Welcome to Betr Member Stories! This week we interviewed member Elieen Stoffel, who is a busy parent making good health happen. She is a super star!

Eileen:

I got started mainly because we have Blue Shield insurance and the Wealth Solution paid for the program, and I knew I needed to do something for myself. So I actually signed up by accident, I think over the summer, but I didn’t act on anything until this year because I was looking at the calendar, I’m like, it’d be great to be healthy and feel better by the time we actually return to in-person instruction, knowing that I was home for the rest of the school year. So in January, I just finally took the jump in and made contact.

Speaker 1:

That’s awesome. So how was that when you took that jump? Were you a little hesitant starting off? Did your coach have to kind of guide you through it? How was that for you?

Eileen:

I was extremely hesitant. My sister is a personal trainer. Well, she just finished her personal trainer certification or whatever the process is, and was actually seeking work for it at the time. And I would talk to her about it. And she encouraged me to give it a try just to see what happened. It’s not like anything would be lost if I tried and I wasn’t happy. So, she gave me that little extra encouragement as did my family, and then I went from there. So once we started, I just went for it. So I didn’t hesitate once we began. It was just before.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Okay. So your mind was there, you were ready, ready to go. That’s great. So tell me a little bit about your journey, where you started and where you are now.

Eileen:

So I started at 230 pounds and I’m sitting right now at 185. Well almost 185, 185.5 this morning. So I’ve lost 44 pounds and I started January 11th. And I definitely feel healthier. My knees, although I do get knee pain, I have a knee problem that’s never going to go until I become bionic someday. So I do get some knee pain and then my other knee has residual arthritis due to the injury. So I do get knee pain, but that’s when I’m walking down a steep hill, more than it’s walking around the block.

Speaker 1:

So it’s decreased the amount of knee pain that you have.

Eileen:

Extremely decreased. I used to have plantar fasciitis in my feet and I do not have any feet pain anymore.

Speaker 1:

Wow. That’s awesome.

Eileen:

That was really rough to deal with. I attribute pretty much everything to the knee because I broke my knee when… Well, my son’s 17, so I broke it 17 years ago. And I’ve never been the same since then, because of what happened there. And I attributed a lot to that, which I used it sort of like a scapegoat on things. And now I know I can do a lot more with that knee than I thought.

Speaker 1:

That’s awesome. Oh, that’s great. And you probably didn’t even expect that going into this program.

Eileen:

No, not really, not really.

Speaker 1:

So what else did you have coming to you that you didn’t expect, that you have now?

Eileen:

I can see that I know how to eat better now. Definitely that’s been a real positive. I look at food totally differently even when we aren’t out. And I just feel better. I’m also not as swollen. Like there’s no water retention like there used to be, and things like that. It’s nice to not fit in my clothes, although I don’t want to spend money because I’m still trying to lose. But it’s nice, to-go-away pile is growing.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Well, you know what would be cool is to allow yourself just to maybe get one or two outfits that you really, really like. Because then once you feel really, really good in your clothing, you’re going to feel very, very like a whole new you walking down the street and it’s going to keep it going.

Eileen:

We have done that.

Speaker 1:

Awesome.

Eileen:

My husband [crosstalk 00:08:10] one day, and made us go. It was good to get a few things and definitely helps. I’m in at-home teaching mode, so it’s comfortable clothes, so it’ll be a process this summer before we go back to work.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. So you mentioned that you know how to eat better. So how did you think about food before and how do you think about it now?

Eileen:

I didn’t really think about it. Like in cooking, I… Well, we would eat out more before.

Speaker 1:

And you said your son, I mean, baseball, that’s…

Eileen:

Yeah, his schedule. And this past month has been a little different because it’s been harder to cook this past month because he started playing a lot. But definitely think about what I’m using as ingredients and knowing that you don’t need fancy food to eat good food that tastes good, and enjoy it. I’m a lover of butter, not using butter in my recipes is like not topping a vegetable butter at the end and things like that.

Speaker 1:

Have you found a replacement for that, that you like? What’s your concoction now for veggies?

Eileen:

Well, just cook it in a little oil and throw some salt and pepper on top, or garlic salt and it’s good.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. And you feel lighter after.

Eileen:

Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1:

Giving yourself the space to feel what it feels like to feel lighter. And I think that’s what our program does is it allows that space to see, “Oh, wow. I didn’t even know I can feel like this.” And then you want to continue feeling like that.

Eileen:

Yeah, definitely.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Nice. So have you found some good ways, have you learned some ways to prepare for those times that are a little more busy that you feel like you might want to eat a burger from the baseball field? How have you found yourself in those situations?

Eileen:

Yeah. So it’s happened a few times, we’ve had a few baseball tournaments with our boy, which means we’re there for the first day you have two games, the second game, you don’t know how many games you have. And when we went to Arizona for one, I actually had an entire cooler full of food just for myself. I had my breakfast for three days. I had salad, which I just did the salad and quinoa and vegetables. So everything was set and it made it much easier.

Speaker 1:

Interesting. Yeah.

Eileen:

[crosstalk 00:11:52].

Speaker 1:

So that kind of feeling of what you might feel in your body was more important than actually just eating the food.

Eileen:

Definitely. I definitely think about that. Like my husband got a shake for his birthday dinner last night and I’m like, I can’t do that because I know it’s going to upset my stomach.

Speaker 1:

Don’t you feel so proud of yourself when you do that, because it’s like a whole different thing that you maybe never would have imagined yourself thinking before. And a lot of those places too, what’s great is it’s really simple to find food, just normal food at places. Like at a pizza place, you might be able to find just grilled chicken, ask for low salt, no salt, put it on a salad, get some veggies.

Eileen:

Exactly. I’m definitely aware-

Speaker 1:

So it’s everywhere. You just have to have your eyes open.

Eileen:

Yeah. We went out last night and I ordered what I knew I could eat. And it’s not as hard as I thought it would be.

Speaker 1:

So is it enjoyable for you?

Eileen:

Is what?

Speaker 1:

Eating these things that you know you can eat instead of the things like pizza. So is the salad enjoyable for you?

Eileen:

Yes. I’ve gotten really used to it. It feels weird if I don’t eat that. I didn’t think I could handle it, and I think there’s a lot of people I’ve seen comment about the food lists for level one. I was lucky because I like most of the foods on there. The only thing I don’t really care for is the bell peppers. So I avoid those.

Speaker 1:

And it’s not like there’s… I mean, there’s chicken, there’s egg. It’s not like you’re getting rid of a ton of stuff. You’re not going on a juice cleanse or anything like that. You’re just eating regular food.

Eileen:

Exactly.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. And you have the variety to spice it up. You can have garlic, you can have cilantro, parsley. You can put things on it to make it good. And you’re just kind of relearning.

Eileen:

Yeah, exactly. And garlic is a favorite in our house, so that helped me a whole lot at the beginning. And I found that the recipes were quite… Most of the recipes, everybody was good with. My son had a little bit of an issue with too much lemon in our life, but it worked out great for us.

Speaker 1:

Never too much lemon for me.

Eileen:

We have a lemon tree that is covered in lemons still and growing new ones at the same time. So it worked really well to have a lot of lemon recipes going. [crosstalk 00:14:28].

Speaker 1:

That’s what you get when you live in California. You’re going to have to send me a lemon pie now. I’m one of those people that cuts the lemon and then I bite into it and then I actually just tear out the thing. And then if anyone’s looking at me and they’re like, “Did you just eat that lemon?” “Yes I did. And my enamel will not like it.” Awesome.

Speaker 1:

So what advice would you give to anyone going through the program that is also maybe in a similar lifestyle as you, has a son or a daughter, kids who go through sports or activities and is a busy mom.

Eileen:

Definitely plan ahead. When you know it’s going to be a rough week or weekend, definitely that thinking ahead and planning ahead, and being willing to adapt. I’ve been still making the food plans, but I tend to have to move stuff around a lot based on where we are on a given day or something like that, that adaptability that’s in there. Being willing to plan it ahead, prep ahead as much as you can. I’m not a big food prepper. I did a little bit early on, but I have the luxury that my kitchen is like 10 feet away from me. And at lunchtime, I can go and just throw a salad together out of the fridge. I’m not at work. So that does help.

Eileen:

But I would definitely say if you know you’re going to have a crazy week or weekend, that food prep thing is really a key part of it. It makes it a lot easier, because most of the day, when we have one baseball game on a Saturday, that means… Like last weekend we had to leave because we had to drive almost an hour to get to the other high school. And so I needed my breakfast and lunch with me so that I would be prepared to handle it, because I knew once that game was over, my son needed food and he was going to get a lot of it. So I had my lunch so that we could get him food and carry on with our day. So that preparation is the big piece.

Speaker 1:

It can sound intimidating, but how simple is it for you? Is it much more simple once you get into it?

Eileen:

It is much easier once you get going. I was very intimidated by that at the beginning. And I was thinking I can’t make all those salads and take the time to do that. But once you figure out what works for you, it’s not hard to do. So it took time to figure out.

Eileen:

It also took me time to figure out how many groceries to buy at a time in terms of produce and things like that. The first week I had way too much leftover in my fridge. So I definitely have learned that it’s okay to not buy everything right away in the week. I can run to the market a few days a week and just grab those veggies that I need to fill in the gaps that are missing. And then everything stays fresh. That was a little bit of a curve for me.

Eileen:

And let me think, anything else. I mean, when I sit at home and I buy a jicama plant, I don’t mind sitting there and chopping it up and taking a little time to myself to cut the veggies and have them ready, so they’re easy to grab. Because like I said, I don’t prep my salads, but I will prep cucumber and jicama so I can just grab some and throw it in the salad.

Speaker 1:

Yeah. Yeah. I tell that to my clients a lot, just cut up some cucumbers and put it in a whole giant bag, or you could even put it in individual, Ziploc baggies, and then you can just grab and go, so it’s there. Those simple things are really easy. And then it’s kind of fun and therapeutic to just take some time and just prep some things and relax while you’re doing it. But it’s something new that you’re doing. So anything new that you’re doing, it’s going to be different.

Eileen:

Yeah, jicama I would do that before because that’s the only real way to deal with jicama on that. But on other things like cucumber, I would never prep it before. And I find it’s easier for me to throw it on the table in a Tupperware for my kid to eat because he’s not a big salad fan. It doesn’t work well with him. So I can throw those on the table and he’ll be eating them versus if I had to make him a salad.

Speaker 1:

Cheetos.

Eileen:

He likes his vegetables, but he doesn’t like [inaudible 00:19:23] very much. Those two options are really good ones. Can’t throw a tomato in front of him, but…

Speaker 1:

Can’t throw a tomato. Okay. Well awesome. So the last thing I really want to ask is… I ask these in all of the interviews. If someone were to ask you how they can live better, what would you tell them?

Eileen:

I would definitely recommend first looking into this program. I’ve done that with one person. Definitely looking into it and talking about just the clean eating. And I liked how in the first month, although I really missed some of the foods that were coming in the second month, I liked the process of cleaning out the system and how much happened just in that first month of feeling better. So just to give it a shot. And you’re not going to… If it doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t work for you. But I didn’t think it would, and it worked really, really well.

Eileen:

So definitely just be open and be willing to try to cut out those carbs from your life. And it’s okay and it’s sustainable and I’m not hungry. So that’s the thing that because of that portion, that we don’t have to worry about portion control and counting calories, I didn’t do that and I lost a lot of weight. And it was good. It’s been good. So I definitely feel better.

Speaker 1:

Yay. Well, thank you so much for sharing. Thanks for sharing all of this. It’s going to be super helpful to a lot of people out there. All the moms out there are going to appreciate it as well. And I’m so happy to have you on, Eileen. Thank you.

Eileen:

Thank you.