I am joined by Aleta Jeffress. We are going to discuss what MetPro is like after you've met your goal. Aleta, you are a long-time MetPro client, so I know that you, walking us through the program is the perfect scenario. Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you for having me, Crystal. I appreciate it. I look forward to this conversation.
Me too. I know I was astonished to know how long you have been a MetPro client. Can you start with that? How long have you been with MetPro?
I tallied it up, and it has been over five years that I have been with MetPro. Time flies, and I was amazed, but it has been a lot of learning and a good thing for me. It has been great.
I understand that you've done a little bit of MetPro with and without a coach. Can you walk us through what the differences have been like for you?
When I started MetPro, my husband had found the program and was like, “You would enjoy this.” Over the course of time like a lot of people, I had wanted to be thinner, more fit, weigh less or whatever that looked like. When we started taking a look at it, and the more that I learned about what it did, it was different, yet it seemed very sustainable. That was part of the appeal for me personally. I look back a few years later and when I started, definitely, I had to have a coach because I was learning and reading. “What do I do today? What do I do tomorrow? What's this 72-hour thing? I have never done anything like that. What does that mean?”
I also believe that in anything you do that you try and be better, you need a coach. There are a lot of people out there that know a lot more than you about a lot of different things. I was fortunate that Megan was my coach from the very beginning, and I love her. She continues to be my coach whenever I need it. I appreciate that so much but it was taking it step-by-step and learning. I would say when I did it the first time, I did it for about maybe even 7 or 8 months. It was a long time. To me, you have to take a 90-day to form a habit. You get into that first three months and figure it out. From there, “What can I do now? What results can I see if I do it another month or another month?”
I felt after about that first 8 or 9-month period that I understood at least how to manage it. From there, I would do it on my own, and there wasn't an app. It was there, and that's continued to evolve. You will learn what you can do, what you can't do or what your body will respond to. Anything else, over the course of time, people fall off the tracks. That's life. That's what happens.
I look at it like a brush-up course or a refresher. Every now and then, I think about 3 or 4 months would do me some good to get me back on track. Over time since I have been on it so long, your metabolism changes, and things change. There were things in my late 40s, I didn't have an issue with my early 40s. How do we adapt to that? It has been a good experience all the way around.
Maybe anything that you are doing for a fitness goal, especially so with MetPro, there are goals. You reach your goal but your goal evolves because you evolve. You touched on that with getting older but it could be anything. Do you feel like there has been a certain time that you've met the goal you first started with? If so, what was that moment like? What made you decide to keep going?
The very first time when I started, we had moved across the country. There's a lot of stress and things that come with that, and you get settled. At that point, I felt like, “This is where I'm going to be.” You resigned yourself to this is how it's going to go and how it's going to be. I will have a muffin top. Even though I'm not heavy and go through that, when I did the program, I lost 12 pounds.
Twelve pounds for me was phenomenal. I thought, “I need to look at it differently.” As you learn, it's not about calories or what you are eating. It’s about how do I fine-tune the metabolism part of it? To me, that was a big wow moment. There is something that works. I don't have to settle for what I thought I had to. That was a big a-ha moment for me.
You decided to keep going because you wanted to see what was next, is what I'm hearing.
I liked to lift weights. That's my workout of choice. I'm not a cardio fan, even though I do it. As I got more into it and I could work with Megan on the training part of it, it became, “Let's see how strong I can get. How can I measure that? How can I change my body composition?” You can become like anything else. You can tweak it the further you go through it, and you are like, “What's the next challenge? What can I do now? What can I do to make myself feel and look better?”
Have you tried to do programs like weight loss programs before? Have you tried other programs that worked on your goals before this?
I had. Over the course of time, even since college, we all know that we should exercise and eat better. When I had my first child, I had a big issue with a lot of weight gain, which was a lot of sodium. At that point, I started to look at, “What am I eating? How is that affecting me?” I had looked at some other programs. I had even done another online “program” before that was a thing. I did see some results with that but a lot of it too, wasn't sustainable. You either had to have a coach or eat this, which was manufactured by them. It made it more of a start and an end versus a lifestyle.
That's a good way to put it. What do you think specifically about MetPro keeps you coming back, keeps it sticking for you?
It's all real food, and that's a big plus. I don't have to manufacture things and buy weird things that aren't at the grocery store. To me too, once you know what you should be eating and how much of that you should be eating, then you can do that anywhere. If I go out to eat, I know I should probably not have the pizza. I should probably have something else. It was something that's transferable, no matter where you are at, and you can make it work.
I traveled a lot, wherever I was, whatever city, I would go to the grocery store and knew I could buy 4 or 5 things, and that would get me through breakfast and snacks. If I was reasonable lunch and dinner, I didn't feel like I was breaking all the rules or had to start over, which is what happens with a lot of programs.
I couldn't have said it better myself. I ate all the things that you say you like about it or the things I like about it too. I have only been doing MetPro for a year. I still struggle with times of feeling like my old patterns start to resurface as far as cravings and making choices. I know I shouldn't. It's hard to constantly be vigilant, but you said so well about it being a lifestyle. That's what you are going for. That's the idea that you make the changes that are long-lasting and that you can continue to maintain forever. Even when you make a choice that's not optimal, it's not going to crush everything or take away all your progress. You go back to doing what you were doing and get back on the horse.
I do think that accountability helps now and then. That's part of the coaching and having the app, which I have had the entire time. It's good to be able to see and go back and look at trends. If I have a question or something is changed, the program has evolved over the past few years. There have been different programs or levels of things within the eating plans that I have been able to learn and adapt to too. That has been great.
Do you mind sharing what your goals are that you are working through the program now?
There's still this last about 2 or 3 pounds that accumulated during COVID and refuses to go away for whatever reason. Honestly, a lot of that is just the lack of activity with COVID. I worked from home all day. When I was in an office, I would get up and walk around. You think that that's not a big deal but when I look back now, it was a big deal to be able to do a couple of laps right around the courtyard outside or whatever at lunch.
It's trying to make more of an effort to do that, probably more in the spring than now. That was one goal. Over time like this past summer and fall, I worked at maintaining and building muscle mass. As you get older, that's important because that's what I like to do. We focused on that and that bulking-up phase. One of the ways I like to measure strength is the number of pull-ups I can do.
I am so impressed. I wanted to do a pull-up my entire life, I have never managed to do one.
That's amazing. You can start doing none and work your way up to one. That's a measure I like to do off and on, “How many of those did I do at one time?” That's always something that people don't expect you to be able to do.
That’s pretty badass. I’m not going to lie.
I have to share that over the summer. I was at a rodeo. I live in Colorado. One of the vendors had this pull-up contest. We were there, and my daughter and her fiancé were there. She was like, “Mom, you have to do this.” I did. The funny thing was that I won by a lot and beat out the 26-year-old CrossFit girl. I was like, “Yes.”
That's such a huge win. A lot of people think that MetPro is all about weight loss. That's a great point. That is a very non-scale victory. Did you get a trophy or anything? Did they give you one?
I got a gift card for Texas Roadhouse or something. I’m like, “That’s not really the right type of reward,” but I took it.
You are not going to say no. The bread at Texas Roadhouse is amazing. That's such an awesome story. How many did you do?
I did 16 or 17. It’s not quite my personal best but in front of a bunch of people on an afternoon, it was good.
It's not like you prepared. It was a last-minute, “I'm going to do this.” That's incredible, especially because you probably weren't wearing clothes that you would normally be working out in. Everything was off from your normal. Do you have any advice for people who might be getting started on their journey with MetPro and maybe have been struggling with weight loss or whatever fitness goals they have in the past?
The biggest thing is to be open-minded. I know that there are lots of plans out there. Even now, there are lots more types of plans that are out there and ways to “lose weight” or get fit. This is consistent and the long haul in my mind. You are going to see some immediate results if you follow the plan and stick to it because that's your body adapting. If it's something that you want to maintain and build over time, like anything, patience is important.
Working with your coach, they do a great job. My husband has also done the program off and on. How he likes to manage it is much different than how I like to manage it. His coach has honed in on what he needs and what's important to him. They work with it, and that's what the coaches are there and what they are good at. Listen to your coach and find one that can work with you.
That is excellent advice because one of the things I absolutely adore about MetPro is it is so customized and dialed into each individual person. When you are working with a coach, it's all about you, your metrics, and your goals. You get such specific advice for what you are trying to do. That is excellent feedback. Thank you very much for that, Aleta. Anything else that you think everybody should know on this topic?
The one important thing is that this program is a little bit different and based on metabolism. That's a new area of learning for a lot of people. Many people don't understand how important that is and how that plays into everything else. They think that they don't need to eat or eat less when the reality is they are not eating enough. You need to eat more and make better choices like I tell my kids about. It's true.
It's something that you can eat a lot more of something that's good for you than eating a little bit of something that's not so good for you. Being open-minded, learning more about your body, how it's going to evolve over time, and feeding it properly to be able to do what you want as long as you want. That's important.
I couldn't have said it better myself. That is absolutely true. It's always shocking to me how much of a something like broccoli or spinach you can have as compared to something heavy in carbs, that I lean toward carbs naturally, towards non-vegetable carbs. Making that choice can be tough but so rewarding because not only is it more filling but you feel better. It's paying attention to how you feel after you eat. That has been such a game-changer for me as well. Have you noticed that too, like how you feel is different when you eat?
Yeah. I have been on those programs where you had a cheat day. Some of them had a cheat meal, and some of them had a cheat day. The ones where you had a cheat day over time, it would take me 2 days to recover from my 1 cheat day because I felt so horrible. I was like, “This is not worth it anymore.” Now I might have a cheat dessert. That's about as much as I'm willing to commit to because I know that if I stray too far, it takes time to reset my body back to where it needs to be. In the long run, it's not worth it. My skin looks better. There are so many things that I feel better mentally. Obviously, my composition is better. It’s super beneficial.
When you were saying that about feeling crappy for the next couple of days, my husband and I both call that a food hangover. It’s so funny. I feel like before MetPro, I could pretty much eat anything. I felt low grade yuck all the time but I didn't notice it. Now, whenever I have a cheat day, I don't feel good for a long time, and it's not worth it.
Even when you go on vacation, it's not worth it. Sometimes, people toss everything aside when they go on vacation and I'm like, “No, because I want to enjoy my vacation.” It's not worth it. You can find it. You can make it work.
This has been very informative. Thank you so much for your time. I had a lot of fun, Aleta. If the readers out there want to learn any more about this topic or MetPro, in general, you can check us out at MetPro.co. You can find The MetPro Method wherever you find all your podcasts. Please be sure to rate and review. I will see you next episode. Until then, remember consistency is key.
