This Physician Assistant Changed Her Eating Habits — Here’s What Happened Next

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• 🎙️5 Ways to Avoid Stress Eating While Working in Healthcare
• 🎙️Women in Healthcare: What’s at the Root of Overeating and Emotional Eating

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📖Episode Transcript (Easy-to-Read Version):

How a Physician Assistant Overcame Emotional Eating and Lost Weight Without Willpower — Her Full Story

What does daily life actually look like for a woman in healthcare who has finally made peace with food?

In a specific, real, this-is-actually-my-life kind of way.

In this week’s episode of Eating Habits for Life, we’re doing things differently today.

A personal story of a Physician Assistant who struggled with eating habits like emotional eating, which caused weight gain despite a very active lifestyle.

At the end, I reveal something about this person. So keep reading.

What Her Day Looks Like Now

I want to start with the after.

Because this is what’s actually possible… and I want you to feel it before we go anywhere else.

Her morning:

She wakes up feeling excited for the day.

Not dread. Not that familiar low grade anxiety buzzing through her body before she even gets out of bed.

She waits until she’s actually hungry before eating breakfast, usually 10-30 minutes after waking up.

And she sits down. Actually sits down.

She eats slowly. She tastes her food. She notices when she’s satisfied — and stops.

Not because she’s following a rule. Not because she’s counting anything.

Because her body told her it was enough and she listened.

She gets dressed, opens her closet, and reaches for something she actually wants to wear.

She looks in the mirror and feels strong. Physically, emotionally, completely at home in her own body.

Her workday:

She works long, demanding days in healthcare.

Mid-morning her stomach quietly signals it’s time for a small snack. She grabs a handful of nuts, puts them in a little espresso mug because it’s the perfect size, and eats every single one slowly.

That small handful is enough.

Lunch is a big salad loaded with protein, maybe some avocado or cheese. No longer estimating calories in her head or putting a drop of dressing on to save calories.

Just nourishing, satisfying, enough.

In times of stress? She doesn’t reach for the chocolate at the nurses station or the massive Panera cookie the drug rep brought in.

Instead she manages the stress directly.

A few slow breaths. A moment of awareness. A quiet check in with herself.

And she moves on.

Her evening:

She finishes her day, sometimes gets a run in, and makes dinner when she’s actually hungry.

Something easy. Something nourishing. Something that tastes good.

Protein, vegetables, maybe some farro or quinoa or a little pasta. Cheese if she wants it. Cookies for dessert if she feels like baking them.

Not because she’s being indulgent. Not because she was “good” all week and deserves it.

Because food is just food now.

It’s here to nourish her body and taste good… not to make her feel better, reward her, or help her cope.

The ultra processed snacks that used to be her nightly ritual?

She doesn’t even buy them anymore.

Not because she’s afraid of them.

Because she genuinely doesn’t want them.

How she feels:

She has more energy in her forties than she did in her twenties.

She looks at her body and sees strength, not the thighs she used to criticize or the body she felt she was losing control of.

Food is on her mind only in good ways now. Planning something delicious. Sharing a meal with someone she loves.

The mental space that used to be consumed by food and weight is now filled with ideas for her work, excitement about her next run, presence for the people she loves.

She met the love of her life… a man who was looking for exactly the woman she had become. Someone strong, vital, and alive.

She has a stepson named Ryan, and she gets to be exactly the athletic, present mom she always dreamed of being.

She told me once:

“I always said marrying my husband was the best thing I ever did for myself. But it was changing my eating habits that truly was the best thing I ever did for myself. It was because of that work that I was even ready for him. And that we have such a beautiful marriage.”

Before I Tell You Who She Is, Let Me Take You Back

Because the day I just described?

It didn’t always look like that.

Not even close.

The Before — Emotional Eating, Weight Gain, and Feeling Out of Control

This same woman woke up most mornings with a low grade anxiety already buzzing through her body.

A constant hum of stress and tension she carried with her everywhere.

She wore hospital scrubs to work most days, and looking back, she thinks that’s partly why she didn’t notice the weight creeping on at first.

Scrubs hide a lot.

But her body felt it.

Her thighs were rubbing together when she ran.

And the thought that followed… “I’m losing control of my body,” was devastating for a woman who prided herself on being in control of everything.

She had always thought of herself as the healthy eater.

Growing up her family had really healthy eating routines. It felt natural and effortless.

So when the weight started creeping up, she was confused. And ashamed.

“I know better than this. Why can’t I just stop?”

She was a healthcare provider. She knew exactly what she should be eating.

And yet, every afternoon at the nurses station she was reaching for chocolate. Which sounds small… except she wasn’t a candy person. She never had been.

And then she’d get home after a long exhausting shift and dinner was carbs galore. Breads, cereals, pasta for nearly every meal, because it was fast, easy, and she had nothing left to give.

And at 8pm on the couch she was working through a bowl of pretzels or Cheez-Its without even really tasting them. Always getting up for a refill because one bowl was never enough.

The calorie restriction attempt and why it failed:

Once she realized she had gained weight she decided to cut calories. Big time.

She brought a spinach salad with mandarin orange slices and a tiny drizzle of balsamic vinegar to work. Plus a small granola bar and a banana.

To last her through a 10 hour shift in orthopedic trauma surgery.

She used every ounce of willpower she had to eat that little. To ignore her hunger signals. To stay in control.

And for a while it worked.

The weight came off. She was relieved.

But she hadn’t fixed anything.

Because she hadn’t looked at what was actually causing the weight gain in the first place.

The impulsive grabbing of foods she wouldn’t normally eat. The emotional eating after hard shifts. The rewarding herself with food at night after giving everything she had all day.

And so…. the weight came back. Plus several more pounds.

And the thought that followed?

“I’m just not going to be able to control myself. I’m basically screwed.”

Rock Bottom — And the Turning Point That Changed Everything

The turning point didn’t come from a diet.

Or a new meal plan. Or a nutritionist. Or a tracking app. Or finally finding enough willpower.

It came when she hit rock bottom.

Not with food, but with her life.

Her marriage was falling apart.

She and her husband moved from Pennsylvania to Connecticut, partly trying to escape the stress and anxiety that had followed her everywhere for years.

But it followed her to Connecticut too.

She’d come home from work and ride her bike for an hour. Sometimes two.

Just to breathe. Just to get away.

Years of stress. Years of anxiety. Years of feeling like she was running from something she couldn’t name.

She had been on an SSRI for almost two decades… something she had never been able to come off of no matter how many times she tried.

Every birthday she’d blow out the candles and wish that the anxiety would go away. That the stress would go away.

She divorced her husband at 31. Felt like a complete failure.

And then she started realizing she deserved better.

She started doing things for herself again. Making small changes to how she was eating… not because she felt she ‘should,’ but because she was starting to want to.

She lost a little bit of weight.

And then…she found a life coaching program. And she learned something that changed everything:

Our thoughts create our emotions.

She started using the tools on herself.

Her anxiety started lifting. Her stress started softening.

And somewhere in the middle of all of that, she noticed something unexpected.

She wasn’t reaching for food the way she used to. She didn’t want the cereal dinners anymore. She didn’t even want the Cheez-Its.

She hadn’t realized until that moment, that she’d been using food for relief. Not for nourishment. Not for hunger.

For relief.

And once she started finding real relief through understanding and managing her thoughts and emotions. food just settled.

Naturally. Gradually. Without force.

Her best friend Kacie had been sending her recipes for years — introducing her to foods that were nourishing, delicious, and kind of exciting. “Wait — what does THIS do for my body?”

She started seeing food completely differently.

Not as restriction. Not as reward. Just food.

Within about 6 months, the transformation was complete.

She lost the weight naturally. Without counting a single calorie. Without a meal plan. Without willpower.

She gradually weaned off the SSRI she had been on for almost two decades… something she had never been able to do before.

Because the root had finally changed.

Not just her eating habits. Her thoughts. Her identity. Her ability to cope with emotions. Her entire relationship with food, her body, and herself.

The Reveal

That woman… is me.

I’m Kate Johnston.

Physician Assistant for 15 years. Eating habits and weight loss coach for women in healthcare.

Everything I just described… the anxiety buzzing in my body every morning, the scrubs hiding the weight I was gaining, the spinach salad trying to survive a 10 hour shift, the chocolate at the nurses station, the carb-heavy dinners, the bike rides just to escape, the rock bottom …that was me.

And then… the transformation.

The weight coming off naturally. The SSRI I finally came off of. Meeting Paul. Being the mom I always dreamed of being for Ryan. Feeling stronger at 42 than I did in my twenties.

All of it. That was me.

I share it today, not because it’s easy to share, but because I want you to know something.

If you heard yourself in any part of that story, the before OR the after, the distance between those two lives is not as far as it feels right now.

It’s not about finding more willpower. It’s not about a better diet. It’s not about having an easier life or less stress.

I had the same stressors when everything changed. The same busy schedule. The same demanding career.

Circumstantially… many things stayed the same.

What changed was the root. And when the root changes, everything changes.

Ready to Start Your Own Transformation?

The day I described at the beginning of this post — that’s not a fantasy.

That’s what happens when you address the root.

When you change the thoughts and patterns driving the eating — everything changes. The weight. The energy. The confidence. The mental space. The relationships.

Everything.

I created something specifically to help you get there.

Weight Loss Without Willpower is a free 5 day private podcast made specifically for women in healthcare.

5 short episodes — about 10 minutes each — that walk you through exactly why weight loss has felt so hard in your world and the specific process that creates the life I described today.

Plus quick worksheets that will be genuinely eye-opening, in the best possible way.

Completely free.

👉 [Grab your free access here]