When he came downstairs one morning six years ago, Jane Hodgson's husband, Chris, was visibly upset. "That's it!" he said. "I'm going on a diet!" Jane was surprised — it hadn't occurred to her that either of them needed to slim down. "Well, how much do you weigh?" she asked. "205 pounds!" he said, his voice heavy with disbelief and disgust.
In shock, Jane, then 57, squeezed her eyes closed. Wow, she thought. That's how much I weighed this morning, too.
Hearing that she matched her husband pound for pound woke Jane, who lives in Hollis, NH, up to just how far her gradual weight creep had gone. Slim from her childhood through her 20s, she had put on 20 pounds after her son, Stephen, was born and then gained another 20 three years later when she had her daughter, Katrina. Still, the weight never slowed her down: The family went on skiing and hiking trips and long bike rides together. When they remodeled their basement, Katrina and Stephen, then teenagers, begged to set up a work-out room. Jane did more than agree — she joined in, sweating and chatting with her kids in the home gym after school.
"But after they left for college, that activity was gone," says Jane, a seamstress. "I was sitting all day sewing and then sitting all night watching TV." Instead of going on family outings, Jane and Chris ate out with friends, and Jane, who calls herself a "butter-holic," would start a big meal from the bread basket and end with two glasses of wine. Still, "I wasn't unhappy with my appearance," she says. "I just kept buying larger clothes until I was wearing a size 20."
Jane might not have noticed her weight much, but her body certainly did. By the time she was in her early 50s, the extra pounds were putting so much pressure on her joints that walking made her knees throb, and she had to clutch the banister and hoist herself up as she climbed stairs. "If Chris and I even just went to the mall, I'd be exhausted by the time I came home," she says.
So that morning in June 2010, Jane knew she had to make a change. "I didn't say anything to my husband, but I decided then to lose weight," she says.
Like daughter, like mother
Jane had watched Katrina lose nearly 30 pounds and then cofound Tone It Up, a healthy-living site that posts detailed nutrition plans and workouts for an enthusiastic community of over 2 million. But even with a fitness pro in the family, Jane didn't turn to her daughter for help, fearing that if she did she'd feel too much pressure to succeed. "When I started, I was worried I wouldn't be able to stick with it," she says. "And I feared that if I told Katrina and then quit, I'd be such a disappointment to her." So she kept completely mum about her weight-loss goals even as she chatted with Katrina nearly every other day on the phone.
Jane first joined a packaged-meal program, but she didn't like the food and would find herself ravenous, yet dreading the next meal. So she checked out the latest meal plan from Tone It Up. "The recipes were simple, and I already had all of the ingredients on hand, so I decided to give it a try," she says.
Soon, Jane went all in on her daughter's program. She cleared her kitchen of her biggest weakness — bread and butter — and began eating five mini meals a day. "I used to think I wasn't losing weight unless I was hungry," she says. But the weight came tumbling off, a couple of pounds each week, and the small, frequent meals put more pep in her step than she'd felt for years. After she slimmed down, Jane added morning walks to her routine. "Thinking about surprising Katrina was part of the motivation to keep going," she says.
By the time Katrina came home at Thanksgiving, Jane was down 30 pounds, and seeing the expression on her daughter's face made the four months of hard work worth it: "I remember she walked in the front door right as I was coming down the stairs, and she let out this huge 'Mom!' And I just went 'Surprise!'" laughs Jane. She then fessed up about her sneaky scheme.
Katrina got teary as she watched her mom bound down the steps instead of trudging painfully. "She was full of energy that whole trip, smiling more and flirting more with my dad," Katrina says.
Over the next four months, as the scale dipped closer to 150 pounds, Jane realized she wanted to get stronger, too. Intimidated about lifting weights on her own, she asked her son, a personal trainer, to lead her through some exercises and started working out with him twice a week. When he moved to California to work with Katrina at Tone It Up, Jane kept up the strength training on her own, doing circuit exercises in her living room.
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In many ways, Jane says, her life is the same as it was six years ago: She still works full-time as a seamstress, enjoys dinner out with friends and loves relaxing with the occasional glass of wine and a bit of TV. "But I walk four miles every morning now, I can run up the stairs and I can jump out of bed," she says. "Imagine carrying an extra 55 pounds with you everywhere and then being able to put it down. Moving through life is so much easier, and I've got the strength and stamina now to do so many things."
What Jane eats in a day
Breakfast: Nonfat Greek yogurt with granola plus a cup of coffee with vanilla-flavored protein powder from Tone it Up's line.
Snack: High-protein pancakes made with mashed banana, egg whites, almond milk, protein powder and cinnamon. "One batch lasts two or three days, and I'll eat them with an apple," says Jane.
Lunch: "I make a great homemade chicken salad that I eat at least a couple of times a week," Jane says. "I add grapes for sweetness and so much celery for crunch that I don't need anything else."
Snack: Popcorn, though "if someone's serving birthday cake at work, I'll have a slice," says Jane. "But then I try to compensate later, maybe by having a lighter dinner."
Dinner: A giant veggie salad. "I make what I call a "kitchen-sink salad" — a little of this or that based on my mood and what I have on hand," she says. Broccoli and green beans add heft, and for protein she alternates between chicken and salmon.
Jane's weight-loss secrets
Automate your a.m.: Jane eats the same breakfast daily: "I don't even have to think about it or worry about getting tempted by other things." She also goes for her four-mile walk — no ifs, ands or buts.
Zone out: "I love unwinding with TV after work. So I do my circuit exercises in the living room while I'm watching Ellen DeGeneres."
Know your triggers: To avoid butter, which she has a hard time resisting, Jane "also stopped buying all of those foods that made me crave butter, like bread, crackers and corn on the cob."
Get social: "I follow quite a few healthy people on Instagram and Facebook. Some people post their daily healthy food intake or their workouts. It's motivating to see what they're doing and how their bodies are changing."
Keep your rituals, lose the calories: "Sometimes when I'm tempted to have a second glass of wine, it's really that I want to be social and sip something," says Jane. "So I'll put lemon water in a wineglass and sip that. It works."
This story originally appeared in the July 2016 issue of Good Housekeeping.
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