Tiffani took on a battle with emotional eating, and won

Often when speaking with our Juniper community, we are told about not just the physical, but the psychological factors that are tied up with weight gain.

Our expert team of healthcare professionals understand the importance of a holistic approach to weight loss – that’s why our Weight Reset Program includes not only breakthrough weight loss medication, but health coaching, dietitian support, and unlimited GP follow-ups to make sure that weight gain is being addressed at its very core.

Seeking comfort through emotional eating

52-year-old Shoal Bay resident, Tiffani, knows all too well the impact of emotional eating on her weight gain in later life. After a marriage breakup left her devastated, Tiffani says that she turned to comfort eating through this turbulent period.

“Food was my source of comfort, so I put on a lot of weight in a short space of time and that just led to a lot of shame,” she says.

“Seeing people in the supermarket, but looking the other way and hoping that they didn't see me.”

Now, with the help of the Juniper’s doctors and health coaches, Tiffani is able to identify emotional eating during times of stress as one of the biggest driving factors for weight gain during her life.

Fad diet failure

Like many women, when the excess weight returned it was back to fad diets, meal plans, and restrictive eating regimes to try and turn things around.

“I've done them all,” she says. “I've done Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, shake diets, counting calories, and other medications.”

And while many of these helped her to shift the weight initially, it wasn’t long before the yo-yo effect kicked in and she returned to her original weight, more despondent than before.

“I think one of my big issues is that I'm a comfort eater and I'm an emotional eater, and so all those things help with dropping a few kilos, but they don't actually help deal with any core issues of why you're actually eating.”

Hiding in plain sight

As her physical health declined, so did her willingness to partake in activities outside of her home.

Tiffani soon began to find herself “wanting to hide away” from social events to avoid the insecurities that arose when she was in public or simply taking her two youngest children to the beach – and if she did muster up the courage, she felt as if she was putting on a “mask” in order to walk out the door.

“I was actually just dying on the inside,” she remembers. “With weight and being not physically fit and healthy, there's just so much shame and depression and low self-esteem that comes with that. When you wake up in the morning, you are wishing your life away, you're wishing the day away.”

An uphill mental battle

Her declining mental state eventually led Tiffani to make the decision along with her doctor to go on antidepressants in order to balance her mood and help her to get out of a depressive state.

And although it was effective mentally, unfortunately, it exacerbated her weight gain even further.

“It was just compounding a whole lot of the shame and body image issues that I was experiencing,” Tiffani explains.

“I also went to the doctor sort of seeking advice on managing my weight and trying to help me lose weight which I was put on some medication for, but that medication didn't really work for me.”

The tipping point

The tipping point for her entry into the Weight Reset Program came after health complications began to arise, hindering her physical ability to do all that wanted to do on a given day.

With a 10 and 12-year-old still at home, and the desire to continue for many years in her role as an event manager, Tiffani began to consider alternatives – or risk further backsliding into more health concerns.

“I got to the point where it wasn't just about weight, but it was about my fitness, it was about my health,” Tiffani explains. “I have high cholesterol, I was experiencing hip pain, lower back pain. Sometimes the lower back pain has actually been quite debilitating; aching knees, sore ankles.”

Weight-related health risks

Tiffani’s experience with weight-induced health conditions is not uncommon. Research has shown that excess weight can lead to higher cholesterol, sleep apnoea, increased risk of certain types of cancers, type 2 diabetes, osteoarthritis and heart disease.

While a sobering reality, research also shows that as little as a 5% reduction in body weight can have a hugely positive effect on reversing these health risks, and Tiffani was ready to make this change, once and for all [1].

After a close friend called to tell Tiffani she was about to start Juniper’s Weight Reset Program, she was all ears.

Quick and convenient consults

Juniper’s easy initial quiz and online consults with a GP meant that once she’d been qualified for the program, getting started was quick and easy – something that every mother of five wants to hear.

And as someone who had previously been to her local GP to talk about weight loss management and been left feeling “really awkward and really embarrassed”, chatting with one of Juniper’s qualified doctors was a refreshing change that made her feel at ease with giving the Weight Reset Program a go.

“Getting started on Juniper, the conversation with the doctor was all via email but I felt that it was positive, I felt that it was thorough,” Tiffani explains. “You know, they weren't just asking about my physical health, but they were asking about my mental health as well.”

Support when you need it most

And when the cravings and emotional eating began threatening to resurface, Tiffani said she was able to reach out and organise a session with a health coach on the phone.

This allowed them to strategise what to do when triggering situations occurred; particularly in the evenings when after a long day of work, she became tempted to reach for the easy (and not so nutritious) option of takeaway food.

As well as getting to the root causes of her hunger with the help of health coaches, Tiffani says that the medication’s effectiveness in suppressing her appetite and allowing her to stay fuller for longer gave her the time to reflect on why she was reaching for food, despite not being hungry.

“That's helping me identify the root cause of why: Am I bored? Am I stressed?” she says. “It's like giving you that headspace to stop and think, rather than going straight to comfort. That’s been really transforming for me.”

Having a team of healthcare professionals on call to provide advice, recipe suggestions (and even tactics on how Tiffani could put steps in place to finally kick her goal of climbing a local mountain) made all the difference to her weight loss journey.

Instead of meal plans or unsustainable fad diets in isolation, Tiffani says that she loved the holistic approach of the Weight Reset Program — from the supportive online community of women to keep you on track, to the convenience of receiving the medication itself.

“It's not just a prescription that's getting dropped on your front door and then you're left to your own devices,” she says. “There's people there at the end of a keyboard, by the end of a phone if you need some help or support.”

Kicking goals and climbing mountains

Tiffani is 15kg down, constantly kicking weight loss goals, and enjoying huge mental and physical benefits as a result.

Along with identifying and successfully kicking with emotional eating habits, Tiffani reports that she’s having better quality sleep, experiencing considerably less pain in her hips, back and knees, and is making healthier food choices to sustain the weight loss well into the future.

“My first goal was to break 100kg, so that felt like it took forever,” Tiffani says when asked about what’s next. “The mountain climb is a goal — initially my first goal was to make it up the mountain without crying, which I've done. My next goal is to reduce the number of times I have to stop and rest on my way up the mountain.”

“There's still a fair bit to go,” Tiffani says beaming, “but I'm on the journey and kicking goals… yay!”

Considering if the Juniper Weight Reset Program could be right for you? Take our quiz to find out.