Paulette Szalay, 60, dieted for nearly all her life. But it took a mindset change for her to lose the weight that was slowing her down and affecting her health.
“That pivotal moment was on Easter Sunday of 2022. I was close to 260 pounds. I was an educator, working on the second floor, and I could no longer walk up and down the stairs. I had to take the elevator,” she tells TODAY.”
Her weight contributed to a host of medical conditions: High blood pressure, high cholesterol, swollen legs from retaining fluid, acid reflux and thyroid issues.
I had the mentality that I couldn’t lose weight after menopause, and that this was the way I was going to be for the rest of my life.
Paulette Szalay
“I had the mentality that I couldn’t lose weight after menopause, and that this was the way I was going to be for the rest of my life. I was depressed. I didn’t feel like I was part of society. I felt like I was always looked at or put down,” she says.
On that day in 2022, Szalay and her family had traveled from New Jersey to Juno Beach, Florida. “We went to the beach, and I was fully clothed from head to toe, sitting under an umbrella, sweating profusely, watching everyone else have a great time in the ocean and the sand,” she says.
“I saw this woman from behind, and I was admiring her shape and her bathing suit. She turned around, and I could clearly see that she was an older woman. I thought if she could rock a bikini, so could I. She was my inspiration. It was not something I was looking for or contemplating. It truly just hit me: ‘I can do this.’ That was my moment,” she says.
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Her weight-loss journey starts with a single meal
At Easter dinner in a restaurant that night, Szalay ordered grilled salmon and steamed vegetables. “My Italian family said, ‘What? No pasta? No chicken parmesan?’ I announced to my family that this was the first day of the rest of my life,” she says.
She’s been committed to her journey ever since, and in three years, she’s lost 133 pounds.
She no longer needs medication for high blood pressure or high cholesterol, her acid reflux is gone and she takes lower doses of thyroid medication. She says she feels energetic every day.
Szalay started as a size 24 and now wears size 6. One of her students introduced her to an agent, and she’s started to do some modeling and acting on the side, which she had never even considered before she lost weight. She even appeared on the cover of Women’s World magazine, and she’s building her presence on Instagram.
This summer, she finally got herself a bikini. “It took me three years, but I wear one. And I feel that I am rocking it,” she says.
She went from 5 minutes on a treadmill to hour-plus workouts
After that trip to Florida, Szalay researched gyms in her area and decided Planet Fitness, with its no-judgment focus, was the best choice for her.
“I was so heavy. I was fearful of people looking at me. At Planet Fitness, there were people of all ages and all sizes, and I felt very comfortable. The first day I went, I was clueless. When I got on the treadmill, I turned to one of the workers and said, ‘What do I do?’ And they helped me and welcomed me,” she says.
She knew she had to take it slowly: “That first time, I literally was on the treadmill for five minutes and I was out of breath.”
Now, she exercises for an hour or more, two or three times a week. She starts her workout with a half hour of cardio — either the stairs, treadmill, rowing machine or elliptical. Then she does a strength-training circuit.
While a lot of people like to work out in the morning, she prefers to go to the gym at night. “I find it very relaxing. I come home, take a shower, go to sleep and have a very restful night,” she says.
She eliminated some foods and found healthier ways to reintroduce them
Szalay worked with a nutritionist for most of 2022, calculating the calories and carbs she needed to keep up her energy in the gym. Her initial daily targets were 1,200 calories, at least 50 grams of protein and low levels of carbs.
“He went over the foods I like, what I should take out and what I added back in eventually,” she says. At first, she stopped eating carbs like pasta and bread, then later she modified the way she added them back in.
“Part of my Italian culture is that pasta would be your main dish,” she says. “Instead of having pasta four or five times a week, I would have a small portion as a side dish.”
Instead of frying, she now grills, steams, broils or uses an air fryer. She switched to vegan butter. “There were a lot of little changes in my food and how I prepared it,” she says. “You don’t realize it, but with just one tablespoon of regular butter, you’re adding all these extra fats.”
She eats smaller meals throughout the day to make sure her blood-sugar levels stay even. In a typical day, she might have:
- Breakfast: A protein shake with a heaping tablespoon of peanut butter, plus supplements — collagen, MCT oil, vitamin D, vitamin C, a multivitamin, a prebiotic and a probiotic.
- Mid-morning snack: Almonds.
- Lunch: Salad with tuna or another type of fish.
- Afternoon snack: Yogurt or a piece of fruit.
- Dinner: Grilled chicken, steamed vegetables and another side. On a gym day, that might be a half of a sweet potato or a baked potato, or a small serving of pasta.
“It works. I never feel hungry or like I lack energy. I’ve been healthy through the last three years,” she says.
She finds ways to overcome plateaus and setbacks
Szalay lost 10 pounds in her first week, but she knew that wasn’t sustainable. When she hit a plateau, she adjusted her exercise routine, changed the times that she ate and added in some carbs: “Believe it or not, putting back some of those carbs really helped speed up my metabolism.”
Nine months into her journey, she faced a serious health problem — an ocular stroke where she lost the vision in her left eye. But less than 24 hours later, her eyesight came back.
“I was told that because I was living a healthy lifestyle, the cells regenerated and reversed the blindness. And they told me there was a good chance I would have another stroke within six months, but that has never happened,” she says.
She connects with support, and builds her confidence
Szalay weighs herself every week, on Saturday mornings: “I had a huge group text with family, friends and colleagues. That support system was key to motivating me. Every week I would get on the scale and tell them what I lost and what I weighed. I would get claps and hearts, and that’s what kept me going. Everyone needs a support system. You can’t do it alone.”
As she started to lose the weight, her confidence grew. “I still relied on that support system, but it started to transfer over to me. I felt like I could do this. I’m confident now that I can do this on my own,” she says.
That confidence gave her a sense of purpose. “I wake up and say, ‘What can I accomplish today?’ There are goals I strive for. Before, I was waking up, doing the same routine, going to school and teaching. Now I feel like I have a purpose,” she says.”I would like to be an inspiration to others as that one woman on the beach was an inspiration to me.”
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