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Decades in the Making- Triumph Over the Scale
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In this episode of Exhausted Sparrows Unite, we dive into the inspiring story of a Hudson Valley resident, Leslie Price, who spent decades trying to lose weight and, at 66, finally achieved her goal. But this isn’t just about weight loss—it’s about the resilience, self-compassion, and hope that kept her going through years of setbacks and frustrations.
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Transcript
Introduction to Leslie Price's Journey
00:00:05
Speaker
Welcome back to Exhausted Sparrows Unite, where today we're going to be talking about a journey that so many of us can relate to.
Transformation, Self-Love, and Resilience
00:00:14
Speaker
The journey of transformation, persistence, self-love. My guest today, Leslie Price, has spent decades trying to lose weight facing setbacks and frustrations, but she never gave up.
00:00:29
Speaker
now 66 years old, she's finally reaching her goals. This episode, though, isn't just about weight loss.
Meeting Leslie: An Inspirational Encounter
00:00:37
Speaker
This is about the power of giving yourself grace, having resilience, holding onto your hope, even when it feels like it's all out of reach. Whether you're working towards a similar goal of simply trying to give yourself some more kindness in everyday life, or whatever you need today, I know that you're gonna find some inspiration in her story. So I wanna say welcome, Leslie.
00:00:59
Speaker
Thank you so much for having me. So you know the way Leslie and I met was so amazing. um I was at Planet Fitness. I have a few memberships to a few different gyms and don't judge me for that but I do that because it works for me.
00:01:15
Speaker
i mean I have a CrossFit membership at 845. I have an all-sport membership um for my hip classes and all things related to that. And then I have Planet Fitness when I just need to get to the gym and I need to walk on the treadmill or I need to use ah my massage chair, which I absolutely love. so I was sitting there and Leslie doesn't even know this part of the story. I was in the massage chair and I was, you know, just relaxing and she walked in and I really felt this strong presence. I really felt God saying, you know, talk to her. So I said something dumb because I mean, see, I just talked negatively about myself.
00:01:54
Speaker
I said something silly because I didn't know exactly what I was supposed to be saying to her. And I said something like, oh, you know, these chairs and they go back all the way. And I don't know. And so, you know, she laughed and Leslie, right. You probably remember that. You know, she kind of giggled a little. We talked a little. And then that was it. And then you put your headphones
Society's Influence on Self-Worth
00:02:12
Speaker
on. And then ah and then I really felt him saying, that's not it. And I thought, God, what?
00:02:18
Speaker
What in the world could it be that I am supposed to get out of this encounter today? So we got done, Leslie got done. I kind of said something. And then I think, Leslie, you started talking about you know all of this weight that you have lost, but I think what it was is you said this sentence and you said, even at 66,
00:02:42
Speaker
I finally was able to get this off and I just, you know, I i didn't give up hope. And I thought, oh God, there it is, God. Like, she's supposed to be on this podcast because our podcast, um Exhausted Sparrows Unite, is really all about giving yourself grace and living authentically and realizing that a lot of what we see is filtered.
00:03:07
Speaker
And a lot of what you see in you know not being worthy enough and pretty enough and smart enough and thin enough is all this scam.
Leslie's Weight Battle and Past Struggles
00:03:17
Speaker
It's people that are filtering their pictures. It's people that are only giving you the story of success and are not giving you like this entire journey. So I knew that I wanted to do quite a few episodes on weight loss because when we talk about self-love,
00:03:37
Speaker
For so many of us, I'm looking at Leslie right now, and she's she has tears in her eyes. But for so many of us, our self-love is based on our outward appearance. It's based on our weight. And for so many of us, we struggled with that for years. And when when Leslie, when you said that to me, you know it took me over 60 years, I thought, this is it, right? Because there is no quick fix.
00:04:03
Speaker
And sometimes there's a lot of work that has to be done to get where we are. But you, I'm looking at you like you are the epitome of hope for somebody today that is going to need to hear your story.
00:04:17
Speaker
I don't even know where to begin. Well, so why don't you talk a little bit about your story because I think so many of us are are going to relate, right? Like I don't, when did your story really begin? Did you, did you struggle with weight most of your life? Some of all my life. Okay. life So high school, I was heavy. My father offered me a thousand dollars to lose weight. Wow. Yeah. That's, I mean, that's damaging. It is damaging.
00:04:44
Speaker
you know but he but let's he probably thought he meant well he did mean well right yes and now we kind of know different things than we knew 40 50 years ago right so He offered you $1,000 to lose weight, and would did you? No, I mean, I tried hypnosis. um That worked for a little while. I tried diets. But I was up and down. So in college, I had gotten down to like a size 14 and you know worked my way back up. Sure. And ah I periodically have lost 100 pounds.
00:05:24
Speaker
wow on and off. um I joined a cult. Well, I joined over eaters anonymous, okay, to help me. And that was very helpful. But there was some offshoot. This was when I was in my 20s. Okay, that ah it turns out it was a cult.
00:05:43
Speaker
And I actually quit my job and cut off ties and moved in with them.
Emotional Roots of Eating Habits
00:05:48
Speaker
and Oh, goodness. Oh, it really was a cult. It really was a cult. And the way I got out is I ate my way out. They kicked me out on the street with all my stuff and I gained 75 pounds in three months. I mean, so I was a binger in college. um This is I was a binger in high school. It was serious. Sure. Very, very serious.
00:06:12
Speaker
Did you notice that you ate more when times were tough? Were but you the type that ate more like when you were sad or just eating was just a comfort for you and in general? Eating was a comfort for me. I just ate. I like to buy a bunch of stuff and sit and eat.
00:06:32
Speaker
So, you know, you're not alone in that. I mean, i um I also, I was a heavy child and my dad, and when I say this story, I really hope that, you know, I don't judge my dad, um but it's so interesting how somebody can do or say like a sentence or two, and it never leaves you. My dad, Doritos had had just come out. That's how old I am. and um And I loved them. Yeah, that was my thing. I think it was the coal ranch Doritos or something had come out and I don't know, maybe I was in like, I don't know, third, fourth grade. And I had a second helping. Like I think my brothers hadn't even had a first helping a Doritos or something. And maybe I grabbed the bag and um I
The Foundation of Self-Love in Weight Loss
00:07:13
Speaker
probably wasn't so nice. And my dad said something like, have another helping piggy or something.
00:07:20
Speaker
Right. But my dad, I mean, I love my dad. And, you know, he said it in yeah I'm not making excuses for him, but, you know, he probably said it in a moment of of frustration or and like that has never left me.
00:07:37
Speaker
It has just never left me. These one lines will never leave you. Yeah. ah Because that's what you hone in on. Sure. Instead of the love, which you're also getting, but you don't hone in on that. You don't see as much as you don't see all that love that you're getting to because the thing that you're going to see is that one negative comment. Absolutely and that's gonna you're gonna take that with you you do and so what you I've learned over the years because I struggle with my weight as well you know I gained 20 pounds I I lose 12 I gain you know I I'm always struggling and you know you you always look like for that easy fix but um what I learned is that if you really don't have self-love it doesn't matter what diets you're gonna end up doing
00:08:24
Speaker
You're never going to keep it off. Exactly. You have to change your head first.
Health Crisis and Commitment to Change
00:08:29
Speaker
And that's hard. It's very hard. I lost a hundred pounds by not this time, but by um cutting out all white flour and sugar. And I did that for five years. But the minute that I put that in my mouth, I gained it all back. Because it's not sustainable. Because it's not sustainable. It's really not sustainable. and um But I believed at the time that you know I had trigger foods, and i I still believe that. There are trigger foods that where I just want to eat more. And if I try to stay away from them,
00:09:05
Speaker
i you know I don't get those cravings because it was the cravings that just drove me. But this time, it was different. And it was very interesting how it happened. i was ah It was right after COVID, i so I was working from home and I started to just gain it all back.
00:09:25
Speaker
And I was about 229 pounds at that time, and I'm 5'1", so um you know it's hard to walk. That's a lot of weight on your frame. It is a lot. um And i I was having trouble. My body ached all the time. I was depressed.
00:09:40
Speaker
i I was, you know, even going up the stairs of my house, it was really causing me a problem. And I thought, I'm not going to make it to see grandkids because my kids are young. I started having kids at 39 and 41. I have two kids. And I'm not going to see grandkids if I continue this way.
Microhabits and Mindset Change
00:10:02
Speaker
And I was starting to get pre-diabetic.
00:10:05
Speaker
um So I knew, you know, being in my 60s now, my health is just going to go downhill. And um so I thought, well, I want to lose the weight. I want to lose the weight. And I i thought, well, I can do anything for two weeks.
00:10:24
Speaker
True, sure. Anything. And and you can you can make a habit in just three weeks and just 21 days you can create habits. That's true. That's what the research says. So I thought, well, I'm going to just go back to my cutting out all the carbs and blah, blah, blah. And I thought, this is not going to work past two weeks, two, three weeks. And I was standing in a a business meeting where a guest came that I didn't know at all.
00:10:53
Speaker
And we were just all chatting. And I don't know why I blurted this out, but I blurted out, I want to lose 100 pounds. And this guy said to me, call my coach. I lost 30 pounds. She's great. Give her a call.
00:11:10
Speaker
And so I thought, well, what am I have to lose? I'll call. sure So I spoke to her and I said, and it was a nutritional program. It doesn't matter what program you do. true um But it it was a nutritional program that also involved um a lot of looking at one's self, looking at one's habits and changing your habits, one micro habit at a time. And I said, okay, I'll do it for a month.
00:11:39
Speaker
And that, I did it for a year. I didn't stop. And it was the most amazing thing because what I discovered is I can, if you take one positive thing you're changing the trajectory in your in your thinking. amen So even if I say like, I'm going to drink a glass of water, 16 ounces of water in the morning, that's a habit that, you know, it's a good habit, right? It's something, it's self-love, it's something I'm doing,
00:12:12
Speaker
for myself, right? Even if I just do that, I'm going in the positive direction. I'm giving myself love. And I've just changed everything by going in that direction. And it's so easy to do. And then you add to that. You add the next thing and the next thing.
Kindness and Grace in Transformation
00:12:30
Speaker
And eventually,
00:12:32
Speaker
You're doing all these things for yourself and you're doing it automatically because, you know, I was doing all this negative stuff for myself automatically and I'm sort of pulling that back, changing that and doing positive things. But of course we all slip. So what do you do? So maybe, okay, so I s slipped.
00:12:52
Speaker
let me do something positive and something easy, positive, the water, or for a while I was taking cold showers and that people are like, you're crazy. And I was like, no, I'll tell you what the thinking was. I mean, because I had somebody that was like telling me about ice baths. and Yeah, yeah, there's a lot out there. And there is a lot out there. And and I said, well, I said, it's not the I said, maybe there's a ah real benefit. Maybe there isn't. But let me tell you something.
00:13:23
Speaker
The minute I do that, the first thing in the day, I just did something really hard for myself, and it's all positive, and I feel great when I get out, right? so I just started my day doing something really positive and it wasn't that hard and it only took a minute, maybe three minutes, how ah how long am I gonna do this? So that's how I started with um changing my head and really it comes down to one microhabit at at a time so that it's it's manageable.
00:13:57
Speaker
So we really can't bully ourselves into this transformation. What I'm hearing from you is real change starts with kindness to ourselves, right? It's
Navigating Societal Expectations and Nutrition
00:14:07
Speaker
really about being kind. It's really about if you slip up, you have to look at it differently. You can't slip up and then stay down.
00:14:15
Speaker
You have to slip up and then we all slip absolutely because we're not perfect So this thing is you just have to get up, right? But I thought that this was it for me. I was I was um What was it 63? I thought this is my life. I'm gonna die I'm gonna I'm gonna get you know diabetes I'm gonna die of something either cancer because I'm eating all this stuff or Diabetes or whatever it is, or I'm just gonna have a heart attack um And I was pretty sure that I would never recover and that I would never be able to lose the weight and you know live the kind of life that I wanted to live. And you know what what happened was, not only did I lose the weight, but I felt like I woke up. I felt like all I want to do is dance.
00:15:13
Speaker
And I do now. I dance all the time. Because I think we first have to realize that we're worth it. And I think when you try to lose weight, it is hard. It's an addiction like anything else. One, you've got to get to whatever it is mentally that's keeping you in that place. And then two, you've got to believe that you are, of course, worthy for every single thing this life has to offer you. And it is so much easier to do it healthy.
00:15:43
Speaker
And then, you know, so many of us do these these fad diets or, you know, and now even with my coaches now, they're like, you know, Krista, 80 percent of this is your nutrition. So, you know, for me, I'm like, oh, i I can go to the gym every day. And they're like, well, that is great. But if you don't get your nutrition under control, it doesn't matter if you go to the gym, you know, 25 times a week.
00:16:07
Speaker
And especially as women that are in their 40s and their 50s and their 60s, menopausal, perimenopausal, like the weight is not as easy to get off.
Sustainable Weight Loss Habits
00:16:17
Speaker
But I love what you said. It really is one small step at a time. I have a girlfriend that said, listen, you know, I am just going to, you know, go on the cabbage diet and I'm just going to eat all these vegetables. And so she gave up everything at once and it backfired.
00:16:35
Speaker
it will backfire. I mean, you know, it's so easy to, um yeah, so these fad diets, if you haven't changed how you think about yourself, it'll just You have to change your habits. You have to change how you think about yourself. I didn't exercise for a year. I did this without exercise because we didn't want to use exercise as the way of keeping the weight off.
00:17:08
Speaker
So it's not that i shouldn't exercise i mean sure i didn't use i didn't heavily exercise i do now why because i love to exercise because i love the way my body feels when i go to the gym i don't like to do everything right now i'm i'm i'm doing lifting.
00:17:27
Speaker
I love that. And for you know, I know you guys can't see Leslie, eventually, we're gonna do videos of all of this. I don't know. They're telling me that's the way to go. But um you, you look amazing. So over 100 pounds lost this time, you would never know that you were 100 pounds heavier.
00:17:43
Speaker
You know, you wouldn't because I've never actually um done when I what I've done now, which is to lose the weight, keep it off, and then work on, you know, exercising and, um you know, actually having some control over how I look, which is amazing. Right? Because really, this this was in your control food is in our control.
00:18:09
Speaker
Yeah, and ah I have to tell you all, though, if you think that I lost the weight and and now I don't struggle on a day to day basis, it's not true.
Struggles with Ingrained Habits
00:18:19
Speaker
I struggle all the time. But what you know we all do, people that are slim, they have rules and they have things in place to help them sort of stay healthy. It's not like it's just automatic for everybody. I mean, some people maybe um it's easy and it's never been a problem, but a lot of people that are slim, they have all these rules that help them to stay stay slim and stay healthy. I mean, the the staying slim is to stay healthy so that you can enjoy
00:18:54
Speaker
walking and moving and dancing and just um being healthy. And so I still struggle all the time with, you know, yeah, I don't think I have an off switch, actually, on the eating. So it's it's a day to day, which which makes sense, right? With any type of habit that has been formed over 40, 50 years, it's not that it's, you know, just going to snap and and and you're going to be a completely different person the next day, which is why it takes a long time. No, it does. It takes
Avoiding Comparisons in Health Journeys
00:19:32
Speaker
work. First of all, you you need to come up with um foods that you like to eat that are healthy. You need to to teach yourself what's healthy and what's not healthy and maybe not to eat the processed foods and and to find ways of, you know,
00:19:51
Speaker
Sure and you can do that with coaching you can there's more than enough information on the internet right now that you can find that type of stuff too and you know everything's out there when you go on the web and and you know then again we we talk a lot about social media you know that is also a place that um you know you you see things and those things aren't necessarily accurate, right? In some cases we see these this this filtered image of others or we see all the weight that they have lost and they're only showing us that part of the story and not necessarily the struggle to get there. And I think what I would love for anybody listening that is struggling right now with, you know, trying to lose some weight,
00:20:38
Speaker
I think if there's anything you could take away today, i I want you to hear Leslie and hear me when we say everybody struggles just because you may not see it in that post or you may not feel it in that picture. Everybody struggles, you know, and the goal really is to be strong, right?
00:20:58
Speaker
healthy and strong.
Complexities of Personal Weight Issues
00:21:01
Speaker
Strong on me may look different than it does on you than it does on Leslie. You know, um I have learned that I can weigh 150 pounds and my visceral fat level can be below a 10.
00:21:16
Speaker
which is great, right? And I've also learned that you can be 120 pounds and your visceral fat level can be 15, which is awful. So also when we're thin, right, or slim or slender or whatever the terminology is that people uses, that also doesn't necessarily mean we're healthy. So when you're looking at people, there is a lot of stuff that you just don't know. But in order for you To be the healthiest person that you can be, yeah you first have to make sure that you are not looking at others and comparing because that was episode one. Comparison is the stealer of joy. You got to compare yourself to yourself. That's it. And that's it. And what you do is the first thing, the first step always is to really look at yourself.
00:22:05
Speaker
what's going on with you? What's going on in your environment? What's going on at work? What's going on in your personal life? How are things working or not working? And that's uncomfortable think that you can just I mean, weight loss is so mixed in your your weight issues are so mixed in with everything in your life.
Embracing Self-Kindness and Progress
00:22:26
Speaker
It's so complex. There's so many reasons why people eat. And The first step is really take a hard look without criticism, without criticism. Just look and think about what you want and then find you know a program that
00:22:47
Speaker
fits your needs and just move forward one step at a time and just remember that there are setbacks and remember to love yourself and continue to love yourself and continue to look, continue to find positive ways on a small basis, micro habits, small things that you can do to help lift yourself up in every day. And that's how you get to a great point, but you you can get there by doing little things. Absolutely. I mean, Rome wasn't built in a day, right? We didn't gain the weight in a day. We didn't gain the weight in a week or a month. We gained the weight over time. We have to give ourselves some grace that we can lose the weight. With me, I noticed that taking pictures was helpful.
Tracking Progress with Photos
00:23:34
Speaker
So what I am doing is I'm in a program where pictures are taken once a week.
00:23:39
Speaker
So I don't notice it every two, three weeks. I don't even notice it over a month. But if I take a picture, my first picture, and I compare it to six weeks later, I will see changes. And like you said, they're very small changes. That to the naked eye may not be something that you're seeing every day, but small changes lead to big transformation.
00:23:59
Speaker
It does. And I, you know, I did have a coach. I think coaches are really helpful. And um I was accountable and I had pictures and we, you know, we kept track.
00:24:15
Speaker
So.
00:24:18
Speaker
What do you think are your biggest struggles now in keeping the weight off? What do you do, Leslie?
Learning Balanced Eating and Body Image
00:24:27
Speaker
Do you do you ever suffer from, I know some people say, I still still see myself as heavy. I still, when I look in the mirror, I can't believe I'm wearing a size six.
00:24:37
Speaker
Right, right. So what do you do in order to combat that in order to? um You know really embrace what you've already done when sometimes that's that's really hard to see with with years of the way we've always we perceived ourselves so um Yeah, my my daughter's always telling me I have body dysmorphia. Yeah, it's a real thing and you know, I I And she had also told me I need to eat more protein because, you know, I was still in that mindset, right, that I can't eat, right? But yeah you know, especially when you're active, you actually have to eat more. um And, you know, so I'm learning, I'm still learning, I can eat. um That's my biggest struggle.
00:25:31
Speaker
I can eat, I just, um I keep track and um really it's energy and energy out, right? So um I keep track of, you know, I try to understand how much am I having in protein, how much, you know, she she recently told me, mom, you have to eat more carbs.
00:25:52
Speaker
ah But we're told that carbs and fat are bad, right? Exactly, but it's not. Not at all. You have to have carbs. In fact, you need carbs when you go to the gym. You need to eat some carbs before you go to the gym so that you have energy, so that you can build muscle. I mean, you also need protein. So what I'm learning, I'm still learning. How do I function? How does how do I incorporate food into my life?
00:26:17
Speaker
um on a day-to-day basis um now that I'm active because it's different than when I was on the diet, right? sure And maintenance is different for me now because I'm more active than I was last year. right
Dispelling Food Restriction Myths
00:26:31
Speaker
so um I guess it's a learning process. Yeah, because it can feel really scary. And it's scary because I always thought I i can't have fat. I can't have carbs. and um And my daughter was like, no, don't get the low carb.
00:26:50
Speaker
Wraps get the regular wraps. I know it's Haven't done it so the I noticed as well um my coach um I work well if I'm accountable to somebody so I also you know I'm working with someone and you know she keeps saying to me you should be in 1617 I think originally it was like 1800 calories right right and you and I come from a time where you know you ate 1200 you really starved yourself. It was just what you did and I am having such a struggle with that, but I notice when I get to these these macros, when I get to these numbers that I'm supposed to get close to, that's when I'm losing the weight, not when I'm eating 1,200 calories. Exactly. Because your body, if you're starving yourself, your body's like, I'm going to slow the metabolism down and hold on. That's what my daughter told me. I'm not an expert, but my daughter um has some training.
00:27:45
Speaker
And so um what what was the miracle too is you know I just thought okay when you're heavy and you lose the weight it's just easy to just blow back up again. Well no my metabolism has changed.
00:27:59
Speaker
I, you know, I can eat. I love it. It's amazing.
Message of Hope and Resilience
00:28:04
Speaker
And it's not true that I can't have carbs. I can have carbs. I mean, I do limit it, of course, but you can have a little bit of everything else. Yeah. And I have, I can have everything and I can have ice cream cones too.
00:28:18
Speaker
Oh, I love ice cream cones. So Leslie, before we wrap this up, you know, you are going to have people that are listening to this that just have lost hope. They feel unworthy. They feel they're a mess up because they keep trying and they keep trying and it doesn't work. So why bother? I want you to talk to those people.
00:28:44
Speaker
So you you can't lose hope. If you're breathing, you can do it. If you're breathing. if you're I was sitting at my desk in my home office, absolutely miserable, heavy, depressed, couldn't move, and here I am today dancing. I go out i went out dancing twice last weekend, twice.
00:29:09
Speaker
People ask me, how do you have the energy? I'm 66 and I did not stop dancing. You can do this. If I can do it, you can do it. Listen, I'm i'm a I'm a hardcore. I was a hardcore binger. I was, you know, I did so many things to lose weight over the course of my life on and off, and including, you know, as I mentioned, the cult. um So If I can do it, you can do
Conclusion: Grace and Persistence
00:29:38
Speaker
it. That's all I can say.
00:29:40
Speaker
I want to go dancing with you. Well, you can go dancing with me. Ladies and gentlemen, Leslie Price, I'm so happy that you came in today and I'm so happy that God put us in that gym together so that I could figure out what in the world I was supposed to be talking to you about. And I hope today that our conversation reminds you that it is never too late for you to make changes, small changes that can help you reach your goal. and Above all all all else, you need to treat yourself with the grace that you really deserve. Remember that true progress isn't always visible. The journey may be long, but every single step of it counts. Until next time, keep going, keep believing in yourself, and remember that you have got to give yourself a little extra grace along the way. We love you, and we believe in you. We'll see you next time.