Why Dieting Stopped Working for Me

What years of skipping breakfast, sugar cravings, and learning about food taught me about feeling like myself again.

I remember pulling on my favorite pair of jeans one morning.

I got them buttoned.

Barely.

Then I looked down.

Yep.

The dreaded muffin top.

How do I hide it?

More importantly...how do I get rid of it?

If I'm being completely honest...it's still there. We are currently in negotiations. I think those little cubes of cheese I've been nibbling on have settled in quite nicely.

Argh.

But it wasn't just the muffin top.

One day I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror as I walked by.

Not the front.

The back.

Where did those rolls come from?

The muffin top had invited friends.

And somewhere along the way...

My butt packed up and moved out.

What the fudge?

I stood there staring at the mirror thinking...

I miss me.

Not the wrinkle-free me.

Not the twenty-five-year-old me.

Just...me.

The woman who felt comfortable in her own skin.

The woman who wasn't constantly wondering if her shirt was long enough.

The woman who wasn't thinking about dieting every Monday morning.

Looking Back, I Realized Something

I've had an unhealthy relationship with food for a very long time.

My mom tried.

Every morning before school she'd hand me a piece of toast as I walked out the door.

Every morning...

I'd toss it in the bushes.

The birds probably thought our family owned a bakery.

Breakfast?

No thanks.

I'd survive until lunch.

Fast forward forty years...

I was still skipping breakfast.

Still running on coffee and Diet Coke.

Water?

Forget about it.

Honestly, I don't remember drinking much water as a kid.

Or in my twenties.

Or even into my thirties.

How is that even possible?

Somehow, I survived on Diet Coke.

I also wondered why I felt lightheaded before lunch, why I crashed every afternoon, and why the cravings hit like a freight train around three o'clock.

It turns out...

My body wasn't broken.

It was under-fueled.

Everything I Thought I Knew Changed

A few years ago, after gaining weight during COVID, I decided enough was enough.

I started a program that completely changed the way I think about food.

Not overnight.

Not because it was magic.

Because for the first time, I learned how to fuel my body instead of fighting it.

Today, I eat breakfast within about 30 minutes of waking up.

That sentence alone would shock my teenage self.

I also drink more water than I ever imagined possible.

I used to joke that I must have been a camel in a past life because I could go alllll day without drinking water.

Turns out...

That's not actually a health strategy.

Who knew?

The biggest surprise wasn't the number on the scale.

It was how much better I felt.

More energy.

Fewer cravings.

Better focus.

And for the first time in years...

I wasn't constantly obsessing over food.

Okay...

That's not entirely true.

I still think about food.

Probably more than the average person.

The difference is I stopped spending all day wondering what I should eat.

The program gave me structure.

I simply focused on eating on schedule, drinking my water, and planning one healthy dinner each day.

That was incredibly freeing.

For years I thought eating less was the answer.

Ironically, it was doing exactly the opposite of what my body needed.

It Was Never Really About a Size Six

I'll admit it.

I wanted my size six jeans back.

Not because I was obsessed with the number.

When I was a size six, I wasn't thinking about my weight.

I wasn't counting calories.

I wasn't embarrassed by a muffin top.

I wasn't wondering what people saw when I walked away.

I was just...living.

I danced several nights a week.

I walked everywhere.

I was outside biking and rollerblading.

(Remember rollerblading?)

I stayed active without even thinking about it.

My body wasn't something I managed.

It was simply something that carried me through life.

Of course, I'm not in my twenties anymore.

None of us can turn back time.

Hormones change.

Life changes.

Our priorities change.

Our bodies deserve a little more grace than they did back then.

But here's what I no longer believe.

I don't believe we're supposed to settle.

I don't believe that gaining weight, losing muscle, aching knees, low energy, and feeling uncomfortable in our own skin are simply the price of getting older.

Yes...

Our bodies change.

But that doesn't mean we stop taking care of them.

In fact, they probably need us more now than ever.

I don't have my twenty-five-year-old body anymore.

But I also don't want my sixty-two-year-old body to become my seventy-year-old body before it has to.

When we lose excess body fat, we're doing more than changing the number on the scale.

We're taking pressure off our knees.

Our hips.

Our backs.

We're making it easier to move.

To travel.

To hike.

To dance.

To chase our grandkids around the yard.

To walk through Europe without needing to sit down every twenty minutes.

Maybe...

You even start dancing again.

Sure, maybe it's Zumba instead of a crowded dance club.

But you might discover you still love it.

And maybe you'll make a few new friends while you're there.

Because getting healthier isn't about getting younger.

It's about getting more life out of the years ahead.

Why I Became a Health Coach

I never planned on becoming one.

I simply started sharing my own journey.

Friends started asking questions.

Then family.

Then former colleagues.

Before I knew it, I was helping complete strangers who simply wanted to feel healthier, stronger, and more like themselves again.

I hear the same sentence almost every week.

"I just don't feel like myself anymore."

I understand.

I've been there.

Some days I'm still there.

(Again...the muffin top and I are still negotiating.)

Here's What I've Learned

One of the biggest lessons I've learned is that there is no finish line.

You don't lose the weight, close the closet door on your "before" clothes, and suddenly live on autopilot.

I wish it worked that way.

Health is a relationship.

It asks us to keep showing up.

Not perfectly.

Consistently.

I've had my ups and downs.

I've lost weight.

I've gained some back.

I've had seasons where healthy habits came naturally and seasons where life got in the way.

The difference today is that I don't panic anymore.

I simply go back to what I know works.

I eat breakfast.

I drink my water.

I move.

I sleep.

I fuel my body.

And then I make the next good choice.

Not the perfect choice.

The next one.

Because health isn't about perfection.

It's about paying attention.

Making more good choices than poor ones.

And remembering that life is meant to be enjoyed.

I still go out to dinner.

I still celebrate birthdays.

I still drink wine.

I still steal a bite of Don's dessert.

Because this isn't about living a smaller life.

It's about living a bigger one.

If you've been told you simply have to accept a "midlife body," I'd encourage you to challenge that belief.

No, we can't turn back the clock.

But we can feel stronger.

We can have more energy.

We can move with less pain.

We can build muscle.

We can improve our health.

And maybe...

Just maybe...

We'll catch a glimpse of ourselves in the mirror one morning...

And instead of thinking,

"Where did she go?"

We'll smile and think,

"There you are."

If you're curious about the program that's helped me over the last four years—or you'd simply like to talk about where you are on your own journey—I would love to chat. No pressure. No judgment. Just an honest conversation.

Click here to take a two-minute survey to get a free metabolic health report. It's completely confidential. 

P.S. The birds eventually had to start finding their own breakfast.

Thankfully...

I finally learned to eat mine.