Losing Weight at 75 With Home Workouts and Meal Planning

Jean: I could go to a gym in the morning if I wanted to. I'm old. I can belong to pretty much any gym I want for free. I don't want to go to the gym. And so Jess has let me work out from home, gives me workouts to do from home. You know, she gives me a program that I can do. And that's huge for me.

Coach: What's going on, everybody? Today I have Jean with us. She is 75 years young, and she has completely transformed her health and her fitness journey with WarriorBabe and has made incredible lifestyle changes, as we were just catching up on right before I hit record. I can't wait for her to share all of the things that she has done for herself through this program, like prioritizing sleep, waking up early to exercise, and adopting a sustainable plan that's given her more energy and confidence than ever.

She is a retired RN and a grandmother who balances her busy days watching her young grandchildren. And her story is just a powerful testament to the fact that it's never too late to take control of your health and thrive. I am just so excited for her to pour into you guys today. So let's just dive into her journey. Jean, where are you at in the U.S.? Tell us where you're from.

Jean: I'm in Michigan, outside of Detroit. Cold. But I was out walking this morning in the cold, by the way.

Coach: Oh, I love to hear that. I just want the listeners to be reminded of your age. I know I said it in the opening, but I want that number to stay in their minds as we go through this interview together. How old are you?

Jean: I am 75. I will be 76 in March.

Coach: March what?

Jean: March 3rd.

Coach: Hey, March 22nd.

Jean: Oh, that's good.

Coach: And what I also want the listeners to have in mind before we continue is a little bit about how old your mom was when she passed, and how many years you have left to live.

Jean: My mom was 104 when she passed, on January 1st of 2020. And so I look at my life and think, I better get it together, because I could live a long time, and I didn't want to live like I was. I didn't want to have those years and have them be crummy years. I was always thin. I was thin when I was young, a whole lot thinner when I was young. But after menopause and around menopause, I let it go. And so I just slowly gained and gained.

Coach: Yeah, we're going to dive into that story. You filled out a questionnaire beforehand so we could get a little more of the depth of your story to bring to life here in this interview. And you shared in that your situation before joining WarriorBabe: you were always a night person and you struggled with weight gain after menopause. Can you talk about the challenges that you faced and what prompted you to make the change?

Jean: Well, for me, I was going up and down stairs and I would be short of breath. I was getting arthritis. I did have arthritis; I had to have a replacement. But the point is, my arthritis was starting to bother me at that time for the first time in my life. And because I was a night person, I always told myself I didn't have time to exercise. I watch those grandkids. It's been about a year and a half, a little more now. And at the time that I started this, I still had two that were not even in school yet. I still have one that's only in school sometimes, but at least I have some days when she's in school all day.

So I felt like I didn't have time. I was tired all the time. I wasn't getting adequate sleep. I wasn't really eating enough, is what I really discovered. I'd let my metabolism get so bad. I was also getting heavier. I certainly wasn't getting any thinner.

Coach: You mentioned when we were catching up right before we hit record that you were like 106 pounds in your earliest days, and then you had your first baby and you were 104. And then menopause hit. How much did you gain through menopause?

Jean: Through menopause, to be perfectly honest... I've lost 55 pounds since I started this. And I flirted with almost 200 pounds at one time.

Coach: By the way, Jean, I don't mean to interrupt, but we have our company communication channels, and we post client wins inside of them. You have shown up so many times in the goals. As soon as you hit the 50-pound loss, Jess was just blowing you up in the client wins.

Jean: Well, it has felt so good. But as I said, I just let it slowly climb. I told you beforehand, I was a smoker. And around menopause is when I decided I was done smoking. I had quit numerous times over the years. When I would quit, I would gain weight, and I'd immediately go back to smoking. And around menopause, around 50, just over, I decided that it was probably unhealthier to be smoking than it was to be fat. So I stopped worrying about what my weight was and decided I was never going to let that be the excuse for going back to smoking. So I didn't, but I blew up. And over those last 25 years, I've just let it get out of control. I kept looking at my weight going, someday you're going to double your weight. You're going to double what you should be.

Coach: Your daughter is the one that told you about WarriorBabe and mentioned that we had a focus on older women and the fact that it was started by... Because, you know, you're also a BSN.

Jean: I don't have a license anymore, but I'm a BSN.

Coach: How did that influence your decision?

Jean: Well, when we talked about it... Jen was a member, and I didn't know, we didn't talk about it until this. But she said, Mom, I found this group. She had seen your podcast. And truly, being an RN, it might sound snobby, but the medical background said to me, and said to her, this woman might know something.

Coach: She might know something. I love that.

Jean: Do you know what I'm saying?

Coach: Oh, that's great. You're looking at us and going, well, we're pretty smart, and maybe they've got something there.

Jean: Because I mean, I know something or two. I've tried Weight Watchers, and it worked for a while. I've done other things. It's not that I never did anything. And my daughter doesn't have the weight problem that I have at all. She really was more into it. Jen really was kind of a bodybuilder kind of person when she was younger. She actually got my husband and me going to the gym years ago. So she's always been into fitness much, much more so than her mother.

I got exercise because I was a dancer. We skied. My husband and I traveled. I was very active, and that's where I got all my exercise. I did start going to the gym; as I say, Jen got us going there. But exercise was not a necessary part of my life, because I got enough exercise. And then as I've gotten older, my husband passed away. I've been a widow for nine years. During that time, I stopped exercising per se, and just the natural exercise too. We used to go to the gym, and I got lazy. I stopped going to the gym.

Coach: How did you think that WarriorBabe's approach, using macros and home workouts, was going to help you at your stage of life?

Jean: I liked having somebody tell me what I could do. I needed a roadmap. That's what I told Jess when we first talked. I said, I think I need a roadmap. I can't figure it out on my own. It's obvious, looking at me, I can't do it on my own. And I thought I was eating okay. But in fact, when I gave her my original couple of weeks, she said, you're under-eating. And in my mind, I guess I knew I was. I was eating breakfast, and then I might not eat again until late in the evening after I got back home from watching kids. I might go the whole day.

Coach: You're up and down all day.

Jean: And I wasn't hungry. Why? Because my body figured it wasn't going to get fed.

Coach: Your metabolism was adapted to your low caloric intake.

Jean: Yep. It wasn't going to get fed, so that was okay. And then I wouldn't eat well. I would stop and get a hamburger at nine o'clock at night, because now I have to eat something and I don't want to go home and fix it. So your approach of figuring out your food ahead of time, planning what you're going to do, was huge for me, because I wasn't planning. I was just grabbing when I had the time.

Coach: You had mentioned that you were pretty active before. You mentioned now that you're getting up at like 5 a.m. You're prioritizing exercise before watching your grandchildren, which has completely changed your routine. How has this shift impacted your daily life and your energy levels?

Jean: Oh, I feel so much better. I feel so much better. I'm getting more sleep than I ever did, even though I get up at 5 o'clock most mornings. Some mornings 6, it depends. Sometimes I can get up a little later.

Coach: That inspires me. I'm getting up at 7, and I'm like, if Jean can get up at 5 or 6, I can do that too.

Jean: Yeah, because I'm a morning exercise person. To be perfectly honest, by evening I am tired and I don't want to exercise anymore. Some nights I come home earlier, at 6 or 6:30. But some nights it's 9 or 9:30. It depends on who I'm watching that night, who I'm putting to bed that night. At one house, I always put the youngest child to bed. At the other house, it's only some nights that mom works that late, and then I help dad. Dad puts one to bed and I put the other one to bed. But anyway, the point is, when I come home, I go to bed.

Whereas before, when I came home, I thought I had to watch the news. Why? What is even on the news that I really care about? It's stupidity. I'd think, well, I have to stay up and watch the 11 o'clock news. No, I don't. I can go to bed at 9 o'clock, sometimes 8:30, and I'm just fine with it.

Coach: Yes. So what improvements or progress have you made since joining WarriorBabe? For example, you've mentioned that you've been sleeping better, you've been feeling healthier, you have a sustainable plan for the first time. What other improvements have you made?

Jean: Well, the food has been amazing, because I plan for the week. I like to cook, so I always cook my meals. And then I eat the same thing all week. Now I cook that meal, and I break the protein portion into dinners and freeze it. Right now I've got a couple of different kinds of soup that I've made. I've got chicken in there. I've got cabbage rolls in there. I've got all this stuff frozen. So when I plan out the next week, I can think, what do I want to eat? And in addition, on the nights that I'm home, I have fish. I do other things. But the point is, I've really planned my meals. And planning my meals is so freeing. It is so freeing. I make my salads; I like salads at lunchtime. And I know a lot of people don't like to eat the same thing. I don't care.

Coach: I love that you said that so honestly, because so many people go into it thinking that nutrition has to be all different recipes and all of these different ingredients. And it's already overwhelming to begin with for somebody to start a new fitness routine, like going to the gym, and also focus on nutrition. If you can make it silly, stupid simple like that...

Jean: I do. I copy and paste.

Coach: Simple. What did you say?

Jean: I copy and paste from MyFitnessPal. I just copy these meals. I'm happy with that meal.

Coach: It takes the thought process out of it, when you already have the grandkids to take care of in your life. You just copy and paste and eat the same thing.

Jean: Yep.

Coach: And I'm sure that makes you more consistent, right?

Jean: Oh, it absolutely does. It's huge. And I have snacks figured out. I have all the stuff in between figured out. That's not to say the next week might not vary. The vegetables might be different. I might change some things in there. But I have the basics that I can just throw in there and know that it's going to work and that it's within my macros for that particular day. And as I say, I plan it out a week ahead every time. On the weekends, I babysit every third weekend, because I have a daughter that works every third weekend.

Coach: Yes. And that's one of the reasons why you are so successful and have had the amazing transformation that you've had. At the beginning of the journey, a lot of people struggle because they think macros are so time-consuming, and being in MyFitnessPal is going to take them half an hour to an hour at the beginning of their journey, which is true. Was that you at the beginning of your journey? And how long does it take you now?

Jean: Oh, now it takes no time at all. I just go back and go, what day did I have that? Let's look at that week. Oh yeah, I'll throw that here, and I'll put this on this day and that on that day. But in the beginning, it did take time. I was definitely slower. But once I figured it out... The weighing of the stuff, I had done that kind of thing with Weight Watchers. The thing that I really like is that I can have whatever I want.

And with this program, mindset has been really big. I love the quotes that I see all the time. Jess is always posting quotes. She's always posting things that tell you it's okay. And it's what you tell yourself. It's what you tell yourself. Before I started this program, I'd tell myself, I can't lose. I'm too old. I can't exercise that much.

I do all my exercising at home, because I don't want to go out in the morning. I could go to a gym in the morning if I wanted to. I'm old. I can belong to pretty much any gym I want for free, because I'm old and my insurance provides it. But I don't want to go to the gym. And so Jess has let me work out from home, gives me workouts to do from home. She gives me a program that I can do. And that's huge for me.

Coach: I love that.

Jean: That's really made a big difference, because that's the other thing. We used to go to the gym a lot, but then I always said I didn't have time to go to the gym. I have time to go upstairs. That's where my treadmill is.

Coach: I love that. You didn't have enough time, but you have enough time. What do you have in your home gym?

Jean: I went out and bought another treadmill. After my husband died, we had my treadmill up north, so I gave it away up there. But I did buy a treadmill because I knew there would be days that I wouldn't want to go outside. And I'm at the point now where I hate my treadmill. I use it when I have to. Today, I think it was nine degrees out, and I don't know what the wind chill was, but I was out there walking, because I don't like walking upstairs unless I have to.

Coach: I don't know what more needs to be said from Jean, but everybody better be inspired to get their ass outside, even if it's nine degrees.

Jean: I know. Get some steps in. It was great. I loved it.

Coach: Okay. You just mentioned the food freedom that you experience, and that the macro approach has been freeing for you in how you think about food. Has that been the biggest breakthrough, the biggest game changer for you?

Jean: That, and getting more sleep. I'm prioritizing sleep, which I never did. And I know the nights that I can't get enough sleep, because there are nights that I have to go to bed too late and I have to get up too early, and I can't change that. And I know that I don't have the energy the next day.

And again, having a coach has been huge. She's been extremely supportive. I love that I can tell her anything. When I had my hip replacement, she was able to give me exercises that I could do, so that I was still exercising, because the hip surgeon wouldn't let me do anything. Not even lower body.

Coach: So in the year and a half that you've been with WarriorBabe, and in the progress that you've made losing 55 pounds, you also had hip replacement surgery?

Jean: Oh, yeah. Hip replacement last March. I had thought that if they just injected it, it'd be okay. And when I went and saw him, he said, oh no, this is done. And even at that point, I felt that I healed and did as well as I did because I was doing WarriorBabe. I traveled to France in May on a pilgrimage for two weeks. And we walked up and down more stairs in a day than you ever thought about. And I did it all. I loved it. I could do it. And I would never have been able to do that had I not joined this. I was absolutely so thankful when I was there.

Coach: Going through surgery, even a hip surgery, or it could be anything, it could be general surgery... That's so inspiring to know that if I set myself up beforehand and prime my body to endure what it's about to endure, I'm going to recover.

Jean: Oh, yeah. It was huge. That's what I said. I knew I never would have done as well if I had just been where I was the year before. No way would I have done that well. And I wouldn't have been able to go to France. I wanted to do that. And when he told me that I'd be okay, I said, okay, you're sure? I'll go for it.

Coach: We know weight isn't the thing, and you've definitely put on some muscle.

Jean: No, I realize that.

Coach: Amazing for your age. What is the goal weight that you want to get to?

Jean: For me, I'd like to be closer to 120 than 130. I'm about 130 right now, and I'd like to be closer to 120. I think it's a more reasonable weight. I'd love to say that if this was all muscle, I'd probably be okay at 130. But I know it's not all muscle. I can see the muscle. I feel better. I'm happier with my shape. But I know there's still a lot of fat in there that shouldn't be. And I just think health-wise, I need to get rid of some of that. It's really for health. Who cares what I look like? Nobody else really cares.

And I told Jess a long time ago, for me, there came a time, and it might be a funny thing to say, but I could see myself in the mirror again. For so many years, who I was looking at wasn't me to me. And so now what I see in the mirror is so much better.

And as I say, nobody else really cares. But we're going everywhere. We're going to Florida. There'll be 11 of us. I'm going with six of my grandkids and my kids and their mates. And we're going to walk all over the place. I want to be active still. I like to be active still. I want to be able to enjoy these years with those grandkids and with my kids.

Coach: Absolutely.

Jean: And so that's my goal. And weight-wise, the scale used to be my enemy, and it is no longer my enemy. That's the other thing they talked about. I heard people say it, and I thought, oh, it's so true. Now I get on that scale and I think, well, I'm happy with it most of the time.

Coach: What advice would you give to someone who is 50, 60 or in their 70s who might think it's too late to make the change?

Jean: Oh, man, it's not too late. It's fun. It's really been fun. I have just enjoyed it. I like the challenge. It's been a challenge. I like the challenge when I get a new fitness routine of seeing how much weight I can do, what I can do. So that has been really healthy for me. It's a good challenge.

But like I said, if you want to be more active, if you want to feel better, man, this works. And it's just such a sustainable thing. Weight Watchers, a diet per se, is very different to me than this. This does not strike me as a diet, which is a very, very different look to me than something like Weight Watchers, where you can have X number of servings of vegetables. I can have as much vegetable as I want as long as it fits. You know what I'm saying? I don't have that half a cup of this or half a cup of that kind of attitude anymore.

Coach: Nice. Let's see how many grams I can throw on that scale and still make it work. I love that. That's the real thing: macros is a skill set that will serve you for the rest of your life. It's not a diet.

Jean: Yeah, truly. Truly. As I said, I am so appreciative of this program.

Coach: I am so appreciative of you for taking the information, taking the plan and executing on it. I look at the coaching, what Jess does with you, and then you being your own human and taking it, and you're working together to make the transformation happen, which is a huge part of you being successful. So I appreciate you being a go-getter and getting it done. Everyone should adopt your mindset. You started out one way, but you wanted to change. That's truly what it takes: the want and the desire.

Jean: Yeah, you have to want to.

Coach: Your story is a powerful reminder that it's never too late to make a change. It's never too late to prioritize your health and to embrace a sustainable lifestyle. And I thank you so much for sharing your story with everybody here listening. If Jean's story has inspired you, remember that your next step could be the start of something truly life-changing. Jean, you've totally proven that. So I just appreciate you sharing your story, opening up and letting everyone know what's possible for them too, if they just put their mind to it.

Jean: Yeah, it is. This is a wonderful program. It has been so helpful.

Coach: Oh, thank you. I really appreciate it. Thank you so much, and thank you for being here and showing us what's possible.

Jean: Thank you.