From Feeling Self-conscious to Embracing Confidence with Paulette Szalay

Do you know that it is never too late to transform your life?
Struggling with her weight for much of her life, Paulette faced the challenge of losing over 90 pounds at 57 years old—a feat she accomplished through sheer determination and a mindset shift that changed her life. Through reclaiming her health and identity, she is now leading a career in modeling and acting, now a beacon of hope for others seeking transformation. 
Paulette’s work is changing lives by helping others on their weight loss journeys and proving that with the right mindset, anything is possible.
Get to know more about her journey in this inspiring episode of the podcast.
To learn more about myself, Michael Esposito, and find out about public speaking workshops, coaching, and keynote speaking options, and - of course - to be inspired, visit www.michaelespositoinc.com
The Michael Esposito Show is hosted by Michael Esposito and produced by iHeartMedia Hudson Valley. Be sure to subscribe on iHeart Media, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, TuneIn, Google Play, YouTube, or the podcasting app of your choice.
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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
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(00:21):
Hello all, my entrepreneurs and business leaders, and welcome to
the Michael Esposito Show, where I interview titans of industry
in order to inform, educate, and.

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Inspire you to be great.

Speaker 1 (00:33):
My guest today is an inspiring woman who lost over
ninety pounds. She now shares her story as a message
of hope and to inspire others to live a healthy life.
As a chemistry and physics teacher, she's inspiring her students
to go after their dreams as well. Because she's not
just solving equations and doing math experiments. She's also an

(00:58):
actress and model. She just completed her second fashion show
and she already has appeared in a commercial and as
a stand in for the star of the Real Housewives
of Miami. Please welcome teacher, actress, fashion model, and my
new friend, Paulette Zally.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
Welcome to the show.

Speaker 3 (01:20):
Paulette, Hi, Michael, Thank you so much for having me
here today. I'm so excited to be here.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Yeah, this is pretty cool to have you on. We
first met on the set of Michelle's show, which was
really cool, pretty cool experience getting to meet you in
person a while back and hearing your story and I
remember when we met and hearing your story and you
sharing the magazine that you're in and we'll talk more

(01:46):
about that and your journey. I was like, oh my goodness,
I got to have this woman on. I don't know
what she does, I don't know anything about her yet,
but I know that her story is inspiring. And you
shared a lot about that with us, about how you're
goal is to inspire others, and so I can't wait
to learn more about your story and where you got started.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
That's awesome. Thank you so much. Well, my story starts
about a year and a half ago. It was April
of April twelfth, twenty twenty two, to be exact, it
was Easter Sunday. My family and I traveled to Florida
and What's Florida known for their beaches, and of course

(02:28):
we on Easter Sunday decided that morning we were going
to go to the beach. Juno beach and we kind
of sat around, you know, just kind of taking it
all in. And of course everyone on the beach were
from zero age to ninety nine. We're wearing bathing suits,

(02:49):
except for myself. I was not wearing a bathing suit.
I was fully clothed from head to toe because I
was weighing at that time two hundred and fifty two
pounds and only being five feet four inches, and so
I'm very self conscious of myself in what I look
like and how I felt. It was. It was really

(03:13):
a dark time, you know, at that at that moment,
and you know, we were kind of sitting on the
beach and I'm under the umbrella, kind of looking around,
and I'm like, wow, all these people are really enjoying
the sun, They're enjoying the sand, they're enjoying the ocean,
and you hear laughter and just you know, people enjoying themselves.

(03:37):
And I was absolutely miserable. I was just underneath the umbrella,
fully clothed, sweating, and I just said, you know what,
I think, this is it. I can't do this anymore.
That was the first day, I believe of the rest

(03:57):
of my life, and so my mindset changed. It was
just a snap, literally a snap, and I said, no,
I am going to change this is this, I can't
have this. I want to be in a bathing suit.
I want to be able to go swimming and enjoy,
you know, the water. I want to be able to
lay out on a towel, you know, in the sun,

(04:18):
getting tan in a bathing suit, you know, not in
dark clothing from you know, neck to socks. And so
that's where it began that day.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
Yeah, I have a few questions for you in that
story there, and I'm interested to go a little bit
further back actually for a little context for our listeners.
I am five ten and I weigh one hundred and
eighty pounds. I had a little bit of a weight
loss journey myself, now as extreme as yours. I was

(04:55):
at about two hundred and I want to say five
or ten pounds. I think it was my like more
recent peak, I suppose, And that was about I want
to say a year and a half, maybe going on
two years ago that I had hit to ten call it,
and I decided to start a diet of fasting and
really really enjoy it to the point where I continue

(05:17):
it today and really just it energizes me and everything.
But really, what I'm trying to provide here some context
for everybody in that I was at two ten and
I'm five ten, and I'm athletic, I play sports, I
play basketball, I do all these other things. But I
was feeling heavy. I was feeling self conscious, and that's

(05:37):
at five ten to ten. You're five feet and you
were at two fifty, and so I could only imagine
how self conscious you were at that time. What I
know about myself is there was a journey that got
me to the two ten. There were habits that I
had in place. There were things that I thought I

(06:00):
couldn't get rid of. There were foods that I thought
I couldn't get rid of, There were there was a
lifestyle that I thought I couldn't change. And eventually, of course,
with this major desire for myself to get fit and
to get healthier, I was able to shed some of that.
I'm interested in your story as to what were some
of the things that you grew up with that maybe

(06:21):
going back to your childhood, were staples, comfort foods, comfort
type of habits that you had to shift in this journey.

Speaker 3 (06:31):
Absolutely so, I am Italian, and what did we you know,
growing up back in the day, you grew up with pasta.
Pasta and bread, those were there. Those were two staple foods, right,
And so what how I grew up was that you
eat not just one bowl of pasta. You have two

(06:52):
bowls of pasta, right, and then you put the regotta,
and you put the cheese, and you put you know,
a side of fried eggplant on there, and you have
your side of fried chicken cutlets. And that's a heavy,
heavy meal.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Don't forget the bread to scoop it all up with.

Speaker 3 (07:13):
With the butter, to scoop up the sauce and all
of that great stuff.

Speaker 1 (07:16):
Right.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
So the funny thing is, you know, at European time,
on a Sunday would be at three o'clock that would
be dinner, and so that was the time that we
ate this big heavy meal, and so that would be
our meal for the rest of that that that day.
But you know, but then there was pasta on Wednesdays,
you know, in the middle of the week. So what

(07:39):
I didn't realize is my mindset growing up being Italian,
this is how we're supposed to eat. This is you know, this,
this is the right way to eat. But the pounds
just started to continue to you know, I started to
put on pounds as I got right and so you know,

(07:59):
but I just continued to say, you know, this is
the right way. This is our culture. You know, this
is how we eat. My grandmother, if I went by
her house and I didn't eat, it was like I
committed a crime.

Speaker 1 (08:11):
You know.

Speaker 3 (08:11):
You have to go and you have to eat, and
you have to eat big. You know, you can't just
say no, I'll have a salad. No, no salad, what salad?

Speaker 2 (08:17):
Right, there's a sense of pride.

Speaker 1 (08:19):
And I am half Italian and I know exactly what
you're talking about. There's a sense of pride, right of
like going for seconds.

Speaker 2 (08:26):
Oh, he's a grow like for me.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
As a as a as a guy, right for he's
a growing boy, you know, And you got to have
that second bowl of pasta.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
You got to have those seconds.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
And like you said, I, if you don't eat their food,
it's insulting, it's.

Speaker 3 (08:42):
Offended. And you know, manga manga, you know, just keep eating.
And I'm like, okay, I'm going to burst here. But
that was our culture. That was my mindset. This is
this is the right thing to do. If I don't
do it. I'm gonna I don't want to insult my grandmother.

(09:02):
I can't do that, you know. So but as we
got older, you know, as I got older, the metabolism
started to slow down and the weight was just not
coming off. And later to compound that, I have a
thyroid issue as well, a low thyroid So those combination

(09:23):
of things, just the pounds just started to started to wait.
But then I started to just feel comfortable and say, ah, this,
I guess this is my way of life. This is
how I'm going to be for the rest of my life.
And I had that mindset for a very very long time.
But as I had that mindset, I just felt, you know,

(09:46):
really bad about myself because I would I would run
away from the mirror, like I would not even look
at myself in the mirror. I would only look at
myself in the mirror to put my makeup on real
quick then and then leave. You know. It would never
you know, I was always in the dark, or you know,
I would always want to hide or you know, no pictures.
I would never be in a picture, a family picture.

(10:08):
I would be like either hiding in the back or
to the side, you know, or just waving.

Speaker 1 (10:15):
But never have you know, tell us about that feeling
of comfort because so many you know, this podcast is
very oriented towards businesses and executives and entrepreneurs, and today
we're talking about a personal story that has nothing to
do with a business, It has nothing to do with

(10:36):
being an executive or any other sort, yet it impacts
every one of them, everyone who's listening, because we all
deal with different types of hurdles in our health, in
our weight, in the way we feel about ourselves, and
then of course in the sense of being comfortable, in
being in that space where we're just like, you know what,

(10:57):
this is just my life. I'm not going to start
that new business. This is just my life. I'm not
going to go for that promotion or in what you're
talking about is this is just my life.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
I don't need to lose weight. I'm just going to
continue this way.

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Share with us a little bit about the feelings in
that comfort and why why we lean into that when
we're in that place.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
Well, it's interesting that you mentioned that because I'm an educator,
so I affect many many lives as you know, children's lives,
parent lives, you know, colleagues who I work with, and
so the confidence level started to dwindle, and I started
to always second guess myself, you know, even though it

(11:39):
you know, education is not really a business in essence,
it could be a business right within the classroom. So
that operation itself. I started to second guess myself on
my skills. And you know, the kids could be cruel,
you know, they wouldn't make fun of me all the time.
Oh here she comes, you know, like you know, she's

(12:02):
waddling through the you know, through the hallway, or she's
waddling through the classroom. Here she goes. I was always
out of breath walking up the stairs, you know, carrying books.
It was just very, very difficult, you know, for me.
But I just felt complacent and I just felt that
this is the way my life is going to be,
you know, and that's it. And I kept blaming my thyroid.

(12:24):
I kept saying, oh, I have a thyroid problem. You know,
this is my problem. In the meantime, I'm still eating,
you know, eating the way I'm I'm accustomed to eat eating.
And then I would make excuses, you know, there would
be a lot of excuses. You know, you know, it's okay,
I can go and have that, you know, ice cream

(12:45):
for dessert, or you know, just have one. I'll be okay,
you know, it's fine. Or you know, maybe I'll just
have one bowl of pasta now and then maybe i'll
have another one later. You know, I'll separate it and
it'll be fine. Or I'll take the rig off the off,
or I'll take the cheese off. You know. These were
all excuses that I was saying in my mind how

(13:07):
to justify, you know, how I was feeling. But the
sad part is that the more I kept justifying, the
worse I was feeling about myself, and the more I
kept eating. And the two hundred and fifty two pounds
was like the most I had ever ever weighed in

(13:28):
my entire life. And that was the breaking point where
I couldn't you know, walk anymore. I was the acid
reflux was horrible. I couldn't sleep at night. I literally
had to sleep with three pillows or sleep you know,
on a wedge in order for me to be able
to sleep at night. And then many times I would

(13:49):
wake up through the night and not get a great
night sleep at all. So it affected so many areas
of my life, and you know, people kept saying to me,
you know, hey, why don't you try to lose a
couple of pounds, you know, try to, you know, just
take it slow, just take a couple of pounds, and

(14:10):
I would lose maybe five pounds and then go right
back to those old eating habits again. And it was
it's definitely a mindset because I try to. You can
call it a diet, you can call it a life change,
you can call it whatever you want. But if your
mindset hasn't changed, you're not going to change. You're just

(14:31):
going to revert back to that unhealthy lifestyle.

Speaker 1 (14:35):
Yeah, there has to be a bigger desire in all
of that. I'm very interested in what that is for you.
And I know, like you know, just going back to
my experience with it all, for me, there was a
bigger desire.

Speaker 3 (14:45):
You know.

Speaker 1 (14:46):
I weighed in at two ten and for me, one,
I didn't feel healthy, and then two I consider myself athletic,
and I wasn't moving as fast as I wanted to move.
And I know that I I like to move fast.
I like to be able. We were just talking about
that before. I said, I'm the kype of guy who
flies by the seat.

Speaker 2 (15:05):
Of my pants.

Speaker 1 (15:05):
And so I like to be able to move fast,
and so I had this bigger desire of you know,
I play basketball. I want to be healthy to be
able to play basketball and be able to run up
and down the court and not feel winded. I want
to be able to of course run with my girls
and run with my kids and feel healthy and feel
strong and feel good. And so I have this bigger desire.
And so I'm interested with you in the mindset shift

(15:28):
because you said you tried other diets, you tried other
ways of losing weight, and yet you went back to
your old ways. And of course it's a cycle, right
because you're doing it, but you're not getting to where
you want to be, and so you just don't feel
good about yourself.

Speaker 2 (15:40):
So what's feeling good?

Speaker 1 (15:41):
A boulapasta? We're just using the bowl of pasta is
of course our example for all the foods. So what
was the bigger desire for you in all of this?

Speaker 3 (15:52):
So I think the bigger desire was I needed to
feel healthy and I wanted to live a longer life
space for my granddaughter because I'm a grandmother. My granddaughter
is going to be ten years old this year, and
I want to be able to see her, you know,
get married one day. And I want to have great grandchildren,

(16:14):
so and I want to be around them, you know.
And I said that day on the beach was the
turning point for me. And I said, Nope, I have
to do something. This is it I'm going to start,
you know, I'm going to just completely change my life.
And I did say that I was going to you know,

(16:37):
seek out maybe a surgeon and have the sleeve done, uh,
just to get started with the weight loss and then
kind of take it from there. And when I went
back to Jersey, I started researching you know, healthy ways
of losing weight, you know, use not using you know,

(16:59):
any kind of medication or things of that nature. You know.
I wanted to do it naturally, but have the gastric
sleeve to get started. And so I signed up at
the gym I plan a fitness locally here in my town.
And I'll never forget the first day that I went

(17:23):
because I'm here two hundred and fifty two pounds at
five feet four inches, right, and so I'm the kind
of person who would wear all kinds of wraps, right,
so you can't can see what my body look like.
And So there, I am in the sweatpants, this huge sweatshirt,
and I am going to go on the treadmill for

(17:44):
the first time ever. That's intimidating, very intimidating, right, And
I get on the treadmill and I'm going to go
full force. Well I could not keep up with it.
I literally it literally slung me back and I flung
back off of the off of the off of the

(18:05):
treadmill and fell fell right on my button.

Speaker 2 (18:09):
Oh my goodness.

Speaker 3 (18:10):
Yeah, and everybody and I couldn't get up. That was
the funniest part. The funniest part. I could not get
up off off the floor.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
You're saying the funniest part. Were you laughing in that moment?

Speaker 3 (18:21):
I mean, now I'm laughing, right, laughing then right, okay,
not laughing at right. So I'm it's funny now, but
not that okay. So there the workers come over. They're
all trying to pick me up, you know, like it
was the craziest, craziest thing, and so they're like, you
have to start a little bit slower. You know, they're

(18:41):
not going to lose this weight in five minutes, right,
So you know, I got I was embarrassed. I got
back on and there I am literally just walking for
about five minutes. And after the walk of five minutes,
I was totally out of breath. I said, this is it.
I can't do it. I can't do anymore. That was

(19:02):
my first experience was that.

Speaker 1 (19:04):
You're saying you only walked for about five minutes, and
so yeah, for me, that's that's hard to understand because
of my lifestyle and where I've been. Explain a little
bit about that to us in that walking for five
minutes was challenging.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
So did you not walk before that? What was what
was your lifestyle.

Speaker 1 (19:24):
From So we spoke about the food wise of eating
and over eating and indulging, but what was the active
part of your life?

Speaker 3 (19:33):
Like, there wasn't that. There was not one active piece
of my life. I would literally come home, I would
sit down and grade papers, you know, do lessons for
the next day. You know, I would cook and then
do you know, do the dishes afterwards. That was my

(19:54):
extent of exercise. I did absolutely nothing. So you can
see how these pounds just started to write.

Speaker 1 (20:03):
Your metabolism wasn't moving, nothing was happening.

Speaker 3 (20:06):
Nothing, okay, shut down. So literally, when I tell you,
walking up a few stairs in the school was very
difficult for me. There were many times I took the
elevator and not not do the stairs. So for five
minutes on a treadmill, I was totally out of breath.
Oh wow, I totally can't do this. But then you know,

(20:29):
that mindset kicked in and said, no, you can do this.
Do five minutes every day and see what happens. Maybe
at the end of the week you can do ten minutes.
So in my mindset, I knew that this was I
was in this for the long haul. This was not
going to be a diet in two months. I'm going
to lose sixty pounds. I knew that this was going

(20:50):
to take time. And once that mindset kicked in that
I knew this was going to it took me a
long time to get where I was. I set two
hundred and fifty two pounds. Now it's going to take
me a long time to undo this. So literally I
went into the gym almost every day for the first

(21:11):
three weeks, for a month, and so by the time
the end of the week came, I was on the
treadmill for about fifteen minutes the first week, and I
felt okay, like I was. I'm like, I knew that
was my limit, but I'm okay, But that's all I
could do. I couldn't do any of anything else. I
couldn't do the weights, they couldn't do you know, the elliptical.

(21:34):
I couldn't do the bicycle, or I just did the treadmill.
That was it. Just the cardio and then a little
at a time. You know, day by day, I just
started to add one more machine, even if it was
just for two or three minutes, I just added one
more machine. And now here, almost two years later, I'm

(21:54):
in the gym three to four times a week, an
hour and a half to two hours each each time,
doing every probably every machine that's there in the gym.
And it's amazing how when you put your mind to
something that this is what you want to do, it's

(22:16):
just amazing what you can accomplish. And I, you know,
my goal is to motivate people, especially I'm now fifty
nine years old, and you know, I'm a grandmother, and
I know if I can do it, anyone can do it.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:34):
I'm just positive.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
Tell us about your support system because I remember you
sharing the story and it was very vivid in that
you know, you guys went to a restaurant and everybody's ordering,
and everybody's used to you ordering certain foods, but that
was it. You kind of laid down what you're going
to eat and you're going to share that part of it.
But everyone around you supported you and what you were doing.

(23:01):
And I thought that that was, you know, just beautiful,
and you shared it from a family but also from
from the.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
Kids that you teach.

Speaker 1 (23:09):
So I'd love if you could share some more about
that with us.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
Absolutely. So the day that I decided that this was
going to be the first day the rest of my life,
the April twelfth of twenty twenty twenty one. Actually it
was twenty twenty one, because it's almost too.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Twenty twenty two.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
Yeah, we're in twenty four. That day we went to
an Italian restaurant, of.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
Course, of course, probably your favorite restaurant too, right.

Speaker 3 (23:37):
Right, It was beautiful, like the setting was gorgeous. You know,
the boats were out there, you know, on the water,
and this is Easter, right, this was Easter, which which.

Speaker 1 (23:48):
You know, you know, for for audience members, there are
some some high holy holidays and every religion and every
culture in the Italian of course, we have Christmas, but
Easter is a big one, and it is I mean
I remember Easter dinners. I mean my my father would
make all sorts of food. My grandmother would make all
sorts of food, and you know, the lamb and the
rabbit and all these different types of dishes, and they're

(24:12):
all coming out in the same day and you're at
the table.

Speaker 2 (24:14):
For hours, for hours.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
This is this is big and not to count all
the cookies and all the different things afterwards that you're having.
So this is part of part of our culture which
you was, which you spoke about earlier, is a holiday
where starting a diet is certainly challenging.

Speaker 3 (24:33):
Very challenging. And there were probably I think maybe there
were about ten of us there at the table, and
you know, they go with the waiters going around, and
they came to me the last and they're expecting me
to order some you know, pasta dish with you know,
some shrimps, scampy and you know, you know, appetizers and

(24:56):
all of that, and I said, I will have a
grou rilled salmon with steam vegetables. When I tell you that,
you could hear a pin drop at the table. It
was so quiet. And then My daughter was like, Oh,
that's interesting, that's a different order. You're not having pasta

(25:20):
and I said, no, I'm not. I said. That's when
I made the announcement. And I said, you know what.
We were on the beach today, and you know, I'm
looking around. Everybody's enjoying themselves in bathing suits and having
a wonderful time, and here I am sitting under an umbrella,
fully clothed, sweating profusely. Because I don't want anybody to
see what I look like. I said, this is the

(25:43):
first day of the rest of my life. And that's
when I made the announcement to my family, and they
were very supportive right from the go. They were like, wow, okay,
you know, we want to see that you're going to
follow through with this. You know, we've seen you do
this before. But they were there and they were very supportive,

(26:04):
and I have to share this with you. Every week
that I would get on the scale. So every Saturday morning,
I would get on the scale, and the first week
I lost ten pounds, literally lost ten pounds. The second
week I lost seven, and of course it started to
dwindle from there, but I would I had a support
group of my colleagues of teachers and so all my

(26:27):
fellow science teachers. I would you know, text of I
lost ten pounds and then you know, the encouragement started
to roll in, and it was amazing how supportive I had.
I had support system not only at home but also
at school. And you know this over the summertime, I
don't see them, but yet they were still being very

(26:48):
supportive of me in my journey. And so they were
like my cheerleaders, literally my cheerleaders. That off September, we
came back to school after I had started, you know,
this weight loss journey, and I had a loss probably
at that point about forty five or fifty pounds. And

(27:10):
so I came back to school and one of my students,
my new students for the new year, was wearing this
beautiful sweater and I loved the sweater that she was wearing.
And you know, they all noticed how much weight, and
all the encouragement from the kids were like, miss Sally,
well so much weight, My goodness, you look wonderful. And

(27:31):
I said, seen this sweater that she was wearing. I
complimented her on it, and I asked her, you know
where did you get that sweater? And She was like,
you can't buy that sweater in the store and I said,
why not? She said, because I modeled for a designer.
I'm a model. I'd modeled for a designer and a
fashion show a few weeks ago. And he gave me
the sweater and I said, oh, you model. And you know,

(27:54):
I started asking her questions and I said, you know,
this was something I've always wanted to do, but couldn't ever, ever,
ever even think of modeling. And she said to me,
you know what, she said, I you lost so much weight,
you look amazing. I want you to meet my agent.

(28:15):
And she connected me with her agent, and sure enough,
we had a meeting. I met with the entire staff
and I signed. A couple days later, I signed a
contract with them. And it has been an amazing journey,
you know since then, you know, for modeling, it's been

(28:35):
it's been amazing. To rewind.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
Yeah, rewind.

Speaker 3 (28:41):
I was just gonna rewind for a moment. I wanted
to go back, you know, to mentioning that I did see,
you know, a gastric physician to have that surgery, and
she had said, listen, I need you to lose about
twenty pounds before we can do the surgery just to
make things a little bit easier on you, because you're

(29:02):
at a weight that's very very dangerous, very dangerous. And
that's when I said, I don't even know if I
could do this, but I'm going to try. I really am.
I'm really going to try. And so I at that point,
I had seen the doctor that September where I had
lost the forty pounds already, and she's like, listen, I

(29:25):
cannot do the surgery on you. You're losing the weight on
your own. You have to do this on your own.
So for a surgeon who just gave up a lot
of money for surgery said to me, you don't need
to do this this You're going to do this on
your own. And I was just like, Okay, I'm going

(29:46):
to try it. And to this date, I lost one
hundred and five.

Speaker 2 (29:50):
Pounds without without the surgery. That's so cool.

Speaker 1 (29:53):
And what you know, I ask about the support system
because it's so important. You know, when you're on you know,
a path like this and you have so many challenges
to overcome from old habits and cultural norms that you're breaking.
And then, of course, as you just mentioned in terms
of lifestyle of your activity from not having much activity

(30:15):
to then adding activity. A couple things I want to
mention here in terms of your physical activity for everyone
in that we talk about habit stacking here on the show.
We talk about it in the entrepreneurial space and the
different ways we can add new habits and better habits
in our life. And you mentioned it in terms of

(30:35):
your physical fitness, and that you did five miles excuse me,
five minutes one day, then you added to fifteen minutes.
Then you added a machine, then you added another machine.
And this is essentially habit stacking by going by creating
the habit to go to your local gym is one habit,
then expanding on it by getting on the treadmill, expanding

(30:56):
on it by going to a different machine, a different machine,
a different machine, to the point where you were there
for maybe fifteen minutes the first day, to where now
you said you're there for an hour or more now
because now you probably also have a community there in
a social setting, as I know about the gym. And
so this is all habit stacking, and it applies to
our lives in so many ways, and for you it
was tremendous. The other reason why I want to bring

(31:17):
up the support system is because I had the pleasure
of meeting your husband, who you know, I'm sure I
could just tell by your relationship that from when I
met you, guys, it didn't bother him one way or
another what you look like or where you were at.
But his smile was ear to ear when I met him,
and it really lightens up when you talk about your

(31:38):
health and being a healthier person. And you spoke and
we're going to speak about this today a lot about
that about your health. Before we get into the health
side of things, which we will, I want to speak
a little bit more on the modeling that you kind
of just brought up now. And the reason for that

(32:00):
is because part of you signing this signing with this
agent is it led you to so many different opportunities,
and one of which was being on or being highlighted
or centerfold in a magazine, a local magazine.

Speaker 2 (32:16):
Could you share more about that.

Speaker 3 (32:17):
With us, Absolutely. So. The journey really began at a
fashion show last February and a local newspaper had came
to do a story on me and my weight loss
and how I became a model an actress, you know,

(32:37):
just at my age, my age. You know, he was
just like flabbergasted that you know that this is really
happening to a grandmother who you know, she lost all
this weight and is you know, coming out into to
this new career. And so they did a two page

(33:00):
article not only online but in the actual newspaper. They
also did a video of me as well, and from
there it just kind of snowbolled. So from that one
newspaper article, I had first for Women Magazine reach out
to me. They also wanted to do an article on

(33:22):
my weight loss and share, you know, my tips and
what I did to help stay motivated to lose this weight.
And that article came out in May of twenty twenty three.
That was last year. And it's been a wonderful journey
just just meeting people too, you know, just connecting and

(33:44):
networking with new people. It's just amazing. And I just
had a wonderful time just you know, explaining what I did,
where my mindset was, and what my goals are. And
like I said, I just met so many wonderful people
along the way. It's been awesome. And from there I

(34:09):
did I just recently in the October twelfth issue of
twenty twenty three was on the cover of Women's World
magazine and they also did a two page spread on
my weight loss journey. And if anything, my goal is
really to help motivate people that it doesn't matter where

(34:32):
you are in terms of your age, in terms of
your weight, you can do whatever you want at any
given time, like you can just say, this is it.
I'm going to change my life. I want to be healthier,
and so that's that's the main goal here, is to

(34:54):
help motivate people to do what they want to do
because life is su and you know, it's never I
feel like it's never too late to just change your
life right then and there whenever you want right there. Yes,
that's what I did. It was just that one day
I said I'm changing my life, this is it, and
I did it.

Speaker 2 (35:15):
That's incredible. And I know you have the magazines with you.
So for for our audio.

Speaker 1 (35:19):
Listeners, of course you're not going to be able to
see this, but you could always go to my YouTube
channel and you'll be able to see them. But can
you can you show them for do you have do
you have them in front of you there?

Speaker 2 (35:27):
Let me see.

Speaker 3 (35:28):
This is the first for women magazine.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Right right, the first for women magazine. And there's links
in your Instagram profile which will be all in the
show notes here that you can see it.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
So that's pretty cool.

Speaker 3 (35:41):
So this was the first magazine and then the Women's
World magazine. I'm on with Harney Wilson. Yes you could
see me, yep, yeah, then here I am.

Speaker 2 (35:53):
And it's got the before and after.

Speaker 3 (35:55):
And before and after.

Speaker 1 (35:56):
Yes you can see incredible, yes, incredible and so and
you know for for our audio listeners here what you know.
Of course you can see the magazines like I just mentioned.
But the reason why I want you to show that
is because I remember seeing it and the difference in
your body language in those pictures. So when you see
the picture of you the before, you're slenched over, you're

(36:19):
kind of like half smiling. It's like, I don't even
think we see your teeth in that smile.

Speaker 2 (36:23):
Right, I don't think, right right, just.

Speaker 1 (36:26):
Just slenched over and as you said, you were, you know,
in that dark place.

Speaker 2 (36:30):
And then the.

Speaker 1 (36:32):
Now picture or then picture, because it's only it's a
few months ago of you just standing upright, shoulders back,
hands on your hips, just this smile. Just ear to
ear and and you're still keeping up with it. And
that's just so cool and so so beautiful to see.
Going back to the health side of things, So part

(36:55):
of why you share the story is to inspire people
to live healthier lives. And for you, it's about living
a healthy life to see your granddaughter get married one
day and just live her life as well. And so
you have this really great philosophy of weight loss and
this journey for you, and you're trying to inspire others.
Part of this journey has also helped you with other

(37:17):
things that have happened from a health perspective. You mentioned
your thyroid, but you also had a stroke.

Speaker 2 (37:22):
Could you share a little bit about that with us.

Speaker 3 (37:25):
Absolutely. So it's a year ago this month, January twenty seventh,
to be exact. I was in school when it had happened,
and it happened in front of my students. So I
was speaking with another colleague and just going about. The
bell rang, my students were lined up to go into class,

(37:47):
and I turned around and literally my left eye went
completely blank, like it was complete. I couldn't see, I
lost my vision in my left eye. It was like
a white, darkly curtain that kind of just I couldn't see,
and I just said, you know, out loud, I can't see.

(38:11):
Something just happened. So my colleague thought, oh, maybe you
got something in your eye, and I said, no, no, no, no,
this is something different. I really can't see. And so
one of my students grabbed me brought me to the nurse. Literally,
we went downstairs. We went to the nurse. I couldn't
see walking down the stairs. Literally, I had to hold
on to the railing right away. They called the police,

(38:34):
they called the ambulance. Thank goodness, the hospital where I
work is right across the street, and so at first
thought I had an ocular migraine. And I said, well,
I've never had that before, and they said, well, you know,
sometimes it happens. But then when they started to dig
a little bit more, you know, I went and I

(38:54):
had the cat scan done and then they did the
MRI and sure enough they could see the spot in
the back of my lower right hand lobe of my brain.
And the neurologist came in and said, you had a stroke.
And I was like, what, like, I just lost all

(39:16):
this weight and she said, and thank goodness you did.
And to be exact, my eyes started to come back,
the eyesight started to come back. It was within I'm
going to say, within twenty four hours, the eyesight came
back completely. And they were just amazed that it came

(39:44):
back so quickly. And when they started to hear the
history of me losing weight and getting healthier, she said
to me, She's like, this is what saved your life, literally,
because if you were that two hundred and fifty two
pounds unhealthy, she said, I can't guarantee that you would

(40:05):
have you get your eyesight back, or something worse would happen,
but you're definitely the outcome would not have been the same.
And so I was literally just taken back. And this
was a year ago now this month and everything, Thank goodness,
everything is good. But my health is what saved me

(40:30):
literally losing the weight and being healthy.

Speaker 1 (40:33):
Yeah, because that would have you know, that would have
happened either way as what you were describing there.

Speaker 3 (40:40):
And the stroke, by the way, is because a lot
of people say, oh, my goodness, you wist all this
weight and you had a stroke, because it was a
residual of what of the weight of the heavy weight
that I had, the high cholesterol, all of those residuals
is what compounded causing that to happen. So and that's
why she said that the way you healed, like getting

(41:03):
your eyesight back, she said, there was no guarantee that
I was going to have my eyesight back, but thank goodness,
it did. It came back. But she said the outcome
could have been a lot worse.

Speaker 1 (41:13):
So a lot of the a lot of those health
things like you mentioned the cholesterol and everything that that
actually is what was part of the cause to the stroke.

Speaker 3 (41:22):
Then absolutely right.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
And so therefore obviously if that you still had the
high cholesterol and all that, it would have just made
it worse.

Speaker 3 (41:29):
Absolutely, it would have compounded everything.

Speaker 2 (41:31):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (41:32):
Wow, So we're grateful that you're here with us. And
how true to your journey, right, how true to what
you said of like I want to live live a
longer life, and exactly I.

Speaker 3 (41:42):
Mean, and you know it was. What's interesting is I
had the stroke, I was in the hospital, I was discharged.
They had you know, taken my license away from me
because I had to you know, go through all the
vision testing and the field testing, which was fine. But
three weeks later was when I did that fashion show

(42:03):
and the newspaper came to do that big article, so
you know, I just feel like it was meant to happen.
You know that I'm supposed to be on that fashion show,
and I was determined that I was going to walk
in that fashion show.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
Tell us about the feelings that you had when you
made the public announcement. You know, you mentioned the feelings
prior to that of the dark place, and of course
we see how you feel today. You're vibrant, you have
high energy, you're smiling, you're happy. What were the feelings
that you had when you were making this announcement to
the table, to your family, to the people around you.

Speaker 3 (42:40):
It was a feeling of determination, a feeling of motivation,
and a feeling of I've taken control of my life
because I felt like I was out of control. Literally
I was out of control with the way I was eating,
the lack of exercise, you know, not taking care of myself,

(43:04):
taking the vitamins and supplements and the protein shake that
I do now for almost two years. And it's just
an amazing feeling, Like it really was. I felt controlled
for the first time probably ever, that I really felt control.
I took control of my life, like I felt in control.

Speaker 1 (43:27):
And so you just mentioned the protein shakes, the vitamins,
and I know you're also a great cook.

Speaker 2 (43:33):
So in taking this control.

Speaker 1 (43:35):
You also started changing your dietary habits. We talked about
the gym, and we know that you still continue to
do that, but you have a passion for making healthy,
tasty meals. And so I'd love to hear about this
passion and what started. How it started obviously was part
of this journey. How it started where you started learning
about the new foods and the ways to cook them.

Speaker 3 (43:58):
Right, absolutely, and so when I started, you know, looking
up these different recipes or you know, if I went
out to eat, I would make healthy choices. You know,
I would ask for grilled or steamed, or you know,
ask for no butter, just maybe a little bit of

(44:19):
olive oil as opposed to or instead of salad dressing.
You know how they pour the salad dressing on your salad.
I always say, put put it on the side and
just kind of like dip the salad into the dressing.
So there are different ways and different tips of making
those slight changes that make a huge difference in the

(44:41):
amount of fat that you're intaking, the amount of calories
that you're intaking as well. And and so I just
decided that when I'm cooking, I'm going to cook grilled, steamed, baked.
Instead of using salt, I'll use like a salt substitute,

(45:02):
like a missus dash for example, that you know it
has it has all the herbs and the seasonings, but
it doesn't have, you know, all of that salt. So
I this is my way of life now, this is
how I cook. And it's very tasty. It's not like
I miss any of the heavy sauces or the heavy

(45:23):
you know, the heavy foods. You know, I just and
and in moderation, like I'll have some pasta, but I'll
have maybe a tomato or lentil based pasta as opposed
to regular. And then it's a side dish. You know,
it's just a small portion. It's not like a big bowl.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
You know, it's not the meal.

Speaker 3 (45:43):
It's not the meal exactly. It's just a side dish.
And same like with rice or potatoes or even bread
in moderation, you know, just I just put it on
the side. Now it's just in smaller portions.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
And you remind me of a funny story with my
father that I have to share with you that I
think you appreciate. My father was trying to lose some weight.
My parents their foodies and they enjoy a nice meal.
I would say that they're over the weight that they
should be, but they're in a place where they're not
you know, they're not considered I guess overweight.

Speaker 2 (46:21):
Right.

Speaker 1 (46:22):
So anyway, so he's trying to lose some weight. This
is going back a couple of years ago, and he's
the Italian side. So he's the Italian one, and he's
the one in my life where every night of the
week he needed to have pasta. He needs to have
pasta every night of the week. He's seventy five now
and every night of the week, I mean every once
in a while, you know, but every night of the
week he's got to have his bowl of pasta. It's

(46:44):
the way he grew up and it's the way he
continues to live his life. And of course the Italian
bread and so he'll go to Little Italy in the
Bronx and get his bread and you know, and all
different things. And now he makes his own bread, so
you know this is big for him.

Speaker 2 (46:57):
Right.

Speaker 1 (46:57):
So anyway, so he's on his diet he starts telling
me about it. Goes, yeah, Michael, you know I.

Speaker 2 (47:01):
Cut I cut out carbs, I cut out. You know,
I don't eat. I don't bread anymore. I don't do
any of that stuff.

Speaker 1 (47:05):
And I said, oh really, And now of course I
have this, you know, sarcastic line of questioning coming his way.

Speaker 3 (47:11):
Right.

Speaker 1 (47:12):
So I said, all right, Papa, I said, so you
don't need bread anymore? He goes, no, I'm Michael. I'm
telling you right now. It's a new new lifestyle change.
I don't need bread anymore.

Speaker 2 (47:20):
I said, all right.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
I said, so what are you having for breakfast? He goes,
I'm just having an egg, just having an egg. I go, okay,
all right, so you're having an egg. I said, how
you cook the egg, Papa? He goes, well, I make
it sunny side up. I go, oh, sunny side up?
I said, so what happens with the yolk? That that
beautiful yellow, runny yoke that's there? I go, what do
you do with that? He goes, well, you know, I mean.

Speaker 2 (47:38):
I just get a little piece of just a little piece.

Speaker 1 (47:40):
Of bread, and you know, I scoop it up. I said, oh, okay,
all right, just a little piece. He goes, just a
little piece of Michael, but I'm not having like you know,
I'm not having a bunch of bread or anything.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
Just a little piece of bread.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
I said, okay, I don't know where he's said, so,
so what are you having for lunch? You know, lunch
is you know, staple in your day of course, right.
He goes, oh, you know, you know I'm on this
diet now, so I'm only having a bowl of soup.
I'm having just a ball of soup for lunch. I'm
telling you this is like a comedy routine, right. He's like,
I'm just having a bowl of soup. I said, okay,
what kind of soup you getting? And he tells me
all these different soups. I said, I said, so, you know,
the soup always leaves that little cream behind, a little

(48:10):
bit of left in the bowl. I go, you know,
so you're just throwing that out, You're just getting.

Speaker 3 (48:13):
Rid of that.

Speaker 1 (48:14):
And he goes, well, you know, I mean I got
a little piece of bread and I scoop it all
up like all right, okay, I said, so, so what
are you having for dinner? He goes, grilled Michael, only
grilled food. We're having you know, grilled salmon. Your mother's
making some grilled salmon for me. I'm only having vegetables.
That's all I'm having. I go, that's all you're having? Really,
I go, so nothing else?

Speaker 2 (48:35):
No bread, no bread, I'm not having any bread with dinner.

Speaker 1 (48:37):
We're having all grilled I go, Okay, he goes just
a little bit of pasta.

Speaker 2 (48:41):
I go, what. I go?

Speaker 3 (48:42):
What?

Speaker 2 (48:42):
He goes, just a little bowl of pasta on the side.
I go, all right, So you're having bread in the morning, bread,
and you have to do it? You having what kind
of diet? Is har you know.

Speaker 1 (48:55):
But you know, in all fairness to him, you know,
I make a joke about all this, and all fairness,
it was what he was talking about was he was
cutting back. He was cutting back on it all. He
wasn't having the full two slices of toast in the morning,
the sandwich in the afternoon, the full pasta dinner. You know,
it was a little bowl on the side. And so
you just reminded me of that funny story.

Speaker 3 (49:15):
That is funny, just a little bit, just a little.

Speaker 2 (49:18):
Bit, Michael.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
It's hard to break those cultural habits.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
It is.

Speaker 3 (49:22):
It is super hard. And you know, I kind of
just went cold turkey, and I just said, I'm cutting
all of it out because I know me, I won't
be able just to have a little bit. You know,
I'm not in that place right right now to have
just a little bit. So when I just revamped everything,
I just cut everything out. Now I started, you know,
introducing it back into my into my diet, but in moderation.

(49:47):
And you know, it's it's it's amazing how how we are.
Most some of us are emotional eaters. I'm an emotional eater,
and so I'm going to say I was in a
emotionally eating I love that. Yeah it's past tense, but
it's anything that I was stressed, I would eat, you know,

(50:08):
comfort foods, you know, just to make me feel better.
And I'm like, no, this is not right, this is
not how it goes. You want to feel better, go
to the gym. So that's what I would say to myself, right,
and that's what I would do. I would go to
the gym, and sure enough I would walk out feeling great.
And you know, this is this is just the way

(50:28):
I live now. And like I said, and when I
go out, I can go out to eat just I
make better choices, you know about what I'm eating.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
Share with us a.

Speaker 1 (50:38):
Little bit about the the going the extreme to where
you can come back to, because I think that there's
a lot in that, you know, in the story that
I just shared about my father, because he didn't really
go the full it really never took right and and
similar to some of the diets, and so if I
feel and I want to hear your take on this,

(50:59):
and it sounds like on the same page here that
sometimes you do have to go to that extreme in
order to really let it resonate, and then you could
always kind of dial it.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
Back right exactly. And so whenever I went on a diet,
I would never get past the first month, Like I
would always like be gung ho, like, Okay, I'm going
to go try to I'll try to exercise a little
bit here, I'm going to just cut back on the
little pasta. But then we have a fat family gathering

(51:32):
and all this food is out.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
I'm like, oh, not a cheat day, right, you go
to I'll have a little cheat day.

Speaker 3 (51:37):
Yeah, exactly, I'm gonna have one cheat day. Well one
cheat day turned into every day cheat day, and no,
after that first month, it just didn't work. But then
this time around when I passed the first month, and
I passed the second month, and I passed the third month,
and I'm like, wow, this is super easy, Like Okay,

(51:59):
I can do this. I can do this. And you know, I,
like I said, I want to motivate others to do
the same thing. You know what I can. What I did,
It's not overnight. It's a totally life It's a life changer,
lifestyle change, mindset change. But once it's changed, it's changed forever.

Speaker 2 (52:21):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (52:22):
You mentioned that when you you know, you were an
emotional leader, and I love how you put that in
the past tense. You know, I always reference old Michael.
I actually was just talking to my coach recently and
I said, I think we're up to Michael five point
oh from my self awareness stage, you know, like, I mean,
it's probably way more than that, but from the self awareness,
we're at like Michael five point zero. And I look

(52:42):
at four point zero and I'm just like, all right, man,
this is like, you know, we got to grow from there, right,
and there's still so many more to come. So I
love that you put that in the past tense, and
you know, it speaks to what you were sharing before,
which was you were not in control and your emotions
were in control and they were what why you were eating.
And now you're in control, and so you're able to

(53:03):
make that decision not to eat. And you just mentioned
go to the gym. What are some other ways that
you handle stress and anxiety and your emotions today rather
than eating?

Speaker 3 (53:14):
Oh yeah, absolutely. Mindfulness is a huge part of my
new healthy lifestyle. I listen every night to the Daily
comm which is free on YouTube, and there's different themes
like one is letting go, one is being Present. I

(53:36):
do find by and it's ten minutes long. That's all
it is. It's a video of ten minutes listening to
that and just kind of relaxing right before bed. The
amazing sleep that I get every night is amazing. So
mindfulness is definitely something that is incorporated in and I

(53:58):
think it has to be incorporated in every life because
that is a great way to relieve stress and anxiety
and the gym. You know, going to the gym releases
those endorphins that makes you feel really good, you know,
even if it's just for a half hour, you know,

(54:18):
twice a week just to get started. The gym is amazing.
Some form of exercise is going to get like I said,
release those endorphins and make you feel good about yourself
and then when you walk out the door, that stress
and anxiety is gone. It is, really, it's gone. I
love to listen to music while I'm there, so music

(54:39):
is amazing too.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
Going to back to the gym because anybody who was
who is currently in a position that you were in
back when you were wearing that big sweatshirt and sweatpants
and had that incident with the treadmill, would imagine that.
I'd imagine that it's a scary place to enter it
into a dining place to enter it. There's although the

(55:03):
gym that you go to tout's judgment free zone.

Speaker 2 (55:06):
We can't change the way that people think.

Speaker 1 (55:08):
And the way people perceive others, and so there is
judgment involved. What what's your you know, you mentioned that
part of why you share there, why you share your
story is to inspire others. What's your message for people
that are feeling, you know, that judgment, feeling that sense
of fear and maybe have an embarrassing story of their
own that kind of has stopped them in their tracks.

Speaker 3 (55:31):
Yeah. Absolutely, you know, when I was feeling that way,
I thought that feeling would never ever go away. I
just thought that it was something that I was going
to live with for the rest of my life. And
if you're feeling that way now, it's not. You can
change that feeling just right then and there. Just say
no that I'm going to change my life now. This

(55:53):
is how I'm going to do it, and it don't
feel embarrassed, you know, just go out there and do it.
And you know what, feel confident about yourself because you're
a beautiful person and everyone is an individual and we
are all, you know, here for a purpose, and so

(56:13):
you need to seek out your purpose. What is your
purpose in life? What are you supposed to be doing?
And so I know what my purpose is, I know
what my goal is, I know what I want to do.
You know, eventually I would love to host my own
show to help others, to just get them motivated, to
get them healthy. So hopefully, and now I have a

(56:35):
new a new agent, an exclusive agent, and so hopefully
you know, that'd be something that we could be working
on at some point. But definitely, you can change your
life right now. And this is what I had. I
did you know, almost two years ago, and I never

(56:57):
I don't regret it. I never look back. And so,
you know, even though it took time for that weight
to come off and people started to notice, especially my
colleagues at work, there's a confidence that spills out. You
know that if you look at that picture, there's lack

(57:17):
of confidence in that picture. And so you have to
start somewhere. And that starting point is just just just
keep on going. Just look at the end results, look
at the end goal, and just work towards it and
it'll happen.

Speaker 2 (57:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (57:32):
Stephen Kobe talks about it in the Seven Habits of
having the end in mind, seeing the end in mind,
and so many times, you know, and coaching, that's what
I work on with my clients as well. It's like,
you know, what is the goal, and then let's kind
of scale it back. Now, let's work back from there.
And then the other one I wanted to bring up
while you were sharing all of that is Tony Robbins

(57:53):
talks about change your story, change your life. You know,
when you change that story, like you just said, of
you know, this is no longer I'm no longer accepting
this old story. I'm changing the story You're going to
change your life on this topic, and you kind of
just touched on it with your new agent. I want
to get into the present moment with you on our

(58:13):
journey of mindfulness. Let's get present right now. So, you've
shed over one hundred pounds, You've been featured in magazines,
You've done fashion shows, You've been on television, you have
done commercials. You have up into this point, had just
an amazing story happening unfolding in front of our eyes.

(58:34):
And then when I met you, you were on the hush.
You were This was pretty cool because you had something
that was in the works and you couldn't share with everyone,
but you just shared a little bit about it. You
were in the process of signing with an exclusive agent.

Speaker 2 (58:49):
Share with us today. Where are you today?

Speaker 1 (58:52):
Where are you in the fitness and in your dietary
and in your career?

Speaker 3 (58:57):
Absolutely so currently, I did sign with an exclusive agent.
I'm not sure if I can mention the name, but
I'm going to mention anyway. It's called Molt Spy Talent.
I love them. They're they're amazing people. They're so supportive.
So this is just recent. I've been with them for
about a month. Or so. But we have some really

(59:18):
good plans which I can't share right now, but we
do have some stuff in the works for for the
near future. But in terms of my health healthy lifestyle,
I continue to go to the gym three to four
times a week. I do a shake in the morning,

(59:39):
protein shake. And when I tell you, I take out
this big grocery bag with supplements and all great stuff
that I put into this shake. It's just amazing. I
use protein powder, MCT oil, use pea powder literally the

(01:00:00):
yellow vegetable pea powder for protein. We throw some peanut
butter in there. Also for extra protein. I put burdock
root in there, milk thistle which is a great liver cleanser.
Take Vitamin C every day, Vitamin D elderberry now especially

(01:00:20):
this time of the year, you know when these colds
are coming out, and ubiquinol, which is really great for
the heart muscle. So there's a lot of vitamins and
supplements that I take. There is a cost for it,
but there's no cost that you could put on your
life right to be healthy. And so the combination of

(01:00:43):
eating healthy, taking these supplements in the protein shake that
I do every day for almost two years now has
really contributed to the way I look and feel. Again,
you just cannot put a price on it.

Speaker 1 (01:00:57):
It's just and I think it's important to note that
you know a lot of this is also because you've
met with doctors and nutritionists about the diet that you have.
Because one diet a diet for you and some of
the supplements that you take is not the same for
everyone else, and so it's definitely important for everybody to
get it checked out. And another note to make is

(01:01:18):
that when you mentioned that there's a cost involved in supplements,
what I'd share and I'd love for you to elaborate
on is while on the surface, the healthy foods look
or are more expensive because you're eating healthier and because
you're eating less and more in portion control of you

(01:01:39):
can only digest twenty twenty grams of protein in an hour.
So because you're having more portion control, you're feeding yourself
the right nutrients, you're eating less. I mean a candy
bar at a store is like three dollars in change,
So you know what we're doing is we're a dominating

(01:02:01):
the bad, which is very costly. It's just not on
the surface right because you're buying one candy bar for
three dollars, but maybe you're buying three of those throughout
the day or four of those rout to day, and
you're at ten bucks already, and you know, insert any
food that I'm talking about that is that impulse food,
and they're anywhere between three and five bucks. And by
the end of the day, you spent twenty bucks on
impulse food that did nothing towards your nutrition, that consciously

(01:02:24):
you didn't even absorb as eating. And so you're then
eating another meal which you could put a price on that. Right,
So when we go back to your supplements and everything,
if you divide that through the hours of the day
and the months, we're almost either breaking even or maybe
just a little bit more or just a little bit less,

(01:02:44):
right exactly exactly.

Speaker 3 (01:02:46):
And then what are the you know, what are the
results of eating those candy bars down the road? You know,
high cholesterol, high sugars, meditations exactly exactly. So you know,
when you start looking at all of those things there there,

(01:03:07):
it actually is cheaper to eat healthier.

Speaker 2 (01:03:09):
Yes, And that's kind of where I'm going with it.

Speaker 1 (01:03:12):
I mean, I haven't done a profit and loss analysis
on eating healthier versus not but just based off of
seeing what it costs to buy, you know, when when
we're all at to check out aisle and I mean
we find your magazine at to check out asle, right
and right next to the other candy bars, and like
I said, like I'm in shock when I see how
much a candy bar is.

Speaker 2 (01:03:32):
I'm just like what like for that? For that? Like seriously,
people like what are we doing?

Speaker 3 (01:03:42):
And even if you feel like having a snack like
potato chips, there are better choices they have. They have
sweet potato chips instead of you know of regular potato chips.
You know, there there's different things that you could do
to to supplement, you know, or to you know, just

(01:04:02):
to if you feel like having a snack here and there.

Speaker 1 (01:04:06):
Would you, I mean, I know you're you know, I
know that two years doesn't sound like what I'm gonna say,
but you're fairly new to the whole game, right, because
it's only two years, right, there's still so much more.

Speaker 2 (01:04:15):
But would you and this is this is an open
ended question, I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:04:20):
But would you think that eating so like if someone's thinking, oh,
let me just have the healthier choice of the sweet
potato chips, do you think that that leads them back
down the path of falling off or anything.

Speaker 3 (01:04:33):
I think everyone's an individual. For me, for example, I
had to do a cold turkey and not have anything
at all. I had to eliminate all of those foods
just because I knew just from previous experience that if
I just just one cheat day, you know, or I
just have a little bit of this, a little bit
of this turned into a lot of bit of it

(01:04:54):
right right, So for me, I couldn't do it. I
had to start reintroduce seeing when I felt that I
was at a point where I could where I can
no longer, you know, say I'm not having a full
bowl apasta, or I'm not going to have the whole
bag of potato chips, or you know, and then instead

(01:05:16):
of having the potato chips, I would have a small
portion of, you know, the the sweet potato chips.

Speaker 2 (01:05:22):
It's when you're in control, is what it sounds like.

Speaker 3 (01:05:24):
And I'm in control. Yes, when you're in control. So
for me, it took me longer for me to be
to feel like I was totally in control.

Speaker 2 (01:05:34):
That that's you know.

Speaker 1 (01:05:35):
I think one of the biggest pieces to all of
this is is, like you said, is having that control
and that sense of control for all of this, I
think is just phenomenal. And so you're you got this
career going, you got this side hustle going, as it
was written in the magazine, but it's it's really a
career in uh, entertainment, in fashion and all these other

(01:05:56):
things you mentioned. Wanting a show, What what you see
for yourself as a show?

Speaker 2 (01:06:01):
What would it? What would it look like for you?
What's your vision of it?

Speaker 3 (01:06:05):
I would say my show would probably be a motivating
type show people who want to change their lives and
to provide the resources for those people to be able
to change their lives in a wonderful, you know, healthy way.
And so that's that's what I envision the show to

(01:06:28):
look like.

Speaker 2 (01:06:29):
I love that. I love that.

Speaker 1 (01:06:30):
And you have a mantra that you live by, and
you shared it a few times here, and it's I
think it's your mantra that you you created and wrote yourself,
which is it's never too late. You are never too
old to do anything you want to do.

Speaker 3 (01:06:45):
Exactly that is my mantra because if I did it
at the age of fifty seven at the time, you know,
I'm fifty nine now, you know, I I anybody can
do it. If I know if I can do it,
anyone can do it. And you can just right now
as you're listening to this podcast. If somebody really wants

(01:07:07):
to change their life, they can do it right now
here and there. Just say I want to change my life,
and I'm going to look into how I'm going to
change my life. Take take your life back, you know,
and be in control of your life. You know, we
only have one life to live, so let's make it
a good one. And you know, I knew eventually I

(01:07:28):
would become fifty nine, But did I want to become
fifty nine at two hundred and fifty two pounds or
did I want to become fifty nine at one forty
one hundred and forty seven pounds. You know, that's the difference.

Speaker 1 (01:07:41):
And you know what's really cool too. I know there's
a Netflix show right now which is pretty cool. I
don't know if you've seen it. I can't think of
the name of it right now. But what they did
is they've taken groups of twins because of their DNA,
because they have the same DNA. They've taken these different
groups of twins and have put them through different types
of fitness experiments and nutritional experiments, all in the sense

(01:08:04):
of trying to figure out, like, you know, how does
a vegan diet affect someone, How does a carnivore diet
affect someone? How does doing this much cardio effect? How
does not doing this much? And so they have these
groups of twins and they're they're assigning them different things.
And the reason why I bring this up is because
part of the study that they're showing and the research
that they're doing is that while we have this age

(01:08:25):
of fifty nine years old, is that we can reverse
our age through fitness and through nutrition. Have you have
you read up on any of this kind of these studies?

Speaker 3 (01:08:35):
Absolutely, And skincare. Definitely skincare because I use collagen. You know,
as we get older, the elasticity in our skin, you know,
starts to dwindle, and so replacing that collagen makes a
huge difference. And when I tell people that I'm fifty nine,
they're like what they look at me, like what you know,

(01:08:58):
and if you look at my picture before, and if
you look at me now, a lot younger now than
when I was here, not taking care of myself. So yeah,
it's definitely there's definitely some truth to that.

Speaker 2 (01:09:15):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:09:15):
Yeah, So tell me what is your daughter and your
family saying today.

Speaker 3 (01:09:20):
Well, I get a lot of when my daughter and
I go out because my daughter's forty and so when
we go out, we're like, oh, is that your sister?
I didn't know you had a sister. It's like, no,
I'm her mom.

Speaker 2 (01:09:34):
They're like, what how do you feel when they say.

Speaker 3 (01:09:37):
That, I feel great.

Speaker 2 (01:09:38):
She feels hard, she feels proud, she feels proud. Come on,
she definitely feels proud.

Speaker 3 (01:09:48):
Well, here we go again.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
That's so cool. That's so cool.

Speaker 1 (01:09:53):
So I know that you're on a mission to help
support and inspire others in their weight loss journey. And
you're doing this in so many different ways. You're sharing
it in your community, from a face to face You're
doing it through fashion where you know you're look you
know you're a model at fifty nine years old. How inspiring, right,

(01:10:15):
and you do it in different ways. I'd love if,
of course this will be in our show notes here,
if you could share different ways that people can contact
you learn more about your story. And as I mentioned before,
your Instagram page.

Speaker 3 (01:10:26):
Yeah, absolutely, So my Instagram is p zally zero one
and I'm going to spell that so it's PS and
Peter s z a l a y zero one. That's
my Instagram handle. So you could definitely reach out to
me anytime, you know. I answer questions all the time.

(01:10:49):
I have new followers from the magazines and they reach
out to me about different things and different questions. And
the one thing I am getting is that they all
would love for me to do a cooking show on
Instagram and show them how I make all of these
healthy meals. Yeah, so that is something that I'm definitely
working on as well.

Speaker 1 (01:11:09):
Awesome, yes, yes, And if you go to her instagram
you might see me there because Paul Att, myself, and
Michelle Barone all did a podcast together on Michelle's podcast,
which was also a really great experience and really cool,
so we had a lot of fun together.

Speaker 2 (01:11:24):
It's been so wonderful having you on today.

Speaker 1 (01:11:27):
Like I said, you know, from the moment I met you,
I knew that there was a spark and energy between us,
and then of course a story for you to share
with my audience, and it truly is inspiring. I think
that your story inspires us in of course, our life,
our healthy life, to live a healthier life. But it
also inspires us to live a better life. And I

(01:11:49):
think that that is the best message out of all
of this, is to just live a better life. It's
your health and everything. By improving that, the relationships with
your granddaughter, and with all that's happening with you, with
modeling and acting and your students and how supportive and
your it's just like everything opened up for you, and

(01:12:10):
it's such an inspiration. I want to thank you so
much for sharing all of that with us today.

Speaker 3 (01:12:14):
Absolutely, thank you so much for having me on. I
really enjoyed being here and sharing my story with you,
with your viewers and your listeners.

Speaker 1 (01:12:24):
Thank you for listening to The Michael Esposito Show. For
show notes, video clips, and more episodes, go to Michael Espositoinc.
Dot com backslash podcast. Thank you again to our sponsor
dan ten Insurance Services helping businesses get the right insurance
for all their insurance needs. Visit Denten dot io to

(01:12:44):
get a quote that's d n ten dot io and
remember when you buy an insurance policy from Denten, you're
giving back on a global scale. This episode was produced
by Uncle Mike at the iHeart Studios in Poughkeepsie. Special
thanks to Lara Rodrian for the opportunity and my team
at Michael Esposito, a