Four decades, countless lessons — one path forward
Where I Landed
After more than four decades of losing, regaining, searching, and starting over, I finally broke the cycle.
Today, I'm no longer looking for the next diet or wondering what I'll do when the weight comes back.
I found a way of eating that fits my life — one I can continue through ordinary days, busy seasons, celebrations, vacations, and everything in between.
Getting here took a long time, and the path was anything but straight. But every part of the journey taught me something that eventually helped me find my way forward.
This is the story of how I got here.
The Dieting Cycle Begins
Late 1970s–1980s
By age 20, I had lost those first 15 to 20 pounds and returned to a very active life. I worked full time, had a busy social life, played racquetball several times a week, walked long distances, went roller skating with friends, and danced on weekends.
My weight wasn't something I thought about.
Then I met and married my husband, and the following year we welcomed our first son.
Becoming a mother was something I had always wanted, and I loved it. It was one of the happiest and most meaningful times of my life.
At the same time, my everyday life had changed dramatically. I had moved away from the area where I'd been living and working, left behind the friends and activities that had been part of my life, and was adjusting to an entirely different environment. I was much less physically and socially active than I had been, and there were stresses in the background that hadn't been there before.
After having my baby, I found myself struggling to lose the baby weight.
I wanted my old body back, and like so many people looking for an answer, I tried a popular diet everyone seemed to be talking about at the time.
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The Grapefruit Diet
It was extremely restrictive, but I was determined. I stuck with it for several months, and I did lose weight.
But I didn't feel well eating that way. And because I was still nursing my baby, I eventually began to worry about whether such a restrictive diet was good for either of us.
So I stopped the diet and returned to normal eating. I wasn't overeating or bingeing — that had never been my pattern — but I regained what I had lost and a little more.
That was the beginning of a pattern I wouldn't fully understand for decades.
I would find another diet, follow it, lose some weight, and eventually reach a point where I couldn't continue living that way. Then I'd find myself searching for the next answer.
Over time, what had started as a relatively small amount of weight became a much bigger struggle.
The cycle had begun.
Recognizing the Pattern
Mid-1980s
My early 30s brought the joy of welcoming my second baby, along with a busy family life, changing responsibilities, and a continued struggle with my weight.
I was still active and living a full life. I enjoyed my family, did the things I loved, and being heavier didn't stop me from participating in life.
But privately, I wasn't happy with my weight. I worried about what carrying that much weight might eventually mean for my health. I had difficulty finding clothes I felt good in, and I wasn't comfortable with what I saw in the mirror.
And by then, I had begun to recognize a pattern that genuinely frightened me.
Each time I lost weight on another restrictive diet and eventually stopped, I didn't just regain what I had lost. I often ended up weighing a little more than before.
I began to wonder whether going on another diet might actually leave me worse off than when I started.
For a while, I became afraid to try another diet at all.
Searching for Answers
Late 1980s–Early 1990s
I stepped away from dieting altogether.
A few pounds here and there may not sound like much, but after years of trying one diet after another, those pounds had added up.
I didn't want to keep repeating the same cycle without understanding why it was happening.
So I began searching for answers in a different way.
I started reading nutrition books and trying to understand more about food, weight, and my own body.
Finding good information wasn't easy in those days. There was no internet to search, and much of what I found seemed connected to another program, product, or promise.
Eventually, I tried again.
By my early 30s, I had reached my highest weight of about 240 pounds.
When My Health Changed
1993–1997
In 1993, my life changed in a way I never could have anticipated.
I became seriously ill following a chemical exposure in our home. Eventually, our family had to leave our home, and we moved to the coast while I focused on getting well.
Recovery took about four years.
During that time, I lost about 40 pounds — but not because I had finally found the answer to my weight struggle. I lost weight because I was ill and, for a time, there were very few foods I could tolerate.
It gave weight loss an entirely different meaning.
The number on the scale was going down, but my health had never been more important to me.
Weight loss and health are not always the same thing.
When I eventually recovered, I was deeply grateful to feel well again and to get back to living my life.
But my struggle with weight wasn't over.
The Weight Gradually Returned
Late 1990s–Early 2000s
As my health improved and life moved forward again, my struggle with weight was still there. I still wanted to lose weight, and I continued searching for something that would work.
But over the years that followed, much of the weight I had lost during my illness gradually returned. By the early 2000s, I was well over 200 pounds again.
Looking back at photographs now, I can see just how much my weight changed during those years. At the time, living through it one day at a time, I don't think I fully realized it.
What I did know was that I had never stopped trying.
It was exhausting.
But I wasn't ready to give up.
Still Searching for Answers
2000s–2010s
I was tired of weight continuing to be a problem in my life, but I hadn't stopped looking for an answer.
Over the years, I tried more approaches than I can probably remember.
South Beach. Atkins. Raw food. The blood-type diet. Gluten-free eating. And others.
Some I stayed with longer than others. Some didn't agree with me physically. Others were so restrictive or complicated that I couldn't imagine eating that way indefinitely. And some simply didn't fit the life I wanted to live — including being able to go to a restaurant, enjoy a meal with my family, or eat foods I actually liked.
Still, I kept trying.
I'd read the books, follow the instructions, lose some weight, and do my best to make the plan work in real life.
But there was one question I kept coming back to:
What happens after you lose the weight?
What I never found was guidance about what came next — how to maintain the weight I had lost.
How do you transition from losing weight to maintaining it? How do you eat when you're no longer trying to make the scale go down? And how do you do that without spending the rest of your life feeling as though you're still on a diet?
Those questions stayed with me.
But something important was happening during those years, too.
I was making progress.
At my highest weight, I had about 85 pounds to lose to reach my goal. It hadn't been easy, but over time I had lost more than 40 of those pounds — and managed to keep much of that weight off.
But I still hadn't figured out how to finish the journey — or how to be confident that whatever I lost wouldn't eventually return.
Another Twenty Pounds Down
Early 2020s
By the early 2020s, I had made significant progress from my highest weight, but I still hadn't reached my goal — or figured out how to be confident that the weight I lost would stay off.
Then I decided to try another popular weight-loss program.
This time, I tracked everything I ate. Every meal. Every bite. Every day.
And it worked.
Over nearly two years, I lost 20 pounds, going from about 193 pounds to 173. I was only about 17 pounds from my goal.
But maintaining that level of tracking required constant attention. Every meal, every bite, every day.
Unless you've lived that way for months or even years, it can be hard to appreciate just how demanding it becomes. Eating isn't something you do once a day. Every meal requires you to stop, measure or estimate what you're eating, find the foods in the database, enter the amounts, and keep track of it all.
Day after day after day.
I did it because it was working. But it also meant that the system depended on my continuing to track everything I ate.
Then my husband became seriously ill.
Between caring for him, continuing to work, and everything else life required, tracking every bite simply wasn't something I could keep doing.
So I stopped logging.
I didn't stop caring about my health. I didn't suddenly start overeating or eating completely differently.
I simply stopped doing the thing that had been holding the system together.
Gradually, the weight returned.
This Time Was Different
2025
By early 2025, I was back around 193 pounds. The entire 20 pounds I had worked so hard to lose had returned.
Seeing that number on the scale hit me hard.
I cried.
I'd been through some version of this for more than four decades:
Lose. Regain. Find another plan. Start over.
But this time, I knew I couldn't simply repeat the same pattern again.
I was genuinely afraid of continuing to gain and finding myself over 200 pounds again. As I got older, I had become increasingly concerned about what carrying that extra weight could eventually mean for my health.
And I knew how to lose weight.
That was never really the problem.
What I didn't know was how to lose weight in a way I could continue living once the weight was gone.
Eventually, I stopped asking myself:
What diet should I try next?
And started asking a different question:
What would I need to make this work for the rest of my life?
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Building Thrive
I began answering that question almost immediately.
I went to my computer and started researching.
I knew I needed structure — but I didn't want my life to revolve around tracking everything I ate.
I wanted balanced nutrition and ordinary foods I enjoyed eating. I wanted meals my husband and I could enjoy together.
I needed something that worked in real life — at restaurants, with takeout, on vacations, during celebrations, and through stressful or busy weeks.
And perhaps most importantly:
I needed to know what came after weight loss.
Before long, I was building my first six-week meal plan, developing and adjusting recipes, and creating the structure I wished I had found years earlier.
I began thinking about maintenance from the very beginning. I didn't want to create one way of eating to lose weight and then have to figure out an entirely different way to keep it off.
What started as something I was building for myself eventually became Thrive with Isabelle™.
Breaking the Cycle
2025–Today
Looking back now, I can see that my life was never only about weight.
There was family, laughter, love, celebrations, growth, difficult seasons, and meaningful moments I treasure deeply.
And every season taught me something.
After more than four decades of gains and losses, all of those lessons finally changed the question I was asking.
I stopped chasing diets and built a way of eating I could actually live with.
No starvation. No logging every bite. No cutting out entire food groups.
Just balanced, satisfying, everyday foods.
What began as my personal solution is now the foundation of a plan I feel honored to share.
For the first time, I wasn’t starting over.
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Disclaimer:
My experiences are my own, and every body responds differently. Your journey may look different based on your unique health history and needs. This content is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before beginning any new nutrition or weight loss plan.