Jen Whorton: 0:00

We didn’t focus on it, but none of my clothes fit and I mean that’s a great problem to have. So I don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining, but I like some of these clothes, you know. But yeah, and it happens all at once. I mean there were things that I physically could not wear. Like I tried on this outfit that I wore a million times before and the jeans were just like falling off of me, my bra was like gaping and I was like what is happening? And you know, even sometimes I like watched by my husband. He’s like holy crap, like you are looking really, like you’re losing weight, and I was like, yeah, I mean I weighed myself, I think, twice while we were together. Both times are super triggering and I ended up having a binge. So I stopped doing that. So I don’t know how much I’ve actually lost numbers wise, but my clothes do not fit. I need all new clothes. I’m down at least two sizes so and it feels really good because I mean I feel like I did it in a way that was healthier, I was full and eating normally and I worked out a lot too. So I’m feeling not only like my clothes don’t fit, I feel really strong and really light, I guess. So it’s not what we were focusing on, but it has been an amazing side effect because I just feel better and I feel healthier and my numbers like my cholesterol and stuff are better in three months, like everything just feels so much better.Ella Magers: 1:19

Hey there and welcome to Rise and Thrive with me, ella Majors. I created this high vibe podcast from a place of profound curiosity, fierce compassion and the deep desire to connect you with the wisdom of inspirational wellness, health, fitness and conscious leaders and change makers. Here’s to discovering our blind spots and embracing life as the adventure it is. The time is now. Let’s do this. Hey, chen, welcome. Hey, thanks, I’m so happy to be here. Oh, my gosh, I’m so excited. You weren’t just willing to be here, you were like hell, yeah, let’s do it. Yes, I mean, I’ve been listening to the podcast for a while and I’m honored to be on it, so it’s so great, I love it.Jen Whorton: 2:03

Yeah well, it takes courage, though, to come on a show and share your journey when it is so personal.Ella Magers: 2:10

And it’s so personal and I’m so happy to be here. I’m so happy to be here and I want to thank so much again, again, for trying to come to your journey when it is so personal and there’s so much involved.Jen Whorton: 2:23

How do you feel right now about sharing that on this bigger scale? I am a little bit nervous, but I think it’s time. I’ve been kind of suffering in silence for a long time and one of my new things is I’m going to help people, even if it’s just somebody to listen to this podcast. So I’m ready.Ella Magers: 2:42

I’m a little nervous.Jen Whorton: 2:43

I’ve never been on a podcast before, but I’m pumped and this has been a really huge achievement too. So I’m excited to share, like, a lot of the wins that I’ve had. Even though it was tough, I won. You know a lot.Ella Magers: 2:55

A lot and that’s how we started out right. So we worked together and we had so much fun. I don’t know about you, but I had fun, a lot of fun, working with you.Jen Whorton: 3:03

So much fun.Ella Magers: 3:04

We had a lot of laughs, even in the midst of some really tough weeks which there were tough weeks in the three months that we were working together.Jen Whorton: 3:11

For both of us. Yeah, I feel like we went through a lot in three months but, yeah, we laughed and it was great and I feel like we connected and we got to do some really cool things. It was one of the best things I’ve done. So if you are trying to shout out your coaching, I’m definitely like everybody should do it. Everybody that you accept should do it if they can.Ella Magers: 3:31

Thank you, yeah, so what I want to do, I want to talk about kind of how you were showing up in the world before we worked together, how that changed throughout the program and now how you’re showing up in the world, also some of the most powerful tools and maybe some stories around how these shifts have changed your life and how you move through the world, if that’s what?Jen Whorton: 3:56

with you? Absolutely.Ella Magers: 3:58

All right. So let’s take it back to before we started working together in that question of how were you showing up in the world and I think talking about just before the coaching, but also any background information that could be helpful to provide people.Jen Whorton: 4:13

Yeah, definitely, I often found myself angry, like any emotion I felt, whether I was sad or hurt or frustrated or even when I was happy, it came out as anger and I spent so much time just hating myself and it came out as anger, often to the detriment of people around me. I went through a lot of changes and I was about seven and a lot of them would end up being good changes, but at that time it was too much to handle. My mom got married and we moved away from my family and my grandparents that I loved and I lived with for the first seven years of my life and food was the only thing that sort of soothed me. It was the only constant in my life and so I started just eating to soothe. Whether I was hungry, whether I was often angry, I would eat. So we’re talking 30 plus years of disordered eating, and you and I have talked about how food addiction is tricky because you can’t just stop eating, right. So eventually it catches up to you and I would eat to feel better and then I would gain weight, and then I would punish myself and restrict and then eat more and gain weight and it was just this like vicious cycle and I was so mean to myself and then I showed up in the world as an angry, mean person a lot of the times.Ella Magers: 5:28

So the how you were talking to yourself reflected how you’re talking to others and vice versa, and the physical manifestation of that was weight cycling up and down with the weight. Tell us about the physical side of that.Jen Whorton: 5:43

Just the toll it takes, right, like I grew up around unhealthy eating habits and I made a lot of my own, so it was like I would get down five pounds and be so excited I would eat something like terrible for me and be like, oh, I deserve this. And then I would be mad and I would restrict and then I would eat and it really took a toll on my self-esteem. My clothes didn’t fit. I probably gained over the course of like five or six years like 50 pounds, which is a lot, and I’m only five, four. So it showed in every single picture and every single nook and crannies. And then I would avoid mirrors and hide from pictures and if anybody complimented my like outfit I’d be like, okay, we haven’t, I’m so fat underneath it and like it was just terrible. The whole thing was just terrible. I couldn’t even look at myself. That’s an awful feeling.Ella Magers: 6:33

And when we started working together. Well, let’s take it to what made you decide to work with me.Jen Whorton: 6:42

Well, I’m gonna fan girl a little bit right now, but I’ve been following you for a long time and I always thought like your views were amazing and you and actually no meat athlete were like so strong and so I don’t know. You just like had these convictions that I was so jealous of and wanted for myself. And then you sent out a survey and it just like came at the exact right time and I was feeling like I’m so ready to just be free from all of this stuff. I’m 40, I’m ready, and I answered all of your questions honestly. And then they spoke to you and then I was like I have to do this. This is like I was ready for it. It came to me, I have to do it.Ella Magers: 7:19

I think that word freedom is a big word, right, that seems like it was a big driving factor for you, this wanting to be free, what were you wanting? To be free from?Jen Whorton: 7:27

The biggest thing I wanted to be free from, and the thing I meditate on every single day, is freedom from this food obsession. Right, Like I would wake up thinking about food. If there was something quote unquote bad for me in my fridge or in my pantry, I would just like think about it until I could eat it. Like if I was out with other people and we had to share an appetizer or bread or something like that. Like I would mentally map out like who got you know what portion? And if I, when I could like go in for seconds and not, you know, be looked at as a pig or whatever. And then the other side of it, I was like, okay, well, I ate all this stuff. Like how now do I get the calories off? And I was just constantly thinking about food and when I could eat and how much I could eat, and then how I could lose weight. And it just became this obsession and I just wanted to be free from it. It’s exhausting to think about it all the time.Ella Magers: 8:19

Oh, so exhausting I mean, and there and there myself, I know, and it takes up so much energy and we’ve talked about this a little bit the energy and the space in our lives that that takes up and which means that other things, healthy things, healthy thoughts, healthy actions, creativity none of that has space If it’s always taken up by thoughts about food and how much, when, where, how much we’re gonna eat, right, and then what about the plant-based side of things, they I know you’ve been an animal lover.Jen Whorton: 8:51

Forever. Oh my gosh. I’ve always loved animals, ever since I was a kid, I mean. I was always like I wanted my little ponies, not Barbies or dolls. I always want pets and all this stuff, and I’ve actually been accused more than once of scaring out animals more than people, and it never felt right to me to do harm so that I could eat. But I didn’t really grow up in an area or in a time when not doing that was something I really thought of. It was just like this is what your parents put on the table, so you eat. It. Never even occurred to me that I didn’t have to, so I would try to mitigate it by just being as far away from the source as possible, Like this is just food. But there were a lot of times and this has been, I think, my whole life there have been times when I’d be like halfway through something and be like, oh my God, this used to be alive and I would not be able to finish, or like I would have like a rare steak or something in my mouth. I would just feel like it was just blood and I was just like I cannot do this. And then one time the worst thing I accidentally went to a pig roast. I thought it was just like a regular party and I like saw this pig and I was absolutely horrified. I was like what is happening? Like I wanna leave this party and then so I think part of my anger too is like I was kind of living against my values, Like I love animals, but here I am harming them for my own personal gain, when you don’t even have to.Ella Magers: 10:04

And where were you when we first started on your journey to being vegan or plant-based?Jen Whorton: 10:10

I had already stopped eating red meat and a lot of dairy, partially because I just cannot process it anymore. It hurt my stomach and it wasn’t processing and I don’t know if it was purely physical or if my mind was finding like you stop this. And then after that, I think I was still eating fish sometimes when I talked to you, but it was like once you stop eating one thing like I stopped eating cow, okay, well then it’s still like it doesn’t feel right to also eat these other beings, right. So it was just kind of like it just kind of happened pretty quickly once I started working with you and it’s been great. I finally feel like I’m living the way I should be.Ella Magers: 10:50

What does that feel like? To be feel more aligned.Jen Whorton: 10:53

I just feel very calm and centered, I feel lighter, you know, and I feel like there’s this little farmers market that I go to where you can feed the cows, like they have these like old vegetables that you can feed the cows. So now, like when I go, I feel like I can look them in the eye and be like oh my God, I love you. You’re these like goofy, like greedy, hungry beings and you’re just living your life. And now I feel like being in line has given me a lot of freedom. It has freed me up for so many things, because now I don’t really have to think about it.Ella Magers: 11:24

Was there anything that surprised you or I know you had your doubts right. You were willing to commit to the process and to the coaching and you were all in, and I make sure that that’s the case with anybody who would like to work with me. You know I say this is not easy. This is a process. There’s a lot of work involved here. I’m gonna be with you every step of the way, but you’ve got to be as committed as I’m committed. Was there anything that you felt especially doubtful, even though you were committed that this is gonna work for you? I think.Jen Whorton: 11:56

I mean, right off the bat, I didn’t think that I would be able to get free of my disorder needing. I feel like I had tried everything else and nothing had worked. So why was this time going to be different? And I felt like I had done the work before, but I hadn’t maybe done the right things, or maybe I wasn’t ready, I’m not sure. But I was so sure that this was just gonna be something I deal with for the rest of my life and maybe I will in some regards. But it’s not the monster it used to be right. So that was really surprising. And I think the other thing was we worked a lot on being present in the moment and I just rewatched one of our meetings and it was such a roller coaster because I was just like, okay, yeah, I’m present, this is great, until like one thing happened that I didn’t wanna do was like a boring meeting, and I was like, what am I doing? Like being present is hard. They never tell you that. They’re always like, oh, yeah, be present, then you could be, then you could be in the moment. And I was just like, oh, my God, I need to get out of this meeting. I’m too present.Ella Magers: 12:54

I remember that session together so clearly.Jen Whorton: 12:57

You were like this present thing I don’t know about this.Ella Magers: 13:01

Thank you, you were like I’m getting it. I don’t know if I like it.Jen Whorton: 13:07

It was not for everything. So those are the biggest surprises.Ella Magers: 13:11

I think yeah no, I can’t wait to get to some of your stories, but let’s first talk about okay. So now and this is three months, I mean it’s a relatively short time for this coaching program, right? I mean we’re talking about very ingrained programming and habits and thought processes that we’re working on changing in this hardwired thoughts and behaviors. So it’s a very short period of time and a lot of things shifted for you. Let’s talk first about on a physical level, because the truth is, once we got started, the focus was never on weight loss, right, and we barely even talked about it throughout, even though I knew that that was a goal, of course, and there’s a lot of people listening to this right now who are like I have weight to lose, I need to focus on it. What? Where are you at now, After just three months together and keeping in mind we did not focus on it?Jen Whorton: 14:07

Yeah, we didn’t focus on it, but none of my clothes fit and I mean that’s a great problem to have. So I don’t mean to sound like I’m complaining, but I’m like some of these clothes, you know. But yeah, and it happens all at once. I mean there were things that I physically could not wear. Like I tried on this outfit that I wore a million times before and the jeans were just like falling off of me, my bra was like gaping and I was like what is happening? And you know, even sometimes I like watched by my husband. He’s like holy crap, like you are looking really like you’re losing weight, and I was like, yeah, I mean I weighed myself, I think, twice while we were together. Both times are super triggering and I ended up having a binge. So I stopped doing that. So I don’t know how much I’ve actually lost numbers wise, but my clothes do not fit. I need all new clothes on down at least two sizes. So, and it feels really good because I mean I feel like I did it in a way that was healthier, I was full and eating normally and I worked out a lot too. So I’m feeling not only like my clothes don’t fit, I feel really strong and really Light, I guess. So it’s not what we were focusing on, but it has been an amazing side effect because they just feel better and I feel healthier and my numbers, like my cholesterol that suffer better in three months, like everything just feels so much better.Ella Magers: 15:22

And I think you know, and we talked about this, and this is what I say to clients who really want to lose weight and we’re working together. It’s like, well, how has focusing on that worked for you in the past?Jen Whorton: 15:32

I feel like you asked me that a lot. You asked me how has focusing so much on this been helped you? How has berating yourself and treating Yourself like shit helped you? And you know it really hadn’t, but I thought maybe someday.Ella Magers: 15:46

Right, this time will be different that definition of insanity doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results and spoiler alert. It’s insane it really is All right. So what we did focus on is Relationships of, focus on your relationship with yourself yourself. Talk your relationship with food, your relationship with your body, your relationship with others. We’re relationship with the world, the universe. So let’s talk about your relationship with yourself first, because that is kind of the root of everything and we talked about. I approach myself with curiosity and compassion as one of the first tools. Can you talk a little bit about? In a lot of people say you know, I feel really silly telling myself that each morning which I had you do every morning. Right, talk about how you felt about that and you know what your kind of inner dialogue was towards the beginning and how that has changed things for you.Jen Whorton: 16:43

Yeah, that was really my mantra. That was one of the very first things we worked on and I felt a little silly, I guess, but I needed it right, like I needed to treat myself better because what I was doing was not working and and Eventually it just became what I was because and I would have to sometimes I would be like mid-borating myself like no Kindness, curiosity, you know, and then I would ask myself questions. I did some like unhinged behaviors to get these things in great, because I like stop and have a conversation with myself. They’re like, no, you’re being nice to yourself now. So, but it was a game changer and it’s like you said, and I will tell you. You said in the beginning you have to be kind to yourself if you want to affect any kind of change, and I was like I don’t believe you.Ella Magers: 17:25

I think I was like.Jen Whorton: 17:27

But it’s true. It’s true. And if you tell yourself enough that you know you deserve Compassion and curiosity from yourself, like you always ask, like what people would put on a billboard, and that’s what I’d be About. Be kind to yourself Like you have to and you deserve it. We always learned you know be kind to others and treat others the way you want others to treat you, but we never taught to treat ourselves that way and you deserve it. You’re the only thing you have, like 100% of the time. You have to be nice to yourself. And the curiosity thing like if I’m doing something Like I want to eat a whole cake, I can just stop me, like why are you doing this? And if you know, most of the time I can talk myself out of it, but if I can’t, it’s okay. Like, and that was, I think, the biggest change, I remember One of the binges I had during our time together. It wasn’t that I was able to stop it, but I was able to kind of be in it a little more mindfully and I said, okay, you want to eat this food, why? And I would go through the craving thing like why do you want to eat this? What will it do for you, blah, blah, blah. And then, okay, you, so, when I eat this food, go ahead Knowing that it’s gonna suck. And then I do, and I ate it pretty mindfully, whatever, and then afterwards I was able to forgive myself, which I’d never been able to do before, and then it’s over, right, like so it happened, but then it’s over, and that was the biggest like aha moment I think I had was being kind to myself after. Mmm and that was it. I was like, holy crap, this is so much better to. Sometimes they would last for days because it was a cycle.Ella Magers: 18:52

Right, it was like I’ve already screwed up. I’ve continued to punish myself and just keep going correct before yeah, that was a game changer, for sure. Now, in order to do this approaching yourself with curiosity and compassion we got to be conscious, right, and that takes the pause, the power pause. Yes, talk to us about the pause in that relationship you developed with the pause. And I love and I’m adding it to my coaching program that we’ll be launching this year the pause jewelry. I think this is genius, it was the best part honestly yeah. It’s the best thing that you came up with. I think you came up with that I think it was a team effort. Team effort.Jen Whorton: 19:34

Maybe is there something we could have. And then we started talking about jewelry. So, like, the power pause is one of the trickiest things, because I’m like a person like I’m always going like 100,000 miles an hour and like if I think of something, I want to do it immediately and then it’s done. That does not work if you’re a binge eater, right, but so in order to get me used to it, I would have been like three weeks and I was like I’m not doing the stamp pause. I cannot remember it in times when I need it. So I was doing it for everything for a week. So we talked about the jewelry. So I got a ring, which I love, and so not only did I get to buy myself something nice, you know, for the coaching. Obviously, of course, I was able to remind myself, but again, this is like some more unhinged behavior that I had because I paused for everything, like I remember I was taking my vitamins and I pause and be like you’re taking your B12, and then I would take it and then I pause, be like you’re taking your lysine and then I would take it. I would like pause getting into my car, be like you’re opening your car and you’re going to get in, you’re going to go somewhere, and I was just like this, like deranged person but I’m like no, we’re going to get this. And then finally, once I got used to it, I was able to use it for so many things. For eating, especially, is where it helps me, but also for like difficult conversations, like something was happening. I could pause and be like okay this is not going the way I wanted to go, but I could think about it and even though I still felt shitty or whatever, you’re clearer because you just stop and you ask yourself some questions or think about something or whatever it is that you’re doing. Just take a second. And then I mean, tara, and you always talk about emotions only lasting is at 30 to 90 seconds or something. If you take that pause and then you realize how quickly they go by, it’s yeah, but the pause is one of the hardest things for me to master, but when I did, it’s like so helpful for everything.Ella Magers: 21:11

Yeah, and I know you’re calling it unhinged, because I can see how, like you’re stopping as you open your car door and you’re saying I’m opening my car door and feeling like a little bit of a crazy person saying that and we had talked about how we got to start with the things that are not emotionally charged right, because it’s when you’re emotionally charged that you forget and you go right into impulse and reaction as opposed to response. So it was a very strategic move for you to do that, and you know, and then those, these things, this is the stuff that takes work, and what I want to just acknowledge you for is putting in the work and you really did it every week, even when it was tough, even when you didn’t feel like it was working. You know, quote you did it and it paid off in the end. So, let’s talk about a story. We’re talking about not only approaching yourself with curiosity and compassion, but really approaching the world. We kind of added in the world after you started getting these the self. I know you had an incident at Trader Joe’s oh my.Jen Whorton: 22:11

Trader Joe’s lady. Yes, yeah, the approaching the world with kindness Again, like I feel like I was such a misanthrope and I was like people, can we? For me, and I was always like going into public places was like a battle because that’s how I treated it. But when I started thinking about it I was like, OK, well, here we are at Trader Joe’s. There’s only two in my area. Neither of them are convenient and they’re always crazy busy. And this was like 11 am on a Sunday. I happened to be going to brunch and I drove by and I just like got on two wheels into the parking lot and said going to Trader. Joe’s so busy and I just was kind of wandering around and I went to pick up the speaking buffalo dip that’s really good and I lean next to this lady and I said I’m reaching next to you and she just looked so harassed and I was like, oh man, this lady looks like she’s having a day. She’s like of course you are, and you and I talked about it and you’re like that’s pretty rude. I was like yeah, that was rude, but I didn’t take it that way. Instead, I looked at her and was about to ask her something and then she had these big eyes and she turns to me and she’s like I’m so sorry. I don’t normally come at this time, I’m normally here way earlier, but I had to take my 18-year-old cat to this special vet. That was an hour away and she just kind of unloaded on me and normally I would be like why are you telling me this? I’m not your therapist, but it was actually a really beautiful moment. So then we started talking about our cats and how caring for elderly animals and how Trader Joe’s is crazy, but it’s totally worth it. And then by the end of it she was calm and I felt like I had helped her a little bit and we were like happy new year. I hope you have a great year ahead of you. And it was just this beautiful moment that I would have missed out on if I was that hissing troll creature I used to be, because I was just like this is Trader Joe’s right now. These are the people that are here right now. I’m choosing to be here, and that was it. And then I connected with someone. It’s never like people probably won’t even leave this story.Ella Magers: 23:51

People who know you. Yeah, exactly who is this, ella? What have you done with our gin? Talking to people, but it’s so empowering as well. This is what I’m kind of getting from you. Here is how you’ve taken your power back, in a sense, in every aspect of your life when it comes to food, when it comes to choices, when it comes to interactions with other people. You’re making conscious choices, and that’s powerful and free and it feels better.Jen Whorton: 24:20

Yeah, it feels better than being thrust into. Either you know something you don’t want to do or I don’t know just kind of acting in a way that’s against kind of human nature. Like I think it’s in a lot of our nature to want to connect and to help people and I was just not living that way.Ella Magers: 24:36

And then hadn’t heard. Because this? I think this happened after our last coaching session.Jen Whorton: 24:41

But about the sauna oh my gosh, the sauna lady. Yeah, you were in the sauna with us, for sure. I’m not making eye contact with the other woman that’s in there with me. And I see this lady outside in the locker room and she takes like six feet of paper towels from, like the paper towels, and what the hell is this lady doing? And then, of course, she comes into the sauna and she’s just like following up these paper towels and just like what is happening. And then I was like you know what the tiny Ella on my shoulder was like be curious. So I just looked at her, about to be like you know what the hell are you doing? and she’s like I don’t like the feel of sweat dripping down my body and I was like odd choice to come in the sauna, but maybe still wants the benefits. So then she starts like wrapping all these paper towels around her neck and like upper arms like around her belly, and she just sits there like covered in these paper towels. But being curious about her led her to ask me if I had any New Year’s resolutions and I was like no, these past three years have been horrible, like I’m just hoping that this year is. It just happens, you know. But as we talked for like 15 minutes in the sauna and all the women got involved, we started talking about like decisions to have kids and like the state of the world and it ended up being this like beautiful moment with these two women that I see at the gym all the time, like I’ve seen these people before. And you know, instead of like I stopped talking to them and having a great conversation, instead of just going home and telling my husband about the crazy lady like killing trees at the sauna and like not interacting with him at all, so different than how I normally would have handled it. I would not have. I would have been like to not make a contact with this person, but it was beautiful and she was so freaking nice.Ella Magers: 26:22

Yes, I am imagining your friends right now listening to this podcast. Hijacked.Jen Whorton: 26:31

Jen, I’m touched by someone nicer and more helpful. And with baggy clothes now. Yeah, and with baggy clothes now.Ella Magers: 26:39

You know, what we forgot to even mention is in the slipped my mind when we first started. You were and let me know if you’re okay talking about this but you are using a weight loss drug.Jen Whorton: 26:51

Oh yeah, I was. Yeah, I forgot about that.Ella Magers: 26:53

Yeah, yeah, and we talked about that at the beginning. Do you remember how that conversation went in our decision and how you felt about that? I did, and the way.Jen Whorton: 27:02

Last drug helped a little, I will say, but the bulk of the weight that I lost was after, because you and I had a conversation about it and you were in no way like pressuring or anything like that, really just like what do you think? And I was like I think I can’t do this work simultaneously with my appetite shut off or whatever, because that’s not really going to get me where I need to be, right, that’s not going to have to have these urges and these things happen normally, so that I can deal with them in a way that I need to and that’s for longevity, right. So, yeah, I think it was a few weeks in and I got off it and then only then, was I able to handle these binges. Right, they weren’t really happening on the weight loss drugs. It just kind of like slows down your digestion. You’re just not really that hungry, but yeah, so I did start on that and again, it helps a little bit and maybe got five, 10 pounds off. But the change happened when you and I started working together and we started talking about things and being present and getting this food freedom. That was the thing that helps me and I was like I work out and stuff like that. But I always did. I always worked out a lot. That was something that I was pretty consistent about. But I was always able to like out eat my workouts. So, yeah, I got off the weight loss drug and still getting off of it, even though it was a little dicey at first because I was back on my bullshit for a couple of days. But once it was out we were able to really like dig in and that was it.Ella Magers: 28:27

Right, we decided we couldn’t address the root issues if they were being masked. Right, the symptoms were being masked by this drug, right. And so you know, and that’s again another really courageous thing that you did was saying I’m going to get off this drug, knowing that the cravings, the urges, the reasons that I went on the drug in the first place are going to come back. And now I’m going to kind of trust in you to guide me through that process of dealing with them. Yeah, their full fledged form.Jen Whorton: 28:58

Yeah, and they do come back and I don’t know if they were stronger. I’ve heard mixed things from people, but sometimes they come back even stronger. So you’re not really. You’re just kind of flipping a switch and, like I said, I’m asking it so you just don’t really think about it that much. But as soon as you’re off it, it just comes back full force and worse.Ella Magers: 29:13

Yeah, and you mentioned exercise that you’ve always been into working out and all that, but did you have any shifts that came along with your attitude towards training or anything with exercise that shifted? Oh?Jen Whorton: 29:27

yes, the power pause helped with that a lot too, because you stop and you think like, look what my body can do. I do a mix of lifting and boxing and bar, but there’s one bar is like the ballet workout and there was one time when I was like I had it so that my leg was behind me, my butt was like tight and I like looked and I was like, oh my God, look at my butt’s doing right now. so I was just like, look at the body can do, even if I’m whatever not at my goal weight or whatever like my body is doing these things, my body can do these things and I’m so strong and I’m holding this plank and now my legs behind me and my butt is tight and it looks great you know like even before that, like I had a couple of personal gains, like from lifting and stuff I’m doing assisted pull ups at 95 pounds and I started at 140 and even though it seems like a kind of a small win because it’s just like one exercise, but I was just like I can do this though, and it’s very motivating. Those tiny things are just very motivating and my personal trainer knows this, so she knows that the tiny things are really like what get me going. So we make sure we do like little mini celebrations and stuff like that. But yeah, I mean even just can be anything, but just knowing that your body can do these things and do what you want it to do is just feels great.Ella Magers: 30:41

Yeah, it just seems like you really were able to make this shift too. I’m training because I love of my body. I respect my body, not as a punishment, not as a means to burn off the calories I feel guilty about eating, but really exercising for the sake of exercising and having it feel good and be good for me on every level.Jen Whorton: 31:02

Yeah, and it’s fun. I mean, it doesn’t even seem like a punishment. So I’m much more consistent than I used to be, because I find things that I enjoy and I thank my body for it. It sounds cheesy but it works. You know, I’m just like. You know what Some people can’t do. This.Ella Magers: 31:16

One of the other things that happens a lot 80 to 90% of people who go on a diet. They gain all the way back usually, and then some. How do you feel about the sustainability of the changes you’ve made and the direction you’re going at this point?Jen Whorton: 31:34

I actually feel pretty good about it. There are some nerves there, obviously, but there’s so many options, right, like? I went through this the entire time we were working together. I was like I’m going to try something new every week. So now I tried all these new vegetables and I love to cook. That’s one of the things that I just do for me, and it’s been so fun coming up with recipes. A while ago I was already kind of not eating meat, but I like panagate some chicken at friends house and say like made this chicken and didn’t know that I was plant-based, whatever. So I had just like a tiny bit of the chicken and sauce and I was like my God, what is this? I can make this vegan and I did and it was so good, it was so good vegan. So, like, I just feel like I’m having so much fun with it and you know, after working with you and working on all these recipes, I have probably a dozen recipes that I make all the time and they’re vegan and they’re healthy and they’re fresh and they’re delicious. And we haven’t talked about this yet. Oh yeah, so the power pods and also, you know, whole chewing your food thing, which we haven’t talked about yet, right yeah. That was a tool that you said. It was like the first thing you told me and it helped me right off of that. Like, if you take your time and you chew your food and you enjoy it, you’re either going to be very sore in the jaw or, like well, like three quarters of the way through it doesn’t taste as good as it did in those first bites because you’re paying attention, and then you could just stop. So I think the things to continue to work on would be the mindful eating, right, like, and making sure I’m not distracted by TV, by whatever, by phone, and that’s going to be the thing to work on. I think the food is pretty solid, awesome.Ella Magers: 33:08

Yeah, that chewing your food. It’s so simple. It’s so simple and it’s not easy, you know. It’s a change in how long it takes to eat. It’s. Most people love to eat in front of the TV. It’s like the thing they do to relax and tune out and you’re tuning out from the world and the food that you’re eating. And I’ve really found with, I think, every client that I’ve worked with those who do that one thing to see physical results pretty quickly.Jen Whorton: 33:38

Yeah, not only I mean obviously I’ve lost weight, but also like my stomach feels better, because I mean I think you were like the digestion starts in your mouth, so start there, and then you won’t have these like bubble guts, sure.Ella Magers: 33:50

Yeah, awesome, powerful.Jen Whorton: 33:53

Not easy to do, but like simple.Ella Magers: 33:54

Simple. Yes, Simple and easy is different than simple, but yeah, it takes that pause. So, yeah, you really put in the work, Jen. Is there anything else that you can think of that might be helpful for people listening that are struggling with their weight, with being kind of obsessive about food even if they don’t have a full on eating disorder or binge terribly but are spending a lot of time and energy? What opened up for you I guess that’s another question that I haven’t asked when you felt like towards the last few sessions you were like I’ve just got so much More space, more time, more energy to do other things. What am I going to do? Yeah?Jen Whorton: 34:38

I guess now that I’m not obsessing over food and I finally have the freedom I was looking for, I have this creativity just like coming out of my ears. I cannot stop doing something. I mean I’ve always done, not always. The past couple of years I’ve done paper crafts and made like greeting cards and stuff. But recently I got into watercolor when my friend does pottery, so he brought me to his pottery studio and I made like four bowls the other day. And I cannot stop creating. Even with cooking. I have created like six or seven recipes. I mean I go online and get some ideas, but I have just been creating so much I don’t know, so much coming out of me. I feel right now like I’m an artist trapped in like a corporate stooge’s body because I cannot stop creating things. So I’ll try to work on getting the artist out a little bit more. But it’s been so fun to not be bogged down by all these like heavy feelings and obsessive thoughts and now I can do the things that I like to do and I didn’t even know I could watercolor. Watercolor is hard. I didn’t know I could do it, but they look like cats. So that’s really. I meant to do a cat and it looks like a cat.Ella Magers: 35:47

That’s awesome. I know you showed me it’s gorgeous, yeah, so they’re so cute, so cute.Jen Whorton: 35:53

So my mother in law and my mother and, randomly enough, my stepdad’s father, they’re all very creative people and they’re all like artists for everybody. And that was one thing. Like I was like no, I’m not going to be good at it, whatever, but now that I have all this room, I don’t care. Five paper and stuff. I’m artist for everybody and if you love it, then do it. It doesn’t matter. Not trying to sell it, even if I did, it doesn’t matter.Ella Magers: 36:14

Yeah, what would you say to anybody who’s kind of like I don’t know, I really want to move forward, but why is this different? Why is this different from everything else that’s out there, and why would it work for me?Jen Whorton: 36:31

It’s hard and not necessarily in a bad way, but it was a lot of work, it took a lot of time and I really had to focus on it, obviously also paying you. So there’s some monetary like you’re investing in yourself, kind of, and I think we just don’t do that enough, or at least maybe we do it in ways that are not as beneficial. Like I mean, I treat myself to Amazon all the time. That’s not what I mean, like it was hard and it cost me and it was the right time. Plus, the loving yourself was like that was the one thing that if you can do anything, if you can’t, you know don’t have the means or whatever to get personalized coaching. If you can find a way to coach yourself and to talk nice to yourself, then you can start, you know, affecting change on your own. But I think you got to do the work because if you earn it then I think it tends to stick Like right. Like I was all about quick fixes. Like I was doing the weight loss drug, I tried starving myself, I tried all these diet pills and, you know, the hot yoga and running in a trash bag. Like I tried all of these things and they did not work and they did not make me feel good. So this was hard work but it made me feel good once I was kind of through it. And it comes with like the highs and lows, right. I’d be like, oh my God, like the first couple weeks, yeah, I got this. And then something happens and you’re like, oh my God, I don’t got this. You just keep going and it’s hard but it’s worth it. And then, once it clicks, it clicks and I think you said that too. I think you said that in the beginning. You’re like it’ll click and I was like I don’t know.Ella Magers: 37:57

You said I don’t know a lot. I don’t know. I hear you, I’m going to do it and I don’t know.Jen Whorton: 38:04

You have to. I mean, we talked about I’m still reading the presence process, right, I don’t really get it, but that’s okay, you’re going through it, you’re taking what you can and you got to trust the process because once I was through it, I was like, oh my God, I did a thing, I warded a binge, or I didn’t beat myself up or I lost. However many pounds I lost, and I did it and it was hard, but then it feels good, you got to do the work.Ella Magers: 38:25

Got to do the work. Got to do the work. Anything else that we haven’t chatted about, that you’d like to leave people with.Jen Whorton: 38:33

No, I think this was awesome. I love sharing my journey because these last three years I’m just like I mean everything that’s happened to us since, including COVID I’ve just fundamentally changed, and then working with you was kind of the last part of it. I had already changed, but now I actually was trying to live in line with my values and I did that. So I feel like a branding person and now I have all this room for creativity and to help people. I’ve never in my life like I said my friends would be like what the hell is she talking about? I’ve never in my life wanted to help people but, now I care and I want to connect with people and I’m talking to random ladies at the gym. So this has just been really, really life changing and I finally feel like, if I don’t have all the freedom that I was looking for, I’m at least really close.Ella Magers: 39:20

And it’s a journey that we’re on for the rest of our lives. Right, there is no arrival.Jen Whorton: 39:24

No, and it’s kind of fun. I mean you always say play a life like a game, and once again that clicked and I think I told you I didn’t realize how funny everything is.Ella Magers: 39:34

You’d come every so many sessions and be like, wow, this thing happened and it was funny. But, it was kind of just a regular I can’t think of an example right now, but kind of just a regular thing. And you’re like this is hilarious.Jen Whorton: 39:48

I think it was the yoga class that I went to at someone’s house and I was in this like yoga shed, yoga shed, yoga shed. But it was just a normal yoga class, but like we were offside down and we were doing inversions and I was like this is hilarious. And you were like okay, yeah, yoga is funny, I guess. Yeah. Yeah, I just had so many experiences now that I’m like open to it, so it’s been fun. It was hard work, but it’s been a lot of fun.Ella Magers: 40:12

Yeah, I feel like you know, when you go to the eye doctor and they put the different lenses for you to see in front of you, it’s like switching out lenses and you’re now looking through the world. You know, as we transform, we switch out lenses and we see the world through this new lens and it opens up all sorts of ideas and opportunities and laughter and humor and love and light and just a new way of feeling and moving through the world. And, yeah, you did the work to get there and I’m so grateful to have been able to spend that time with you and Me too.Jen Whorton: 40:47

Yeah, thank you, jen. Thank you for sharing. Yeah, of course, thank you for having me my pleasure.Ella Magers: 40:58

Thanks for listening to this week’s episode of Rise and Thrive with me, ella Majors. I truly hope you found it inspiring and, if you did, please help me spread the word by leaving a rating and review on your favorite podcast player and by sharing the show with your friends. As you probably know by now, my life’s purpose is to use my voice to make this world a more conscious and compassionate place, and your reviews and shares make a huge impact. And last, I’m getting a ton of insanely positive feedback about my short and sweet monthly newsletter called the Way. Part four the Way Out is Through. I give my top five latest badass discoveries, insights and explorations, like vegan products and recipes. I’m obsessed with books and shows I’m loving and workouts that have me fired up. Head on over to my website, ellamajorscom, to sign up and check out all the other awesome resources I have for you and projects I’m involved with, including Hogs and Kisses Farm Sanctuary, where our mission is to create the best life for farm animals while inspiring compassion for all living beings. Thanks a lot, and I’ll see you on the next one.