Lasting Weight Loss After 50: Say Goodbye to Diets

If you have been struggling with weight loss, you have a significant amount to lose, and by significant, my guest today has lost over 100 pounds and kept it off. So if you or you know someone, this is an episode to share, and this will be so very insightful. So my guest today is Skye Dale. I'll be back in a minute to tell you more. You're in perimenopause, menopause, or post-menopause, and you're not slowing down, you're just getting started. But the old rules don't apply anymore. The workouts that worked before, they're working against you now. The advice you've been given, incomplete at best. I'm Debra Atkinson, and I'm the founder of Flipping 50, the pioneer in fitness for women in midlife. For more than 40 years, I've been in the trenches with women just like you, and for the last 12 right here on this podcast, and, and the founder of Flipping 50: The Stronger Way app and membership. Welcome to Flipping 50: The Stronger Way, where science meets strength, where you'll find the tools, research, and real talk to build the body and the life you want in your second half. Each week you'll get evidence-based exercise and nutrition strategies, conversations with leading experts, and honest answers to the questions your doctor didn't get. Answers to in medical school and doesn't have time to answer in an appointment. This is your show. Let's get stronger. Some questions that we answer in this upcoming episode are this: What have you learned from losing more than 100 pounds and maintaining that loss for over 15 years? What did you try before you actually were finally successful? And what shifted for you in order to allow that kind of success? I also asked the question that maybe you know is there, and that is, how is your relationship today with food and with the scale? Do you still fear weight regain? That and so many more questions we answer today. But if you have been wondering, is it too late? Is this what I'm stuck with? The answer to that, my friend, is No. So in this episode, I interview Skye Dale. She's a functional medicine certified health coach and midlife women's weight loss coach who helps women 40 and over move away from extremes, rebuild self-trust, and create lasting change through realistic, consistent action. After losing more than 100 pounds naturally and maintaining that loss for over 15 years, she now combines lived experience with practical coaching to keep women and becoming stronger, more confident, and more empowered in this chapter of life. I think you're gonna love this. So pull up a chair or lace up your shoelaces or pull on your peluvos. Are you doing that yet? And here we go. Sky Dale, welcome to the show.

Thank you so much. I am so excited to be here, Debra. Thank you.

Well, I'm gonna dive right in because I feel like your greatest asset in terms of expertise is in your bio, you know. And so if we don't tap into right away that, and what was that like, and asking what did you try before that, I think we will be remiss with everybody listening. So tell me that. And I, I'm going to unpack so many things with you, but tell me, what would you say if I said right now— this is almost like taking us to the end of the show question first— What did you learn? What was the biggest thing you learned in that journey of losing more than 100 pounds and maintaining it? So I'm going to guess, and I could be wrong, that you might have attempted prior to that.

Oh, most definitely. You know, I started dieting at 11 years old, sadly. And I grew up in in a household, you know, during the diet era, and it was very normalized in my home. It was so hard to, you know, leading up into high school and even beyond, I was constantly on the next plan. I was constantly trying to figure out, you know, what is it that I continue to do wrong? And this went on, you know, for several years. Leading into adulthood, it was just— it cycles into this pattern of, you know, the blaming yourself for not being able to sustain these unsustainable pro— you know, plans and programs and extremes, but not really recognizing that, always turning that blame to, to myself, you know, which would kind of deepen that cycle of zero self-worth, zero confidence in myself to, to stay consistent. You know, I always had those stories about myself, as many of us do, you know, being younger. And a lot of times we hold a lot of truths from what we're told, you know, on the playground, from, you know, through high school, whatever it may be. And I just had such a— it— I just was living like a shell of myself. You know, I just wasn't able to step out of, of that cycle and recognize really what, what, what patterns I kept repeating, you know, what behaviors I continued to repeat. And so it really was, I guess, in a nutshell, learning more that it has— weight loss has so much more to do with, with our truths and our beliefs, you know, our identity, than it will ever have to do about information. Like, I believe that many of us women, you know, in general, I mean, there's a lot to learn for sure, but so many women know what to do. We just, we have zero trust in ourselves to, to follow through and to be consistent. And I do, you know, I will always look back and kind of blame that whole diet culture.

So, Sky, tell me, when you had that successful 100-pound weight loss, how old were you at the time?

I started that, you know, I had made the decision that this was happening, like there was no more starting over. And I was 39 at the time. And so I went on that first year, I lost, uh, I lost 80 pounds actually that first year and went on to lose a total of 120 over the next few years.

Amazing. And what had you tried before that?

I had tried everything. I mean, there is not a diet or a plan or a program out there that I hadn't tried. And I had tried some pretty extreme, uh, plans, and I had lost quite large amounts of weight a few times. I had, um, you know, back in the '90s, Fin Fin was kind of the the latest, uh, weight loss method. And so I had lost weight, you know, using that. I had gone on a fasting protein shake program such as Oprah had went on. After she had went on that, I, you know, I jumped right on that, lost 90 pounds in a very short time and regained that weight, you know, in record time and then some. And so ultimately, I, I really dieted my way up to 298 pounds. And so there, there wasn't many things I hadn't tried, but they were all extreme. And I just wasn't seeing the pattern of, you know, I wasn't making it a lifestyle. I wasn't recognizing that. I kind of felt like if I could just get the weight off, I would be able to maintain that. And sadly, that is, that is not how it works. But You know, I would always blame myself for that, which kept me in that cycle for so many years. Yeah.

So what— and I kind of heard it in your, "I decided." You stated that very clearly. What was it that shifted mentally for you to decide, like, "I'm committed to doing this"?

Yeah, I had— it had been such, you know, my weight had taken up so much space in my life for for so long that I just, you know, trying all these, these different methods, um, there came a day that I just decided that no matter how long it was going to take, no matter how hard it was going to be, that I wasn't giving up on myself this time. Like, I made it a decision. I remember the day, I remember the situation. I was with my family and everybody was you know, playing volleyball, which is my sport. But of course, there I am at 300 pounds, you know, wearing a hoodie in the heat and uncomfortable as all heck. And, and I just decided that day, like, I am done being a bystander in my life. I am done, you know, watching and taking the pictures and never being in them and just not participating. And so I made, I made that decision that I was going to take a really hard look at Okay, what are the things I keep repeating every single time? You know, what— at what point am I getting tripped up every single time? Like, what, what boundaries am I not setting around my goals? And, you know, I really had to, to spend time, and I did. I mean, I— boy, it was— it wasn't 3, 4 days later, I went to the doctor, had a checkup, and boy, and I was off on my journey of figuring this out. I got rid of the scale, you know. I, I decided, well, no more You know, certain things I wasn't able to do for a while because I knew that I would lose a lot of my resolve if I went out with the girls and had appetizers and drinks on Friday night, you know, because in the past I would see that I would do really well and a situation like that might happen. And then, you know, hence the stop-starting-over. But it was all or nothing to me. You know, that's, that's kind of what diet culture brings us to, is that there is no middle ground. Like, either you're on it or you're off. And So, I needed to— I knew I needed to change that. I needed to start trusting myself. I think that, that in itself was what I knew to be true. I did not trust myself to keep showing up. I had zero belief in myself. And so, I made a plan and I decided I'm going to make a commitment to myself every day and it's going to be with exercise because that was really probably my biggest resistance. And so, it was 20 minutes on my treadmill. Every day. And I did not miss a day that first year. Like, I worked 2 jobs at the time. It was uncomfortable, like, you know, 20 minutes walking at 300 pounds, like, my joints hurt, my— I didn't like getting sweaty. It was, it was hard on my body. And I made myself keep showing up. And that really was a huge turning point for me to set something realistic and just keep showing up because that changes a lot of things for us women. Like, it, you know, all the internal stories and ways that I would criticize myself, those started getting quieter and quieter every time I just kept showing up. I decided I wasn't going to weigh myself. I'm not going to let the scale dictate how I feel about my progress. You know, there was just a, there's a handful of things, and I support women with these with these steps because we can't jump in and overcommit, try to check 10 boxes a day, you know, and think that we can do a 180 with our life. We can, but we just can't sustain it. And so that was really the biggest turning point was I made it a decision. I made myself accountable in certain ways. Not, you know, we didn't have all the social media then, but I did make myself accountable. I told somebody what I was doing instead of just making these little plans in my head and then by the end of the day, you know, I'm into a bag of Doritos or whatever. So, you know, I decided like, what is my real why? Like, you know, I want my life back. And, you know, there was just some actual steps that I set parameters around and it really changed everything. And it did start with a decision, like you said. Thanks for noticing that because We have to decide that this is what we're doing. Like, we have to stop wanting it and wishing for it and somedaying it. It's like, make a decision. Because when you make it a decision, there's no other outcome. You know, I had to get rid of the timeline. You know, it didn't matter how long it was going to take this time. I knew that. I knew that I was doing this thing. And when you make it when you make it a decision, then that is the only outcome. So I think that we have to stop relying on, you know, I tell women motivation is, it's an emotion. Like, we have to, we have to really make it a decision and a decision not to keep abandoning ourselves every time we struggle or go on vacation, heaven forbid, you know. And so So yeah, it was a big turning point for me.

Tell me about the other side. And I would think, so a 120-pound loss is dramatic. I mean, that's a person, you know, right? That's an entire person right there, an adult person. And I once heard a teacher describe her own weight loss and she said, "I lost a third grader." And then she said, "Oh, wait a minute, that sounded bad." you know, the whole idea. But you've lost a grown-ass adult. So, right, what, what happens? And is it hard to stop once you've, you've been in weight loss mode? Is it hard to stop that and decide, now I'm maintaining? And is there a level of fear that creeps in? This episode is sponsored by the Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist. It is the framework that we designed our entire membership and program based on. Since 2013, I've been developing that after 30 years of working with women in midlife. That was born, and in 2018, we rolled out the Menopause Fitness Specialist to train other fitness and health Pros on how to actually prescribe exercise. Here's where we're going next, in case you want to get started now, that we're actually training physicians on exercise prescription, knowing they get very little of it in medical school, and hoping that it also bridges the gap for you who may be a fitness or health professional, or want to be, who works with women in menopause, because there is so much demand and so much room for you right now. If you are working with women in menopause but not getting all the results, don't have a reliable, predictable framework that gets you results over and over that people know, like, and trust, come and talk to us. We'll put the link in the show notes for today. That's the Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist. And if you want to head on over to fitnessmarketingacademy.com, it's where we have all of the content dedicated to you, Health and Fitness Pros?

Well, honestly, it's funny how, how it starts out being about the weight. And I was fixated on the weight. I was obsessed. I mean, every day of my life was about the weight, about food, about my size. And it was such— it was so freeing because Along the way, I got to this point where it was about learning to love myself, you know, learning to have compassion for where I'm at, learning to, you know, stop thinking that I can hate my body and to change, you know, just really kind of embracing becoming who I knew I was inside the whole time. And so it became less and less about the weight. Um, it's, it's hard to describe, but what when you're, you know, obese, and especially the way that I was, so I hadn't always been that way, so I was very conscious of it. I was very ashamed. I carried around a lot of embarrassment and shame. It's hard to explain how it's in your every thought, everywhere you go. You want to, on some hand, on some, in some ways you feel invisible, and in some ways you want to be invisible. Like, you, you just, you want to hide out. And so When I started feeling better about myself and the weight started coming off, it— that, that just went away. It just isn't there like it used to be. I still have weight loss goals. I still have strengthening goals. I'm a little late to that, to the strength training. I've been at it for 2 years now. This journey is, is something that just— it snowballs. Like, I've always got a new goal. I'm always working on, on my next, you know, learning And it's really exciting, but I never really got to that point. And when I say working on continuing to work on weight loss, you know, maintaining weight loss is hard. Maintaining weight loss, I almost want to say it's harder than the initial weight loss because you're seeing those changes, you're excited, you're, you know, every— you're, you're getting all this feedback from people. Um, maintaining is mundane. Uh, it's And, and so is the process, you know, to an extent. But that gets really hard. And so even though I don't do any extremes, I still— I always say to the ladies that I support, I'm always like, I don't change my, my goals, you know, my, my ultimate goals of feeling better in my skin and more energy and feeling confident and, and how I look and feel. But I, I change different things. I try things all the time. Like, you know, I am I never did yoga in my life, and that's something that I'm dabbling with in the privacy of my own home, mind you. But, it's just such an ongoing journey, and it gives me, like, excitement to have that next thing. So, I don't know if that answered exactly how you asked that, but I don't really, you know, I work to maintain. With the strength training, I think it's more about recomposition. You know, working on building muscle mass, working on getting my body stronger and more capable, working on functional movement. I was so full focused with the weight loss for so long that, that I, I didn't, you know, I didn't start a lot of the other— I was, I was walking, you know, and I had gone through different periods of time that I was more consistent with exercise, but it really has always been my biggest resistance. And so I feel like with the strength training, that, that's kind of when I say I still have weight loss goals, it's like, I just want to feel stronger in my body. But, but a lot of that just went away. It's really interesting how it starts out about the weight. And I, I always meet ladies at that because I get it. It is about the weight. We can't see past that when we, we feel like a lot of our self-worth and confidence is tied up into our physical being. Um, And it just doesn't take long for them to recognize that it's about so much more and it changes so much more in your life.

So along that journey, where did it change for you? Can you put your finger on it, or was it simply a slow evolution and then at some point you notice, wow, that happened?

Yeah, I do remember how when the shift started internally. And that was probably because a lot of the plans I had been on in the past, they were, they were pretty short-term extreme plans. So maybe, you know, I think the longest one was when I didn't, uh, eat for 90 days and I did the protein shakes. So when I was in like probably, you know, 3 or 4 months in of doing this consistent walking, I was noticing that the walking was getting easier. I mean, that for sure. And I knew that I needed to keep pushing myself. So I needed to either, you know, do a little bit of an incline on the days that I felt good, go a little bit a little bit longer of a duration, but I knew not to change that kind of non-negotiable goal because I needed to set myself up to be successful on every day no matter how tired I was. But, in just a handful of weeks, I literally remember just noticing that I wasn't beating the crap out of myself every day. I wasn't talking so crappy to myself. It was— I didn't realize how much I was in my head talking you know, criticizing myself. And until it got quieter, and I started feeling like, you know, damn girl, you keep showing up. And I just started feeling proud of myself. And I recognized very early on that I hadn't felt proud of myself in so long. And it's so interesting because so many of us women and myself included, like, I was running a household, like I, you know, was great at the, the, my career, like I was successful in so many areas. This was just that one thing I could not get control of. And so that voice started changing and I just started like really patting myself on the back. And once that starts, you know, your confidence in yourself to keep showing up, so much changes with that. And it's so, it's so important, which is why I struggle a lot with a lot of the extremes out there because It is such— there's so many internal shifts along the way of building back the trust in yourself to show up, because we have lost that. And we have lost that through years of, of dieting, you know. And so to this day, you know, I don't speak out and criticize about any, any methods because I don't sit in judgment. I've done all of them, and I get it. I get why women want to, to have those faster results. Like, we all want to feel good in our skin. We all We all want to have more energy. We all want to be able to do the things with our families and feel good about how we look, you know, but it's, it's hard because I think that's probably the biggest lie that we tell ourselves is that if I could just get the weight off this one last time, I won't gain it back. And I've done that too many times. And so it's, I think it's the journey. I hate to be corny about it, but it's, it's the journey of it that changes you. And that's where lasting change comes in, because it's over time. I'm figuring out, you know, what is working, what didn't work. I'm really building a relationship with myself and talking to myself about it, like, okay, you know, here's, here's a couple things that went well today. Let's start there. And let's not just criticize because you didn't, you know, do all the things that you thought you were going to do. And just learning to be your own cheerleader, because we are not usually in our own corner when we feel that way about ourselves. So that in itself is is something that we learn along the way also that's really key.

So at this point today, and I'm gonna have to ask, and I always think of my mother at this point. At some point, I'm sure she told me it's not polite to ask a woman's age, but I'm gonna ask because it's so relevant. How old are you now?

I'm 54.

Okay. And so at this point in all of our lives, we're becoming so much more aware muscle is important. And, you know, in our next 15 years, making sure we don't lose that muscle is important. But where are you today with peace with a scale of any kind? Are you able to look at body composition scales, or do you still— I'm not using that, it doesn't work for you?

I actually have a better relationship with the scale. I don't— I, I personally, and this is just what works for me, I know some people are a little more neutral with a scale. I am not. And so I did invest in a scale that kind of will show that difference between, um, you know, skeletal muscle and body fat and all the things. And I think that's a great tool. And I know it's not, you know, the top quality type scale, but I thought, well, this is a good place for me to have this reading to see the, the changes. And I, and I got that because of, of really investing in this strength training. And it's just really blown my mind, and which is why I've followed you as well. It's like we've been sold this narrative that as we age, you know, us women, we are going to get sedentary, we are going to get frail, we are going to get weak. And that's really what I— that's just how I saw it. That's how my grandma was, that's how my mom my mom was, you know, she lost inches of height. I mean, she got frail, she got weak. And then I start seeing these powerful women and what they're doing. And at first I remember thinking, you know, boy, they were born with some really good genes and, you know, they have to have a full-time trainer and just thinking that they were kind of, I don't know, very unique and rare. But the more I have been learning and just really, you know, embracing that world, it is possible for all of us. And when I start seeing so many women getting stronger as they age, it has just blown my mind. And so, um, as far as the scale, I use that a little bit as a tool, but only for, for that reason, because, you know, I don't have everything in the bag. Like I, I tell the ladies that I support, I'm right here along with you. I'm always on my own journey. I'm always working on a new goal, which I encourage everyone to do, you know. But, but, you know, I fluctuate. I go through periods of time where I'm in, you know, a stressful situation or somebody in the family's sick or, or, you know, whatever. And then I really have to get serious about it because I am never going to be willing to go back to the way that I had lived. You know, I've got 3 daughters and growing up I felt like I did not model well for them. And it's something that I really struggle with still. And, you know, because I could tell them all day long, like, you guys need to be confident, you need to, you know, love yourself and all the things and take care of yourself. But they were seeing me with zero self-worth, zero confidence, you know, and so That was a big part of my why. It's like, I've got to be able to show up as a better version and a better example for my daughters. And so sadly, they grew up in diet culture because of me. You know, I wasn't talking to them about dieting at all, but just like my childhood, that's what I lived, seeing my mom do this and struggling with her weight. And so the only, you know, the only way I can kind of ease the guilt, I suppose, is just knowing that they got to see me turn it around. They were still living at home, all 3 of them. You know, I got to ride a bike with my daughter for the first time, you know, when she was like 9. I had never been able to do those things, or at least I wasn't willing to put myself out there to do a lot of physical things. And, you know, they got to see that like consistent hard work, putting your nose down and just doing it, I feel like that has really— I see that in all of them, you know. And I like to think that, that they got to see me go through this and the struggle of it and, and learn to, to love themselves and prioritize their own health. You know, my oldest daughter's got two, two kids now, and I always tell her, don't lose yourself in everybody else. Like, it's not, it's not that it's me first, it's like me too. Like, we have to be able to put ourselves up on the list with everybody else. Because, you know, us women as caregivers, people pleasers, a lot of us have those traits. And all of a sudden, you know, I'm 40 years old and hadn't, hadn't had myself on the list at all. And so it's really important work.

Yeah, so good. I, I want to ask, because I'm thinking, I'm trying to imagine my listener thinking right now and So I'd love to know, some of them are going to want to know the nitty-gritty. Are you— what is it like day to day? Are you a 'I need to do meal prep' or are you able to punt and you're, you're able to go at it a little bit more loosely now? Or what is it like to stay in maintenance?

Well, I'm going to summarize this part of my journey. So, you know, after losing the weight, I went through a health scare. I had a precancerous condition, had to have hysterectomy. That brought me to enrolling in functional medicine, uh, like a health certification course, because myself and my sisters, we all have a lot of autoimmunity. And so I decided I wanted to really learn more about nutrition, learn more about, you know, my internal health. And so from that experience, um, I started changing the way I was eating. Well, full circle, uh, I'm kind of marching in place and I'm like, why am I, you know, I'm still kind of got these goals, maybe I fluctuate a little bit. And so it was kind of a big realization to me that healthy food counts too. And just how calorie dense a lot of our whole foods can be as far as nuts and seeds and avocados and, you know, the healthier fats. And so currently, because like I stated before, I'm always trying different I'm not trying different methods, but I'm always open to learning, right? And so I had always kind of kiboshed, uh, food tracking and that type of thing. I didn't— I always thought it would be obsessive and, and whatnot. And so quite honestly, this last year, um, because like I said, changing the way that I ate was a little different. I, I didn't want to do the diet sodas. I didn't want to do a lot of the foods I had done in the past. And it was a, it was a learning curve. Um, and that brought me to really needing to track for awareness. And so I've enjoyed it so much that I continue to do it because it's kind of like a little spending account. It kind of gives me that, that flip, you know, um, that ability to balance and, um, and still eat well. So, so I've tried a lot of different things. When I first started losing weight, I was cutting out carbs. I was doing not extreme dieting for sure, because I, I knew that that's what was keeping me stuck. But, but it wasn't all about like eating more whole foods as I do today. And so I guess long story short, currently I really have been enjoying just like tracking for awareness, staying a little bit in, in that deficit, sometimes maintenance. And this also falls in line with the gal that I work with, with the strength training. As far as macros, I'm really focusing on my protein and my fiber each each day. So it's all been a lot of fun. You know, some people kind of roll their eyes about that. And the ladies that I support, many women aren't interested in tracking. And so there's other ways to, to go about it because at the end of the day, it's about so much more than the food. I mean, our weight is such a— it's, it's kind of a reflection of I hate to say this, but how we feel about ourselves on the inside. And I'm not saying always, um, there's, you know, a lot of women go through— maybe there's different health conditions, maybe it's past traumas. But a lot of times when we are struggling on the inside, we're using food for a lot more than nutrition. Everything but nutrition. It's comfort, it's distraction, it's, it's for loneliness, it's for all the things. And so when we start working together, just making those internal shifts. You know, I wouldn't have wanted to hear that when I was 300 pounds, that it's going to happen naturally. I wouldn't have, I wouldn't have believed that. Um, but boy, when you start showing up for yourself and it just— it's interesting how, how it changes. And it's, and it's so much less about the food. You know, I'm trying to kind of fine-tune things now. I want to, I want to give my body a chance to build muscle after a strength session and each day. And at 54, I know the importance of, of nutrition and fiber and all of the things. So yeah, kind of a long answer.

And you are, you are right now hosting a summit to share what is it that you hope— and of course it's by the same name, Stop Starting Over, which is such a great name— but what is it that you hope everyone attending will walk away with?

Basically, I really want to— I want women to understand that if you've been kind of stuck in that place that you have not been able to take consistent action, first of all, that it's not your fault, that we have been holding on to these unrealistic expectations and in turn blaming ourselves when we aren't able to stay consistent, like I said. But with each speaker, I'm also asking, um, you know, they're sharing a lot of free resources and trainings and things, but I'm also asking, what is one thing that you can say today that our listeners can start implementing in their life? Because all of the speakers that, that I've invited to the, to the summit are all about doing that, that consistent work to, to make these changes over time. And to, to, you know, I lean a lot into the, the mindset part of it, um, you know, the learning about not just changing habits but behavior change, building confidence, you know, all of the, the inner work. And so there's a lot of that that's going to be at the summit, and I'm excited about that because I know how important that is because most women don't need more information. Like, like I said, of course we, we always have things to learn from experts and things, but there's so much information out there. We just have to stop giving up on ourselves. So that's what I want the ladies who attend the summit is to just realize that, that the women who are successful with their weight loss and their health goals are the ones who didn't give up. They, you know, We just have to, we have to get rid of that timeline and these fast expectations and the, the idea that it's got to be, you know, miserable when you're on a plan. You've got to be cutting out a lot of things and you've got to be white-knuckling your life. That's what we're used to. So it's hard for women to back up like myself and to say, okay, I'm gonna do it this one last time. I'm gonna do it right. I'm not going to put a time or a size or a number on the scale on this. I'm going to love myself enough to take the time to do it right this time. And so I want them to leave with something to, to really start implementing. And they're not going to be, you know, huge things. And I don't want anyone to leave thinking, well, you know, these three said I should do this and I need to do that. Like, we're bringing a lot of, a lot of doable options and be willing to try, be willing to open your mind. It's hard sometimes when we're in our 40s and 50s, 60s to try new things. But, but that's That's the, the joy out of life is like open your mind and be willing to try, because if you have been stuck, whatever you have been doing all this time hasn't worked. So be willing to try some of these, these tips and, and strategies and tools.

Yeah, amen. And I think there's a lot to be said for getting to this point in your 40s, but I think there's some magic beyond 50 and 60 50, you begin to care a lot more about your now and your future, but you begin also to care a whole lot less about what somebody else thinks, and it does become more about you.

Amen.

You know, and so there's that moment where finally we've got the wisdom that we've earned, and maybe we needed to, you know, to get to this moment where we're a little more peaceful with ourselves. We already know, you know, some of the answers. But I do want to ask you this. So do you think, given hormonal changes change a lot of things about metabolism and the way that your body will process food and actually lose weight, do you think women over 50 actually do know what to do?

I, I do not. I mean, in general, we know the big hunks. We know we need to move our bodies. We know we need to stop eating a pint of ice cream every night. We know, you know, we know the basics. And so for some women, that's going to make a big difference at first, changing up those things. But we have been getting so much of our information in our lifetime from the diet industry, from the food industry. So no, I, I do think there is a lot to learn. I have certainly learned a lot about just how much— how much not only does it affect, of course, our health, but our ability to, you know, to not be stuck in those cycles of cravings. You know, when you're really prioritizing protein and fiber, um, you are maybe not grazing all day. Um, it changes a lot, you know, when you learn the importance of sleep. For this season of life. I mean, that changes a lot. It changes your ability to show up and, you know, have the energy to do the things you said or to have the willpower to make the better choices with food. There's so many things that change. And I do think that there's a huge learning curve because I, you know, I'm sure you're going to relate to this, but, you know, I was in the low-fat craze with Susan Powter. I was then in the, you know, you can have all the sugar you want, but just cut the fat. And then, you you know, all these extremes over the years. And so I think that many women my age kind of have a hard time with some of the newer thinking. They— a lot of women that I work with still are really like, well, you know, I'm going to cut out all the fat and those types of things. And it's like, you know, we have to learn which fats to prioritize and how much and how much. And then it makes so much difference in your ability to, to stay satiated. I mean, it's It's been a really big learning curve because, like I said, that's been like the last 4 or 5 years for me that I've really kind of switched my focus on, you know, building health, not just losing weight.

Yeah, such a great mindset shift. Love it. Okay, so everybody, to connect with Skye, which such a beautiful name, I love it. Thank you. First of all, I want to let you know I also am going to be a part of the summit that's upcoming. So if you happen to be listening prior to it, you can go to flipping50.com/stopstartingover, and we have put zero space between those words. Flipping50.com/stopstartingover, and you'll get a free ticket so you can get there. And Sky, where are you on social media?

Yes, so on Instagram you can find me at @skye@stopstartingover, and Sky is S-K-Y-E.

Okay, and everybody will have both those links in the show notes, so head over and find her. This has been really insightful. So if you are or you know someone struggling with a significant amount of weight loss it's different. It's different than the last 3 to 5. It's different than the last 5 to 10. And so be sure that you're sharing that because it is, it is not just a project. It's definitely a journey. And you want to follow somebody who's got the experience and they have definitely been in the boat or on the path with you. Sky, thank you so much for sharing.

And Thank you so much.

Congratulations. Yes.

Thank you, Debra Atkinson.

The information shared on Flipping 50 the Stronger Way is for educational and informational purposes only and not intended as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or qualified healthcare provider before beginning any exercise program, making changes to your diet, diet or adjusting any medications or supplements. Individual results may vary. Debra Atkinson and Flipping 50 are not responsible for any injury or adverse outcomes resulting from information presented on this podcast.