Betr Member Stories EP. 3: “This is not a diet, this is a lifestyle.”
Interview with: Doug Wilson (Member)
Interview lead by: Caren DeCesaris (Community Manager + Coach)
Welcome to Betr Member Stories! This week we interviewed member Doug Wilson, who could not be any more passionate about the Betr way of eating. Doug is an inspiration!
“I have tried so many ways to lose the unwanted weight and suffered from heart issues that I never thought could be cleared up. This program and changed my life Forever!”
Doug started Betr weighing in at 266, and is currently 240. More importantly, he mentioned during his interview that he has found more energy, improved results in blood work, and a clear mind and body. Doug is extremely passionate about the Betr way of living, because he truly believes that by eating real and whole foods, balance and a good well being is easier to find.
Doug mentions the “coffin” aka the pantry – that he has not only learned to, but now has the desire to, stay away from processed foods most often found in pantries and much more prefers pure fruits, veggies, and proteins. He says that he can’t help, it just is now what he craves!
“I never even knew that what a microbiome was. I was like, “Wow, microbiome, what the heck is that?” And then the gut health, the brain and how they’re connected to each other and I’ve found that to be so true in this lifestyle, because if you’re eating the right foods and you’re eating them when you should be eating them, then you’re not hungry and you feel satisfied and you don’t have to worry about not eating the bad foods.”
Doug is so passionate about this new lifestyle, that he has decided to become a Betr Health Coach himself. Doug is a motivation in the Betr community and a motivation for us! See below for before and after pictures of Doug the he shard with the private Facebook community. We appreciate you Doug, and thank you for lighting up the world!
See the full video interview with Doug below.
Doug Wilson:
I mean, getting up and having an apple in the morning or having an orange, doing, eating that way and eating clean, just knowing that it made it much easier because then the cravings went away. That’s the important part. If you stick with those level 1 foods, I notice people on Facebook even say, “I love sweets. How can I”. Well, if you try an apple or an orange, they’re sweet and eventually that craving of going into the coffin and getting that candy, you’re getting those cookies, or getting those crackers, that stuff goes away.
Caren:
I just wanted to have you on today to have you share some of your amazing stories that you have. You’ve been very active in the Facebook community and inspiring a lot of people and so I just knew you’d have a lot of good things to share. So why don’t we get started just by having you tell us who you are and what you do.
Doug Wilson:
Sure. So hi, my name’s Doug Wilson. I’m down here, as Sarah said in Florida and sunny, the Sunshine State. I am still working, believe it or not, but I really have joined this program based on a lot of things that happened to me in my life and I’m really happy to have found this lifestyle.
Doug Wilson:
I can tell you that for many years, that I was searching for better and not getting better, but getting worse and so when I say that overall the idea of coming into a program that truly is a lifestyle and not a diet was very exciting to me. Again, I could go a little bit about my history and talk about the fact that for 20 years now, I’ve really been looking for a plan to drop my weight. At one point in time in my life, I was up to 290 pounds and had a heart attack.
Doug Wilson:
And that was certainly an awakening for me and was rushed to the hospital, had a couple of stents put in my heart and from that point on heart health has been an important part of my life.
Caren:
How long ago was that?
Doug Wilson:
That being said, going through the different things that have happened in my life and trying to find the right program has not been easy. I’ve tried every pill, powder, weight loss plan that’s out there today. Weight Watchers, nuMe, all of these different plans that they put you on, whether they be calorie counting, or point counting or whatever they may, but never really found anything that clicked with me.
Doug Wilson:
I lost some weight. I’ve gradually got down. I even had a lap band surgery so I even had lap band surgery to get my weight down but yet I found out there were a period of time. Then I got to a point I got from 290 to 260, but then I hit that point and I couldn’t get any further and so I kind of maintain that for a while, continued on with medications, obviously getting hard exams every year, trying to do that, but I was still know I wasn’t where I needed to be and so here I am.
Caren:
Here you are. That’s amazing. All right. There’s a lot to dive into. So how long ago was that heart attack from-
Doug Wilson:
2007. So, quite a few years now that it happened, but constantly again, that brings onto the whole thing about being heart-healthy and I think that’s an important part and an aspect to the better on lifestyle that I think is an important part. It’s not just about a diet or losing. It’s not a diet at all, it’s a lifestyle but it’s not just about the losing weight, it’s about getting your blood to be flowing properly and having all the right things in your blood so that you don’t have another episode like that.
Caren:
Yeah. That’s amazing. I mean, you’re really expressing the lifestyle aspect of it. So did you know before, when you were doing other programs that it was possible to lose weight and to do it just by living rather than actually doing like a program and making it a temporary thing?
Doug Wilson:
No and that’s been the part of the issue. I’ve always known throughout life and everywhere you read it and you hear doctors say it and it’s on TV all the time, exercise, eat right and if you exercise and eat right, you’ll lose weight.
Doug Wilson:
But knowing the right things to eat. I mean, don’t eat carbs, eat fat, don’t eat fat, eat red meat, don’t eat red meat. I mean [crosstalk 00:05:16] everything all over the place but there’s never been a plan, like the better plan to show you with the level 1 food lists.
Doug Wilson:
These are the things that are good and I want to tell you learning about microbiomes has been so eye opening to me, then it’s been great. I mean, I’ve gone on and watched YouTube videos about microbiomes and learn about my gut and how it’s related to my brain that I never even knew existed-
Caren:
Isn’t it crazy how we as humans don’t know that these things exist yet. These are our bodies, they’re our bodies. This is what we own. And we don’t even know that it exists. Like what-
Doug Wilson:
Never even knew that what a microbiome was. I was like, “Wow, microbiome, what the heck is that?” And then the gut health, the brain and how they’re connected to each other and I’ve found that to be so true in this lifestyle, because if you’re eating the right foods and you’re eating them when you should be eating them, then you’re not hungry and you feel satisfied and you don’t have to worry about not eating the bad foods.
Doug Wilson:
And my favorite analogy that Dr. Farrow uses that I use a lot in my house is, “Stay out of the coffin.”, Stay out of that pantry where all that process junk food is. If I stay away from that and I’ve been very good at being able to do that and eat just clean, eat clean foods on the level 1 food list. It’s just fantastic. I mean, the weight just came off and it was over a result of it. It was a result of just eating good. It wasn’t like I was doing anything different-
Caren
So I have a question for you. If someone were to kind of push back on that and say, “Well, I mean, it’s not just that easy. How do I just stick to these foods when I’m so used to sticking to the foods in that coffin and that pantry.” I like crackers. I like this. I like that. How did you see it for yourself? Moving from that 80/20 kind of rule, 80% clean eating and then 20% allowing yourself to indulge?
Doug Wilson:
Yeah. Well, that’s the important part. I think that when you look at that overall, and you go, that stuff that’s in that pantry, in that coffin area, staying away from it, that was always a challenge for me. I love bread. [inaudible 00:07:49] I love bread. I love my snacks. I love candy. I love all of those things.
Caren:
What’s your favorite candy?
Doug Wilson:
My favorite candy is Twizzlers by the way.
Caren:
Aah man, Twizzlers. Come on, Doug.
Doug Wilson:
I do like some Twizzlers. For some reason, I go to my go-to because it just seems to be that way. But overall, I mean, I didn’t find that hard because the program makes it easy by laying out the meals, by laying out how your meal planning is done by having the recipes that are there to be able to do it and that level 1 food list. I keep going back to that.
Doug Wilson:
If you just stick to that list, you’re fine because you’re not doing it. I mean, getting up and having an apple in the morning or having an orange, doing, eating that way and eating clean, just knowing that it made it much easier because then the cravings went away. That’s the important part. If you stick with those level 1 foods. I noticed people on Facebook even say, “I love sweets. How can I”. Well, if you try an apple or an orange, they’re sweet and eventually that craving of going into the coffin and getting that candy, or getting those cookies, or getting those crackers, that stuff goes away.
Caren:
Yeah. How long did it take you to notice that it was kind of going away that you weren’t really craving those sugary or processed foods?
Doug Wilson:
I will say about two weeks into it. I think two weeks was probably where I really noticed that I didn’t have the cravings. It was still there. Some of the stuff was still there, but I wasn’t going in and getting it. And I found that if I was having a craving, I would get an apple or get an orange or something like that because I have sweet cravings more than salty cravings.
Doug Wilson:
So I would get a piece of fruit and eat that and that seemed to subside. It filled me up and it subsided and I think along with the water intake, I mean, I switched. I was a big sweet tea drinker. I mean, even the diet sweet tea and I completely come off of that and strictly drinking a lots and lots of water. That helped too, a cup to flush it out and to make it make things move a lot easier.
Caren:
Yeah, definitely. With everything, with your digestive system, just with your energy levels. So when you started drinking water in the morning, did you notice a difference? Like for instance, I drink water every morning, like first thing, and I actually was really thinking about it this morning because it’s a very conscious, a very noticeable difference. Like I’ll drink it and really my first sip, I feel my eyes brighten. I can feel my body waking up. So yeah.
Doug Wilson:
Absolutely and then I’ve added in some of the sparkling water, some of the mineral waters in there and there, they have flavored mineral water right now so you get that flavored mineral water or flavored water, and it’s surprised you because then you get that taste and you go, well, it’s not sweet, like a soda, but it still takes care of that craving because you feel like you’re taking in something that you really enjoy.
Caren:
It does. And it’s bubbly. So it also kind of like fills you a little bit. I like to do that too. Do you like lemon flavored things?
Doug Wilson:
I do. So one of the things that I’ve learned and going out and I have been going out to eat and eating healthy when I go out is, every time I go to a restaurant now, I order water with lemon and before, I didn’t do that but when you add that lemon to water, for example, and I really enjoyed, and lemon has been one of my favorite things to add that additional enhancement in there to add that now.
Doug Wilson:
In fact, now you can go to a restaurant and I ask, “Do you have bottled water?” You’d be surprised because [crosstalk 00:11:44] tap water versus bottled water and I’ve read a lot of things that bottled water is probably better for you or especially if it’s mineralized water like that. So from that standpoint, I mean, I’ve really enjoyed ordering bottled water and some of them bring these 33 ounce bottles of water and they think, “Oh, you’re never going to drink them the whole time.” and I go through the whole thing by the end of the meal.
Caren:
Okay. I have three things to say out of that. One with water, I always, so you see my giant cup here and it’s like way too sparkly, never too sparkly actually. It also says my name on it, [crosstalk 00:12:23]custom cup.
Sarah:
But what I recommend to clients usually is just get a cup that you enjoy, that is attractive to you and then with a straw unless you have like acid reflux or something that you just can’t have a straw, but having a straw really makes it more easy just to take and sip. You’re more likely to go through it.
Caren:
But with the lemon, the reason I asked you was I was going to say, there’s a LaCroix flavor that I love and I’m just addicted to, it’s Limoncello LaCroix. If you haven’t had it, highly recommended. It tastes like lemon pie. It’s so good. So Limoncello. Not the Lemon, the Limoncello LaCroix. Very good and you can mix it with some kombucha to make it a little sweeter, you can always put like liquid Stevia in. There’s tons of stuff you can do to make those sweeter even if you were craving kind of that sweet taste of like a soda, or I don’t know why I just said soda I’m from the Chicago area. I say pop. So we’ll spread that to the world. It’s called pop.
Caren:
But yeah and then the third thing is, that’s funny that now you’re wanting that lemon and those different enhancers because your body starts craving that rather than putting on like extra cheese, extra this, extra that, because you actually want that so like a lot of times I will personally enhance my stuff with like dill, or mint, or cilantro, or parsley and that just adds a lot to it and lemon is huge. It really brings out flavors.
Caren:
So that’s really amazing how your body is starting to recognize and crave those different things. And it takes time, right? Like you said, it took a couple of weeks for you to even become aware of the fact that you weren’t craving those items. I think just when you’re so used to something, it takes a little bit of time to shift into seeing that, oh wow, this is changing. This is different. Even things like your skin, right? I mean, your skin is glowing right now.
Doug Wilson:
Well, I have an issue or, believe it or not. Even at my age, I have acne so I have adult acne and I had issues with that. And it wasn’t triggered necessarily by chocolate all the time, but chocolate had an effect on it, but it was triggered by other foods. All of a sudden I’d start breaking out and I went to my dermatologist and she said, it’s got to be diet related.
Doug Wilson:
Well, since I’ve been on the better lifestyle, everything’s cleared up. So it’s made a really big difference and oh, by the way, you were mentioning the waters. You talk about LaCroix. I have passion fruit outside in my refrigerator right now. That’s one of my favorite LaCroix’s and then Pellegrino makes a great sparkling water that are different flavors that I’ve gotten into recently. So, a lot of good choices out there and it’s amazing that these different companies are now realizing that we’re drinking more water and enhancing the waters to give you those flavors that you desire and they really do help.
Caren:
Yeah. Awesome. Okay. So I want to touch on any other things that, so if people that can relate to you with the heart health, what would you tell them from your experience with never thinking that it would clear up and then where you are now?
Doug Wilson:
Yeah. Well, that’s fantastic that you asked that because cholesterol is big. It’s always a big issue when you talk about a heart patient, right? So when you think about the cholesterol levels, you’re trying to keep them down at that level. I did blood tests before I started the program and after starting the program and in cholesterol level alone, I dropped 40 points in my cholesterol level from pre-blood tests to post-blood tests, which was just amazing. I mean-
Sarah:
Was that over how many weeks?
Doug Wilson:
That was just over a two month period because I was like two months into the program and then I had taken the blood test. It just was a normal routine exam before I started the program and about two months in, did the blood test again and it dropped dramatically. The other one was, my glucose levels which is, I was right on the cusp there in the glucose levels of, I wasn’t pre-diabetic. I wasn’t in that level, but it was just hovering around there so the doctor was a little concerned, drop that, a good 10 points on the same blood test. So now I’m not even in that range anymore.
Doug Wilson:
So between the, definitely the cholesterol, between the glucose levels, and again, this is all attributed to just eating clean on this better lifestyle and it’s something that’s just gotten to the point where I’ve talked to everybody about it because people see me now and they go, “Doug, you’ve lost all this weight.” And I go, “Well, I’m on a different lifestyle” and they be, “Well, what diet are you on?” Well, I am not on a diet, I want a better lifestyle. [crosstalk 00:17:24] and that’s all what it’s about and you’ve seen my posts on Facebook. I mean, I had a before and after picture up there. And I mean, it’s just amazing to me because, no matter where you are in the program, I mean, I’m one of those that, I was in the program and I was losing weight and then I hit a plateau and I went, oh my gosh, am I ever going to get off this plateau?
Caren:
When did you hit that plateau?
Doug Wilson:
I hit that plateau right in level one. Right getting close to level two and I kind of hit that plateau and I kept worrying about my coach’s [inaudible 00:18:00]. And then she suggested going on one of this phone calls, of course, look at Dr. Ferriss top 10 and then get on a stall call. They have them Tuesdays or Thursdays and Heidi was on this stall call with me. It was great. It was fantastic because I could ask questions specific about why am I hitting this plateau and ask and be able to do that.
Doug Wilson:
The other thing that went on with it is in the first couple of weeks of level 1 or actually all of level 1, we’re not supposed to exercise. Well, I love to exercise. I love getting on my elliptical. It wasn’t helping me. I was getting on the elliptical for months and months and months, but my weight wasn’t dropping. It wasn’t until the better lifestyle and then after I hit level 2 and started exercising, I started seeing the weight drop off more, more stuff. So, again, if people just stick with it and just go, don’t worry about that plateau you’re hitting. If you have an issue, let your coach know, get on a stall call, look at Dr. Ferriss top 10, those are the best things-
Caren:
So why were you hitting your plateau?
Doug Wilson:
I believe there was a couple of things. So one of the things was, had to do specifically with double protein. So for example, I would have quinoa with a meal and then also another protein. So the two proteins, I believe were clashing against each other and causing that plateau. The other thing that I noticed was that’s real important and I know that maybe it’s not emphasized enough, but when you’re done with dinner at night and you’ve got to stop eating, you can’t just continue on and even if you’re eating the clean foods.
Doug Wilson:
In my opinion, I stopped eating after that last meal in the evening. I stopped eating until the next morning, especially in level 1 when you could do that. I didn’t have breakfast. I waited until that 10 o’clock timeframe had an apple and that intermittent fasting between the time that I stopped eating and I think that really made a big difference.
Sarah:
Okay. Yeah. That’s helpful to know for people because also, I mean, everyone’s starting at different weight levels. I mean, everyone has different body types. Obviously, someone at this weight versus this weight might start losing more in the beginning. And then as you have that weight come off, it’s going to come off slower and that’s okay, that’s normal but a lot of times like maybe someone will only lose like five pounds or something within two weeks, but their body measurements are like drastic. So, that’s another thing to keep in mind.
Caren:
Awesome. I, you have shared so much, Doug. Okay. So why don’t you tell the world, all right. Number one, tell the world what you’re doing now, what this has inspired you to do?
Doug Wilson:
Oh, great. I’d be happy to. So after losing 30 pounds in three months, dropping my waist size, and again, you’ve mentioned it earlier, your measurements are important too. Don’t just always look at the scale. The scale is not important. Just look at your body, look at what you’re doing. So I’ve got so excited about this plan and I’ve talked to so many people about it. I’ve decided I’m going to be a better coach.
Caren:
So exciting. That’s exciting. You’re passionate about it, you believe in it, and you know why it works, and no better way to teach something than to go through it firsthand so that’s amazing that you are joining as a coach, so excited for that.
Caren:
Okay. So the last thing I always ask everyone in these interviews is if someone asked you how they can be better, just general question, how could I live better? What would you tell them?
Doug Wilson:
Eat clean, eat clean foods, eat the foods that are meant to be for you, not that are processed foods. It’s not that hard to do. It’s really not hard to do this better lifestyle.
Caren:
Love it. Thank you so much. Any other words you need to share? Get out of here?
Doug Wilson:
No. Glad again. Thanks to everyone at Better Health. Thank you, Sarah. Thank you Dr. Farrell, 1,000 times. He and I, I would love to get to know him in person someday. I think he’s a great guy.
Caren:
Take a trip out here, to out headquarters [inaudible 00:22:35].
Doug Wilson:
Now that we’re getting out of this thing we’ve been in for a year now, I’m hoping to get a chance to meet him in person. I would love to do that.
Caren:
That would be great. We’d love to have you. Well, see this is what happens. You become part of the family and you just change lives. I love it. I love it. Thank you so much, Doug.
Doug Wilson:
Happy to do so.
