Episode 7Nov 17, 2025· 30:02

From Food Coma Family Reunions to Breaking the Generational Curse | Rhonda's 120-Pound Transformation Part 1

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About this episode

Rhonda Goode describes losing 120 pounds and five dress sizes starting at age 35, driven by a family history of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and insulin dependency on both sides of her family. She discusses breaking generational health patterns, the role of mindless eating and food culture at family gatherings, stopping fast food, gradually cutting Mountain Dew, and unlearning the habit of eating past…

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Who this episode is for

This episode may resonate with you if:

You've watched your parents or grandparents get sicker and sicker — diabetes, high blood pressure, insulin needles — and you're starting to see the same signs in yourself and feel genuinely scared about where you're headed.

You grew up in a family where food was love, where piling your plate high was normal and encouraged, and you're only now starting to recognize that the environment you were raised in shaped habits you've never questioned.

You've tried the quick fixes — the pills, the shakes, maybe even the shots — lost weight, then gained it all back, and you're exhausted by the cycle and wondering if there's actually another way.

You started working out with a burst of motivation and it's fading. You're showing up less, making excuses, and quietly wondering if you're just not the kind of person who sticks with things.

You're making real changes but the people closest to you — a parent, a partner, a friend — keep telling you you're doing too much, or subtly undermining what you're building, and it's messing with your head.

You've been stepping on the scale every week, watching the number barely move, and it's making you want to quit even though your clothes are fitting differently and you feel stronger than you did three months ago.

Questions this episode wrestles with

Is knowing your family's health history enough to actually change your own path?

open question

Rhonda doesn't claim that knowing was enough on its own — she describes watching her entire mother's generation slide from blood pressure pills to multiple daily insulin injections and still being in that food coma photo herself at 23, suggesting the knowledge was necessary but not sufficient until something internal shifted.

"And so dying doesn't scare me, as I tell everyone. Living like that does, where you just are not in control of your life because everything is built around all of the medicines you take. You"

What does it take to break a pattern when everyone around you is living the same way?

answered

Rhonda says the driving force has to come from inside you, not from a partner or a friend — you have to find something within yourself that asks, if I'm going to be here, what condition am I going to be in?

"And I tell everyone that there has to be a driving force and it's usually not going to be necessarily your partner or your best friend. It's usually within you. And there has to be something that says that. Whether you feel like self -esteem and worth is worth it or not, that I'm going to probably be here. And if I'm going to be here, what condition am I going to be in?"

What happens when your family is part of the pattern you're trying to break?

open question

Rhonda describes her mother encouraging her to order more food at McDonald's and telling her she was 'doing too much' at the gym until the day she died — she doesn't resolve this tension so much as she lives inside it, responding to her mother with a counter-argument rather than a solution.

"my mother, up until she died, you're doing too much. You're going to burn your body out. You're working too hard. You're doing too much. You know, and I always used to tell her, well. It's going to wear out. So I can either wear it out working it out or I can wear it out sitting like you're sitting 25 hours a day. Like, I'll take"

How do you show up for something when motivation has completely run out?

answered

Rhonda traces it back to work ethic rather than fitness mindset — she says she's been a hard worker since she was 17 and that showing up is just what's in her, including the day after her mother passed.

"from work ethic more than anything else. I mean, I never called into work on my desk job until"

Is there a version of weight loss that doesn't require giving up everything you like?

answered

Rhonda's experience is that she never took any 'gigantic, crazy steps with food' — she still eats carbs and chocolate every day, and describes her approach as eating less of things and maybe less often rather than cutting them out entirely.

"of I'm still going to have treats. I'm still going to eat what I want, but I'm probably going to manage it better and eat less of it and maybe"

Setting expectations: This episode is not a structured weight loss program, a nutrition guide, or an interview with a fitness expert dispensing professional advice. It's a personal conversation with Rhonda, a fitness instructor who lost 120 pounds, about watching her entire family get sick from diabetes and high blood pressure, recognizing herself in a food-coma reunion photo with her mother, and just keeping going to the gym — including at 2 AM — until things changed.

Tone & style

Rhonda starts from a place where food-heavy family culture and weight gain felt like a normal trajectory — captured literally in a reunion photo of her and her mother looking 'drugged out' after piling their plates. Watching her mother's entire generation slide from high blood pressure to daily insulin injections, and recognizing herself in that picture at 23, pushed her to join a gym at 35. Her coworker quit after four weeks; Rhonda kept going — including 2 AM treadmill walks — because she felt mentally better before she saw anything physical change. The episode ends with her 120 pounds lighter and teaching fitness classes, having built discipline that held even the day after her mother died.

Personal lived experience and opinion shaped by that experience. Rhonda's views on weight loss drugs, surgery, and diet are her own convictions, not clinical evidence.

toneCandid & emotionally grounded

focusRhonda's account of deciding at 35 to break the generational pattern of diabetes and high blood pressure she watched consume both sides of her family — and what it actually took over the years that followed.

stylestorytelling

energymedium

complexitybeginner

pressure Levellow

emotional Textureraw, honest, quietly determined, occasionally wry

Notable quotes

"And so dying doesn't scare me, as I tell everyone. Living like that does, where you just are not in control of your life because everything is built around all of the medicines you take. You"

— Rhonda Goode

"we both look like we are just in a food coma because we are, I mean, our eyes are like, we look like we're on drugs. And, you know, and"

— Rhonda Goode

"my mother, up until she died, you're doing too"

— Rhonda Goode

"shadow. Like in the sun. I mean, I'll never forget the first time I really noticed my shadow in the sun. I was like, who is that? Because you just don't believe that you're that size. So"

— Rhonda Goode

"I mean, I have not known one person before Ozempic and all the shots. I've not known one person that had any kind of weight loss surgery that didn't have lifelong side effects from it. Not"

— Rhonda Goode

Episode transcript

Organized into 9 chapters — open any part to read the full text.

0:121. Introducing Rhonda and Her StoryHost Famous Ashley Grant introduces Rhonda Goode and previews the three-part series, teasing topics like family health history, 120-pound weight loss, food addiction, and Rhonda's specific salad requirements.1:562. Joining the Gym at 35 After 70-Hour Work WeeksRhonda describes how a coworker talked her into joining a 24-hour gym in 2011, how the coworker quit after four weeks, and how Rhonda kept going — including 2 AM treadmill walks — because she felt mentally better even before seeing physical changes.4:083. Family Health History: Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, and Food Coma ReunionsRhonda paints a detailed picture of her mother's generation — all diabetic and hypertensive, sliding from pills to multiple daily insulin injections — and describes a family reunion photo where she and her mother look 'drugged out' after piling their plates as high as they could.8:204. The Physical and Mental Transformation: 120 Pounds and Five Dress SizesRhonda walks through how she started changing — stopping fast food, slowly cutting Mountain Dew, unlearning mindless eating — and how gaining confidence was met with pushback from family, including her mother telling her she was 'doing too much' until the day she died.13:405. No Pills, No Surgery, No Quick FixesRhonda explains her firm opposition to weight loss surgery, diet pills, and drugs like Ozempic, arguing there is always a side effect, while Ashley shares her own experience losing 80 pounds on Phentermine only to gain it all back and receive a warning about her heart.18:446. Motivation vs. Discipline: Showing Up Even When You Don't Feel Like ItRhonda distinguishes between motivation — which fades like anything new — and discipline rooted in work ethic, noting she showed up to teach class even the day after her mother died and has never cancelled or called a sub.22:087. The Scale Is a Liar: Track Measurements and How Clothes FitRhonda argues the scale moves too slowly and will disappoint, recommending body measurements and how clothes fit instead — including noticing when favorite pants start sagging or when a shirt fits differently than it did six months ago.25:038. Eating Chocolate and Pasta Every Day While Still Seeing ResultsRhonda describes her actual daily eating pattern — muscle milk in the morning, a daily salad at lunch, pasta or a heavier dinner at night, chocolate after the salad — and explains how she balances heavier foods by adjusting what else she eats that day rather than cutting anything out entirely.28:099. Rhonda's Very Specific Salad RequirementsRhonda details exactly what goes into her daily salad — spring mix or 50-50 blend, cherry tomatoes (specifically Cherub or ruby reds), cucumbers, sugar snap peas, feta, puffy croutons like Texas Roadhouse style, and ranch dressing not drowned — and explains why iceberg lettuce is 'a cardinal sin.'

Open full transcript

Mentioned in this episode

personRhonda Goode

Fitness instructor and guest of the episode, who lost 120 pounds and five dress sizes starting in 2011 after joining a gym at 35 to break a family pattern of diabetes and high blood pressure.

personFamous Ashley Grant

Host of More Movement Please and the interviewer, who also shares her own experience losing 80 pounds on Phentermine pills only to gain it all back and receive a heart warning from her doctor.

companyMcDonald's

Fast food restaurant Rhonda describes eating at during her heaviest period — two double cheeseburgers, large fry, and a soda — with her mother encouraging her to go back through the drive-thru for more.

productMountain Dew

The soda Rhonda was drinking regularly — described as common in her state — which she didn't give up for the first year of her gym journey despite wanting better results.

productOzempic

Weight loss injection Rhonda references as a recent example of quick-fix drugs she opposes, grouped with weight loss surgery as things she believes always carry side effects.

productPhentermine

Diet pill Ashley says she used 12 years ago, losing 80 pounds but gaining it all back after stopping, and receiving a warning from her doctor that her heart seemed like it was going to stop.

productFen-Phen

Diet pill Rhonda references as an example of a quick-fix drug pulled from the market after it was found to cause heart attacks — grouped with other 'legal speed' diet pills she opposes.

productMuscle Milk

Protein drink Rhonda says she has most mornings as part of her current daily eating routine, describing herself as 'back on the Muscle Milk train right now.'

companyCold Stone

Ice cream shop Rhonda mentions as her occasional treat destination — getting 'the biggest thing of ice cream in the chocolate dip cone with chocolate, chocolate, chocolate' on bad days.

companyTexas Roadhouse

Restaurant Rhonda references as the benchmark for the type of croutons she wants on her salad — 'crunchy spongy ones' — as opposed to the cheap hard square kind.

Key themes

Fear of living sick, not dying

Rhonda's motivation isn't fear of death but fear of the life her family lived — built around medications, no energy, and no control — which she describes as 'dying doesn't scare me, living like that does.'

Generational food culture at family reunions

Rhonda describes family reunions where piling plates as high as possible was almost a competition, and shares a photo of herself and her mother looking 'drugged out' in a food coma that she still posts on social media.

Breaking the generational diabetes and blood pressure pattern

Rhonda watched her mother's entire generation — and her father's side — follow the same path from high blood pressure to oral diabetes meds to multiple daily insulin injections, and decided at 35 she was going to change that trajectory.

Family pushback when you start changing

Rhonda's mother told her 'you're doing too much, you're going to burn your body out' until the day she died, and Rhonda warns others that family members who aren't willing to do the work often get threatened by someone else's progress.

Unlearning mindless and encouraged overeating

Rhonda describes her mother actively encouraging her to order more food at McDonald's and the broader pattern of eating without noticing hunger — while driving, watching TV, or at a desk — as something that had to be consciously unlearned.

No quick fixes — always a side effect

Rhonda says she has never known a single person who had weight loss surgery without lifelong side effects, and Ashley adds her own experience losing 80 pounds on Phentermine, getting an EKG warning about her heart, and gaining it all back.

Discipline over motivation

Rhonda draws a direct line between work ethic and gym consistency, noting she showed up to teach the day after her mother died and has never cancelled a class or called a sub, because motivation fades but discipline is what you fall back on.

The scale is a liar — track clothes and measurements instead

Rhonda argues the scale moves too slowly and will disappoint, and says the real markers are body measurements and noticing when a favorite pair of pants starts sagging or a shirt fits differently than it did six months ago.

Eating what you want without cutting everything out

Rhonda eats chocolate and pasta regularly and explicitly rejects fad diets including keto, describing her approach as managing portions and balancing heavier foods against lighter ones the same day rather than eliminating anything entirely.

Body dysmorphia after major weight loss

Rhonda describes still seeing herself as the bigger person in the mirror even after losing 120 pounds, including the moment she noticed her own shadow in the sun and thought 'who is that?' because she couldn't believe she was that size.

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