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Meet Jo

At 63, Jo is a retired journalist and former diplomat, now enjoying life on a small farm in Kentucky with her husband, nine grandchildren, and a flock of chickens. 

After decades spent traveling and working around the world, Jo has embraced a quieter, more grounded lifestyle. “I spend a lot of time playing with them,” she says of her grandchildren, laughing. “It’s funny because I don’t even have to go to the gym on the days I’m watching them. I get more steps on those days than any other.”

But Jo’s calm life today was not always filled with energy. When she first retired, she says, “I really didn’t have a lot of energy and wasn’t interested in doing a lot of things.” Caring for her aging mother gave her a glimpse into her own possible future. “She had no muscle, no energy. She was diabetic, and I just thought, I don’t want to end up that way. I really want to be in the best health possible for a long time.”

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Breaking free from a lifetime of dieting

“I’ve struggled with my weight my whole life,” Jo admits. “My mother put me on my first diet when I was nine years old.” Shopping for clothes as a child was heartbreaking, she recalls. “The people in the store immediately said, ’The chubby department is over there.’” Years of dieting followed, each one ending the same way: “All I did was lose, regain, and get bigger.”

At one point, she vowed never to go over 200 pounds, until one day she did. “No matter what I did, no matter how extreme the diet, no matter what diet I tried, I just kept getting bigger.” When she discovered Lumen, she thought, This is going to be my last effort. “If this doesn’t work, then I’m just going to have to be okay with my weight,” she says. “The great thing is, not only did it work for me, but I actually got so much more than I expected.”

The turning point

Before Lumen, Jo was sleeping only two or three hours at a time. “I was constantly waking up and never got restful sleep,” she recalls. “Now I sleep so soundly I actually remember dreaming, and I don’t think I dreamt for years.”

At first, she resisted Lumen’s guidance. “I had gotten into the mindset of almost no carbs and eating around 1,000 calories a day, and Lumen had me set at 1,500, which for me was kind of scary. I thought, I’m just going to get bigger if I eat that much.” But when she finally trusted the process, everything shifted. “Once I trusted it, that’s when the weight started coming off,” she says. Her daughter’s advice helped too: “Mom, stop worrying about the scale. How do you feel?”

That question changed everything. “I decided, this is not about weight loss. This is about how I feel overall. And I thought, wow, I’m actually sleeping. I have so much energy. I don’t stand still anymore.”

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Redefining what strength means

For Jo, the real transformation came through movement. “Before Lumen, I hated exercise. I avoided it at all costs. And now I just can’t get enough of being active and busy and moving because I have all that energy.”

Despite an artificial knee and metal in her spine, she learned to build strength safely. “Lumen helped me see that you don’t have to run five miles for things to work. Start simple,” she reflects. “So I tried rowing because it’s low impact but uses over 90 percent of your muscles. I started at 10 minutes a day and built from there.”

Now she lifts heavy weights and inspires others at her gym. “People see somebody my age lifting heavy and showing up daily, and they can’t believe I’m still here,” she says proudly. “After this much time, this is a permanent change.”

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Finding freedom through curiosity

Jo’s journalism background made her naturally inquisitive. “I love data, I love information, I love investigation,” she says. “So, probably to a certain extent, it is my personality. But when it comes to dieting, I struggle like everybody else.”

With Lumen, experimentation became exciting. “It’s kind of like a game or a chase,” she explains. “Okay, how can I do this again? How can I get better? What’s the motivator? Maybe just because I feel better and I want more of that.”

That curiosity taught her to fine-tune her health. “For example, I found out that if I drink coffee on an empty stomach, I go straight to a five. It shoots my cortisol through the roof. I had no idea,” she says. “Lumen gives me a chance to say, okay, your body doesn’t like that, Jo. You need a shift.”

A message for others: It’s never too late

“At 62, I thought my window was very short to change things,” Jo says. “But once I started sleeping better and seeing all these positive changes, I realized, wait a minute, my window is not closing.”

Her message to others: “It’s never too late. You can do this. You just have to realize it’s a step at a time. And with Lumen, you can finally talk to your body and understand what it needs.”

Today, she feels decades younger. “I’m in better health now than I have been in 40 years. I don’t take any prescription medications. Even with my physical limitations, they feel non-existent. I can do anything I put my mind to,” she says.

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Advice to her younger self

“You need to get a time machine and go get Lumen,” Jo laughs. “Because the no-fat, low-fat, no-carb, prepackaged meals, milkshake diets — everything I’ve ever done — was hurting me, not helping me. I feel so sorry for the younger me.”

“Lumen has completely changed my mindset. My goal is not a particular weight. My goal is to be in the best health I possibly can be in.”

Jo is proud of the woman she’s become. “I feel better than I can ever remember in so many different ways,” she says. “Your 90-year-old self is going to thank you.”

Transformation at every age

After a lifetime of helping others through journalism, diplomacy, and nonprofit work, Jo continues her mission in a new way by inspiring others to rebuild their health. “I don’t want people to suffer the way I did for so long when this can be so liberating,” she says.

Her journey is proof that transformation is possible at any age, not through restriction, but through curiosity, trust, and compassion.

“I want to be a 90-year-old woman in the gym lifting heavy and amazing everybody,” Jo says with a grin. “And I think I will be.”