Subscribe
Hellobeautiful Featured Video
CLOSE

Sponsored content by WW

Karleen Roy as told to Jennifer Tzeses

Source: WW / WW

Let me start out by saying that I did WW in college, and it was not poppin’ for me back then.

I’ve struggled with my weight since I was a teenager. I tried every weight loss plan out there. Honestly, losing weight felt like a get-rich-quick scheme—you start out hopeful, but you’re just set up to fail. Flashback to last year during a digital conference where I gave a talk, and someone asked if I was a confident person. I remember thinking, “Yes, I’ve always been confident.” Yet truthfully, being unsuccessful in losing the last 15 pounds was really bothering me.

Everything changed when I heard about the new WW PersonalPoints™ Program. It felt kind of like dating someone new. I was apprehensive about WW in the beginning, thinking, “I don’t wanna learn a whole new program—can I just live my life?” Well, the first date was me just downloading the app to complete the personal assessment. To my surprise, I thought it was so dope. It was flexible, made everything really easy, and actually fits my life. Once we got serious, it didn’t feel like a diet at all.

Since I’ve started this weight-loss and wellness journey, I’ve lost 30 pounds. So much of my life has shifted in a good way—and importantly, a sustainable way. I didn’t understand it before, but losing weight isn’t just about what you eat or don’t eat: It’s about how you sleep, how active you are in your day-to-day life. It’s more than “I’m trying to lose five pounds to fit into a dress next week” or for a special occasion. After I got a hold of the larger picture, I finally lost the weight I’ve been trying to lose all this time.

I’ve learned all this and some other surprising things about myself along the way. Here are the five things I want you to know about my journey, which I share in hopes that it helps you and inspires you to sign up and start your own:

  • I can still lose weight while eating the foods I love.

I’m a creature of habit and can literally eat the same thing every day. For me, that’s avocado toast. Avocado toast is one of the foods on my ZeroPoint™ Foods list. So I can eat it to my heart’s content and still add zero Points. I just love that WW’s PersonalPoints™ program factors in who you are as an individual and gives you so much more flexibility with your food.

  • I needed an app to keep myself accountable and do the work for me.

I’m an event producer, which means I manage numbers and budgets all day long. I’m always evaluating needs and wants: “Do I need a million flowers? No. Maybe I just need half the flowers.” One of my favorite things about WW is that there’s an app because it’s a lot like how I operate at work. Now I’m always asking myself, “Do I need all this food? No, I can get a little bit of this and still feel just as full.”

The beauty of the app is that it holds me accountable because I get to see how much I’m eating and then how much it impacts my day. (And since we keep our phones in our hands all day long, I kind of have no excuse.) But it also just makes everything super easy.

Karleen Roy

Source: WW / WW

The app shows your PersonalPoints™ Budget at the top, and there’s a search bar: You can put in your meals, all your snacks, all your drinks, and it’ll calculate your Points for the day. You can even put in your activity. Are you walking? Did you just do your spin bike? Did you work out with a trainer? Whatever your activity is, you can put it in and get rewarded with additional points when you do. The app does all the work for you so there’s nothing for you to figure out. It’s foolproof.

  • My favorite ZeroPoint™ Food is…apples (not gonna lie: I used to eat chips every day).

This sounds so corny, but my favorite ZeroPoint™ Food is apples. I keep apples with me all day long.

Pre-WW, my go-to snack was something salty. I’d be at my bodega every day and get chips. They know me—anything salty, I’m there. My new thing now is I go there, get an apple, and keep it in my bag for later. It’s the weirdest thing, but now I’d pick an apple over a bag of chips. They’ve become my newfound love on WW.

  • My relationship with food really changed.

I just got back from Memphis. I was at home for a barbecue, and my little cousin told me, “Karleen, I’m so proud of you. I’ve just been watching how you eat.” She’s like, “Usually, you would eat the pound cake, all the bread and all the ribs.” I shared with my family “I have a different relationship with food now. Every time I sit down and eat, it doesn’t need to be Thanksgiving dinner.”

That’s how I used to approach eating. Every time I went to a restaurant, I’d order the richest thing on the menu. But now, I think about my food selections. Now, I’ll eat a light breakfast and lunch and have a big dinner if I know it’s a special occasion. It’s just about being educated and knowing what works for my body to get real results.

  • I am not humble about my weight loss at all!

People will say, “You look good,” and I’ll reply, “Girl, I know, right?” I’m not humble like, “Ooh, do I?” Instead, I say, “Yes, I do, and you should get on WW, too!”

I feel healthier, I feel stronger, and I do feel more confident when I walk into a room. I feel amazing, and it’s really just because I just feel so much doper, so much flyer in my own skin. WW kick started things for me, and I have not looked back.

RELATED STORIES:

6 New Year’s Resolutions For The Reformed Beauty Lover

10 Practical New Year’s Resolutions To Make & Keep This Year

For 2024’s iteration of MadameNoire and HelloBeautiful’s annual series Women to Know, we knew we wanted to celebrate the people who help make the joys of film and television possible. To create art is to create magic. This year, we spotlight Hollywood Executive’s changing the face of cinema.