I think it's been helpful having some of these medical conditions because I have to find
balance and that's one thing that I love with this program is that it offers the flexibility
for balance.
Welcome back to Weighing In with Patrick, the meeting after the meeting podcast.
And this is part two of my conversation with Amy.
We still have a third part to release.
This conversation took place at the Weighing In with Patrick home office last weekend.
And following up part one where Amy spoke about her career and her upbringing and some
things that have caused her pain and have challenged her and have helped also shape
the person that she is today.
And in part two of our conversation, she'll talk a little bit about, well, she'll talk
about her health and some of the health issues that she's had over the years that have complicated
her, shall we say, weight loss landscape.
And if you can't get inspired after listening to a person like Amy talk about everything
she's been up against and yet still seems to face the world and face life with a spirit
of hope and energy.
And again, it was a real pleasure.
So why don't you stay tuned after our conversation because I'll share some final thoughts.
Enjoy.
Boys and girls, your attention please.
Presenting a new exciting radio program featuring the thrilling adventures of an amazing and
incredible personality.
Welcome back to the only podcast dedicated to a local community of Weight Watchers devotees.
And now here's the podcast sherpa himself, Mr. Fantastic Patrick Holt.
I don't, you know, I don't want to have outbursts like my mom.
Like I made sure to put myself through counseling, so I wouldn't.
And I think if my husband could say it, he would agree.
I'm not.
Yes, I certainly have attributes like both my parents.
I'm structured like my father and I do love the cooking and doing things from scratch
and all that like my mom.
And I like to be creative.
But I feel like that's hopefully where it stops.
So you know, we all have those painful experiences in life.
That's not to say that should be minimized.
Right.
It makes you who you are.
What do you think would be?
How might you be less than who you are now?
Had you not been through all of that stuff?
Does that make sense?
Yeah, no, it absolutely does.
I because I definitely think it made me strong inside.
I mean, even to because from the outside, everything looked perfect.
You know, from the outside, my friends, anyone that wasn't around the kind of my family
dynamic, everything looked perfect.
You know, we sat in the exact same pew at church.
Everything looked perfect from the outside.
Once again, it was appearances.
There's one word that I can look back at my family and say, you know, that was it to me,
that's a very negative thing.
Like you're doing things just for appearances, like so behind closed doors, things are not
as happy as they seem.
So you know, it definitely it made me have a good, stronger core.
Some of it just might be like you if you ever heard people talk being from Boston or New
England, they'll say like they're not nice, but they're kind.
And you know, it kind of resonates.
I really hope that people can see me as a kind person.
But I can have a hard at or shell sometimes.
Because it's it's my protection mechanism.
It's just what you do.
You put I can and I can way too easily put that wall up if I need to, whether it's work
or anywhere, I can put that wall up so quickly.
But I know how to take it down brick by brick as I need to now.
Right.
But I will put it up to protect myself.
So you have a good it sounds like you have a good sense.
You have kind of a good radar who to trust and who not to trust.
I keep a very small circle of people, but most people in my circle don't know anything
about my past.
Just because it's not it doesn't define me.
It might have helped shaped me, but it didn't define me.
Yeah, right.
You talked a little bit about how you internalized kind of the messaging you were getting kind
of living in a particular milieu of your family kind of led to some disorder eating, which
is serious stuff.
Like many folks, you're sitting across the table from somebody who's tried several different
means to lose weight.
How many times do you think over the years you've made an attempt to lose weight, even
if it was like a day or two before it fell apart or you stop?
Just to estimate, guesstimate.
I mean, over 20 times.
I mean, I can definitely recall how many times even my husband and I both did Atkins because
we're like, Oh, our clothes are fitting a little tight.
So we would be like, let's do Atkins.
You know, you'd make it maybe like four weeks and then all of a sudden you'd be like, if
I have to see another piece of bacon, I'm going to die.
You couldn't do it.
And then Mediterranean diet.
I've done Mediterranean diet.
I don't know how many cookbooks I've bought that are certain.
What was that?
South Beach diet.
I bought so many of those.
Plus, yeah, just the, Oh, I'm just going to eat a little lighter this week.
I'm just going to play around and be like, eat fewer carbs.
I've hired nutritionists.
So before this last round of coming back to Weight Watchers, I hired nutritionists trying
so many different things because we just couldn't figure out why I kept hitting stalls.
And so I was like, well, maybe this is faulty, so we'll try this.
Maybe this is faulty.
We'll try this.
Yeah.
So what do you think is the craziest diet or plan that you ventured into?
Honestly, I'd say the Atkins because it's crazy.
There were zero carbs, meat, and it didn't matter how fatty the meat was.
And just looking back, I'm like, like South Beach wasn't as bad.
I still don't like that you couldn't eat the fruit as quickly and all that, but it was
a little closer to like a Mediterranean.
But yeah, definitely.
I'd say the Atkins.
I mean, outside of just not eating because obviously that was the most extreme I ever
did was just not trying to have as few calories.
I think I was only trying to get like 300 calories at that time in high school per day.
So that was the craziest.
But outside of that, when I would say Atkins, looking back, like, yeah, let's just have
some cheese wrapped in meat and be like...
And you'd fill up because it's all protein, but nobody's checking your cholesterol level,
your blood pressure, none of that because you're just like, oh, I lost 10 pounds.
I'll make the assumption that you lost weight on Atkins.
I did.
Yeah.
How much did you lose on Atkins?
I think I lost 10, 15 pounds on Atkins, but it wasn't...
I couldn't keep it off.
So when you stopped, I will make another assumption.
You feel free to correct me if I got it wrong.
But once you stopped, I'm going to guess that the weight returned at some point.
Oh, very quickly.
The weight returned and I gained more weight back.
Did you have that experience prior to that or after that?
Yeah.
When I did South Beach, the same thing happened.
And pretty much anything that I'd call a diet, that would happen.
The only time it hasn't happened is when I...
Really it was Weight Watchers, but you have to follow the plan.
If you don't follow the plan, the same thing could happen.
Yeah.
When I hear folks say, Weight Watchers works, I'm like, no, you work.
Yeah, Weight Watchers itself works because it puts tools in your possession.
And if you use the tools, but it also isn't a one size fits all.
As I said, I used to be like, oh, it's zero points.
I'm going to eat all this stuff.
And then I'd be like, I'm up two pounds this week.
I don't understand.
And I'd be like, oh, that's when I learned fruit.
Fruit's not my friend.
Some fruit is, but not all fruit.
And yeah, so you still have to understand your body and know that that's going to shift
what worked two years ago may not work now.
Can I ask, if not, say so, were there any or are there any weight related health concerns
that popped up throughout the years?
So like in my case, I developed a wonderful case type two diabetes.
So I was considered healthy fat by a doctor because so I actually suffer from low blood
pressure.
So I typically like try to make sure I have some salty things around.
Have you met my wife?
Yes.
Sometimes I'm like, are you sure you're alive?
Your blood pressure is insanely low.
Thankfully, mine's not as low as my father's, but he really has a low, low blood pressure.
But yeah, so that's why whenever it's normal, I'm always like, no, this isn't good.
Normal's not good for me.
I had high blood pressure when I was giving birth and I remember having to stress because
they were worried it was high.
And I was like, how am I not dead?
Like you don't know this is like you're concerned about your average person giving birth and
having this high a blood pressure.
She's a premature birth.
Like you don't understand.
This is not okay.
But yeah, no, I they consider me healthy fat.
My cholesterol was fine.
You know, I had blood work done.
The only health issue.
Well, now I'm aware of two.
But at the time, the only health issue I had was, you know, knowing I had some cysts in
my kidneys.
I knew that back in college.
But so my parents had testing done.
But my parents decided that it wasn't critical enough to have any further testing done.
Yeah.
So I took it upon myself to have my kidney levels every every few years I would have
blood work done for my kidney levels.
In hindsight, we probably should have had something done.
Especially at the request of doctors.
But you know, so that's why I ended up by having so I did in 2019.
In October, I had my right kidney removed because it was three times the size it was
supposed to be.
And they stopped counting at 50 cysts that were inside of it.
And so it was putting pressure all the way down to like my tailbone and it was putting
pressure all the way up behind my rib cage.
Like it was.
Yeah, it was crazy.
So yeah, I had that but it wasn't weight related.
We don't know why we're really not sure what happened.
And it's I had they did genetic testing as well.
Levine cancer in atrium was great at doing helping me with all the genetic testing, making
sure there's nothing familial that I could have passed on to, you know, you know, giving
birth and stuff.
And thankfully there wasn't I have that odd unilateral polycystic kidney disease.
So I still have to get my kidney level tested every single year blood work done.
Because we don't know why I have cysts only on one kidney.
We don't know if that ever could come to my only good kidney.
So I have to do that.
And my just for the record, my kidney levels every year when I would get or every few years
when I'd get it tested growing up, they were fine because my good kidney was working overtime
for the bad kidney.
So they gave it when they went to take it out, they said they gave it maybe a maximum
of five years before it'd be completely dead.
I think it was like 25% functional through one of like those color testing, you know,
when they could see everything going through.
It was literally like ping ponging through with all the cysts.
So I had that but that wasn't weight related.
And then I have I had a hysterectomy done in the summer and because they diagnosed me
with adenomyosis and the hysterectomy will cure it.
Well when they did the hysterectomy, they found out that I had endometriosis and they
think I'd had it for 20 years for the extent they had like clean out of me.
They couldn't remove it off of an ovary and they couldn't remove it off of my colon.
So I still have it growing.
Because when you have endometriosis, I've learned you will always have it.
So yeah, so I have that and that explains so much of my pain.
I still get flare ups.
I had it one couple weeks.
Was it last week?
A couple times now on Saturdays, I've come in and it'll feel like I am having like is
my appendix going to rupture?
I don't know.
And and but it'll go away after usually about 30 minutes to an hour.
So that's how I'll know like, oh, it's just that.
But once again, not weight related but can impact weight.
It might explain why I get more tired and just don't have energy levels aside.
But that also could be perimenopause.
It might explain like there's a lot of different things.
There's so many things that it can explain.
So yeah, so now I have that.
And so now we're kind of living through what does that mean?
I'm wondering if that gave me some asthma because it can go into your lungs.
It's been found in every organ of the body, endometriosis.
So for me, they only could look at where I had laparoscopic surgery.
So we don't know where it went.
But that's something I'll have to mention to my doctor next week because I using my
inhaler more.
And that's odd because I didn't need to.
So and I've lost weight.
So you would think, oh, maybe she would need to use her inhaler less now that she's lost
like 75 plus pounds.
And it's like, no, I'm actually using it more.
So I have no idea.
But yeah, so the only I mean, I've had issues, medical issues, but they're not.
They don't seem to be weight related.
So between the endometriosis and the issue with your kidney, like what were the outwards?
So if somebody didn't know you had that diagnosis, what might they see that was like, you know,
your outward appearance, your behavior, whatever.
How would that affect what somebody saw if you walked in the room?
I don't think most people would probably even realize they didn't even realize like I like
for the kidney thing, I just I drink a lot of water.
So when I used to have to go to customers and stuff, I would just explain like, hey,
just trying to stay really hydrated.
So I'll take a break now.
Like I would force myself to keep staying hydrated because now it's just not a matter
of drink your water.
It's literally my health.
My life is at risk.
I have one kidney and I've got to keep it strong.
You know, so I yeah.
So for that, as far as the endometriosis goes, nobody knew I had it.
I didn't know I had it.
I mean, I tried to mask the pain whenever I had, you know, horrible monthly pain.
I tried to mask it.
I remember traveling for hockey and having to like rent cars and drive in places I wasn't
familiar with sometimes at night, which is not like, you know, for that kind of gives
me a little anxiety, but I got over it.
But I would have horrible pain.
But like even my daughter couldn't really understand how horrible it was.
Right.
Like it was and I was on the bench taking photos and trying to help all the girls.
Like no, I was just like, nope, just got it buried deep and just keep going.
So I would tell there was a friend, one of the other moms was a good friend of mine.
So I would let her know that, hey, like struggling, but going to keep it up, just going to keep
focusing.
It wasn't until I collapsed in pain at the deli.
So I was last April, I was standing in line.
Like I usually do Sunday mornings.
I get I get a deli bagel sandwich and I usually I get no cheese on it and I split it in half.
So that way it's points for two days.
So I get enjoy it two days and my points are all good.
So that's how I work.
That's my little treat.
But I was standing in line, hadn't ordered yet and didn't even see it coming.
I knew I was in some pain, but the pain hadn't really gotten too bad yet.
I collapsed in fainted in pain, hit my hit the table or chair as I fell down, ended up
by cracking some ribs.
The pain didn't quite go away.
They sat me up.
I can tell you they all know my name in there now.
When did this happen?
In April, the very last day of April of last year.
And so when and then a few days later, so like knew it was like menstrual pain, but
then I was like, but it's the worst it was had ever gotten.
And so I was like, well, let's just give it a day or so.
And if it doesn't go away, well, maybe it is like an appendix or something.
So I went to the emergency room to see if it was an appendix.
And I'm telling them like, hey, be careful.
I can't take most pain medicine.
So just make sure it's only Tylenol or something.
Because when you have one kidney, you can't take a lot of pain stuff or a lot of medicine
in general.
So I don't really take medicine.
And I didn't know they'd given me morphine.
I was shaking.
I was in so much pain while I was in the emergency room.
They brought like the warm blankets and stuff and I was shaking in pain.
And I didn't know I had morphine.
And I think my husband had asked like, hey, is there anything else you can do?
Like she's literally shaking.
They must have shrunk my all of the when they went to try to get blood for me, they had
to bring in the ultrasound because they couldn't find my veins and stuff.
And this is what really frustrates me when people have it definitely was a flare up at
the time and it was adenomyosis.
But here's what frustrates me.
It was whether it was just this personal doctor or not.
They said, just go home.
You just what I'm what I'm diagnosing you with is bad cramps.
And all I got to say is to any female, let's say out there that cramps should not like
for anyone to question how much pain you're in when your body literally physically shuts
down and you faint due to pain.
Probably something else going on there.
Yeah.
So thankfully I had I already had my yearly appointment with my OB and sent her the results
from the ER.
And she said, well, at your like at your request, we're going to redo it.
And I said, please, please redo everything.
I can't believe that everything is normal.
And she immediately said, no, you got adenomyosis.
She's like, sometimes I'm not sure if people do when we do the hysterectomy, but I'm leaning
towards it.
And after I say, good call, I'm glad we did this because you had it.
She's like, I can actually see you have it.
Now, if she didn't, she couldn't see I had endometriosis because you don't know until
you you get in there that you see it.
So and she was good when I was healing.
Initially, my OB did not tell me I had endometriosis.
She wanted me to be healing better and be more functional before she told me because
she didn't want that to weigh on my mind that like, great, now I have something for the
rest of my life and we don't know how bad or good it could be in my body.
Right.
Though you were not informed.
Is that to also understand that it's not like they could have provided some particular treatment?
Oh, they could have.
I mean, they could have they could have said, you know, I guess if I'd had the right doctors,
it started earlier in my 20s being told when I'd go and complain about how bad my cramps
would be, they would say, oh, well, we're just just keep staying on birth control.
And that's why I was on it was to help alleviate my cramps.
And they said, you know, I would I would be told kind of in a condescending way, sweetie,
you just need to have kids and everything will be so much better for you.
And I actually believed that.
Now I didn't have, you know, a kid because of that.
But I was like, OK, maybe things will get better.
Maybe that's nature's way of, you know, you mean having children was not a medical decision.
No, it was.
But but yeah, so I and I've heard other people in different communities talk
about having the exact same thing.
They were either just put on medication to mask what was going on or they were told,
oh, just, you know, pregnancy will be a blessing for you in that regard.
And I will say the odd thing is when I was pregnant, most like a lot of my friends were
like, oh, my back hurts or this hurt.
I was like, oh, my pain is gone.
I actually had no back pain.
I had nothing like I mean, I had the horrible.
Morning sickness that lasted for six months.
So I had that, which was not fun.
I was losing too much weight.
But I yeah, I did not.
I did not.
I actually had to do about that.
A bunch of different attempts to drop weight, a bunch of different methods to drop weight.
And then at some point, Weight Watchers got on your radar.
What happened?
How did you get introduced to Weight Watchers?
I think it was a coworker.
I'm fairly certain it was a coworker and I was sick of fad diets and I'm pretty sure
it was a coworker and there was some promo going on.
Thanks to Weight Watchers, always doing promos that got me going, oh, well, that's not too
much money to spend and to try it and see how it works.
So this is my third time back at Weight Watchers.
And each time I stopped, it was because I got frustrated with the plateau and I wouldn't
get past it.
This is the only time where I've still had plateaus this time around, which is why it's
been kind of slow and steady when there's a race in my head this time around.
But I've had plateaus where I had a whole three months where it was pretty much I was
like either up point two, down point four, up point two.
And I was like, okay, we're going to get past it.
We're just going to figure it out.
Let's try not having some of these or cutting back on this or eating this, trying different
things.
And just I remember because I always, for some reason, my husband does not require me
to do this, but I always text him up point two, the same, last point two, last two, last
1.8, whatever it is, I text him every time.
But this time around, I was like, yeah, you've probably noticed I haven't been texting you
updates.
I'm still going to the weigh-in, but I'm kind of frustrated.
And he's very supportive, but I want to stick with it.
And he was like, okay, then stick with it.
And I was like, yeah, I think I just need to stick with it.
And even with the surgery, because I gained weight with the surgery, I think it was just
water retention, but I gained weight with the surgery.
I didn't let that set me down.
I was like, that's fine.
You know what?
I might have two months, three months where clearly I'm not able to exercise and all that.
I was like, nope, we're just still doing this.
So I feel proud of myself this time around that it's the longest I've been on it.
So I joined on my birthday in 2022 in May.
And I, yes, it's taken longer to lose the weight than maybe I kind of wanted because
I built a spreadsheet for myself that was like, if I lost 0.5 pounds every week, this
is how long it would take me to hit a goal.
And that's not good, but I'm a detailed person.
So I kind of liked having that.
But then that sets me back when I don't meet those things.
So I was like, no, I got to ditch this.
And I just got to say, it's just what I'm doing.
What will happen when you reach your goal weight?
So I have a goal weight with my doctor.
So I got him to write a note.
I'm close.
I'm about 10 pounds, I think, away from that weight.
That's what he and I decided was healthy given, and he doesn't even know I've been to endometriosis,
but that's what with my kidney issue, because he thought that was healthy was to like a
certain amount.
So that's that's kind of my goal weight.
But that's kind of like the highest lowest I want to be.
I would like to go lower than that.
I don't know what my body can handle without throwing off numbers, right?
Like I don't want to have my blood pressure go too low.
I don't like I don't know what that is.
So I know that that weight is technically higher than if you look at BMI and all that
stuff.
It's higher than that should be.
But I also know that my doctor is okay with that weight.
And it's 50 pounds less than I've been at both of my well, the last surgery.
That's why this past surgery, I was like, well, at least they safely removed my kidney
and I was like 230 pounds.
So this time around, I was below 200 pounds when I had hysterectomy and I was like, like,
it's a little when sometimes where you're like, I know I'm healthy enough to have surgery,
like that my weight is not a concern.
So I I want to get so like 175 is what my doctor said for me.
And then I'll just kind of play around, I guess, and see, do I go lower?
Is it maintainable?
But you actually made a great comment to me one time when I said I was having these plateaus
and you said, well, we should know how to maintain.
And it was such great wisdom because it made me realize, well, dang, you're right.
Like only going up point for up point two and down point two, I basically have been
like hovering over a number for months.
And it gave me so much confidence to be like, I could do maintenance.
Yeah.
Like, you don't you know, you get stressed out over sometimes hitting these plateaus
or whatever.
And to put it into that type of perspective, it's like, that's actually kind of cool to
think that that's possible.
Well, and that's, you know, we're apparently we're going to be talking next week in our
meeting about breaking through a plateau.
And I've said it before, about I have shared my view on plateaus.
And I believe they are inherently valuable and they should be treated like just really
good friends that you want to keep around for a while.
Right.
And I think that that mindset that we get into where we are just hammering away on the
idea, I must lose.
I must lose.
Well, my question earlier about if you hit your goal weight, what's next?
Technically, ideally, a plateau.
Yeah, yeah, I'm fine.
Like, so when I hit my goal weight, I will be fine.
And my husband actually he asked me a great question because he said, for all the years
he's known to me, he said, have have I and it was a great it was a great thing.
Have I ever been okay with my weight?
And he's right.
I haven't for 20 and it's been more than this many years.
I've not been okay with my weight.
I've always wished I weighed less or wish I fit into clothes differently or a different
size clothes.
And I think part of it maybe is just age.
I don't care anymore.
Yeah, like there's just bigger things, more important things that I could be worried about
than that, then whether I'm in like, I used to be like, I need to be in a size like six
or eight.
I'm in a 14 right now.
If I stay in a 14, just that's okay.
You know, I still could lose 10 pounds and stay in this size.
Like I've only gone down to clothing sizes, losing over 75.
I think I'm like at 77 pounds or so.
I've only gone down to clothing sizes.
So it just shows you like, that's okay.
Like it's not about how many clothing sizes you've dropped.
You could potentially go down more clothing sizes and have lost less weight.
It's just do I feel healthier than I was?
I feel more in control than I was.
And that means more than like what size I'm wearing.
Although I will say there is gratitude to knowing that I can officially just buy size
larges in things and they fit.
There is some of that I will say.
Like that having always bought an extra large or an XXL for so many years, there is definitely
some gratitude in that, but I'm trying not to take it so lightly and really appreciate
it.
I thought you made some great points there.
Since you're from Massachusetts, I will throw some Henry David throw at you.
There's a quote I read recently and it's been bouncing around in my head and hopefully I
don't butcher it.
But it doesn't necessarily matter what you're looking at, it matters what you see.
And that's still a work in progress for me.
I got a full length mirror at Christmas.
I told my husband, I was like, we got to stop with these like half mirrors.
I don't know why we moved into this house and we always have one hanging in the back
of the door or whatnot.
And for some reason we didn't move it this time around.
And it's been like 10 years or so that we've been living in our house.
And I think my daughter has one, but I'm not going to go in her room and use the full length
mirror in the back of her closet.
So I was like, we need to get one, but I want a cute one and all that.
And I look at myself and usually my immediate reaction is like, oh.
And then I just have to be like, but wait, what would I have said to myself when I was
like 77 pounds heavier?
If I'm saying that now, and that's the old mindset that I've had for so many years where
my husband's right, but you've never been happy with your weight.
I was in the 160s when I met him and was trying to lose some weight.
And now to think of the 160s, I'd be like, oh my gosh, give that to me now.
It's crazy though.
When would I be satisfied?
And I have to think it can't be a number.
It just has to almost be a feeling.
Yes, I know there's numbers because Weight Watchers uses numbers and my doctor likes
numbers.
You can't ignore the number, but I think there's also a feeling.
So this time around and I'm okay with that number being whatever it is that we, between
my doctor and my own self figure out it to be.
Yeah.
I was talking to Bruce this morning before the meeting started.
I was telling him that there's been this argument going on between my clothes and the scale
that I get on every morning.
And the scale is telling me that I seem to be, especially over the last four weeks, like
I'm up a net, I'll just call it two pounds.
However, I kind of recommitted probably three or four weeks ago to do a strength training.
And this week I really got back into movement, right?
Starting to walk and trying to, I don't jog and I don't run.
I slog and I just do the slow jog thing.
My body is definitely changing to where I can see a difference.
And my clothes are like, absolutely.
This is a good thing what's going on right now.
But if I just look at that freaking scale and that's my only metric of, we'll use the
word we used earlier, success, I'm screwed.
Is there ever going to be anything that's going to make me feel like, okay, I'm doing
all right here?
I still got to remind myself that I'm right at what my weight was when I graduated high
school.
And when I graduated high school, I spent a good six months starving myself.
Right?
You know what I mean?
And so when I got out of high school and returned to regular behavior, suddenly, like you can
actually, I have seen photographs of that summer.
You could see the weight coming back on.
Right?
And so really just this idea that we, these plateaus, we've got to just burst through.
And Johanna talked about the email, an email she got from WW about, you're looking to get
through a plateau?
Try one of our GLP-1s.
And I want to be real clear.
I'm a big believer in GLP-1s if you need it.
Whether that is your blood sugar, to regulate your blood sugar, or if you really need help
in taking the edge off some of those, when we get the munchies and I used to get-
The noise, right?
Yeah, the food noise.
So I will never begrudge anybody who needs that kind of kickstart.
And whether you use it temporarily or whether that's a long-term solution for you, that's
like telling somebody who has cancer, if you're getting radiation treatment, you're cheating.
Oh, exactly.
Getting healthy through medicinal means is, that's not, you know what?
Stop it.
I don't want to hear that.
So we're going to hear about how to break through a plateau next week.
I'm looking forward to hearing what folks, how they think about plateaus.
Yeah, I think plateaus should heat you grace.
Just like, you know, whether you go to a party and you decide you want to eat that piece
of cake, give yourself grace.
Like, that's what I love about Weight Watchers.
It's not, I'm still able to eat food.
It was funny that she brought up the Mexican restaurant because my husband, on Thursday,
he said, he knows I don't go out to eat if I can help it on a Friday.
Because I just, I'd like to control the sodium and everything else, you know?
And so Thursday night, he's like, where do you want to go?
Do you want to go out to eat?
And it just been stressful week for both of us at work.
And I was like, I'll go out.
You don't have to tell me twice.
I don't have to make dinner.
I've made it and I've gotten on the treadmill like the times I wanted to.
Like, yes, I will go out.
And he just looked at me and he's like, Mexican?
And so we went to Chirondah's, but the one in Fort Vale because I lived up there.
And I don't have the, I do drink once in a while, but probably like once a month.
I don't, I just don't find I need it as much anymore.
I leaned on it too much during COVID when everyone was doing virtual happy hours and
stuff.
And I was like, oh, we're not driving anywhere.
And because that's my big rule.
I will not have a drink, even just a sip and get behind the wheel of a car.
So I, you're the designated driver.
Well, or my husband, cause he doesn't either.
But yeah, I won't.
So at least I'm not tempted by that when we go there.
But I was like, yeah, I'm going to have chips and salsa, but I'm going to, I know how many
chips to eat.
So when I got up to like six chips, I was like, okay, we got to really start.
Is it worth it to have more?
And I was like, I'm not going to wait.
And then we got the steak and chicken fajitas to split.
And so it was so funny because she literally is like bringing up this right today.
But I was just like, I'm like, oh yeah, we got the fajitas, but here's what I do when
we get the fajitas to split.
You know, they give you a plate.
I take the chicken and some steak and the veggies and I put it on my plate.
And then I take some lettuce that's on like the side thing they give you.
And I put the lettuce on my plate.
And then I take probably like four spoons or forks of the beans and I put it on my plate
and that's my meal.
My husband knows, no, I'm not going to, the flour tortillas are not worth it.
The rice is not worth it.
Yeah, I like it, but it's not, I don't need the extra calories, points, whatever you want
to, however you want to look at it.
I basically just make a little bowl for myself.
I, you know, they're always like, Oh, do you need more?
And you know, you heard today, I hate server green, so I don't have that problem.
There is no case.
So I needed like, you know, but yeah, I, that I could easily fit in my points.
It's not that hard, like, and, and, you know, there are too many, you know, people commenting.
So I was like, okay, I won't comment.
But I was like, when she said all those things, I'm like, okay, yeah, the margarita could
have like definitely hurt the points in the use case they had today.
But I was like, it's not hard.
Like I was able to eat and have all that and I very much enjoyed it.
But I very much portioned, like instead of keep adding it to my plate.
I put on my plate what I felt I was kind of like a fist size or so.
And knowing there were some vegetables, so I made sure that the veggies were more just
a fist size, the meat was a fist size.
And then I just do like the four spoons of that.
And I kind of had to estimate how much I thought I was having of the retry beans and stuff,
right?
Because I just don't know if the picture is really doing that.
But so I aired on the side of caution, but I was like, I could have that.
And it was delightful.
And I mean, I ended up losing two pounds this week.
But like it just showed you that like you could still go to the restaurant and you could
still have the fajitas.
Now if somebody liked sour cream, if they had to have the rice, if they couldn't hold
themselves back from the chips or the drink, I do understand that that would have that
could have been your entire week's worth of points or more.
I get that.
So maybe I'm fortunate in the fact that some of the stuff I absolutely hate is stuff that
does have points.
So maybe it's a good thing that absolutely hates sour cream and cream cheese and all
that.
But
so over the years when you when you've tried the Mediterranean diet, tried keto, you tried
whatever.
Did you learn anything that you seem to be able to apply to the next effort?
Yeah.
And even with Weight Watchers, the number one thing I learned is that protein can fill
you up.
So protein like that should be the main basis of anything that you're eating is protein.
Now one thing I have to be careful of is protein is processed through your kidneys.
So I like where some people could be like, oh, I just have a protein shake for breakfast.
Like I can't it.
I mean, one isn't going to kill me.
But yeah, so I that's also one of the reasons I love Weight Watchers because I have to balance.
I have to have some carbs with my protein.
Like so I think it's been helpful having some of these medical conditions because I have
to find balance.
And that's one thing that I love with this program is that it offers the flexibility
for balance.
Flexibility.
I hope you enjoyed the part two.
Seriously, you can't get inspired by somebody like Amy, then perhaps.
I don't know.
I wonder to myself if I had those types of challenges.
Would I have that type of disposition as well?
I don't know.
I really don't.
The last bit where she talked about being basically grateful, thankful for her medical
issues.
And, you know, it sounds as if they are many.
We're not talking about insignificant health issues either.
I believe that Amy probably experiences the type of physical pain that would send me over
the edge probably.
But she's able to maintain, I would assume, for the most part, and even kill it.
Maybe get the better of her from time to time.
I would assume.
I would have to, right?
It's probably a day she just doesn't, you know, please don't talk to me.
Right?
She's quite an individual.
Being thankful for my many health problems because it has taught me some things.
What are you thankful for?
Is there anything in your life that challenged you, was difficult, really heavy to carry
around, that hurt?
It made you feel maybe not so fantastic, but when you look back on it, it seems as though
it had value.
It taught you something about yourself, about what you're capable of.
That's important.
Never allow good crisis to go unused.
Right?
Anyways, thank you, Amy, for sharing what you shared.
We're going to have part three up as soon as we possibly can.
We alluded to the weekly conversation at the meeting for Saturday, March 8th was going
to be about plateaus and how to break through them.
I've been pretty vocal about what I think of plateaus.
I think they are an invaluable experience.
All of us, I think everybody in the room, I think everybody who is in Weight Watchers,
I think anyone who's currently right now anywhere in the universe who's trying to lose weight,
this is not their first attempt.
Maybe it is, but if it is, it's probably not going to be their last.
It's probably not going to be their last based on the stats.
That is a common thread.
If you've been listening to the folks that have been on and have shared their stories,
Rick, Kathy, Bruce, Johanna, Amy, and myself, Courtney, and everybody that's in a Weight
Watchers meeting room with you, they have each probably tried to lose weight upwards
10 times in their life.
That is, I think, irrefutable.
That losing weight is, yes, a process associated with the effort that you're currently engaged
in.
But it is a process, I believe, of many different efforts, and that with each effort that doesn't
succeed, you take something from it and with you into the next effort, regardless of when
that next effort is.
That's stages of change model.
We have this, think of it as like a pinwheel.
It's really not even like stage one, stage two, stage three, but you kind of go back
and forth between these maybe levels, I don't know, where you're thinking about it.
Maybe you're not even thinking about it.
I think I've talked about this before.
Before you make a change, you've got to be aware that there's a change.
Sometimes, for years, I didn't think I should make a change or I could make a change, so
I didn't think about changing anything.
That's known as pre-contemplation, before I even start thinking about it.
Then you get into the contemplation stage where you're, hmm, should I?
Maybe I should change something.
I don't know.
Should I change something?
You begin to kind of plot your course.
If I'm going to do it, how am I going to do it?
What am I going to do?
Who's going to help me?
Is there a plan that I'm going to plug in?
Am I going to create my own?
Who's going to be there to support me?
Then there's action.
Now you're, all right.
I've thought about it.
I've planned it.
Now I'm jumping into it.
I'm going to do it.
If you're anything like me, sometimes you've started and it lasted a couple of days, maybe
hours, and then you retreat, and then you start all over again.
I think Amy said she's tried like 20 times to lose weight.
She was rattling off some of those diets, right?
You know what we're talking about.
That's another common thing.
Not only do we all keep trying, but we keep trying different things.
We keep looking for the Holy Grail, the magic formula.
What's the, you know, if I just stop eating this one thing, or if I eat according to my
blood type, or if I just eat cabbage soup, or if I eat nothing but red meat, avoid all
carbohydrates.
Like you'll lose weight, but are they sustainable?
Probably not.
So another universal truth is that if you are even remotely successful, eventually you
will probably hit a weight loss plateau when you stop losing weight at the rate that you
were losing it before.
And it's just so like right now, as of March 8th, 2025, when I weighed in today, I'm now
in a four week plateau.
I'm cool with it.
I'm all right with it.
It's not like, it's not like it's the end of the world.
It's an unscheduled maintenance phase, as I have said.
And if I don't lose another pound for the rest of my life, I'm all right with it.
And just because I don't lose another pound, that doesn't mean that I won't gain another
ounce of muscle somewhere.
And it is true.
You might lose muscle mass as you're losing weight, but you don't have to.
You can do resistance training.
Amy talked about protein.
Protein intake is really important.
It's really important when you're trying to build muscle too.
If you're taking in a lot of protein, but you're not doing things to cause your muscles
to get bigger, you probably won't gain much muscle, if any.
But remember, the more muscle you have, the more likely you are to burn fat.
So you're eating right.
So you're exercising in accordance with that goal.
I would tell you there's some really neat forms of exercise.
There's something called the Maffetone method that runners employ that has to do with staying,
keeping your heart rate beneath the aerobic threshold.
The reason why that's important is when you are underneath your, you know, like, what
is there, the three or there's like four or five different heart rate zones, right?
And what the Maffetone method tells you is like, when you're exercising, like if you're
running or walking, you should try to stay in zone two about 80% of the time, because
while you're in zone two, your body is drawing off of your fat reserves to fuel the movement.
And when you go up into the aerobic zone, it's now going after the sugar inside your
muscles.
And when you're going after the muscles, do you think you're, you know, if you're drawing
off the muscles, you're probably not increasing the mass of the muscle.
What's the adage?
Work smarter, not harder.
Maffetone method kind of bears that out.
The other thing about the Maffetone method is the more you do the Maffetone method, the
stronger your heart gets.
The idea is that that zone two, you should be able to exercise and have a conversation
at the same time, keeping an eye on your heart rate.
But you can look that up on the internet, Maffetone, M-A, F as in Frank, F as in Frank,
E, T as in Thomas, O, N as in Nancy, E, Maffetone, or the Maff method.
There's so much about this weight loss experience that is universal between people.
And I don't think it matters what race you are, what gender you are, what your occupation
is, what your income status is.
It doesn't matter if you're single or married, whether you have kids or not, whether you
got dogs and cats or chickens.
I think we all have that in our head that this should be easy.
I don't want it to be hard.
I don't want to give up the things that I really, really just love to eat that I know
are also not helpful to maintaining a healthy weight or at least really kind of, now you
cut them out, but boy, you don't make them a staple, right?
They become more of a treat that you don't have every day.
And I know that I really struggled with figure out a way through it, through it.
Can't really go around, can't really go underneath it.
You got to go through it and you got to think about it.
You got to think about yourself in a different way.
We don't plan for these unscheduled maintenance phases.
And I think that that really ought to be one of the first things we hear about when we
join.
Oh yeah, by the way, you're going to have a, you're going to experience something down
the road as long as you work your plan and you experience weight loss on your way to
your goal.
You're going to, you're going to get into this, what feels like a rut, but it's really
a sign of success.
And your brain is going to try and play a trick on you and cause you to despair and
clutch your pearls.
Oh, I didn't lose weight.
What am I going to do?
This is a waste of time.
I'm going to the bakery.
I'm going to go get me a jelly donut or five because I deserve what I want when I want.
Nope.
I think we just have this sense of entitlement.
I know I don't.
I'm going to speak for myself.
I would have a sense of entitlement over whether or not I'm going to lose weight this week.
My wonderful wife has said it before.
You don't always get the weight loss you deserve when you deserve to have it.
And you don't always get the weight gain you deserve when you deserve to have it.
So start practicing.
You know, if you haven't hit a plateau, plan for it.
It's going to come.
What are you going to tell yourself when you get on the scale a third week in a row and
it hasn't budged?
Or maybe it's gone maybe the other way.
Maybe, and I've done everything I'm supposed to do.
This is a waste of time.
Well, you're probably going to have that thought because all of us think like that.
I'm not even going to go to the meeting.
I'm not going to weigh in.
Why should I bother weighing in?
I already know what the result is.
You know why?
Because you've got to practice getting on that scale and not letting that scale judge
you.
Judge your worth, your value, and the worth and the value of your effort.
It's not just about that number on the scale.
The effort.
What are you doing is sometimes a lot more important than what was the result this week.
If you'd like to argue that point, I'm all ears.
I would love to have you on.
Don't be afraid of the plateaus.
It's a natural part.
It's an unscheduled maintenance phase.
And when you hit your goal weight, what comes after that?
Six weeks of what they say is maintenance.
And if you have been in a plateau and you didn't despair and you didn't panic and you
didn't run screaming into the darkness, when you get to the maintenance period, the six
weeks of maintenance, you're going to be like, whatever.
It's good.
I've been here before.
I know what it's like.
This is nothing new.
I'm comfortable because there's going to come a point when you can't literally lose any
more weight.
What's the payoff going to be from that point on?
Right now it's getting on the scale.
Oh, I'm down a point.
I'm down a pound.
I'm down a half a pound.
I'm down two pounds.
That's huge.
Right?
Amy talked about sending text messages to family and friends.
This is where I'm at.
This is what happened at the weigh-in.
I did that.
I got my friend Rob in Texas.
I'd send him a screenshot of the weigh-in result because he knew me in my heaviest.
He knew me in high school.
He kind of came along for the ride in a lot of ways.
But that payoff is going to be out the window when you go to maintenance.
You can't rely on that to fuel your efforts.
What is going to drive you then?
I think it comes up in one word, and it's something that I have always struggled with.
I'm really getting better at it as I get older.
Maybe I'm just getting more boring.
I don't know.
The word discipline.
Maintenance is about discipline.
Weight loss is about discipline, but you also have a lot of payoffs there.
Take some time.
Go over your whys.
Why am I doing this?
I don't think anybody is trying to lose weight because it just feels good to get on the scale
and be told, oh, you're down two pounds from last week.
That might keep you coming back, but that's not nobody.
I've never heard anyone say that.
This is why I'm doing Weight Watchers.
I just really love that weigh-in day.
Why am I doing that?
I'm enjoying non-scale victories.
What can I do now that I haven't been able to do before because I was just too heavy?
Gravity had a different relationship with me than it did with some other folks.
If you can only like yourself when you're losing weight, uh-oh, better start working
on that.
Anyways, we are now available, if you are unaware, on several different podcast platforms.
iTunes.
We are on, I believe, Spotify.
We are on Podcast Addict.
You can find us at rss.com.
I'm still going to be uploading onto audio.com, as has been the norm up until last week.
Just so everyone is aware, the only reason why we're more available than we have been
is because it would seem that the audio.com platform can really be a bit confusing.
It's not terribly intuitive.
I really hope that you enjoyed my conversation with Amy today and that it was helpful to
you.
I hope that my ramblings were also somewhat helpful.
I hope to see you at the meeting next weekend.
Make sure you get to the meeting next week.
Whatever you're telling yourself, whatever you think is going to happen at the meeting
or at the weigh-in, don't let it push you around.
Get your butt there.
Don't rob people of an opportunity to support you if you need it.
And don't rob yourself of the opportunity to support somebody else who might need it.
If you would like to be a part of this, and my goal is to have anybody that wants to do
it, and maybe even some of you don't.
I'm looking at you, Dottie.
I would like to have a couple.
I mean, there's so many people at that meeting that I would love to have on.
I'm looking at you, Dorro, and Nancy back there in the back of the room.
I would like to have you on.
So shoot me an email or catch me at the meeting.
You can send any inquiries, questions, feedback to the inbox, weighinginwithpatrick at gmail.com.
I check it almost every minute, and I'm just waiting for somebody to send me a message.
We will be releasing the third and final installment of my conversation with Amy, where we, I believe
we focus almost entirely on the weight loss journey.
I hope you get to listen.
I hope you'll want to listen, and this is Patrick reminding you to hang in there, because
you can do it.
You can do it.
See you next time.
Get out of there, bear!