The Weigh In: Julie Rice on how building community sustains health.

This season’s final episode is a conversation with Julie Rice, the chief experience officer at Weight Watchers and co-founder of SoulCycle. An expert in creating community, Rice weighs in on the crucial role human connection plays when embarking on and sustaining a wellness journey, and what her own career and relationship to her body have taught her about why “it’s more fun” and empowering to pursue health “in a room full of people who are rooting for you.”

Watch the full conversation above, listen in on your preferred podcast platform, or read the highlights below.  

These are the kinds of real, honest questions — and much more about weight, health, and GLP-1s — you’ll find being discussed on The Weigh In, a new weekly podcast from Weight Watchers. It’s hosted by Samhita Mukhopadhyay, a journalist, author, and head of content at Weight Watchers. (As always, this is for education purposes. Talk to your doctor for questions about your health.)

On that life-changing Weight Watchers meeting — in a Studio City strip mall

“Just leaving my desk at 6 to make this meeting was such a monumental achievement for me, because normally I would just sit there and sit there. It was a war of attrition — ‘last person out.’ I went to this meeting, and I walked in and I looked around, and at the time, I was, you know, 25, 26 years old. . .and I thought, ‘Oh, I have nothing in common with anybody here. People are older. People have children.’ And we weren't three minutes into the meeting [when] I thought, ‘Oh my goodness. . .every one of us is alike. I'm every one of you.’ Every inner thought that somebody was having and was willing to express verbally in the circle just made me feel like, ‘This is incredible. I have all these thoughts going on in my head and so do you, and now we can sort through them together? In a place where it's okay to say what's in your mind?’ [The meeting] became my ritual. I would always hear something in that room that [rang] true to me.”

On what community means — and why it’s “fundamental” 

“[Community is] being a part of a group where you matter, where somebody remembers that last week you were stuck, but this week you lost half a pound, and that mattered. Where somebody knows your name, where somebody is cheering for you, where even in your lowest, most embarrassed moment, you can. . .feel like, ‘These people love me anyway.’ That is really what community is. It’s not only finding that support, but being that support. . .[because you also] feel like you matter when you give to other people. So whether you're the source of the inspiration, or whether you're receiving the inspiration. . .[both are] very fundamental to people.

When I started SoulCycle, what I quickly began to understand was that people thought they were coming to lose weight. They thought they wanted to be, you know, one size down in their jeans.  But what they really were coming back for was each other. And I remember in the beginning. . .I had maybe 10 customers in a day. I'd come from a big corporate job, so I would challenge myself: ‘Let me learn everyone's name today, or let me remember their shoe size, so before they get here and ask me for shoes, I already have a 41 waiting for Julie.’ Or, I [would] remember that they like their water at room temperature or cold. It’s a real difference maker for people along a journey, especially [one] like weight loss. . .to have that support, to have people acknowledging you while you are doing it.

 [My partner and I] quickly understood [that coming to the class] was really a human experience. And I like to say that after the first two and three studios [opened], what ultimately happened was, you know, we could have taken the bikes out, we could have put tambourines in that room. It wouldn't have mattered because people stopped coming for the workout and they started really coming for each other.”

On the importance of support on a health journey

“I went to this one [Weight Watchers] meeting, and slowly but surely I started to unpack all of these pieces of myself. I think that's the same thing that happened to people at SoulCycle. I like to say to people, if you can just get yourself into those rooms, that is what is so magical about support. Because if you can carry yourself there, then other people will [help] carry you once you get there.

 It's no doubt that I gained 40 pounds in the pandemic. Why? Because I didn't have 50 people waiting for me in a room knowing they were gonna cheer me on. I like to do things with people. It keeps me going. It lifts me up. And. . . it’s  really. . .why I came to this company. It's amazing we have this built-in support system, and I think people think it's a cherry on top or it's a nice to have, and I actually think it's the exact opposite. It is the thing that makes a difference. It is the thing that you can come back to time after time that will reengage with you, that will lift you up again, that will say, ‘It's okay that you blew it last time. We'll take you back.’ Right? And I think [that is] what creates lifelong change. Not just: ‘let me do this for a minute.’”

The shift in her own GLP-1 story — and why she’s taking one

“Look, I hit menopause, I turned 50, I was locked in my house during COVID, came out two and a half years later to find that. . .not only did I have PTSD from. . .being in my house for two years with my children, but I had gained 45 pounds. 

I ran a big exercise company. I have all the tools. If anybody knows how to lose weight, I [do]. I've worked with teams of exercise physiologists. I get it. I understand. And I tried. I tried everything that I've done my whole life. Lost three pounds, gained two back. Lost five pounds, gained four back.  And I did this for over a year. 

Friends of mine were taking GLP-1s. I judged them relentlessly. I would come home and say to my husband, ‘Ugh, so and so is taking this, they're cheating. So and so's doing that, I'm not gonna do that 'cause I know how to do this.’ I didn’t know how to get rid of that stigma for myself.  [At that time people] kind of felt like it was one or the other: Were you gonna do it the right way, or were you gonna cheat and do it with the shot? Right? What I didn't understand, and what I think people still don't understand, is it's both. What the shot does is it gives [me] the space and the capacity to make the changes that [I] may have made before, but [was] able to make for six months or a year, and then they became unsustainable, or it became every waking moment of [my] day to fight the food noise. And what these drugs can do, again, if they're right for you, they're not right for every person, but if you are a person that they are right for, is [the medication] can actually be the window that opens that allows you to make the change.”

On the evolving WW Workshop

“As we begin to incorporate new tools and keep up with science and medications. . . we also, of course, need to incorporate new modalities of the way that we meet with each other. What we're really working on now is understanding that people engage digitally in different ways. People want all different types of formats, and what we have now is something for everyone. So if you want to go to a traditional Weight Watchers meeting where the Coach leads the meeting, and you have a topic, and everybody gets a chance to share and ask questions, we have 11,000 of those a week, literally. 

You never have to be alone. If you wanna talk about something that feels kind of private, you can go to our Real Room on Tuesday nights, where we talk about things where we get really real. We talk about skin — extra skin. We talk about: Do I wanna have sex anymore? We talk about all those things.

So we're really expanding the ability to meet digitally, to find human connection through our computer screens because we know it's a busy life. And what we've really found is that people are so much more likely to succeed on these programs, especially for the long term, when you actually do engage with other people every single week on a consistent basis.”

WeightWatchers does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment through community workshops or experiences. All medical services are provided through our affiliated medical group, WeightWatchers Clinic. Medications require eligibility and prescription.

Achieving ‘holistic’ success after weight loss

“Maintenance is absolutely the hardest part of the journey. There's nothing exciting about maintaining. You don't get a gold star. You don't get a new outfit. You just get to be the same. And in a world where. . .we're all used to dopamine hits. . .the thrill of losing 5 pounds, 10 pounds, 100 pounds. . .it lasts for however long it lasts for. But then you're kind of stuck with this idea that, ‘Wow, I made these changes, and now I have to do them forever.’ There's that cliché where everybody always says losing the weight is the easy part, and I really do believe that. And so I do think that the beauty of having these groups, of having this weekly check-in, this weekly accountability. . .it's like a little deposit in the bank that can last you another week.

I remember negotiating with myself before I started [a GLP-1 journey]. I remember sitting down and saying, ‘Okay, if I am going to start these drugs, I am going to make a plan to strength train three days a week. I'm going to track my food so that I'm having the right protein with this. I am going to check into my bone density and get a DEXA before and midway through.’ And I do think there is something about setting yourself up for holistic success on these [prescription medications]. I do think there is something about making that promise to yourself in the beginning that you are going to do these things simultaneously. . .setting yourself up to have the support you need, having the supervision of a doctor, all of those things.”

Reflections on her journey thus far — and what’s ahead

“Something that I've learned about all of the journeys, whether it's with my weight or with business or with motherhood or any of the things, it's really about not comparing yourself to the person next to you, and with that is actually such a peace. I no longer feel like what the person next to me is doing has much to do with what I am doing and I truly feel that. I can embrace and support other people because I'm genuinely happy for them because I've come far enough in the world now where I feel happy with what I've done and what I have. [And] when you ask about the next health journey, I think about. . .just getting stronger and getting old and being happier. But I think that there's a certain generosity that comes along with not feeling like you need to compete or strive or all that kind of stuff and it actually makes me feel really proud of myself.”