After having her two children, Lindy C. did what many women do: She put herself on the backburner to take care of her family. Quick fixes, fast food, and freezer meals made up the bulk of her diet and, over time, she gained weight. Her aha moment, as she calls it, came in 2014 while visiting New Brunswick, Canada with friends.
They were at Hopewell Rocks along the Bay of Fundy, and her friends went down the long flight of over a hundred steps to get down to the sand. Lindy saw how many stairs there were and knew she couldn’t manage them. She said two words to herself then: “It’s time.”
She got a Fitbit® that Christmas, joined WeightWatchers®, and started exercising and eating healthier meals. A year and a half later, she had lost 82 pounds. Then one day in winter, she put her cold hands under her armpits for warmth and found a lump. She had Stage 2A breast cancer.
How she describes her diagnosis
“If I hadn’t lost weight, I never would have found the lump. My breasts were very dense and it had been there for a while. Breast cancer wasn’t in my family and I was feeling better than I had in years. It was a shock. When I asked my oncologist, he said obesity was likely the cause of my cancer.”
She soon began cancer treatment and made that her entire focus. Part of her treatment included steroids, which are known to cause weight gain. It was disheartening to see the pounds come back (she regained almost all she’d lost), but Lindy says she stayed focused on the fact she was alive, and set her mind to losing the weight again as soon as she was able. In December 2016, Lindy got the all clear—she was cancer-free—and she got right back to work on her weight loss journey, losing half of her former body weight.
Where she is today
Lindy first started sharing her story in early 2020 and emphatically said, “I’ll never gain the weight back.” Today, she’s still down 100 pounds, but weight has started to creep back on again. Almost 10 years later, she’s recommitted to her goals and continuing her health and weight-loss journey.
She says she’s more determined than ever to stay healthy—and stay cancer free. “My why is to age gracefully to hopefully never get cancer again.” Every day, she makes it a point to walk, and she’s on a dragon boat racing team with other breast cancer survivors!
Why she’s stuck with WeightWatchers
“For me, it was the one (and only!) program that before I first joined, I did not feel the need to go out and binge on everything I wouldn’t be allowed to eat. Nothing is off limits, and when you have a strong emotional connection to food, that fact is comforting. Something about the program just connected with me. I didn’t have to deprive myself.”
Over time, her relationship with food has improved and she now has the upper hand—in the past, food could control her. “As I’ve continued on my journey, I find I have less and less connection to these foods and their control over me,” Lindy says, referring to the unhealthy foods that used to make up the bulk of her diet. “I rarely eat them because, quite honestly, I don’t desire them anymore. Life is unbelievably fantastic without the weight of food’s control!”
Borrow Lindy's best advice
With everything she has accomplished, we asked Lindy what advice she’d give to others who want to make lifestyle changes.
- Set goals. “Willpower doesn’t last,” she says, explaining that regularly setting new goals and making plans will help you stay motivated on your health and fitness journey.
- Don't give yourself a timeline. “It can be too overwhelming—especially if you’re like me and had 100+ pounds to lose,” she says. “Just focus on smaller goals.”
- Remember, food’s not gonna fix it. “That’s what I tell myself after a tough day, like when I was waiting for my most recent scan results.”
- Clean out your kitchen. “You have to have a clean environment,” Lindy says. If there are a lot of unhealthy foods hanging around your kitchen, she says, donate it, freeze it or toss it.
- Meal prep. “Plan for that success,” says Lindy. Preparing healthy meals ahead of time is something she finds helpful.
- Do a soft start. Committing to a program like WeightWatchers or making any kind of healthy lifestyle changes can be overwhelming. “I know it’s scary,” Lindy says. If it’s feeling like too much all at once, you can take small steps. Pick one thing to focus on, such as eating a healthy breakfast, going for a walk a few times a week or drinking more water every day. Then once that’s an established part of your routine, you can add in another healthy habit, and then another. And remember, on WeightWatchers, Lindy says, “Nothing is off limits. Everything in moderation.”
Photo from People Magazine "Half their size" issue