Emotional Eating After Gastric Sleeve Surgery: What Helped

Nikkiey: Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals, and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review, and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask you to do is leave a review. It will take you 10 seconds, and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.

Jenna: Jen's ability to see things that I could not see on my own is the biggest breakthrough. These coaches can see things that we cannot, and that's what's so amazing about it. I'll give you an example. My boys aren't sleeping very well. For whatever reason, the three-year-old keeps getting up and coming in and waking my husband and me up. So I just said, this is what's happening every week. My kid keeps waking me up. I'm exhausted, and that's maybe why I didn't hit that workout that week, you know? I didn't see it happening, but Jen pointed it out. She was like, you know, for like a month and a half, you've done nothing but complain about your kids waking you up. What are you going to do about it?

Nikkiey: What is going on, everybody? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show. And man, am I so freaking excited for the guest that we have on today's episode. This guest has undergone some remarkable health and lifestyle changes through the WarriorBabe program. And she's experienced firsthand the incredible benefits of working with a coach and embracing the program's principles to achieve her goals.

And her journey is a true testament to the power of discipline, to the power of dedication, to the power of resilience, and to the power of the right guidance. And I'm so freaking thrilled to have her here to share her story, which I know is going to resonate with so many of you listeners. She's going to share her story. She's going to share insights. She's going to share the positive impact that WarriorBabe has had on her life. So please, everybody listening, join me in welcoming Jenna. Jenna, welcome to the show.

Jenna: Thank you. Thank you so much, Nikkiey. What an honor it is to be here with you and with the WarriorBabe community. I love, love, love this community. So thanks for having me on.

Nikkiey: You are a WarriorBabe through and through. Of course, you're so welcome. I'm so stoked for you to share all of the things that you're going to share and the value you're going to bring to this episode today. So first, let's just give the listeners a little bit of background on who you are. Where are you from? How old are you? And maybe dive into what your situation was before joining WarriorBabe.

Jenna: Okay. My name is Jenna Moon, like the moon in the sky. I am 39 years old, and I am in West Virginia, born and raised. I'm in my 22nd year in the military, in the Army Reserve. I deployed to Iraq in '06 and '07. And I've been serving as a chaplain, so I'm kind of like a pastor to soldiers. It's been such a wonderful, fulfilling journey.

I'm ready for it to come to a close and move on to whatever is next in store for me. But that being said, the military has given me a lot of good things, and there are some struggles too. I joined when I was 17, first of all.

Nikkiey: Wow.

Jenna: Right after 9/11. And I had always struggled with body dysmorphia. I'd always used food to cope with my emotional problems.

I didn't really know how to cope, so I went to food. When I was younger, it was fine because I could just exercise it off. But as I got older in the military, it was very restrictive in terms of what you can eat, because you had to make weight. You had to pass a PT test, which is a physical training test. Anyway, it was just this toxic sort of relationship that I had developed with food.

So I really found myself two years ago at such a rough point with food that I was extremely heavy, 250 pounds. So that's the background: there's the military aspect plus coping by using food. And that's kind of where WarriorBabe stepped in.

Nikkiey: Right. So in that time, thank you for your service, by the way.

Jenna: Thank you.

Nikkiey: For the years that you've served in the military.

Jenna: Thank you.

Nikkiey: With your journey at the beginning, what provoked the change and what provoked you to sign up for WarriorBabe? And also give a little insight. I know you had the gastric sleeve. Did that happen before you joined WarriorBabe? What led you down the path of deciding that was the route you wanted to go? And then what provoked the change for you to finally be like, all right, WarriorBabe, it's in my ecosystem, I see Nikkiey popping up on social media? What made you sign up?

Jenna: Okay. So this is what I want WarriorBabes everywhere to know, and all you women listening. This is my main thing. I just want everyone to hear: try WarriorBabe before you have any type of invasive surgery. If you're thinking about an invasive surgery, WarriorBabe could, and most likely will, work for you better than anything that extreme.

So I'll explain. I had the gastric sleeve done in 2022. I took a year and healed from all of that. By 2023, not even a year later, I started emotionally eating again. I swore up and down that I was not going to emotionally eat. I was going to really figure this out. I've got this. And then something happened where I started going down the road of just stuffing my face to numb my emotions.

And I knew at that moment, I'm like, wow, gastric sleeve surgery didn't even correct my behavioral issues. So what am I going to do? God, this is an internal problem. I need help. And I prayed and prayed and prayed. And then that's when I saw you. I had never heard of WarriorBabe. I had no clue.

And I saw your ad and I was like, yeah, let's just give this a shot. What else do I have to try? So.

Nikkiey: First and foremost, thank you so much for being that vulnerable and sharing that. I know it's really hard sometimes to go back into your past and think about the things that were very challenging for you in those moments. But you sharing that on this podcast, knowing that people are listening and most likely resonating with your story and thinking, I'm overweight, 250 pounds, and I might go down the avenue of this gastric sleeve.

Just hearing that, somebody could be like, nope, I don't need this. I just need to get myself accountable and into a program that's going to show me the way without being invasive.

Jenna: Yes.

Nikkiey: They removed 80% of your stomach, right?

Jenna: Yes. 80% of my stomach. And not only that, but at the time I had a two-year-old and a six-year-old, and I couldn't even pick them up or hold them for a whole month until my incisions healed. So my husband had to basically solo parent for a month. There are so many complications that could have gone wrong.

Had I known that I would have needed the structure, support and accountability, I probably would have just done WarriorBabe and not the surgery. But of course I didn't know about it yet. So that's my main message: it takes a long time to heal from that type of surgery. And once you do heal, you still have to address the underlying issue of the behavioral changes.

Nikkiey: I love that you have that awareness for yourself personally. You've gone through the journey that you've gone through, and you recognize, gosh, my sleeve didn't do anything to help me with the habits and the behaviors that I was leading myself down. What needed to be addressed isn't so much what people think, that I just need to lose weight. It's, well, what got you to that weight in the first place? That's what needs to be addressed. The behavioral aspect of it, the mindset of it.

And what I've heard from you working with Jen, your coach, and we're going to dive into this in a little bit, is that your mindset from the start to now has drastically changed.

Jenna: Completely.

Nikkiey: I can't wait for you to elaborate on that, because I think that's what a lot of people need to hear as well. It's not just about the physical aspect and achieving the physical result. That's all very important, and it's an aspiring goal to achieve. But if you have a poor mindset going into something, you're just going to get the poor outcome of it. So I'm excited to dive into that aspect of it.

But first, this is where you're at in your journey, right? You saw the Facebook ad and it resonated with you. What were your expectations? Because there are a lot of women who have thought about joining WarriorBabe and want to be a part of WarriorBabe, and they see the ad and just get in their own head about it. They're like, oh, it's probably going to be like every other program out there. Or, I've tried everything. What's this going to do for me? What were your expectations of the program before joining?

Jenna: Well, when I saw it and started doing a little bit of research, I was very skeptical, because I had tried everything, just like many women listening right now. I tried keto, tried restrictive dieting, everything under the sun, except for macros. I had never heard about tracking your macros before. I thought that was something that only people who are in the gym all the time did, the bodybuilders. I didn't know regular people like me are supposed to track.

So I was very skeptical, because I had literally tried everything. And I was like, all right, I'm just going to go for it, give it a shot and see what happens. In fact, I missed the phone call from the person who called me to start everything up. It was a bit of a rough start, because you're so busy. But I think God knew I needed this. I knew I needed this. And it was just one day, one step at a time. I somehow started to get the hang of it.

Nikkiey: Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, WarriorBabe is here for you. At WarriorBabe we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle and understand their bodies better with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more. Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results, and results that last. Don't wait anymore. Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit WarriorBabe.com/apply today to start your transformation. That's WarriorBabe.com/apply. All right, let's get back to the show.

Nikkiey: You made a joke that Coach Jen had it out for you at the beginning.

Jenna: Oh yeah.

Nikkiey: So I know that Coach Jen shared a little bit. Big shout out to her. She's one of our premier—

Jenna: Love you, Jen.

Nikkiey: Incredible coach.

Nikkiey: Hey everyone, I just want to take a second to interrupt the show and share some exciting news with you all. We're launching a new brand partnership program. If you're passionate about fitness and wellness and love empowering women just like we do at WarriorBabe, this could be an incredible opportunity for you. We're especially looking for women who are going through menopause, are pre-menopause or post-menopause. As a brand partner, you'll be filming content that aligns with our brand and mission, helping us spread the WarriorBabe message far and wide. Plus you can earn some fantastic benefits along the way. So head over to WarriorBabe.com/partner to learn more and apply today. That's WarriorBabe.com/partner, and the link is in the show notes. Let's work together to inspire and empower even more women. All right, let's get back to the show.

Nikkiey: Your initial goals were to improve your diet, to find ways to manage your stress, and to realize the importance of prioritizing yourself, which is something that you had never done before. Can you elaborate on that? Because I think a lot of women need to hear that story too.

Jenna: Yeah, sure. As women, that's what we do. We nurture and love everybody around us: our children, our parents, our friends, our spouses. And especially when you're in this season of life and menopause kicks in on top of all of that, it's just crazy. We give so much of ourselves, and society tells us to do that.

We've been trained to think that that's what we're supposed to do. So we eat last. We eat the leftover scraps, whatever it is. And we don't put ourselves first. I definitely was not doing that at all. In fact, I was so burnt out from exhausting myself that I was severely depressed. I was working with soldiers who are suicidal and struggling just to live, and somehow along the way, because I wasn't taking care of myself and I was trying to minister to them, and all of it, being a parent and still having a social life, I really found myself very depressed and depleted. I grew weary in doing good. And I knew that I was not in a good place, because I was contemplating taking my life.

Nikkiey: Wow.

Jenna: Yeah. Thank you. It was just so overwhelming, and I couldn't see a way out. So if any of you are feeling that close to suicide or anything, please, please reach out. Because it is hard to go at life alone. You don't have to go through this alone. And there is hope.

I was so depressed when I started with Jen that I set up my bench and my weights, and I just stared at them for like a month. I didn't even work out with her for like a month.

Nikkiey: Hey, there are a lot of other women that do that too. You're not alone there.

Jenna: Yeah. And she was so cool about it. She's like, Jenna, why aren't you working out? And I'm like, I don't have enough... because I feel like it's going to hurt so bad.

Nikkiey: And all these stories, all these things that are just in your own way.

Jenna: Right. In my own way. None of it was true. It was all in my own head. These limiting beliefs that I was just living out.

Nikkiey: So you were 250 pounds. What were some activities or goals that were extremely difficult to achieve back then that you've now been able to achieve working with Jen and working with WarriorBabe?

Jenna: Okay. The first one is definitely strength training, weightlifting. I had never done that before in my life. I was a cardio bunny: Orangetheory Fitness, any high-intensity workout. I thought that's what I was supposed to be doing, not knowing that it raises my cortisol levels. And I had never strength trained. I went from having zero weights and no gym in my house to completely redoing my garage so that it's a home gym. I painted it. I spent like three grand on it. Jen got me from lifting little baby eight-pound weights to 20-pound weights. And now I'm just like, I cannot miss a workout. I went from literally crying because I had to work out to, I absolutely cannot miss a workout.

Nikkiey: Wow. Okay. So we talked a little bit about your mindset at the beginning, right? You were in a depressed state. Your mindset had a lot of limitations, a lot of thought processes that were holding you back. And one thing that was noted about your journey is that your mindset has drastically improved. You were just sharing that you would stare at the weights and wouldn't want to work out for a month, and you felt like you would be so sore from it. You were lifting the eight pounds, and now you're lifting like the 20 pounds. What was that? From that initial mentality to now, where you're like, I can't miss a workout, I've invested in my home gym, I'm crushing every single one. What switched?

Jenna: For me, it was Jen's absolute unwavering support and commitment to me. She believed in me before I believed in me. And honestly, Jen, I love you. I would not be here without her. And I noticed that about all the other coaches on the different calls that I get to jump on and listen to their perspectives.

They deeply care about their clients. That's why this program is so different. It's the specific needs that are being met versus just a cookie-cutter program. She specifically figured out, okay, we need to reduce your cortisol levels. Let's focus on one thing at a time to get you into the gym. And it literally was one day at a time. Don't even worry about the next week. Let's just focus on today.

Nikkiey: That's what Jen noted as well. She said your greatest strength is your ability to listen to coaching, to reflect on your behaviors and identify the necessary changes that you had to make in order to achieve the results that you were looking for. She said you would devise a plan together and implement one behavior at a time rather than trying to change everything at once. And over the year that you've worked together, you developed these small habits that led to a complete lifestyle transformation.

So you experienced some obstacles with the strength training aspect. And you noted, I've never done macros before. I didn't even think it was something that a normal person like me would track. I don't know how to track. So what was your biggest breakthrough with that? Because I think a lot of women can totally resonate. They're like, I've never tracked macros before. A lot of people are very overwhelmed with tracking macros at the beginning. They think it's so tedious and takes so much work and they don't want to do it. They're too busy. Left, right and center with all the excuses. Did you have those thoughts? Did you have those fears and hesitations? And when you went through the process, what were the next steps with Coach Jen?

Jenna: Okay, cool. So yeah, the nutrition was actually the biggest piece and the biggest hurdle for me, because like I said, I didn't know what a macro was. I had no idea that I'm supposed to eat it all in this different combination. It just seemed so overwhelming, and it's really not.

She said, just track protein. Just start with protein. I had no idea I was drastically under-eating protein. And I was so fatigued, so the lack of energy and the thought of having to prep food was so overwhelming. But she said, just prep the next day. Don't prep a week, just prep the next day. Okay, that's easy.

So I got my groceries just for the day and got familiar with MyFitnessPal. And in the beginning I played macro Tetris, where I would eat a meal and log it in, and then I would try to manipulate my macros to make everything zero out by the end of the day.

Nikkiey: And you tried to zero it out? You tried to get zero protein, zero fat and zero carbs?

Jenna: Well, no, I meant I tried to hit my macros.

Nikkiey: Oh, okay. So evenly.

Jenna: Yeah, evenly. I was trying to get within the plus or minus five range. And I would go way above or way below. I was all over the place. So she said, just focus on protein. Just focus on the next day. I did that for a whole week and I got the hang of it. After one week, I was like, okay, this isn't too bad. I can do this.

And then my husband got on board the second week, and we meal planned together. He would cook the kids' food, so I didn't have to, and I could just focus on me. So I had that as a blessing. But I think it was just a matter of learning that this is doable. And in fact, because my lifestyle is so busy, having pre-prepped food I could just reach in and grab was way better than starving by two in the afternoon and reaching for the chocolate that I love.

Nikkiey: Amen. Okay. So on that note, you said you could not believe that you could eat that much food and lose weight and tone up. So what were you eating before, and what are you eating now that you're working with Jen?

Jenna: Okay. So prior to learning about macronutrients, I would eat a big salad, and because it was leafy greens, I thought it was healthy and good. And it is, but I didn't add the other things that I needed, the protein and the fat. So by two or three in the afternoon, I was exhausted and my cravings were out of control. Just craving chocolate or any kind of sugar, anything. And I realized, okay, if I'm craving all of this, there must be a reason why. And Jen was like, try maybe putting some carbs in your lunch, so that two to three hours from now, at three o'clock, when you're feeling completely exhausted, that's going to kick in and help you get through the rest of the day. It was just about learning when and where to put the food. That was a game changer too.

Nikkiey: Hey, hey, just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening to the show. It means a lot. I hope you guys are enjoying it, and there's so much more to come. If you are enjoying it, hit the subscribe button. I'd appreciate that tons. It would also help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too. Thanks so much, guys. Let's get back to the show.

Nikkiey: And prior to that, what was the timeframe from you getting the gastric sleeve to you signing up for WarriorBabe?

Jenna: A year.

Nikkiey: A year. So in the year post gastric sleeve, this is what you were eating. You were eating like a salad and—

Jenna: Yeah, I was drastically under-eating. Very restrictive eating. With the gastric sleeve, you have to work yourself back up to eating regular meals. So for the first three months it's very small portions. But by a year I was back up to eating normal portion sizes, and then I started to overeat again.

When I came to Jen, I didn't realize that I was also eating a lot of prepackaged things that were, quote unquote, packaged as healthy. Protein shakes are fine, but I was consuming so many of them because my stomach was so little, and all of those prepackaged protein shakes have a lot of extra stuff in them too. I didn't know that that was not good for me. Lots of prepackaged stuff. In fact, I did have irritable bowel syndrome symptoms.

Nikkiey: Wow.

Jenna: And Jen was like, let's just try eating from whole, healthy sources for this first week or two and see what happens. It completely changed. IBS symptoms gone.

Nikkiey: That's incredible. I think that's the first and foremost thing that people can change: the processed, packaged foods. What a lot of people eat is one of the main reasons why their health is where it is, or why they're experiencing what they're experiencing within their own body. So just making that switch, it's pretty crazy that you had those symptoms go away.

Jenna: Yeah. I would eat what I thought were healthy salads, things like that. But I would also be putting in a protein bar, protein shakes, because that's what the doctor told me to do because of having the surgery. But he never mentioned that it needed to be from whole sources. I just didn't put the pieces together. So when those symptoms went away, I felt such relief.

Nikkiey: That's awesome. There are many, many conversations that happen at WarriorBabe on a day-to-day basis, and a lot of them are with individuals with a gastric sleeve who want to join the program. They always ask, can the program be done with a gastric sleeve? So what's your answer?

Jenna: A hundred percent, yes. A hundred and fifty thousand percent. Listen, the answer is yes, because as women, we're not taught how to eat properly in terms of what's sustainable for our individual body. And that's no fault of ours.

It's this cultural thing, ads and everything in our face all the time. There are so many myths and so much confusion about what we should do. Intermittent fasting, good foods versus bad foods, complex carbs versus simple carbs. One's good, one's bad. No, actually not at all. There are no good foods or bad foods.

Nikkiey: Yeah. A hundred percent. It's the behavior that comes behind it, after eating a bag of Doritos or a bag of Oreos or something like that. There's no bad or good. I have a box of Oreos right now in my cupboard, and I allow myself to have them here and there. It's all in balance. But if you have six of them or 10 of them, it's not that it's a bad food. It's a bad habit that comes with eating them.

Jenna: Exactly.

Nikkiey: I think that's so important to note. There is so much conflicting information out there, and it's not anyone's fault for not knowing. You have the career that you're in. A lot of women have their careers. They have the responsibilities of kids and their day to day. It's another added skill set to learn how to eat right and how to work out right and how to do all the things one wants to accomplish when it comes to achieving optimal health and the results they want with their body. And people should seek advice for that. That's what you did. You sought the advice by working with us, working with WarriorBabe and working with one of the coaches.

So for a lot of the women that are struggling with the gastric sleeve, yes, it can be done, but it's not up to you to go search for how to do it and spiral down all these rabbit holes of confusion and conflicting information and all the different things that people are telling you to do. We have 65 expert coaches on our team who know exactly what to do. And what's so cool is there are 65 of them, and maybe a few of them work with gastric sleeve clients. You're not just getting one coach, you're getting 65 coaches, because all the coaches work together.

Jenna: Yeah.

Nikkiey: Which is really cool. But anyway, a little rant there. So now I want to know what your biggest breakthrough has been so far, because I know you're still working with Jen right now.

Jenna: Yeah.

Nikkiey: So far, what was your biggest breakthrough with WarriorBabe?

Jenna: For me, it was definitely that the mental game has completely changed. I work out for my mental health, and I can actually see the neuroplasticity in my brain changing. The way I see things is changing. It was a hundred percent mindset that did it for me. My body getting stronger is just the icing on the cake.

Jen's ability to see things that I could not see on my own is the biggest breakthrough. These coaches can see things that we cannot, and that's what's so amazing about it. I'll give you an example.

My boys aren't sleeping very well. For whatever reason, the three-year-old keeps getting up and coming in and waking my husband and me up. So we're sleep deprived. And I complained about this. Well, I didn't think I was complaining. I just said, this is what's happening every week. My kid keeps waking me up and I'm exhausted, and that's maybe why I didn't hit that workout that week, you know? I didn't see it happening, but Jen pointed it out. She was like, you know, for like a month and a half, you've done nothing but complain about your kids waking you up. What are you going to do about it?

At first I was so mad when I got her video. I was like, she's not the one not sleeping. I'm not sleeping. I was just so mad. And then I thought about it and I was like, you know what? She's right. These boys are only going to be little for so long. Quit complaining about it and do something. That's the best part: she empowers me to take control and get the result. And it's not in a mean way. None of the coaches are mean-hearted. It's all because they can see patterns that you can't see.

See, guys, we're in the arena, right? We're in the arena getting our butts whooped. And your coach is like the coach in the corner going, go left, go right, look out. They can see the punches before they come.

Nikkiey: Oh my God. I just got the chills. Keep going, Jenna. That's so good. You're on one right now.

Jenna: Yeah. They can see it before it comes, and it's like, oh shit, this is amazing. I didn't even notice this. Do you see how my boys not sleeping has nothing to do with nutrition or fitness? That has to do with my specific lifestyle, what I am going through. And it could be anything any of these women are going through, with aging parents, with teenagers that are crazy. Your coach has a bird's-eye view.

Nikkiey: Yep. A hundred percent. What we like to say, and how we coach the coaches, is to give an objective perspective on your situation. You're in the arena, you're feeling all the feelings, you're going through the motions, you're getting the hits. But I love that you're saying we can see the next step before you can see it, or we see the angles differently than you can at the same time. And we're also not going to feed into the emotions of what you're feeling.

We're going to have an objective perspective on your situation and push you and challenge you, and not allow the feelings and emotions to get in the way, but instead be like, cool, what are you going to do about it? What's your next step? What's your game plan? Or, I see that you have this type of excuse going on, but it's not helping or serving you in getting the results that you want. I think I did a podcast on this too, the benefits of working with a coach, how they give you the objective perspective. They're looking down at you, like you just said, with a bird's-eye view, and they're seeing the entire situation for what it is.

And note that these coaches have worked with hundreds of clients on their roster over the past couple of years. So they know exactly what you just said: patterns. They've seen the patterns of unsuccessful clients and the patterns of successful clients, and they will pull out what needs to be said or challenged, or what's going to help move you forward. I love that analogy you just used about being in the arena. I think that's freaking fire. These coaches have an objective perspective. They're going to push you no matter what. They're not going to let you get in your own way.

Jenna: Yes, a hundred percent. It's just absolutely life-changing.

Nikkiey: That's awesome. And that's what Jen said. We're going to get into what you've experienced now and your results, on the other side of starting out lifting eight pounds and not knowing the macro world. But she said that throughout the journey, once you got past a little bit of the shaky mindset at the beginning, your positivity started to make all the difference. And even if you weren't consistent or you weren't giving your all, you always came in motivated to learn and to improve. That was something she said about you, and I think that's a huge component of the mentality of a client, because it's not a one-way street. It's a two-way street.

If one side is constantly battling the coach, constantly not agreeing with what the coach has to say, constantly saying it should be this way, not that way, or constantly saying that what worked when they were 20 or 25 years old should work now, that's not going to get you or the coach anywhere. So you being open, being coachable and being motivated to learn and improve when you knew there were areas you could improve upon, like being more consistent, that's what makes the relationship successful. And that's what's going to drive your results. I think that's such a powerful thing to have in a relationship while you're working with a coach.

Jenna: Yeah. I agree. And I think too, as women, we want to have it all figured out and all together. And it takes a little bit of humility to be like, this one aspect of my life, I just cannot seem to get it. I got my degrees. I got my jobs. I'm a successful businesswoman. So why can't I get this right with my body? And it's like, okay, let me just take a knee and admit there's something to this. There's a puzzle piece I'm missing. And for me, WarriorBabe was the piece that filled that puzzle.

Nikkiey: That's awesome. That's freaking awesome. So where are you at now with your fitness journey?

Jenna: Oh my God. I feel so confident. I feel so good.

Nikkiey: Girl, I saw your transformation pictures. Hot damn.

Jenna: I know. So I bought my first two-piece bathing suit. Never in my life have I worn a two-piece. The confidence is through the roof. I absolutely love working out. I am loving eating good, nutritious, quality food, and enjoying a piece of pie and cake when I get the chance to, or when I want to. I'm not restricting anything. Actually, right now I'm in a cut, and I don't even feel restricted in a cut.

Nikkiey: So where are your calories at now? What are you eating on a day-to-day basis?

Jenna: I am at 120 grams of carbs, 45 grams of fat and 130 grams of protein. That's the cut we've established. So it's 1,405 calories, but I don't worry about the calories. I let MyFitnessPal do it for me. It's all there. I don't have to figure out the math. It's so easy. And I'm flying now with food prep. I prep a whole week's worth of food. My husband, dude, if there was a WarriorBabe for guys, he would be on it.

Nikkiey: You don't know how many times I've heard this, Jenna.

Jenna: Yeah, he would. He went and bought a grill, the smoker, because he smokes meat. Now he smokes everything. He loves it. We're eating so good. The kids are eating good. It completely changed my life physically and mentally.

Nikkiey: But where are you at now with your body composition? Where are you at with your weight and how you look? I mean, the two-piece bikini says it all, but just for the listeners who want to know.

Jenna: Okay. So this is interesting. I went from 250 pounds. I lost 60 pounds with the bariatric surgery.

Nikkiey: Okay.

Jenna: With WarriorBabe, though, I have lost about 15 pounds. So I went from 170. I thought I would be losing more weight, but it's not about the weight. Jen showed me my pictures side by side. She said, this is where you were when you started. Here you are now. Look at how your body is changing. If she had not shown me my side-by-side pictures, I would not believe where I'm at.

Nikkiey: That is what is so powerful about working with a coach, because so many listeners will probably be able to resonate with that. They just want to see the number on the scale go down. And I think that trips up a lot of people, because there's a difference between weight loss and fat loss. What we focus on at WarriorBabe is fat loss. You're doing strength training. You're working out. You're trying to build a little bit more muscle so you look more toned. And that's going to counteract what you see on the scale, because the scale is just telling you a freaking number. That's it. It's you against gravity. It's not taking into account the muscle mass that you're building and adding to your body.

And muscle is more dense than body fat, so it takes up less space. You've heard this before: five pounds of muscle and five pounds of fat weigh exactly the same, but dense muscle takes up less space than the volume of a chunk of fat does.

Jenna: Yeah.

Nikkiey: So you'll see your body shrink. You're seeing it shrink, but the number on the scale isn't going to change as much, because you're adding more dense muscle to your body. But thank God you have the pictures side by side.

Jenna: Yes.

Nikkiey: That's what's going to tell you the true story.

Jenna: Yes. That was huge. That was a game changer right there, seeing it side by side. And I was like, if I've made that much progress at 80%... Because getting my macros just right, I really struggled with that in the beginning, but I still achieved that body composition at 80%.

Nikkiey: Let's go. Let me ask, how long have you been on this journey? When did you sign up for WarriorBabe?

Jenna: I signed up in August of '23. At the three-month mark, that's when Jen showed me the pictures side by side, and I was like, dang. And then at the nine-month mark, I bought my two-piece, and I was like, I'm feeling great. And next month is my 12 months. But I know that I am not exactly ready to graduate, so I signed on for another year, because I know that another year of this... Oh my God. You know what, guys? You're going to see me in a bikini competition.

Nikkiey: No way. Let's do it. Did we just capture that live?

Jenna: Yes. There is nothing holding me back.

Nikkiey: You got it. A body comp... or a bikini comp to start.

Jenna: Yeah. Bikini. That's what I was trying to say. Bikini competition. Because I think the biggest thing is that the confidence I have now, that I can control my food and it's not controlling me, has touched and influenced every aspect of my life. And if I want to enter a bikini contest, by God, let's do it. Let's go.

Nikkiey: Yo, I love that mentality, Jenna. That's freaking awesome. So I'm curious how this fitness journey has impacted your family. You said your husband wants to do a WarriorBabe bro program. How about the kiddos? Do the kiddos see what you're doing?

Jenna: A hundred percent. It hit me at about the halfway mark, the six-month mark. I was foot racing my kids in the backyard, and I beat them. Before, I could never have even kept up with them, but I was crushing them. And then we would go to the playground, and I would be the only parent out there just playing. I would gather all the kids around, the seven- and eight-year-olds, and I'd be like, let's race from one end to the other. And I would smoke them all. And I'm like, Jenna, they're eight-year-olds. You're smoking eight-year-olds. This is not something to be very proud of. However, all the other parents were sitting in the shade under the shelter, not playing with their children. And I'm out here playing with their kids. So yeah.

Nikkiey: And because you have a home gym, and you have a seven-year-old and a three-year-old, or two-year-old?

Jenna: Three.

Nikkiey: They see you in the gym, right?

Jenna: Yeah. We got them a little kid weight set, so now they work out with me.

Nikkiey: It's awesome.

Jenna: The kids, oh my God. They're pumping iron with me. It's so cool.

Nikkiey: That is amazing. That is so life-changing for those two little ones.

Jenna: Yes.

Nikkiey: The way they're going to grow up and the way you're being a role model for them.

Jenna: Yeah. A hundred percent. Over 4th of July weekend, we went on vacation, and I was going down the slides with them and climbing the rock walls and doing everything that I never saw my mom do. And I was like, no, I'm not going to go down that road. I'm going to be so healthy and instill that in them now. And it's exciting.

Nikkiey: Wow. Jenna, when you were 250 pounds, overweight and depressed, is there anything else that you can do now that you weren't able to do then? Besides running around and keeping up with the kids, everything you mentioned, is there anything else?

Jenna: Yeah. There's nothing I can't do now. It's funny because—

Nikkiey: Oh my God. What an answer.

Jenna: Yeah. There's absolutely nothing. In fact, whatever life wants to throw at me, I know that I will have the resilience and the strategies. I will figure it out. Everything's figureoutable. The confidence to know that just touches everything.

Nikkiey: Wow. You are a WarriorBabe through and through with that answer. Just figure it out.

Jenna: Mm-hmm. Just figure it out. I was trying to figure out how I was going to put my home gym in without bothering my husband, because he's working, and I did it all myself. I was like, I'm not even going to ask him. I'm just going to do it. Now I've got a little pink tool belt and I fix things around the house. I took ownership of every aspect of my life. That's what my coach taught me: that I have power. She empowered me to use my power.

Nikkiey: Wow. You just said two things that are so in alignment with WarriorBabe. One of them is our mission, which is to help a hundred thousand women regain their personal power and feel confident in their skin. I feel like throughout this entire podcast, your transformation has been totally in line with that. And it's so incredible to me to know that you are one of those hundred thousand women who have been positively impacted.

And the second thing is that one of our values is extreme ownership. Our lives are of our own making. There's never anybody else to blame. That's what you just said, because you took ownership of where you were, and now you are here with the results you have, and it's all your doing. It's your life. I think what a lot of women struggle with is they blame programs, or they blame the weather, or they blame how busy they are, and they don't take ownership of the fact that they're the ones in control, and that where they are right now is all of their doing.

Jenna: A hundred percent.

Nikkiey: Wow.

Jenna: A hundred percent. It's all extreme ownership. And it's just amazing, the feeling and the ability to believe in yourself again.

Nikkiey: Yeah. To trust yourself, to believe in yourself.

Jenna: That is un-frickin-stoppable.

Nikkiey: Unstoppable. Oh, wow. What a journey. What a story. It's so incredible to hear where you started and how you got out of the depression. You got into taking ownership. You got into the strength training. You got into the macros. You learned things along the way. You developed positivity. You developed the coachability, the drive to learn and to improve. And now you're here with such a different story from where you were almost a year ago, and especially two years ago when you had the surgery.

It's been such an honor to hear your story and to hear how WarriorBabe has helped you through it, but most importantly, how you've taken extreme ownership to just do the things and make it happen for yourself. What would you tell somebody who's listening to this or watching this right now and is unsure about taking the next step with WarriorBabe?

Jenna: Sure. I want you to know that I know it's scary and I know it's hard. I'm talking to all the women out there who are so depressed and so fatigued and tired. I know you. I've been there. You're not alone. And there is help. WarriorBabe is what helped me restore my hope. And having my hope restored has given me a quality of life unparalleled to anything I would have ever had.

So I would just say, if you're also thinking about surgery, give WarriorBabe a try first, because you're going to need WarriorBabe after you heal from your surgery anyway. And it's less costly than surgery. So just give WarriorBabe a shot. You really have nothing to lose. You've got tons of support. And if anyone ever wants to reach out and talk to me about it, I would be happy to talk to you. Just give WarriorBabe a shot. It's life-changing. It's hope-filled. I got my life back.

And I'm so blessed. I'm so grateful to you, Nikkiey, and to the WarriorBabe community and everyone who makes this happen every day. And I want to tell every woman about WarriorBabe.

Nikkiey: Wow. Jenna, that's so beautiful. I appreciate you so much, and I appreciate you for being on this podcast and sharing your story. I know it's going to resonate with a lot of people. One last thought that I want to end this podcast on is actually a thought from Coach Jen about your overall transformation. She said that she's loved every single moment of being on the journey with you, and watching you dig your way out of the darkest place to becoming a ray of sunshine has been one of the proudest moments for her as a coach.

Jenna: Aww.

Nikkiey: You allowed her into your life, which was a very vulnerable and open thing for you to do. And it's helped her guide you in a much simpler and easier way and help you achieve what you've achieved in a sustainable fashion. It's not easy to be open and vulnerable right out of the gate with somebody that you just met. So that is such an honorable thing, and you should be so proud of yourself for it.

Jenna: Aww.

Nikkiey: And she mentioned that because you were so willing and open to change and to being 1% better every single day, you are now so confident and so happy. It's been a pleasure for her to work with you through this whole journey, and she can't wait to continue to do more with you now that you've signed up for a whole other year.

Jenna: Oh yeah, Jen. Get ready, baby, because it's going to be a whole other year. We've got a bikini competition to get ready for.

Nikkiey: That's good. That is noted. And have you shared that information with her yet?

Jenna: No, no. But it was in the back of my mind. The seed got planted. Last month, I thought, okay, this is my first two-piece. Let's see what we can do with this.

Nikkiey: Let's go, Jenna. I will note it here on this episode of The WarriorBabe Show that you are going to do a bikini competition, maybe within a year.

Jenna: Oh, I don't know about that.

Nikkiey: Goddamn. I tried to slide that in there and see if you were going to pick it up.

Jenna: We'll see about that one. I'm not sure.

Nikkiey: Before you're 50.

Jenna: Okay. That's enough time. All right, cool. I can definitely agree to that.

Nikkiey: Okay. All right, good. Well, Jenna, thank you so much for being here and sharing your story. I appreciate you. And thank you for being a freaking rock star for WarriorBabe.

Jenna: Thank you. Thank you so much, Nikkiey. I appreciate this, and what an honor this is for me. Everybody go listen to The WarriorBabe Show. All of the episodes. Plug it in your ears. No matter what you're doing, listen to Nikkiey and what she's saying.

Nikkiey: All right. Thank you.

Nikkiey: Hey, everyone. Thanks for sticking around to the end of the show. I hope you really enjoyed that podcast. Really quick: if you're a woman aged 45 through 65 and finding menopause challenging, listen closely. WarriorBabe is here to help you reclaim your body and your confidence. At WarriorBabe, we've empowered over 18,000 women to lose stubborn body fat, build toned muscle and understand their bodies better. Our personalized plans, based on hormone and thyroid testing and more, ensure you get exactly what you need to see real results, and real results that last. Imagine feeling stronger, more energized and in control of your health. Don't let menopause hold you back any longer. Head over to WarriorBabe.com/apply and join our amazing community today. That's WarriorBabe.com/apply. The link is in the show notes below. Thanks again for listening to the episode, and I'll see you in the next one.