Wondr Health: The Program I Almost Ignored

Below is an interview I did with Wondr Health aka Naturally Slim back in 2020 or 2021. honestly my brain can’t remember. When I joined in 2019, I understood the program as a behavior-change program, not a diet. It was less about telling me what foods were good or bad and more about changing how I looked at food, hunger, fullness, and my own eating habits. 98% of what I wrote in the below piece is still relevant to me today. The new components are me baking bread and being very intentional about food choices and movement.

Hard to believe I am still “working” the program in 2026 even though I was officially done with the program after twelve months. Enjoy.

Disclaimer: For those thinking, oh no, here we go with the diet talk such is not the case. FFPC will never speak on anything related to popular diet culture. If working on your health is something you’re not down with, skip reading this post.

How did you come to join the program(Natually Slim(Wondr Health)?

Like most people every New Year my work inbox was full of emails for programs prominsing to create a new you for the New Year. For years and had been deleting them, figuring I was in good enough shape. Maybe not to run a marathon, but to get around with no problem.

What drew you to it?

I lost two really good friends who were like brothers to me. One to diabetes, the other to testicular cancer. Considering I am over 50, I decided it was time to start looking more closely at my health. The program seemed easy enough, so I figured, why not?

What were your initial thoughts about the concepts?

On the surface, I was thinking this is another hocus-pocus program, but I will give it a try. The concept of “eat what you want, but only eat when you’re hungry” intrigued me. The “only eat when you’re hungry” part really puzzled me. I have always considered myself an overeater going back to my teen years, so learning about my hunger patterns got my attention.

After attending the funerals of my friends whom I mentioned earlier I completely forgot about the program. The welcome kit sat on my desk at work unopened. When the email came through congratulating me on my journey, it was three weeks in! I ended up crunching a month of videos and journals into a few weeks and made a huge mistake, which I laugh about today but was not happy about while I was experiencing it.

Crunching so much information into a short window was eye-opening and made me pay realize the concepts are not diet tips, but a lifestyle map, and I liked that thought a lot! The hard part was about to come crashing down on me in a way that I will remember for the rest of my life!

What was hard for you?

The part I misunderstood and hit me like a ton of bricks on the backside of it was the sugar reset. The mistake I mentioned earlier was, to this day, the hardest task I have ever taken on. The key word is “RESET.” My brain processed “RESET” as “DETOX.” In other words, I cut sugar out almost totally for twenty-one days. I was literally going through withdrawals and grieving the loss of my friends at the same time without realizing what was going on!

Mood swings, massive hunger pains, headaches, dizziness, blood pressure spikes, and more hit me all at once. Months later, I realized why that period was so hard. Sugar is an important ingredient in ones daily nutrition. Since then, I have done the reset several more times without the side effects of the first time.

Because I have never viewed the program as a diet, the concepts have been simple for me. This past weekend, my wife and I ate away from the house for several meals, which gave me an opportunity to really practice the before and after-meal skills I have learned since 2019. Even though I indulged in quite a bit of food, alcohol, and sugar overall, I did not walk away from a single meal regretting my meal choice. Seeing people who started eating after me finish before me and get a to-go bag made me feel good about what I learned.

What parts of the program were easy?

The eating-what-you-want part! I have been enjoying the journey with food of finding what I REALLY like to eat instead of just shoveling food into my mouth. The sugar reset changed my taste buds to the point of giving up some of the foods and drinks I had been indulging in for years. All these years latter I still mourn the loss of Mountain Dew often. Like other things, I just don’t enjoy it anymore. Lots of things I previously ate are either too sweet or have a bitter aftertaste, so I just gave them up.

It is easy for me to say no to foods I do not like. I only eat twice a day and refuse to waste those opportunities on nasty food.

Hydration was easy as well. Staying hydrating is directly connect to hunger patterns so that helped as well. I can do 48–64 oz. of water with no problem. Over the past six months, I drink plain water and sometimes add a water enhancer, and of course coffee.  Staying hydrated has been the biggest change in my overall journey. It shows at my annual checkup when the nurse had no problem finding a vein. She commented that I must stay hydrated.

Now that you have lost 100 lbs., are you at your goal?

Weight loss was never my main goal. As stated earlier, being healthy has always been my main goal. The weight loss has been a byproduct of following the principles of the program while eating what I want and eating only when I am hungry.

I guess my goal is to maintain the weight loss and be aware of any body changes I am experiencing in relation to how I eat so I can make the necessary adjustments to my lifestyle.

What has weight loss allowed you to do that you were not able to do before?

I was pretty active before I started the program, so I am doing more and being comfortable while doing it. I am no longer snoring. I don’t wheeze when I sleep. My knees, back, and ankles are not hurting me as before. I have had excess wax buildup in my right ear for decades. I could barely hear when someone was on my right side. Recently, my son was talking to me while I was facing away from him. I responded to him without thinking of the implications of it! He shouted, “You heard me!” I was like, I guess I did!

I am walking more since I no longer stop from 11am – 2pm to eat lunch. I walk during that time. My record so far is two miles in under 18 minutes. Picking up the pace so I can make the circuit during my lunch break has been a good motivator. Walking is the only form of exercise that appeals to me these days.

And to think I almost bypassed the program that make such a significant change to my life. Changing how and what I eat allowed me to no longer be a slave to food. I really think about what I eat instead of eating because its what everybody else eats.

If the above words appeal to you leave a comment below and check out the post Healthy Habits I “Try” to do Daily.