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WarriorBabe

Episode 30937 min

How to Stop Emotional Eating and Lose Weight in Your 60s

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In this episode

Barbara spent 20 years teaching second grade to military kids, much of it overseas in Okinawa. Most evenings she came home exhausted, cooked, sat down and didn't get back up, with brownies, streaming and no exercise. A meal-replacement program had worked once, but it never taught her how to eat in the real world, and some of the weight crept back during COVID. At 62, with aches and pains piling up, she wanted something sustainable. Seeing a 56-year-old WarriorBabe who looked strong and confident convinced her that if that woman could do it, she could too.

In this conversation with Nikkiey, Barbara traces her habit of hiding back to childhood: being teased as a slow learner, feeling less accomplished than her family, and a boy telling her in second grade that girls can't play soccer. She explains how she handled the early overwhelm by treating herself like one of her students, why focusing on protein first made macros manageable, and how the classroom idea of the power of yet kept her going. She has lost 18 pounds, about four inches from her hips and almost four from her waist, and she can now get through squats and lunges without the fatigue she felt at the start.

She is also honest about the hard part. After losing her mother and a second family member within weeks, the scale stopped moving during her fat loss phase. With her coach Celeste, she worked through grief, stress and poor sleep, and she found proof of progress by recreating an old photo in the same pants. Her confidence has carried into speaking up at work, training with her husband Steve, and building a new routine in retirement.

Key takeaways

  • If learning macros feels overwhelming, focus on hitting your protein first and let the rest come little by little, which is the advice that freed Barbara up.
  • Borrow the classroom idea of the power of yet: tell yourself you don't have it yet, but you will.
  • Stress and lack of sleep were the two biggest reasons Barbara's weight stalled, so during a major life event like grief, give yourself time and keep going.
  • When progress photos don't seem to show a change, recreate an old photo in the same clothes and pose, the way Barbara did with a backside shot in the same pants.
  • Track measurements alongside the scale; Barbara lost about four inches from her hips and almost four from her waist even when the scale was stuck.
  • Cook recipes with about four servings so one dinner also covers three lunches, which helped Barbara almost completely stop ordering DoorDash and eating out.
  • Once your training ramps up, eat something before your workout so you have the energy to get through it.
  • Starting with a retrain phase and building up to maintenance before cutting back made Barbara's fat loss phase feel not hard at all.

Questions answered

How do you start learning macros without getting overwhelmed?

Barbara's coach told her to focus on the protein first. Doing that freed her from needing to get everything right at once, and the rest of her macros came little by little.

Why might the scale stop moving during a fat loss phase?

For Barbara, stress and lack of sleep were the two biggest reasons she got stuck, during a six-week period when she lost her mother and another close family member. Her coach helped her see it as a major life event and a grieving process rather than a failure.

How can you see progress when the scale and progress photos don't show it?

Barbara relied on measurements, which showed she was about four inches smaller, and on how her regular clothes looked. She also put on the same pants from an old video and had her husband photograph her backside, and the comparison finally showed the difference.

Will I still crave sweets when I start tracking macros?

Barbara worried she would, because in the past she could stick with anything for a few weeks and then want something. She says she hasn't had cravings at all, and a brownie she ate after her mother's funeral didn't even taste good to her.

Why does WarriorBabe start with a retrain phase instead of fat loss?

Barbara shares that her coach Celeste explained that starting straight in fat loss with lower calories while learning macros would be overwhelming. Instead the program meets you where you are, changes habits step by step, builds you up to maintenance, and then starts cutting back.

Is it too late to change your habits and beliefs in your 60s?

Nikkiey says no. At 62, Barbara rewrote beliefs she had carried since childhood, started speaking up for herself and lost weight, which Nikkiey calls proof that it's never too late to become the woman you want to be.

Full transcript

Barbara: I liked junk food. I liked to cook and bake. I did not like to exercise, so I would sit on the couch and come home after teaching and fix dinner. And once I sat down, that was it. I was done. And I knew I needed to do something, and I needed to do something that was sustainable.

Nikkiey: What's going on, everybody? Today I have another WarriorBabe here with us, WarriorBabe Barbara. Before she found us, she was in the cycle, the cycle that a lot of women go on: the weight gain, the emotional eating, the self-doubt, and more than anything, she was tired of hiding. But over the last several months, she's not only lost 16 pounds and gained strength, she's found her voice, and I'm really excited to dive into that aspect of your story. She's redefining what health and self-worth mean to her. And for the first time in a long time, she's not afraid to be seen. So let's dive into her story today. Barbara, welcome.

Barbara: Thank you. It's so good to be here. I appreciate the time.

Nikkiey: Of course. I know we just chatted a little bit before hitting record, but for the listeners that are tuning in today, can you let them know where you're from and what you do for work now, even though I know there's a little twist there?

Barbara: Yeah, so for the past 20 years, I've been a school teacher, but I taught military children on military bases. And I spent several years overseas in Okinawa, Japan. A couple of years ago, my husband and I felt it was time for us to come back, and so we did. We knew we wanted to be in North Carolina once we were both retired, but I got a job at a base in Georgia. So for the last two years, I rented an apartment and I was down in Georgia, and I would see my husband and family on long weekends and summers, whenever we could. But last Friday, I walked out of that building for the last time. I'm now retired and in North Carolina, reunited with my family. It's a good feeling.

Nikkiey: Wow. Congratulations again. That's such a cool story.

Barbara: Thank you.

Nikkiey: So let's talk about your health and fitness situation, what it was like before you found us, before you found WarriorBabe.

Barbara: Yeah, there wasn't much of a situation. I liked junk food. I like to cook and bake and eat what I cook and bake. I did not like to exercise. So I would come home after teaching and fix dinner and sit on the couch. And once I sat down, that was it. I was done.

About seven years ago, I had done another program and had lost the weight, but it didn't really teach me how to eat in this world, if you want to say that. And it didn't help me transition once I was done. They had a transition phase and I did the transition phase, but it was just too easy to get back into it, because this was one where you had meal replacements. So you could still count on those and use those, and that's what I was doing.

Then once COVID hit and I was home, stuck in my house, I went back to a lot of cooking and baking. And over time, I gained some of the weight back, not all, but some of it. And in the meantime, the clock is ticking and I'm getting older and I'm having aches and pains and not able to do as many things physically. And I knew I needed to do something, and I needed to do something that was sustainable. So I started researching and WarriorBabe came up.

I listened to your video and it just made a lot of sense to me. There were a couple of other things I looked at, but yours just seemed so common sense to me and so logical and doable. And then I will tell you, I'm kind of shallow. This was the clincher for me. There was a former WarriorBabe, she may still be doing it, and there was a picture of her. She was 56 years old in a bikini and she was smoking hot. I can't remember her name. She has glasses, short, dark hair. And I'm like, I want to look like that. And if she's 56 and can do it, I can do it too. And that was kind of like, I'm going for it.

Nikkiey: See, I love that. It's not shallow. That type of mindset is, if I see other women that have the results that I want, you being open-minded enough to be like, if she can do it, I can do it too.

Barbara: Yeah.

Nikkiey: And then embarking on the journey and trusting that, hey, I can do this.

Barbara: Yes.

Nikkiey: It's so powerful. I want to jump to a question I had for you from the little form you filled out to do this interview with me. You mentioned that you were sitting on the couch most evenings, that you were eating sweets and eating junk food. I remember doing one of these interviews with another woman, and she said she had come to like Netflix and chill, and they'd gotten into this rhythm of doing that after getting home from work and not prioritizing the habit of working out. So can you paint a picture of what your habits and your mindset looked like then for us?

Barbara: That sounds very similar. You walk out of work, and I taught second grade, I had little kids, and this past year in particular has been exhausting. They've been a real challenging class. And so for a while I had gotten to the point where I would come home and I knew I had to fix dinner. Once I sat down, I was not getting back up. I knew that. And I too was the Netflix queen and the Amazon Prime queen. I could tell you all kinds of things that I've seen, and I still do enjoy those things. But it just was a cycle of, I don't want to get up, but I'm quite content to watch that and not do anything. But I had no energy. I didn't feel good.

I had a lot of cravings for sweets, especially when I was off by myself. I'd eat dinner and then I'm like, oh, I think I want some brownies. Well, I would make them, but I'm the only one, so I'm eating them all. That was my habit night after night after night. And exercise has never been a favorite thing of mine. Part of it goes back to my not wanting to be seen, not feeling like I'm good at it. I don't want people seeing me look silly or ugly or overweight. That's part of that not wanting to be seen. So I would just stay hidden in my apartment.

Nikkiey: On that note, because you mentioned you were afraid of being seen, or not feeling good enough or capable, how did those beliefs show up in your day-to-day life? And where did that actually stem from, if you don't mind being open and vulnerable with us?

Barbara: It goes way, way back. This is one thing I love about WarriorBabe, it's just so all-encompassing. In my life, I'm the youngest of five kids, and there's an age difference between all five of us. My brother and I are about a year and a half apart. I love my family. We're very close. We get along. When I was one or two, I was this cute little blue-eyed, blonde, curly-haired girl. There's my brother, but I was the cute one. But then somewhere around when I turned three or four, I started having self-esteem issues.

I am one that learned slowly. I got teased a lot, laughed at a lot, and it wasn't meant to be mean, especially by my brother and my siblings. I would just say funny things because I didn't know, but that really had a negative impact on me growing up. So then when I started school, I maybe didn't do as well. My dad was a professor, and there were just a lot of smart people in my family, very accomplished. So I didn't feel as smart as they were. And I was very content to sit back in the shadows and watch them from behind. And I've been that way my whole life.

Then as I became a teenager, and there's another thing in there too that I want to share, I started developing. I wasn't comfortable with my body. I didn't want to exercise because I didn't want to be seen. And I kind of went into the kitchen. My family loves to cook and we did that. So that kind of started my journey of the struggle with the weight, but it all ties in, where I just didn't feel like I was pretty enough, smart enough, strong enough, whatever.

But I want to say something about when I was a kid, and this is for all the girls and women out there. I'm 62. When I was in second grade, I remember playing soccer at recess with a bunch of boys, and one of them said, you can't play, you're a girl. And so I stopped. My mother was very athletic, but I stopped and said, oh, I can't do this. Girls don't do these things. And I kick myself for that, because how would it have been different if I had just ignored that comment? But I internalized it instead.

Nikkiey: I appreciate you bringing that up. I appreciate the honesty and sharing where it stems from, because I know a lot of women are going to be able to resonate with that. Just the point that you're 62 years old and you remember that one comment, and you allowed it to shape your beliefs around whether you can or should do exercise or X, Y and Z because you're a woman. That's wild how it played into things. So before WarriorBabe, you mentioned it showed up with the weight aspect. How did that show up in your day-to-day life?

Barbara: I always said I have to do things my own way. When I graduated from college, my dad was a professor and I went to the same college. I went to Purdue, where I grew up, and my parents were very much, you're independent, you've got to live your own life, all of that. So I purposely got a job in North Carolina, in Greensboro, in 1984, so that I was away from my family. I did it knowingly, because I knew I would try to do what I thought my parents wanted me to do, and I needed to get away from that and spread my wings a little. So I knew enough to do that, but that way I also wasn't being seen by people who knew me. I could do it my own way.

So I got a job there. I met my husband and we got married, and after a few years he went into the Navy, and we lived all over with that. I stayed at home with the kids. And then when I went back to work, my husband said, you should become a teacher. I didn't get my degree in education, and I told him he was crazy. It took him five years for me to finally say, you know, I think I will. So he's always believed in me before I believed in myself. I've always been the one to step back and hesitate and wait.

So I waited, and then I finally started teaching. For years, I was afraid when they came in to do observations in my new years. And even after I had a lot of experience, I would still get nervous about them coming in, and I only started getting over that in maybe the past two or three years of my career. I would really have to do a lot to psych myself up and prepare for it.

And I think the biggest thing I noticed this year in finding my voice comes a lot from school. I had no hesitation advocating for myself and advocating for my students, and telling my principal when I disagreed with her. I would never have done that. Never, ever, ever. And I don't think I was rude. I was truly advocating for what I thought was best, but I would never have done that in the past. People would tease me this whole year, you're retiring, so it doesn't matter. I'm like, you don't understand. I would never have spoken up the way I have this past year. But with the WarriorBabe thing, I started standing a little taller, and I started thinking, I can say this. There's nothing wrong with saying these things. Other people do it. I can too.

Nikkiey: Wow. So self-belief was one of the big things you had to rewrite during this process.

Barbara: Yes. And I think somewhere I'd said that we talk about changing the composition of our bodies, but I'm changing the composition of me on the inside.

Nikkiey: It really is. Well, you're changing both. We're going to get to the results of your experience.

Barbara: Oh, yeah. I'm getting there.

Nikkiey: But this internal shift is massive, because you're showing up for yourself in ways that you didn't before. And I love that you're mentioning this, because you're 62. You can change these ways. You don't have to carry it on until you're 70, 75 or 80. It's okay that you're 62. You can rewrite the story for yourself now to feel more empowered.

Barbara: Yes.

Nikkiey: I love that. That's so cool.

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You mentioned that you found us, or WarriorBabe, or me, through a video online.

Barbara: Yes.

Nikkiey: What made you decide to take the leap, to hit the button, to fill out the application? What was it that resonated with you the most?

Barbara: You talked about changing the composition of the body, which is what I wanted. And I think you talked about not limiting what you can eat, really. It wasn't, you can have this, you can't have that. When I had done the other program, I'd done Optavia, it was a low-carb diet. So I deprived myself of foods that are good for you and have their place in your diet, and I deprived myself of them for years. So that really did it for me. And I do think seeing a 56-year-old woman looking the way she did was a really big thing for me. Okay, she's not far off from my age. I can do this. I'm not looking at a Barbie doll that I can't achieve. And it was a long-term change. This isn't, okay, three months here, you've lost your weight, toodle-oo, goodbye. All of that is what did it for me.

Nikkiey: Oh, I love that. So what were your thoughts when you first started? Were you nervous? Were you skeptical? Were you excited? Was there any hesitation in the beginning?

Barbara: All of the above. I was so overwhelmed. And it moved very fast, which I totally get and understand. It's like, okay, now you're going to do this. Now you have to sign up for this. Then you have to sign up for that. Like, wait, wait, wait. Take a breath. But it was keep going, keep going, keep going. And I got really frustrated. One day in the beginning, I couldn't get signed up for something. It was maybe Trainerize. I was having difficulty, something wasn't working, and I'm like, I can't even get started.

And then I thought, this is silly. Of course I'm going to get started. They're not going to say, hey, pay all this money, and then leave me on my own. So I just had to take a breath and realize this is new. I am learning. I have drawn on my career as a teacher a lot in this and made a lot of connections between teacher and student and between coach and me. Only this time I'm the student. And that's helped me a lot.

But yeah, I was excited because I wanted to lose weight. I was overwhelmed because there's so much and you're learning the macros. But it helped me as a teacher to take a breath and say, you know what? When I teach my kiddos how to read or how to do something for the first time, they don't understand it and it's overwhelming for them. But I always promise them, you're going to get it. And I always promise them, I'm here. I'm not leaving you alone. So I just had to put myself in the student spot and say, they're not going to leave me hanging. They're going to take me through step by step. It's my job to listen and follow what they're doing. They're going to show me the way. And that's what's happened.

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.

I love that narrative, because there are a lot of women who, at the beginning, could easily go down the skeptical route and be like, oh, these people are just taking my money, I'm not going to be able to get in, and start freaking out. But you changed the narrative. You said, no, they're going to help me. I just need to be patient, listen, be a student and keep going, and it will all work out. And that's how you pushed through it. You changed that narrative for yourself. How was having the structure of working with your coach, having the macros, having the workouts, and your ability to stay committed to it at the beginning?

Barbara: I love it. I love my coach. She is the right coach for me. She gets me. She understands me. She can read between the lines. And obviously she's experienced in what she does. Anytime I ask her a question, she always nails exactly where I'm at, whether I specifically say it or not. So she has never left me hanging, for sure.

The macros were a learning experience. Again, it was just having the mindset that I'm going to get it. In education, there's something we talk about, the power of yet. I don't have it yet, but I will. That's a really big thing we say. So I'm always telling kids, you don't have it yet, but you will. So I had to tell myself, I don't have it yet, but I will. And one of the things she told me that helped me tremendously with the macros was, focus on the protein. Focus on the protein. Saying that freed me from making sure I had it all down in one sitting. So that's what I did. I focused on the protein and the rest came little by little.

Nikkiey: Wow. Love that. So now let's talk about where you're at in your journey since joining WarriorBabe. What are you the most proud of when you look in the mirror and reflect on your progress?

Barbara: So I'm in the fat loss phase right now. What am I most proud of? I like the way I look in the mirror. I'm not where I want to be yet, but I will be. I am liking what I see in the mirror, and I'm feeling better and feeling stronger. Again, I'm one that did not exercise. I laughed in the beginning when we would have our huddles and they would talk about their pre-workout protein or snack. I'm like, what? Why do we need something like that? Well, now I'm at the point where I'm doing enough that I need something, because if I don't have enough energy, it's not happening. But in the very beginning, I wasn't there. So I can see that I am stronger. I definitely can do things that I could not do back in September, for sure. So I just like the progress.

Nikkiey: I love that. Is there anything specific that you couldn't do back in September that you can do now?

Barbara: Let me think. I still don't like the squats or the lunges. I'm not going to lie. I don't like them, but I can do them, and I don't get as fatigued. I think that's what I like, that I don't feel as fatigued. It used to be I would do two or three and I'd be done. And now it's, no, I can do it. I feel the burn, but it's not like I can't keep going.

Nikkiey: What have the physical results been? I know I said it at the beginning, but let's talk about it now. Measurements, pounds down.

Barbara: So I am down, let me think, 18 pounds lost. And I know I've lost four inches off my hips. I've lost almost four inches off my waist, and maybe about an inch or so off my thighs. The calves are slow. I don't like that about the calves. But I'm starting to see a little definition up here, a little bit right in here. So I love that.

And I just have to tell you that probably the biggest challenge I've had was up here, in my head. I had a rough month of March. My mother got sick. I had to go home and see her, and then she passed away.

Nikkiey: I'm so sorry.

Barbara: Thank you. Two weeks after she passed away, a woman who was like a mother to my husband passed away. So there was about a six-week period where all that was going on, and I was staying in the same weight range, and I was in the fat loss phase. I had lost more in the retrain phase than I'd lost in the fat loss phase, and that was just not sitting well with me at all. So my coach, Celeste, had to really talk me through that. It's a major life event. On one level, you know it, but when you're doing the macros and the exercises, you feel like you should get the results.

So to those babes out there, I would just say, remember, and I had to do the same thing. Up here, I knew it, but it was still ticking me off. Stress and lack of sleep are probably the two biggest impacts for me when I don't lose weight, when I get stuck. Those were the two biggest ones for me, and I had to realize that I have to go through that grieving process. I've kind of gotten that turned around now and I'm back on an even keel, but that was hard. I got very upset that I wasn't losing weight, and she helped talk me through it.

And then I remember thinking about those non-scale victories. So I pulled out my very first pictures and took new pictures, and I couldn't see a difference. I can't see it. I can't see it. But I knew when I looked in the mirror in my regular clothes that I looked thinner. I knew from the measurements that I was four inches smaller. So I knew it was there, but for whatever reason, up here, I wasn't seeing it. And I was really upset.

Finally, my husband had come down to visit me, and I remembered that last summer there was a video my daughter took of us following our grandson, and I remembered seeing my backside and not liking what I saw. I remembered what pants I was wearing. I pulled those pants on and said, Steve, take a picture of my backside. And I compared those, and then I could finally see the difference. I think part of the reason is that my daughter took my first pictures in my workout clothes, and since then I've been using a phone in a very dark, dank apartment, and they weren't good pictures. So keep finding something that you can see, and believe it. It's fact.

Nikkiey: I love all of that. Most importantly, I love what you mentioned about being upset and frustrated because you were hoping to see the progress you initially saw in the retrain phase, or more, in the fat loss phase. You had to go to your coach and get real and be reminded that it's a big life event that you went through. You're grieving, and you need to spend that time to grieve. And this is a lifestyle. You're going to be able to get right back to it and get right back on board, and you're going to continue to see the results that you want. So I love that aspect.

Barbara: Thank you. She asked me, Barb, when you went home for the funeral, how did you handle it? And what would the old Barbara have done? And I said, I did the best I could, because I was at a hotel and all the things, but I did pretty well, counting macros when I could and making good choices. But at the dinner the church provided afterwards, they had these brownies, and I had one, and it didn't taste good. It was a mix, I know, which is fine. Old Barbara would have loved it. New Barbara hasn't been eating that stuff.

Nikkiey: No way. So you now crave your macro-friendly foods rather than the sweets, huh?

Barbara: Yeah. That was one thing that worried me about starting, having cravings, because I could do anything for a few weeks and then I would want something. And I have not had that at all.

Nikkiey: Wow. Look at that. That's confidence too, in your choices of food.

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. 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.

How has that confidence overflowed into other areas of your life, like your marriage or your work or relationships?

Barbara: So my husband, I told you he's my biggest cheerleader. He's been up here and I've been down there working, and he gets up in the mornings to take our grandson to daycare, so he gets up pretty early. When I started this program, WarriorBabe, I'm 62 and I'm like, WarriorBabe, okay, the name kind of got to me. So he started taking old songs and rewriting them for me, and I was his Battle Booty Babe. He started inserting words about his Battle Booty Babe. So he's been cheerleading and encouraging me, and he wrote me songs almost every school morning.

Then he started having a hard time finding old songs, so he started using AI, and it branched out from WarriorBabe to anything about me or him or us. As I got ready to retire, it was about my impact on kids. And the last one made me ugly cry, because he said, I've been doing them all about your teaching, but this one's about how I feel about you.

Nikkiey: Oh my God, you're going to make me cry right now.

Barbara: So he has embraced that. And he was pre-diabetic, and they put him on the shots. He started, I don't know, two months ago or so, and he's lost a lot of weight too, and he's really been working out. When we started, I told Celeste I hated the gym because I didn't want to be seen. And then a month ago I told her, don't fall out of your chair, but I think when I get back to North Carolina, I'll go to the gym with Steve, because he knows me. He'll know when I need to go a little harder or a little heavier, and he'll make me do it. So it's encompassed us in that way, where we've done it together.

Nikkiey: Wow. That's incredible. You're together on this journey now. That's such a beautiful thing, and the way he supported you along the way is really beautiful. I have one question I want to ask about your husband, though. A lot of times when people buy into the program, they say, I need to go talk to my husband about it, and there's usually some reserve there in terms of, am I going to follow through with it? What was your husband's take when you went to him and said, hey, this is what the program costs? How do you guys work together, and what was his support like at the beginning?

Barbara: I am very, very blessed with him. He is an amazing man, and he's been a wonderful husband. He's nicer to me than I am to him. So he said, okay.

Nikkiey: No way. Really?

Barbara: Yeah. I think he knew, as did I, that if I'm going to spend that much money, because I've never spent that much money on a program before, I'm going to do it.

Nikkiey: And look at you, you're doing it.

Barbara: So I have.

Nikkiey: Did you lose any pant sizes too?

Barbara: That's a good question. I'm still wearing the same pants, but they fit, because they'd been tight. Now they're not tight. So I guess yes.

Nikkiey: It's because your booty got bigger on that backside.

Barbara: He told me the other day, your butt's looking good. I was like, good, I've got a thumbs up.

Nikkiey: That's amazing. One last question too. You mentioned that your day-to-day is different because you're putting yourself first, and what's important to you has changed. What does that mean to you now?

Barbara: So with teaching again, instead of coming straight home and sitting down and eating, because I did do a lot of DoorDash and eating out too, this past year I've rarely eaten out, even though I was down there by myself. Very, very rarely. The meal planning has been a big impact. I love doing things where I can fix something that has maybe four servings, so I have one for dinner one night and then I've got three lunches. Or a roasted chicken, and I've got all kinds of mix-and-match things. So that's one change.

And then when I come home, instead of, oh boy, I get to sit on the couch and do nothing and eat crap, now it's, okay, am I going to go walking first? Am I doing my workout first? Am I hungry? Do I need to eat first? Once I started exercising and building up, I'm like, I've got to fuel my body before I do anything. And that's what I would do. And then I would either start with the weights and then do the rest of the walking I needed to do, whichever way.

Nikkiey: Wow. You should be so proud of where you're at now, with what you've accomplished and what you've changed for yourself for the better.

Barbara: Yeah, it's good. Coming home, I now have to redefine myself again, because now I'm retired. So I have to come up with that structure and routine. I will say the weekends were harder for the movement goal, just because I would be tired and I would be home. So same thing here. Now that I'm in North Carolina, I have to figure that out, getting everything in and what it's going to look like day to day.

Nikkiey: Does it seem easier, now that you've redefined yourself with health and fitness, to redefine the new Barbara in this phase of your life?

Barbara: I think so. I don't anticipate not being able to. A lot of people say that in retirement, needing that structure and creating that structure is the big challenge. And my thought processes are already gearing up for that.

Nikkiey: I love that. Let's go, new Barbara and a new chapter of life. That's super exciting. So one last question as we wrap this up. For anybody watching this video right now who feels stuck, who's struggling with their self-image and feels like it's going to be really hard for them to change, what would you tell them about WarriorBabe and how it can help them?

Barbara: I think I've said it in some of the reviews, and I'll say it again here: WarriorBabe meets you where you are. The coaches are really good at knowing you. They're experienced. It's not their first rodeo. They're going to hear what you have to say, and they'll probably be able to read between the lines.

And one thing Celeste has said to me and to all of us on our team huddles several times is that if she had started us in the weight loss phase, where all of a sudden you can only have this many calories, while also learning the macros and all of these things, we'd be overwhelmed and it would be hard to do. But instead, it's meeting you where you are. Okay, now we're going to slowly change these habits, step by step by step. And then after so much time retraining you how to properly fuel your body and building up to maintenance, then we'll start cutting back. It just made so much sense. And I was a little nervous when I started the fat loss phase, but it's nothing. It's just not hard. I don't know what to tell you. It's just part of the process. They take you step by step. They will not leave you dangling. I promise you. And I would also say the power of yet. I can't overstate that enough. It is very, very powerful.

Nikkiey: That's going to be something I take into my life, so I appreciate you sprinkling that onto me, because it's so true. It's the power of yet. You will get there. It's just learning these things along the way that are going to help you get there.

Wow, what a story. It's a very beautiful reminder that your physical transformation is only one part of your journey. You've done the deeper work. You've unlearned old beliefs. You've redefined your self-worth and gotten past self-doubt. And you're finally showing up and choosing yourself, which is really cool, putting yourself first, using your voice and feeling more seen. I appreciate you, because I felt like this was very vulnerable, so thank you for being honest and vulnerable in this interview. I just want everyone listening to know that your growth, as you just shared with us, is proof that it's never too late to become the woman you've always wanted to be. It's so cool to hear that through your story, so thank you for sharing.

Barbara: Thank you. Thanks for your time. I appreciate it. I enjoyed it.

Nikkiey: Hey, really quick before you go, I have one small favor to ask. If this episode brought you value or sparked something in you, take just a moment to hit that review button. Your rating and review make all the difference, helping more women discover the tools they need to transform their fitness and their confidence. It takes less than a minute, but it can change the path of someone else's journey. Thank you so much for leaving that review. I appreciate you so much.

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