Kim Vopni (00:00.955)
Hi Jen, so excited to chat with you today all about the different way of doing weight loss. I know this is, you've been talking about this for a while, you have a personal story and I am, I'm excited to share this with my community. So first of all, just before you introduce yourself, Jen and I met a couple months ago for the first time. So I think we've kind of known each other maybe online or followed each other, but we met in real life. Hi, Art Ralph.
Jen Powter (00:23.17)
Yeah, small world. was, well, yeah, I know. It's always so great to meet your heroes, you know, when you come across somebody. I'm like, my God, I think I follow you or.
Kim Vopni (00:31.387)
I know it's weird when you see people and I find too when you know somebody online and then you see them in person you're like hey wait you have no idea who I am because you don't see me. Anyway we have the opportunity to meet a couple months ago and it was so great to get to know you and get to know your business and you are you are helping so many women with your
Jen Powter (00:39.576)
Totally.
Kim Vopni (00:52.783)
your approaches to weight loss that are not conventional and a lot of it started with your own journey. So can we start there? Tell us a little bit about who you are and what got you into this world.
Jen Powter (01:01.886)
Yeah, for sure. And I think so many people can relate to this, right? For me, I have to go back pretty much 15 years ago, I would have had a two-year-old and a one-year-old. And listen, like previous to kids, I'd been a marathon or a triathlete. And like so many women probably thought I had the five pounds or so that I could always try to lose, but I was not overweight, okay?
And I had also two degrees. had a degree in like a master's degree in exercise physiology. My master's thesis focused on obesity reduction. Okay. And I share that for a reason. And after kids, you know, I found myself carrying a good 40, 35. I stopped counting, frankly. Once I was down to one pair of pants that fit me, I stopped looking at the scale, but I knew I felt awful in my body, heavy. And back then a lot of the...
rhetoric around weight loss was move more, eat less. Well, my kids were little. I still had postpartum stuff going on. And so I thought, I guess I just need to do more activity to lose this weight. And I was still breastfeeding. And anyways, I signed up for a triathlon. this was all my knowledge, right? And I started, you know, I was, live in Calgary. It's minus kajabillion and it was December. And I'll never forget because I was.
Kim Vopni (01:55.673)
Mm-hmm.
Jen Powter (02:19.022)
you know, I carried 40 pounds extra on my 5 foot 6 frame, which was a lot. And I had a pad stuck into my tights because I leaked and it was minus 20 and the wind was whipping at my face and I was at the back of the pack like, like miles away and this young handsome triathlon coach comes running up to me and he's like, Hey Jen, how you doing? And I plastered this fake smile on him like, good, you don't have to worry about me. Like you go, I'll meet you back at the store. And he did, he left.
Kim Vopni (02:47.387)
you
Jen Powter (02:48.642)
and I wanted to punch him. But instead I like crumpled on the side of this pathway and I started bawling. And I was like, how am I here? And I said, there's gotta be a better way. And then I heard an answer inside my head, which was it is, and you're on the wrong path. And in that moment, thankfully being, I guess going through an academic pathway, I had a lot of research skills. And so I threw myself back into the research on...
being overweight, what creates weight loss, and it took me down a far different path than just eat less, move more. It's a failing strategy and it really took me into the behavioral side of change and frankly, all of my self-sabotaging habits that I kinda didn't know I was engaging in. I was focusing on the things I was doing right and completely ignoring all of the things that were getting in the way. And so I've dedicated my life to...
Kim Vopni (03:22.693)
Mm-hmm.
Jen Powter (03:41.196)
this work, because I'm like, if God help the average person out there who doesn't have this knowledge, who's trying to lose weight and diet culture, it's a hard go.
Kim Vopni (03:51.068)
Mm Okay, so what did you do? You crumpled you went to research, you found out the different way and and what was it and how do you like you've talked about sabotage. So talk a little bit about that.
Jen Powter (03:54.382)
Yeah.
Jen Powter (04:02.254)
Yeah, you know, I think that we live in a culture where dieting came into existence, you know, it's been around for so many years and we've watched our mom's diet. We watched our moms be afraid of carbs. I grew up in the fat free era where if it was fat free, then eat as much licorice as you want because it's fat free. So like you could like make a dose on sugar, but God be afraid of fat. know, carbs were the enemy. And you know, as an athlete, you learn how to understand it better, but you don't understand, oh, I won't eat a sandwich, but I'm going to crush.
Kim Vopni (04:16.633)
Yep. Likewise.
Jen Powter (04:31.096)
half a bottle of wine and somehow that's okay or I'm not gonna eat the pasta but ooh this bag of real fruit juice gummies like and so what it took me to is really understanding because at the time Kim I would never have identified as an emotional eater at all except I a hundred percent was food had a connection for me it was fun it was entertainment it was a distraction it was comfort
In many ways, was a connection. was love when I was, know, frankly, at the time for me, I was in a marriage that just was really lonely. And so I would look forward to that glass of wine at night. I would make it through the day with the kids. And I believed that I just wanted something sweet, that I had a sweet tooth. None of that was actually true, but it justified me allowing me to eat and drink those things and then be like, but I had so much, I had so little during the day.
And I was exercising, you know, and it just, so as I learned and I really started to understand the impact of, first of all, let's be honest about exercise. It will never be the vehicle for weight loss. Like I can out eat my workout in about five, well, five bites, frankly, if it's.
Kim Vopni (05:41.467)
Yeah, oh, I know when you when you look at like I think of the calorie burn of what that night and you think of how much work you just did and you what you're like 250 calories that's it. Yeah.
Jen Powter (05:48.91)
And so, that game of calorie exchange, think for so many women, and let's be like, I'm 50, I just turned 50. For women who are managing families, careers, maybe caring for sick parents, you've got so many demands on you. One of the first things that goes is our time for ourselves, which often means the exercise piece of it. And I think there's a lot of myths around, if I can't exercise, I can't lose weight. You 100 % can.
And I think for women, many of my clients come to me well into the 200s. They haven't been in wonderland for years, if not decades. And frankly, moving a body that carries that much excess weight, it's hard. It's hard to go exercise. It's hard on joints. If you have pelvic floor dysfunction, it's even harder on that. There are so many barriers. So instead, I think we need to learn how to lose weight in a smart way, not a hard way.
and really get to the root issues of what's going on and why we're eating what we're eating and the purpose of it. And then we start to get traction.
Kim Vopni (06:51.682)
Yeah, yeah, I being now so I'm post menopause I remember you had your birthday when we were in Florida. I'm 53 and be 54 and in June, which is not that far away. And I did definitely notice a shift with the in the perimenopause putting weight, you know, putting fat on cellulite showing up different places, even though you weren't changing. wasn't changing anything. And
Jen Powter (06:58.36)
Yeah.
Jen Powter (07:17.474)
Wow.
Kim Vopni (07:18.367)
I wouldn't say that I've ever identified as being an emotional eater either. However, as you're talking, I'm kind of like, okay, I think I might have some self-sabotage stories in there as well. again, like I, if you look at me, I'm a thin person, but I am one of those people that still is like, well, I think I might be like to lose a little bit more, but it's just harder for me to, I really want to build muscle and I find it harder to build muscle and just navigating this whole hormonal piece in there as well is.
Jen Powter (07:34.178)
Yeah, it's seeing you in real life.
Kim Vopni (07:46.4)
is another layer. So the smart way without exercise, exercise is going to play a role and exercise is essential, but it's not our weight loss goal. It's not our weight loss tool, so to speak.
Jen Powter (07:54.883)
and our health.
Jen Powter (07:58.528)
Exactly. I don't want to make sure I'm clear on that. Like I'm an exercise physiologist. We need exercise. If we want to go to the toilet and walk there when we're 80, we got to be looking after our skeletal muscles. But when we're overweight, we have different priorities that we need to take care of first before we can even get comfortable with exercise, at least for so many women. know, yeah. So, so like what you're talking about and for me is the biggest thing too, whether it's strength training or fat loss or habit building.
Kim Vopni (08:00.527)
Yeah. Yeah. Yes.
Yeah.
Jen Powter (08:27.03)
When we sabotage, so you have to remember, you get really good at what you practice, really good. You become an expert at it. And I was an expert in many self-sabotaging patterns. And self-sabotage, it's a, you know, the definition is to engage in activities that make your life don't work on purpose. Now, sometimes there's subconscious self-sabotaging things, but for so many women, especially in that Gen X era,
We self-abandon, we lie to ourselves. So we have this relationship where we don't really trust ourselves. Like we say, I'm not gonna drink tonight. We drink tonight. I'm gonna not hit snooze. I hit snooze. I'm gonna eat really well today. Ooh, who cares? It's Thursday. know?
Kim Vopni (09:08.665)
Yeah, yeah, no, I have no idea what you're talking about.
Jen Powter (09:11.916)
Yeah, like tell me, right? Like I hope other people are not because I'm not alone here. And then you get into for a lot of women and this was me, I got so much of my worth by not just in who I am, but it was in what I did. It was like in how much I worked and took care of others that gave me I wanted to be a good wife, a good mom, a good daughter, a good friend. And I was so depleted that in many ways, subcon... again, not knowing I was turning to wine, sugar, whatever to
replenish me, bolster me, but it was totally not in alignment with where I wanted to go, which is to have a healthy fit, strong body that I felt good in both when I got dressed and naked. And I can really see now, the clients that I work with, they're in that same stage where we want something, but we can be on a wagon, off a wagon. That's not how fat metabolism works, unfortunately.
Kim Vopni (09:53.925)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (10:00.528)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (10:07.779)
Yeah, yeah. So where what was your starting point? So back to you and then also is that the same starting point that you now would would is that where you would start with your clients as well?
Jen Powter (10:17.986)
Yeah, totally, totally. And I think what's interesting too is again, I'd gone through two degrees. I had nutrition courses. I had all sorts of information, but it's the application of that to the real world. Like if I go to Earl's and I get the fettuccine Alfredo and I eat it all, like I'm eating way too much for my size. If I, like we just have a misunderstanding of portions and of how much we need as women and frankly, we're tiny.
And you know, I saw a post on Instagram the other day talking about how women need thousands and thousands and thousands of calories a day. And I was like, this is flat out wrong. Like we're little, we need energy, but I care a lot more about the quality of our nutrients and what we're eating than the calories of what we're consuming. And you know, at the end of the day, food is food. We've got protein, we've got carbs, we've got fats. Every single one of us has a physiological need.
Kim Vopni (10:55.397)
Mm-hmm.
Jen Powter (11:14.296)
For every single one of those macronutrients, is why I wholeheartedly do not believe in complete food group omission, the whole keto thing, or being in ketogenesis for an extended period of time, it's not good for us. And you find menopausal or perimenopausal women who have brain fog and trouble sleeping, and now they're trying to not eat carbs. Well,
What's your energy source? Like, what are you trying to live off of, you know? So it gets confusing out there in the world when there's so many things being bombarded at you. And we get indoctrinated by this fact that, it's our hormones. Your metabolism has slowed down too bad, so sad. This is just how it is at 50. And no, it's not. It's just not.
Kim Vopni (11:54.556)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for saying that. I've had that. I've had people say that exactly that same thing. And again, and I don't mean this to sound arrogant. I have a fairly fit body. a I'm I would nobody would look at me and say that I'm overweight, but I noticed the distribution, my body composition changing. And that is when you are struggling to put on muscle and still seeing fat where you don't feel like it should be. It could be a bit frustrating. But
But then, like, again, as you're saying, I'm kind of like, I do some of that self-sabotage. I have tried all, I always try diets, like, and it just like, maybe this will be better for me at this phase of life, who knows? And I try it and I haven't found, I like eating carbohydrate. I would argue that back in the day when I wasn't going through university, I decided to become a vegetarian for no real reason other than.
Jen Powter (12:40.066)
Yeah, me too.
Kim Vopni (12:51.555)
I just thought it would help me control my weight better. Again, I did not have a weight problem. And all I did was replace meat with carbohydrate. And so I became very, I ate a lot of carbohydrate, but I still really liked that. am very much more, I'm aware now more of the composition. So you're kind of saying starting with understanding macronutrients, understanding what it is that we actually need from a fuel perspective, both the, what macros general kind of
I guess you're not a calorie counter, but then also the nutrient diversity is a big part for you. Yeah.
Jen Powter (13:26.04)
Totally. Yeah, there's three main things that really matter when it comes to fat metabolism. And I think we need to understand this from the two disciplines that are really involved in this. One is the science of metabolism, food, the thermogenesis of food, of the role food plays in the body, but specifically lipolysis, how a fat cell breaks down. So that's math, that's chemical, biochemical. And then we have this other discipline, which is all around the psychology of behavior change.
And until we marry those disciplines, you can go see a counselor and get emotionally well, but still stay overweight. And then you can go see a trainer and a dietician and maybe lose the weight, but be an emotional mess. Like you have to figure out what your synergy is going to be because until we have that, you're always, you don't know for yourself. And so it's like throwing spaghetti at the wall and yeah. So there's the first thing is like understanding food.
The second is in the fat metabolism aspect, guess fat cells can only do one of three things get bigger, get smaller or stay the same size. Like that is it. So if we want to lose weight, we need them to shrink. so what women, what we don't get is anytime we overeat, anytime we consume alcohol, we've stopped the fat metabolism process. And so
It's like, I don't want to be restricted. So we eat like, think Weight Watchers really, and also In A Minute Fasting have contributed to this where women really try to limit what they consume during the day. They try to live off salad and their chicken at lunch or, you know, coffee and I'm going to go all day and fasting and fasting. then six o'clock rolls around, they're exhausted, they're stressed, they're tired, they're hungry. And then all of sudden in the nighttime, eating comes out in this eating window. And anytime we over wheat, we're now pushing.
that sell and getting it bigger than allowing it to mobilize. And so it's not just the food. It's if we think of, know how like we can understand that food can make us sick? Food can make us feel really great, but it's not just any food that's bad. It's how often you do it and how much you have at a time. And so like that's why I love being able to give my clients freedom with food. It becomes a choice, not a punishment. And it's a
Kim Vopni (15:16.539)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (15:31.173)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jen Powter (15:39.854)
chemical process that we have to allow to happen in our body and that's where consistency matters and for me I would be so good Monday to Thursday and then because there's less structure on the weekend and it's more social and more fun I would kind of not give up but I just wouldn't be as careful or as consistent. Well those three days of inconsistency can block all of the good work or effort I'd put in previously.
Kim Vopni (15:49.467)
Hahaha
Kim Vopni (16:05.871)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. So you, your weight loss journey was, said it started 15, so how long ago was it?
Jen Powter (16:12.59)
Eight months. So yeah, back in 2011. So I had that, it was 2010 when I had my breakdown moment. I had signed up for Ironman Canada in the fall of 2010. Quit that day that I crumpled to the path crying. I quit training. And that's when I threw myself back into the research. And one of the things that I did do, which I'm so grateful for, is I went and worked in a metabolic lab and I actually measured metabolisms.
There was a basal metabolic cart and I measured hundreds and hundreds and hundreds. I mean, can't even tell you how many people I hooked a mast up to. And the thing that really got me and this is really important. So you'll hear this in, I hear this all the time. I have a bad metabolism. I have a slow metabolism. I never saw a bad or slow metabolism in all of the hundreds of people that I measured. I saw completely, completely appropriate metabolisms for the age, size, height and gender and body comp.
Kim Vopni (16:57.221)
Mm-hmm.
Jen Powter (17:10.838)
of the individual. that's like truly that was that is what gives me such a rock solid confidence in basically the smart method for weight loss because listen, if you're five, listen, like if you're five, two and a woman, you're tiny, you're tiny. You don't need to eat as much as a six foot six male, but many of us are married to men who are lions, like big people.
Kim Vopni (17:12.123)
Interesting, interesting.
Kim Vopni (17:22.138)
Yeah.
Jen Powter (17:35.555)
We're kitty cats, we don't need to eat as much as lions, and if we do, we get bigger. We don't have bad metabolisms.
Kim Vopni (17:40.161)
Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, I hear that a lot too. I hear that a lot too. Okay, so you had your breakdown moment and a big thing for you that...
The people I know who talk about weight loss have talked about it's one thing to lose weight and then it's another thing to keep it off. And we've all seen probably the biggest loser where you see all these, holy crap, they can't believe the transformation that's happened. But then if you were to look at that person in another year or two, know, very, very few of if any have have managed to keep that off. does anything change with with that strategy? So there's a strategy for getting it off in the first place.
Jen Powter (18:02.488)
Hopefully.
Jen Powter (18:06.16)
Thank
Jen Powter (18:11.384)
We're right back at it.
Jen Powter (18:23.276)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (18:23.363)
what stays consistent or what changes from a keeping it off perspective.
Jen Powter (18:27.468)
Yeah, so this goes back to a business struggle I had where my brand or my title was a weight loss and mindset expert. Because until you do the deeper mindset work, if I had continued to have the mindset of a woman who was overweight and struggled with weight loss, I never would have lost the weight and kept it off ever. Just like, so we have to really take a look at who we're becoming and where we're going, not just where we've been. And so much of this for me was around, okay,
Kim Vopni (18:30.479)
Sorry, I don't understand.
Jen Powter (18:55.64)
Couple things we have to understand, I need to lose the weight in the way I want to live. So if I cut out complete food groups, get rid of sugar, never have alcohol, well I might be able to do that for two or three months, but eventually there's gonna be that birthday or anniversary and I'm gonna want to possibly partake. And if I do, I've either blown my diet and now I'm just gonna might as well free for all it.
Kim Vopni (19:18.137)
Yeah.
Jen Powter (19:19.63)
Or I'm going to learn how to embrace these aspects in my life in a very conscious, very deliberate way so that I can lose weight in the way that I want to live, not just right now, but five years from now, 10 years from now. So I still have red wine. I'll still have a dessert. I'll still, I still enjoy, I can eat whatever I want. I just now understand, like I understand the impact of my choices. I know that if I have pizza tonight, I'm not going to have, you know,
17 other things that aren't in alignment with my long-term goals and I don't feel restricted that way. So I think that's the piece that so many people don't get is they try to find these diets, the miracle solution, and it's so extreme that it is, it's just not sustainable. And then it creates that cycle where you have that vicious up and down and every time you lose the weight, you regain more.
Kim Vopni (19:51.439)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
Jen Powter (20:14.146)
and then you lose it again and then you regain more. And then that kind of coincides with maybe a 20 year cycle of up and down. And then now you're perimenopausal, menopausal, and now you got the hormone thing and the stress thing. And so it creates a real, you I really have so much empathy for women from my own experience. And of course the clients and their stories that they share, but learning how to lose weight in a way that you want to live and feel free, that's the lottery.
Kim Vopni (20:39.483)
What about things, so you've mentioned intermittent fasting and this is something that I think I think I can get behind some of the benefits of it. I do see though and I witness this with I don't think my husband will listen to this episode but I'm gonna talk I'm gonna throw him under the bus a little bit but he he was
Jen Powter (21:01.04)
You
Kim Vopni (21:07.599)
listened to podcasts with me about keto, he's like, this makes so much sense, I'm gonna do keto, and he ended up getting down to one meal a day, the OMAD lifestyle, which I've heard people in my community do that as well too. And my first thoughts are always like, how do you poop if you only have one meal a day? How do you get enough protein? How do you get enough nutrient diversity? I just feel like, think therapeutically, there can be a time and a place, but as you say, it's not.
Jen Powter (21:14.283)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Jen Powter (21:24.483)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (21:34.331)
how we are going to live. It's not sustainable for our life and how we should or want to be living. Where do you see that playing a role, if a role at all?
Jen Powter (21:42.349)
Yeah.
That's huge. Yeah, and I think we have to understand that so much of the intermittent fasting research began on young men, first of all. I also believe that, well, I know, that we had to create a term where we could help people not stuff food in their face for a period of time. Like back 40 years ago, stores were closed on Sunday. I remember this. You didn't have Uber Eats or...
Kim Vopni (22:06.063)
Yep, me too.
Jen Powter (22:09.226)
or skip the dishes, you couldn't go to 7-Eleven or a Safeway at midnight and buy the cake, the cookies, and the pie, and the ice cream. So you didn't have access to food. Now we have it 24-7, and often we can eat at 24-7. So fasting has really good properties, but what we know for the research with women, specifically menopausal women who are already under physiological distress with the hormonal fluctuation,
Kim Vopni (22:22.319)
Mm-hmm.
Jen Powter (22:32.437)
is when we go into a fasting state that's prolonged, being hungry is also a physiological stressor. So it can create this cortisol cycle that you're already in. And what we know, cortisol insulin, insulin being the fat storage hormone, is it can change the deposition of your body fat. So now you're starting to accumulate more belly fat. Maybe you might be drinking a bit more wine to handle stress as you're in that stage of life. And now, know, giving up the complex carbs, but eating sugar. And so,
We want to take it back to the basics and be like look You've got to find the way to go on a weight loss journey that works for you Once you're at your ideal weight or a weight that just feels really good for you then optimize That is when fasting and these different protocols can have really good cellular benefit But in terms of a weight loss strategy, I've seen it do way more harm than good
Kim Vopni (23:24.027)
Yeah, yeah. And you bring up a point too, I remember, you know, yeah, stores were not open on Sundays. Most stores would close around five or six. And you and if I think about me being a kid, even you would wake up, I remember, you know, waking up having breakfast. I'd be outside most of the day, I maybe either be at my house or my friend's house or somebody else's friends for lunch. Or if it was during the week, we'd be at school, you would have dinner. We weren't allowed to snack before dinner.
Jen Powter (23:35.597)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (23:54.288)
and there was nothing available after dinner. We would go to bed. so we would have our three meals. On occasion, there would be a treat. Now it seems like treats are a daily thing. Treat, treat, treat, treat, treat. Let's have a treat all the time. so I think, yeah, I think that's played a huge role. So I think that an eating window, which is rational from a breakfast to dinner type thing and not too close to bedtime makes sense. But you don't necessarily, that doesn't have to be intermittent fasting or intermittent.
Jen Powter (24:22.478)
No, I'm just normal eating. how can't we just call it normal healthy eating? Have breakfast at seven, have dinner before seven, don't eat after dinner, you don't need to. What are you doing? You're going to bed. Why do you need to eat? Like, and then to really understand if you're eating after, if you're eating within one hour after you've had a meal, it's a hundred percent emotional. Like I don't, I'll go toe to toe with it. It just is because you've just, especially, I'm assuming that we're talking about having a good meal. So a meal is you've got a carb, protein, a fat and some veg.
Kim Vopni (24:23.971)
Yes, exactly.
Kim Vopni (24:30.329)
Yep. Yes.
Jen Powter (24:51.318)
and there's some volume to it. If you've had that, anything else that comes in shortly after that, you're not hungry, you're emotionally hungry. So what is the emotional hunger you're trying to satiate with food? And that's really the deeper issue is whatever our emotional cravings, because so many of us, and again, I'll come back to Gen X, we're taught from a very early age to pacify, we get pacified with food. you're sad, have ice cream. you hurt yourself, let's make cookies.
you didn't get an A? Sorry, no ice cream for you. Like we're rewarded and punished often by very, like very well-intentioned parents, mostly, you know, they didn't know. And so our behavior has become very conditional to good, bad. Like if somebody's like, I was so good today, I didn't eat. I'm like, you're good no matter what. You've like, you're an amazing person regardless of what you've put in your mouth. Like let's separate good and bad. And so yeah, you know, the sabotaging piece of it.
Kim Vopni (25:24.257)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (25:43.353)
Yeah.
Jen Powter (25:50.574)
We'll give up on our own goals and our ability to be accountable and committed and consistent to ourselves, often for the sake of others. And I think there's a real skill set in learning how to hold ourselves accountable because it's just something that we want as women for ourselves to feel good, be healthy, age well, and get our confidence back. Like Kimma, you know, you've, for women who've never necessarily carried a bunch of excess weight, I can tell you, and I've been both thin, athletic, and fat.
And caring, I lost my confidence. Like I lost my voice. I felt so insecure, self-conscious. just, the bigger I got, the smaller I wanted to be. I wanted to hide. And that robs you of so much emotional energy that you could devote to these other amazing areas in your life. But you're like, yeah, yeah, I'll do that once I lose the 20 pounds. And so it becomes a very effective distraction technique to focus on your weight.
Kim Vopni (26:30.031)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (26:47.611)
Do you see a certain, like when you talk about what emotion are you hungry for? Do you see common threads? Do you see that there are certain emotions that are appearing or showing up more so in your clients?
Jen Powter (26:55.118)
Yeah.
Jen Powter (27:03.308)
Yeah. Yeah, and it's really interesting. So boredom, boredom is an emotion. So a lot of women are bored at night. If they've got older kids, kids don't need them as much anymore. A lot of times there's marriages where there's a lot of disconnection. And so often couples are connecting through food, like, let's make this, let's have popcorn, let's drink a bottle of wine together. And it's like this, I call it the fake form of connection.
Sadness, there's a lot of unprocessed sadness, grief. We're at a stage in age and life where many of us have lost friends, we might be losing parents. we, know, healing is a really funny thing. A lot of my clients will have trauma. I don't always mean the big T trauma, but just trauma from early, you know, being a girl, young girl, being a young woman, that when we heal, often we're only healing enough to survive, but not thrive.
And so we will develop many coping mechanisms to deal with our own pain. I say, you life is hard, food is easy, and we're wired to seek comfort. We are not wired to go into our pain. So we'll avoid it. So avoidance, I don't want to deal with that right now. No, I'm not going there. No, I dealt with that. I went to counseling for that. So you'll hear these things come up and...
Kim Vopni (28:09.359)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (28:14.179)
Mm-hmm.
Jen Powter (28:26.762)
It's interesting, that's why it's peeling back the layers as we navigate this journey of weight loss from both getting healthy physiologically and then getting healthy emotionally.
Kim Vopni (28:36.857)
Yeah, yeah. So if somebody like how do you go about guiding people or coaching people to recognize what they're what they're emotionally hungry for, but also what their self sabotage techniques are?
Jen Powter (28:52.718)
Yeah, slowly. How do we do it? I've got a 12, 13 week program and where we are in the last like eight weeks, if I started with that content, like I'd be working at Starbucks. do know? So we start slowly. We start with science. We start with, okay, let's take a look and get your body into a fat burning situation, like position. And then they start to see weight go. So there's trust that's created.
Kim Vopni (28:59.035)
lol
Kim Vopni (29:04.623)
Yeah.
Jen Powter (29:19.614)
I come from a place where everything I teach is from the best practices of research in both weight loss and the science of behavior change. So the neural wiring, neural pruning, new network, like neural associations that need to get made, because it's not just quitting a habit, it's creating new ones. And so science tells us a lot of stuff, but the biggest thing that I see for women is a lot of us have the resilience to do something for a few weeks. Unfortunately, if you're carrying
Kim Vopni (29:35.813)
Mm-hmm.
Jen Powter (29:47.598)
20 plus pounds or more a few weeks isn't going to cut it. You got to learn how to go the distance. so having a coach, the whole, you know, I had a triathlon coach so that I would go the distance. had a marathon, you know, coach so I could complete the race because on my own, it gets hard. And so sometimes you have to have people who are there to support you, guide you and tell you what the exact next step is. As I'm sure if you're going up Everest, it can feel like a really long journey.
Kim Vopni (29:50.522)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (30:03.513)
Yeah, yeah.
Kim Vopni (30:11.493)
Mm-hmm.
Jen Powter (30:16.863)
or like any hike, you're in Vancouver, it's beautiful, like, gross grind. Once you get to the top, it's worth it. Most of us stop before we get to the top.
Kim Vopni (30:19.449)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (30:26.009)
Yeah, I curse life every time I do that and I don't too very often. Yeah.
Jen Powter (30:29.761)
It's such a metaphor, right? Like you're in it, you're grumpy and it's hard and then you're like, oh my God, this is amazing. so yeah, we take my, I only take my clients through a very structured process where it is guided, but it's my pace, not yours, because so many women will try to do 18 things at once. I'm going to get my morning routine. I'm going to wake up at five. I'll do yoga, then I'll journal, then I'll meditate. And then I'll make my lemon water with cayenne pepper. And then I'm going to have my protein and make sure I have like
Kim Vopni (30:36.645)
Yeah.
Jen Powter (30:56.43)
80 bajillion grams of it and I'm gonna do that. And then they do it for two days and like, well, that sucks, you know, like they're exhausted. So we have to be real life as well.
Kim Vopni (31:01.956)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (31:06.841)
Yeah, yeah. Interesting. then, yeah, like it just, yeah, lots of things you're saying, I think that I, and I do find that it is confusing. And I'm less and less paying attention to social media, because I love listening to podcasts about health. I've always been a health and wellness junkie. I love it. But my God, is it confusing and frustrating. And I hear one thing one day, I think, my God, that sounds that's so logical. I'm going to try it. And then
Jen Powter (31:09.64)
I know, right?
Kim Vopni (31:35.321)
the next day you hear the total counter argument and you're like, that's really logical. Okay, maybe I better rethink what I was doing yesterday. so that can, yeah.
Jen Powter (31:38.574)
Totally.
Jen Powter (31:43.278)
Can I share a quick story on that? I had a client and she's a vegetarian and it can be hard to get your protein requirements when you're vegetarian. It's without consuming excess carbohydrate like beans have a ton of anyways. She sent me a picture of a, you somebody's Instagram real and she's like, if I had seen this and listened to it before meeting you, I wouldn't have even bothered starting to lose weight because there is no way I'm going to get 40 grams of protein at every single meal. And she made it sound like if she didn't, I didn't do this, I'd fail.
And like, I think that's one of the enemies of, well, sabotage is chasing perfection and trying to do these things perfectly. If you can't do it perfectly, it's not worth doing at all. And I'm like, girl, we're tired. Like, let's just get 70 % good enough and see the changes. And we'll see a lot of changes if you do it consistently. Perfect for a day versus 70 % forever. You know what I mean? Like 70, whatever, choose your number, but yeah, it's hard.
Kim Vopni (32:28.889)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (32:38.949)
Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Jen Powter (32:41.888)
It's hard out there because anybody can be a coach if they've lost 10 pounds in a day. Like, and men say different things and women say different things. And then you have all of the stuff around perimenopause and menopause and you've got, it's your estrogen, it's your this and weight loss is math. It's just very emotional math.
Kim Vopni (32:59.449)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Yeah, I really I spend less and less time. I go on and I answer questions, which I also don't love doing because there's so many negative nillies out there as well. So I just want to kind of crawl into a hole after and that's another part I think where I recognize sometimes I feel heavy after I don't mean physically but just like emotionally heavy after being on social media and trying to respond to
grumpy people who have these expectations of you serving them, everything should be free, you know, all the stuff. And then sometimes you just want a piece of chocolate.
Jen Powter (33:37.198)
Yeah. I like, seriously, I had somebody say to me, well, if they want us to be healthy, should, they should, they should make this easier. And I was like, who's they? Like, are they going to come and push you in your wheelchair? Are they going to lift you up and get you to the toilet? Like, we have to have some sort of level of personal responsibility and willingness. And I think for me, when I was, you I was overweight, I had poise pads stuffed in.
Kim Vopni (33:48.795)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (33:58.331)
Yes.
Jen Powter (34:04.46)
And I realized, I remember having this epiphany that no one was coming. No one was coming to make my life easier. There was no fairy health. Godmother, that knowledge without the application of it would get me nowhere and that it gets harder before it gets easier. But then it gets great. And I think we've got to be willing to go through that change, transformation process where we let it get great. no, yeah, change by the very nature of the word.
Kim Vopni (34:13.903)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (34:23.76)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (34:29.36)
Mm-hmm.
Jen Powter (34:34.422)
means getting out of your comfort zone. And that's what's hard. Weight loss in itself is not hard. In fact, many people say I make it easy, which I love.
Kim Vopni (34:36.015)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Kim Vopni (34:45.241)
Yeah, well, that's good. What have you written one book or two? I know you've one, two books. Yeah. So what are what are the titles of your books and what's different about them and what topics are they covering?
Jen Powter (34:54.54)
Yeah, thank you. I started my first one. It was called Diet Disruption. I was just in this place where I was really seeing how we are so bombarded by dieting rhetoric. We needed to disrupt diet culture. And so it just talks about, it goes back to the basics, but deeper. So it's a great foundational starting book that there's no diet dogma. I'm not promoting like, the gen powder diet. Like there's no such thing. It's just food. And so really breaking that free that you don't have to do a diet. You got to find the way that works for you.
Kim Vopni (35:18.512)
Yep.
Jen Powter (35:23.544)
However, my second book is called Stop Sabotaging Your Weight Loss, Why You Do It and How to Fix It. And it is by far my bestseller because women have the knowledge. I mean, I've got clients who have been dieting for 20 years. They could write their own diet book, but they don't apply it. And so that's what is really interesting for them. And we cover perfectionism, self-abandonment.
Like really learning how we get in our own way when we want something the mindset work and that's been it's a great book It's available on Kindle Kindle audible or on my website for free So you can get the PDF. Yeah, I think every woman should be able to read this and Break and have an insight and aha. Have you ever read a book where that's you've done that like you've had that book and you're like You read it at the right time. Maybe you've read it before but you read it again. You're like, oh I get it
Kim Vopni (35:58.343)
wow. Wow, that's very generous.
Kim Vopni (36:09.368)
Yeah. Yeah.
Kim Vopni (36:14.959)
Mm-hmm.
Jen Powter (36:15.93)
And that's what my second book has been for so many women is what it's like to live life overweight. And then what it's like, share so many stories, my own, my clients. And I think it gives people a chance of reigniting their hope that it's never too late. It doesn't matter if you're 50 or 60 or menopausal or if thyroid issues or whatever the diagnosis is. Like we've seen, I've seen everything under the sun and women can still lose weight. And it's not just the weight loss.
Kim Vopni (36:19.385)
Hmm.
Kim Vopni (36:30.767)
Mm-hmm.
Kim Vopni (36:43.12)
Yeah.
Jen Powter (36:45.322)
It's who you become as you, you become the woman who loses the weight. And that's being proud and confident and empowered and choosing, not cheating. Like it's, that's the thing that I find so amazing.
Kim Vopni (37:00.251)
Yeah, I love that. I love that last statement, choosing not cheating, because there's so much of, again, in the diet world of you can have it, you know, cheat day, but not don't know. Some people are like, never have a cheat days. It's 80 20. No, it's never 80 20. It's 100 % all the time. And again, it's a confusing thing. you we have to take the guilt away to that's another emotion, right? That we feel a lot of and shame. Yeah. Yeah.
Jen Powter (37:16.014)
Yeah.
Jen Powter (37:23.064)
guilt, Yeah, those are the top three negative. Guilt, shame, and embarrassment. And loathing. There's a lot of women who are overweight, carry a lot of self-loathing. The judgment, the world's a mean place. There's a ton of studies on how overweight women get treated, and it is not as friendly of a world compared to women who are not as overweight. And that just sucks, right?
Kim Vopni (37:46.841)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then when you're looking at the perfection world of Instagram where everything's perfect. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Jen Powter (37:53.4)
Photoshopped everything's filtered. You don't know there's somebody on Instagram who I love I forget her name or else I'd share her here But she will do pose like she's it's been and she does the poses and they're taking like split seconds apart It's so good Dane Mercer
Kim Vopni (38:01.965)
I know who you're talking about. Yes. Yes. Yes. It's a bee. I'm thinking maybe. Okay, maybe it's a different person, but same philosophy. I feel like this one's a Brianne or a bee or something, but I know exactly. And I love that. I think it's so refreshing and so needed. And some people are just not even aware that that's happening. Yeah.
Jen Powter (38:20.322)
Me too.
Jen Powter (38:27.362)
That's it. Yeah. Well, and look at the work that you do, Kim. Like, I mean, I remember I like unabashedly was like, my God, here's my issue. You know, I've still struggling. I've done all the pelvic floor physio and this and that and the other. And, you know, I think that a lot of women just get told a diagnosis or that they're stuck. And you know, the power of just, I sign up to your membership. I'm doing the exercises because it gave me hope that, okay, no matter my situation, the body is immensely transformable. Like
Kim Vopni (38:55.759)
Yeah.
Jen Powter (38:56.266)
It really is. And we are capable of incredible healing. And I'm only the way I am right now today because of all the past decisions that I've made, which means my future, my body in the future is unwritten because everything I do today is going to shape it for better or worse.
Kim Vopni (39:12.569)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. I do see so many people get stuck with the diagnosis and so in my realm that the diagnosis of some sort of pelvic floor dysfunction and depending on the care provider who has provided them with that diagnosis, it, it maybe they're told don't run. Maybe they're told, don't this, don't do that. And they have this whole don't list and they feel stuck and like,
Jen Powter (39:35.276)
Yeah.
Kim Vopni (39:38.18)
I will never be able to because of this diagnosis. And sometimes, and I struggle with this because I recommend people go see a pelvic floor physiotherapist every year for a checkup. And somebody could be told that they have an early stage prolapse, but that person may not have any symptoms. And sometimes being told that isn't super helpful. Like it's helpful because we want to get ahead of it and know what to do.
But sometimes people are like, I gotta get a prolapse. And then that will halt them. And so we have to be careful with the delivery, but also helping people not get stuck on that diagnosis. The diagnosis is not defining you. It's information your body is providing you. What are we gonna do with that information? What choices are we going to make? So it sounds like that's kind of the path that you are helping guide people along. Yeah.
Jen Powter (40:19.128)
Mm-hmm.
Jen Powter (40:26.286)
Totally. the totally the minute we embrace it as opposed to this is just something that I'm temporarily experiencing It it's really different one It becomes if well if you do the first path it becomes your identity if you do the second path it becomes something that you can change and So I think there's a lot more sense of feeling empowered when you look at it the second way as opposed to I'm a victim to this diagnosis. I guess there's nothing I can do and so I might as well just go do all you know what I mean and
Kim Vopni (40:41.199)
Yeah. Yeah.
Kim Vopni (40:50.169)
Right, right.
Yes.
Jen Powter (40:53.838)
And that's where we have to regain. And I teach this in my program, literally, this kind of work. It's like, we have to take responsibility and go, no, this is just something that's occurred, but I can change it. But it takes consistency of effort over time. A diamond doesn't get formed. I always say it's how much time and attention can we handle to create the change? Yeah.
Kim Vopni (41:05.167)
Yep. Yep. Yes.
Kim Vopni (41:17.551)
Yeah, love it. Where can people, you've mentioned you have your book on your website, so what is your website? Where can people follow you on social media and learn more and potentially work with you?
Jen Powter (41:24.746)
Absolutely. my gosh, Jenniferpowder.com. am on Instagram. I'm doing my best as a 50 year old woman trying to create content. So, at Jenpowder, but all the resources are there. We've got, you know, these, I just created what I think is an amazing five day smart weight loss challenge, which is about losing weight the smart way, not the hard way.
Kim Vopni (41:30.907)
You
Jen Powter (41:46.958)
Those are going to be repeated throughout the year, but I love if people came and got the book, and especially if you've been struggling like I did, I think it would give you a path forward. So thank you so much, Kim, for letting me share.
Kim Vopni (41:58.511)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you for all the work that you're doing and for everything you, everything that you've shared here, your story and how you're helping transform other people's lives and, and, and the generosity of creating a resource like that for free for people, think is amazing. So thank you so much.
Jen Powter (42:14.803)
my pleasure. I'm back at ya. Yeah, no, like fangirl, you know, I've been, yeah, I see you every day. You just don't know.
Kim Vopni (42:19.931)
I know it's such a weird place, but anyway, thanks for following. Thanks for joining.
Jen Powter (42:28.034)
Yeah, thanks. Thanks to all the listeners too.
Kim Vopni (42:33.105)
Awesome.
