. We just learn from the stuff we do. And sometimes we got to do bad diets to learn what works and what doesn’t work. Exactly. Okay. Well, there’s a lot of women on this podcast listening who are just like you. I know a lot of them have come from Weight Watchers because I’ve had a lot of clients come from Weight Watchers throughout the years.

So what would your advice be to them? Like, what would you say to them if they’re struggling to lose weight? What do they need to go do? So just kind of a lot of what I’ve already talked about, but just learning to live in maintenance and that we can, we can’t be in such low amount of calories all the time because our body adjusts.

And then we’re having to continue to lower and lower and lower calories in order to continue to lose weight. And we’re not supposed to, you know, be in that calorie deficit mode all the time. It’s okay to take a break and you have to take a break and learn to live in, in that maintenance mode and that maintenance area and, you know, we’re doing what we think is best for us and just be kind to yourself and all this takes time.

It’s not really practical, especially if you’re closer to your goal like me to, you know, be dropping two pounds a week. It’s not healthy or maintainable. Yeah. You basically have to starve yourself to drop two pounds a week at your body weight.

And then you’re not able to really enjoy your life. You can’t go out with your friends and your family and enjoy whatever they’re eating because it’s too many calories. Like two pieces of pizza is a thousand calories right there.

So, you know, if you’re only eating a thousand to twelve hundred calories, then that’s your whole food for the day. Yeah. And that’s not a life to live, I guess, unless you don’t want to eat pizza the rest of your life, which isn’t really realistic.

I was going to say, I don’t know about other people, but that’s not me. I don’t either. So people could do it. Some people don’t mind, but I think a lot of people would rather have pizza in their life.

Oh, definitely. And I think another, you know, speaking of pizza. I don’t know why this reminded me of that, but another takeaway was I went on a few different trips while we were working together. I, you know, went to visit my husband out of the country. We took the kids to disney. I had gone on a cruise to Alaska and, you know, we worked a lot on planning and just making sure I had protein sources with me. And, you know, that was really so important too. And, you know, learning from the Disney trip, or maybe I didn’t have I didn’t bring enough protein sources to then know on the next trip, like, okay, I can bring my protein shakes or my powder or whatever, and just, and just be more prepared so that I could continue to have that balanced mindset throughout the day where, you know, and and balance hunger where I can enjoy my vacation, but not go overboard and feel bad about it upon coming home.

So you had a lot of those experiences, right? And they just kind of taught you. So you got better and better at traveling as you kind of progressed, right? Yeah. Yeah. I remember your cruise. I think that was more recent, right? That happened a few months ago. And I remember you, you were just saying like, you know, there was all the food, but you didn’t feel like enticed to like indulge in all the food, which I think is a problem.

Like when people go on cruises, cause there’s just so much available. And I felt super prepared and I actually, I’m going on another cruise in April and I feel really prepared and excited and not necessarily, um, focused on the food, just being able to be focused on the actual experience and, you know, being with my family.

Yeah. Isn’t that a freeing thing when you don’t have to worry about food or be scared of food or be like, I get to escape my habits and my diet because it sucks so much. Yeah. It’s great. Yeah. Is it hard for you to get back on track when you get home? No. I would say that you know, I enjoy the time that I’m on the trips. And, you know, like I said, I’ve taken, you know, what, four trips since we’ve been working together, a lot of trips.

And, you know, I just got back from Paris and I just went and I ate what I wanted to eat there within reason. And the day after, so I got back, what? Not, not yesterday, but the sunday before a week ago. And I just got right back into my healthy habits and it felt fine.

And I think that also reduces potentially guilt, like a post-vacation guilt when it’s like, okay, it is what it is. I enjoyed my time and now I’m just getting back into my habits because we have to live our life. I can never go on vacation and experience things or have a holiday or have a birthday party because, you know, I have to eat my healthy habit or, you know, follow my healthy habits to a T every single second of every minute of my entire life. Yeah. That’s also another diet prison. A lot of people live in what you’re describing, right? They go on vacation and they kind of like still try to be that dieter. And it’s like, we can’t live like perfect.

And it’s just like you and I talked about, it’s like a week or a few days, right? Away from your habits. It’s not like going to ruin everything. No. And it wasn’t crazy. It was crazy. Okay, we had maybe one dessert a day. So we had macarons one day, I had a ice cream the next day, I had a, you know, whatever, pastry the day after that. And we were walking, I don’t know, like 10 miles a day. Yeah. Yeah, I think people do struggle, though they go like on vacation. This is an important part point that you bring up like people do struggle on vacation with that mentality, right? I got to be perfect. It’s got to be to a T. And then they struggle to get back.

And I think one of the things you’ve kind of described is like you’ve created a life that you can get back to. That’s easy. You’ve put a lot of things on hold. You know, routine that just makes your life easy.

So you’re not constantly having to rethink, like, what am I eating for breakfast? What am I eating for lunch? Like, it just makes it easy. It makes your life easier. And you just know it makes you feel good. And it works. So you kind of like look forward in a way to just getting back to that baseline when you get home. It’s not like you want to continue being on vacation mode. Exactly. Yeah. And just set, like you said, setting things up so that it’s easy to slide back in.

So it’s like, okay, you know, I always have I don’t know, wraps in the fridge. So it’s like, I eat that for lunch every day. So I come back from vacation and I can just throw my wrap together for my lunch for the next day. And, you know, different things to set up, even not vacation, but just normal day-to-day. Oh, it’s raining today. I can’t do my steps, but I have a walking pad. So I’ll just get on my walking pad or, you know, different things to just make sure that there’s no excuses and it’s just easy, right? Yeah, that’s the thing. You have to set it up to make it easy. Otherwise, if it’s hard, you’re not going to want to go back to it. Exactly.

Right. Yeah. And it’s definitely not been easy for you. I mean, it sounds easy, right? Probably to everybody listening, like, oh, she’s got kids and a job, and it’s so easy that she’s done all these things. But you literally had to work on a lot of different things. You had a lot of fear around food. There was some restrictive mindset going on, you know, from Weight watchers, and we had to work on bringing calories up because you were eating not very much. And you’re kind of scared of eating more and gaining weight. Right. And you have kind of like this all or nothing stuff going on. And, you know, we had to work on steps and then we had to eventually work on the calorie deficit.

And how do we do this right? And how do we do maintenance? And how do we look at the scale the right way? And how do we now layer in the strength training? I mean, there’s definitely been like milestones. It wasn’t like out the gate. You were doing everything perfectly to a T. Right. Yeah, but I think the thing that made all of that so manageable, because when you list all of it out, it sounds like a ton of stuff. You did a ton of stuff, honey. You did a ton. Is that we kind of just, we did it gradually and slowly. And, you know, I would, as I started to work on the mindset, we focused on breakfast and then, you know, I was mostly focused on the mindset piece.

So we would slowly then, once I had breakfast down, we would add in changing up lunch and making sure I had all the pieces that I needed for lunch, like protein and fiber and all the, you know, the different amounts for each. And, you know, it made it manageable. And that we did it over an extended period of time. So it wasn’t like, oh my gosh, all this stuff, I can’t do it. It was almost like when I was ready for the next piece, that’s when you introduced it. Yeah, so it was more manageable. But you did do a lot. You did do a lot, right? So that’s where when people say, I made no progress. I only lost a few pounds or I only lost four inches around my waist.

I’m like, honey, you made a lot of progress. It’s all over the place. We’re just not seeing it. Yeah. Well, I think the key progress is that when I’m having a day where I’m like, oh, my gosh, even this morning. So I didn’t weigh myself last week because I was away. But I got back on the scale this morning. I’m like, oh, it’s up a little bit. And for a split second, I was like, all right, back to my Weight watchers. And then I’m like, nope, can’t do it. It’s still a work in progress or it’s still. You know, that’s kind of my still automatic go-to. And then, but at this point I can just easily put that out of my mind and say, no, I know that doesn’t work.

And, you know, I think that’s, that is kind of ultimately the biggest progress. Yeah. Just knowing that that actually didn’t work and why it didn’t work and, you know, being okay with the fact that maybe the scale was up a little bit. Yeah, which is mostly just water from traveling and eating differently and all that kind of stuff. Yeah. Going back to Weight Watchers is like putting a bandaid on a leaky faucet. It’s not going to hang on very long. Yeah, I know. And then kind of their, their whole, their tricky now anyway, too, with their other medication. I don’t necessarily agree with some of the stuff that they’re promoting now. So yeah. Well, they got to stay relevant and make money and that’s what they’re trying to do.

Yeah. So that brings up a good point. If anybody’s listening, who’s on Weight watchers, what would you tell them to do? Would you say continue doing Weight Watchers or would you tell them to get off? I mean, so I think the thing that you and I always talk about is, and that you are always posting on, you know, your, your Instagram feeds and everything is whatever you’re going to do, you need to do forever. So I think a lot of people on Weight Watchers think they’re going to do it. They’re going to get to their goal and then they’re done. But you can’t even on maintenance or in maintenance, you still have to follow a plan, a little bit of a different plan, but you still have to follow a plan.

So I think if people are willing to stick with what they’re doing on Weight Watchers for the rest of their lives or until they’re quite older, then sure. Sure. If that’s working for them, but if it’s not, then I think, or they’re not willing to do that for years and years and years, you know, 40 more years or however old they are 45 more years, then I would say, it’s not worth it. And to get off. Yeah. I actually, you know, recently stitched a video of a woman on my Instagram and she was talking about like how she was on Weight Watchers with her husband and how she’s literally starving to death. She’s like, I get like 20 points a day. I’m barely hanging on.

I can’t hang on to this. And I’m like, well, first of all, like 20 points sounds pretty low for a grown woman and, right. And of course, you’re going to lose weight when you cut calories super low. But that’s kind of one of my issues with Weight watchers. It’s like first, we’re cutting calories so low that people can’t even manage to like be consistent and be successful. And number two, like at what point are they teaching people to bring their calories up? You can’t stay there forever. And I don’t think because it’s not really manageable. I don’t think there’s a lot of people who make it to their goal because once you make it to your goal, then you would add in extra maintenance points.

But I think I’d say probably, you know, I used to go to meetings, which I don’t even think they have the meetings anymore to try to cut costs. You know, most of the people in the meetings were not at goal. And then I think out of my four times on Weight watchers, I got to go one time and I don’t feel like I was really taught then how to do the maintenance. It was like, oh, just kind of play around with your points and see how it feels when you add some back in. And that was about it. Yeah. So not a whole lot of direction there. Right. Yeah. And if people even make it that far, because it’s just, it’s too long to eat that low of weight. Calories.

Yeah. And we know for, you know, for the people listening, we know, you know, from research that eating too few calories for too long does have, you know, impact on our metabolism, our metabolism does adapt. And so at some point, like, let’s say for two years, you’re eating, you know, I don’t know, 1300 calories, whatever that equates to in points, you’re just eating that for two years, your maintenance is going to adapt. And now 1300 becomes your new adaptive maintenance. Now you have to work through a totally different process of like getting back up to maintenance and then doing a reasonable cut. And so a lot of people do kind of get into that cycle.

They just kind of stay there and there’s, there is an impact of thyroid and metabolism to doing that. Yeah. And I think some of the work that you and I did with kind of practicing these deficits, but not necessarily, I mean, I did them, but I also feel like we worked a little bit on or we worked a lot on increasing my calories so that I could get myself kind of out of that. Yeah. So that my maintenance calories are much higher. Yeah. Yeah. Because what are you going to do? Cut from a super low calorie number that your body’s adapted to? I mean, it’s just you’re not going to be successful with that. And I think that’s what a lot of people, the trap they get into, what you’re just kind of saying.

Yeah. Crazy. Well, you’re all done with that now. So we got one person saved from Weight watchers. Not that it can’t work for, I’m sure there’s people that are super successful and yay to you, right? There’s something for everybody, right? Exactly. You can’t do it until you’re 85 years old, right? That’s the thing. The weight’s going to come back. Exactly. Well, I’m just so proud of you, judith. And thank you so much for sharing your journey with us on the podcast today. Anything else you want to share with folks before we leave? Just be kind to yourself. It takes time and stick with it. You know, you’re, like I said before, you’re where you’re supposed to be right now.

And just remembering that. Yeah. Such helpful advice. Well, thank you so much again, dear, for coming on the podcast and sharing your story. And I’ll talk to you soon. Sounds good. Bye. Bye. Hey, if you enjoyed this podcast, you have to come check out my free weight loss class. It’s the five steps to lasting weight loss, how hormones impact weight loss, and the truth about lasting weight loss without relying on willpower, workouts, or deprivation. Click the link in the show notes to watch that free class today. And if you are a woman over 35 with 20 to 50 or more pounds to lose today, schedule a free weight loss breakthrough session with me after you watch that class.