I'm Winning With My Healthy New Life

INSTEAD OF FOCUSING ON POUNDS, THESE FIVE WOMEN EMBRACED FEEL-GOOD GOALS-AND SCORED POSITIVE LIFE CHANGES, BIG AND SMALL

- EILEEN FINAN & WENDY GROSSMAN KANTOR

Jen Coleman

Age: 40 Height: 5'6" Lives in: Maple Glen, Pa.

Job: Registered nurse and adjunct professor

'I Have Everything, Now That I Have My Health'

One of the most memorable hugs in Jen Coleman's life was when her 6-year-old son put his arms all the way around her last year and said, "Mom, my hands are touching!" She tears up at the memory. "He saw what a healthy mom looks like," Coleman says. "I don't want that to ever change." Since she was a child, she was conscious of her weight. At her heaviest, Coleman was 309 lbs., but after having her two daughters, now 13 and 9, she slimmed down and was active enough to run a 5K.

Then the pandemic hit. "In that terrifying environment, the negative coping skills I had with food reemerged," she says. "I'd be at the nurse's station stress eating. Scrubs are the most forgiving clothes." In July 2022 she turned to Optavia, a weight-management program, for help.

Paired with a health coach ("accountability made a difference"), she focused on her motivation rather than weight. "I was always chasing after the number on the scale," she says. Instead she discovered her "why"-the three kids she shares with her husband, John: "It's my job to parent them.

If I'm not healthy, I won't be here for that." With healthier food choices, like swapping pasta for spaghetti squash, and a more active lifestyle (she took up boxing, pickleball, and coaching her kids' sports teams), Coleman lost 76 lbs. and is down to 165.

In April she faced another setback when she was diagnosed with lymphoma.

When friends offered to bring meals to help her through chemotherapy, "I could have used it as an excuse to eat comfort foods, but I asked for healthy options like grilled chicken," says Coleman, whose scan in November showed she's cancer-free. "It's a true lifestyle change."

Cat Brooks