Listen
Listen to this podcast or watch the video. CLICK HERE
Transcript
- 04:56 Starting a weight loss journey
- 10:00 Change up your workouts
- 11:56 Don’t limit your food
- 16:11 Lifestyle Change
- 17:32 Health food does not have to be boring
- 20:54 Trade coffee for tea
- 25:20 Good fats
- 26:50 Hitting a plateau
- 34:11 Having the determination
- 37: 41 You can kick your genetic’s ass
- 46:44 How does it feel to lose 100 pounds?
- 51:36 About Deanna
Wendy Myers: Welcome to the Live to 110 podcast. I’m your host Wendy Myers along with my co-host Cate Beehan of Fitness-broad.com Today Cate and I are interviewing our dear friend Deanna Della Cioppa about her very inspiring weight lost. She’s lost over 100 pounds and we are going to talk about how she did it and how you can do it too. And Deanna is a singer-song writer who just did a stint on “America’s Got Talent”. And she was fantastic on the show. So, I thought her story would be very inspiring to you listeners. So Cate, why don’t you do our little disclaimer before we start.
Cate Beehan: OK. Please keep in mind that this program is not intended to diagnose or treat any disease or health condition and it is not a substitute for professional medical advice. The Live to 110 podcast is solely informational in nature. Please consult your health care practitioner before engaging in any treatments or exercise program we suggest on the show.
Wendy Myers: Well, I have another disclaimer. Cate, Deanna and myself all used to live together. We used to all be roommates. So I apologize beforehand if we get a little raunchy on today’s show. Haha.
Cate Beehan: It could happen.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. Because actually, my goal from today’s show is to get an explicit rating in iTunes. So are you guys on board?
Deanna Della Cioppa: Let’s do it. Fuck it. Haha.
Wendy Myers: So anyway, everyone, I have a weight loss guide that I would love for you guys to download. I recently wrote an e-book called The Live to 110 by Weighing Less E-Guide. So if you go on my site, myersdetox.com, it is available to download for free. So just sign up for it on the homepage on the sidebar, where you see the join the Live to 100 community. And the e-guide is a 33 page basic weight loss e-guide filled with science backed tips from the latest research about diet and exercise and other tips about the causes of craving,s and how to conquer them and how to reduce stress, which is a very important aspect of weight loss. And the e-guide will also help you to get started on your path to losing weight. And it’s a primer for my book, When Diet and Exercises Are Not Enough: A Step by Step Plan to Eliminating your Road Blocks to Weight Loss which will be available hopefully, in Spring 2014. It’s going a little bit slow. So Cate have you read it yet?
Cate Beehan: Ummm. Not yet.
Wendy Myers: No? Well, so not supportive! Well let’s go on with the show already.
Cate Beehan: You know I don’t know how to read. Haha.
Deanna Della Cioppa: This is true, she only looks good.
Wendy Myers: Haha. How about you Deanna, have you read it?
Deanna Della Cioppa: No. But I don’t look as good as Cate so whatever. Haha.
Wendy Myers: Well, I’m sure you guys will read it at some point. So, it’s really, really good. I promise.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Promise we will read it. Promise.
Wendy Myers: Thank you. But let’s go on with the show. This is a really important show because so many people are struggling to lose weight and many of them have a long way to go. It can seem hopeless to need to lose 100 pounds or more. But it can be done. And I thought I had my dear friend Deanna on the show to talk about her weight loss experience and how it can help motivate you. Because Deanna, she’s very inspiring in her life and in her music, she attended the prestigious Berklee College of Music and is now an accomplished singer-song writer. And she’s still flying high from her performance at Radio City Music Hall on NBC’s top rated show this summer which was season 8 of “America’s Got Talent”. And she’s written songs for Charlie Wilson, Mya, Cassie, and Codie Simpson. And she’s got a new single coming out with DJ Pauly D, Christina Millian, and Big Sean.
Cate Beehan: Are you serious?
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah, baby.
Cate Beehan: Oh my god. Hilarious.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah.
Wendy Myers: And Deanna, she also sings backgrounds for Celine Dion and for Justin Bieber, and Paula Abdul, just to name a few. So Deanna, thank you so much for coming on the show.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah, girl. So happy to be here with you and hopefully inspire some people to make it happen, you know.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. I’m really inspired by you because I’m just really blown away that you’ve lost 100 pounds so far. And so, why don’t you tell the listeners a little bit about yourself and what you’re all about and what prompted you to lose this weight.
Cate Beehan: That’s like 20 Munchies!
Deanna Della Cioppa: Hahaha! Exactly! Munchie being Cate’s rat dog that weighs about, what? Like 10 pounds.
Cate Beehan: She weighs 5 pounds. So it’s like 20 Munchies.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah well how I did it was no munchies, how’s that?
Cate Beehan: Hahaha,
Deanna Della Cioppa: No. I grew up in a very, very home loving, big Italian loud family who owned a restaurant. So, food was never portioned. My mother had a husband and two kids and literally cooked for fifteen every night. I’m not kidding. Cate has met my mother. She is crazy. She is over the top.
Cate Beehan: Yeah.
Deanna Della Cioppa: But she really did, not to blame her but portion control was absolutely never talked about in my house. It was like, if you want thirds, have thirds. If you want fourths, have fourths. So I literally had an enormous appetite, not that I ate crap, oh, let me say shit since we’re going for the X-rated thing today.
Wendy Myers: Haha.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Not that I ate shit, but I just had a giant steak, a giant baked potato and half a bushel of broccoli. I mean, I would just eat like a man, like a grown man and I was 17. And so I was always chubby, but I didn’t really hit the bad chubbies until about, probably college. It really kind of got out of hand and then, not to go too in depth, but I went through just a really horrible time, really bad relationships. And again, I’m somebody who takes responsibility for everything that has happened in my life because I believe that you have the control to do what you want to do. And I got out of control, and I just ate to suppress my depression, and ate to suppress the pain that I was in. And I blew up to 310 pounds.
Cate Beehan: And how tall are you?
Deanna Della Cioppa: 5’4″ baby.
Deanna Della Cioppa: So that’s a big girl. And I was a size 22 and now I’m a size 12, 205 pounds. Today I actually just started a new program, actually the only program that I have been through on this whole journey. I’ve been doing it by myself the whole time and we’ll get into that. But today I’m starting a new program with a wellness coach that I know from New York, my friend Jenny Fujita and basically she just said to me, “Listen, you’ve done great. 100 pounds is awesome. The last 40 to 50 are going to be the hardest. So let me just give you some tools and help you”. And so she kind of gave me a program that’s kind of based on intermittent fasting, you know about that, intermittent fasting?
Wendy Myers: Yeah, yeah. Very effective.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Very effective. And she literally wants me to stop eating at 8 o’clock and not eat again until 12. In addition to really, really cutting down my diet making it lean protein, you know green leafy vegetables pretty much and lots of water with lemon and lots of oolong tea, no grains, no bread, no pasta. Nothing.
Wendy Myers: Go straight up Paleo, girl.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah. Paleo big time and that’s pretty much what she’s thought me. But, kick in here any time you want, but for me, just to tell your listeners, what prompted me – I have essentially always been an active healthy person. I go to the doctor at 300, 280 pounds, and the doctor would be like “Ah, your cholesterol , your blood pressure, everything is cool, you are great. You’re obese, so you’re morbidly obese but you are healthy.” And I’d be like “Ok, great”. You know “Awesome. See you next year!”. And I went a year ago, actually, it’s going to be a year on November 1st for me. In early October last year, I went to the doctor and he looked to me and said “Your cholesterol is 264, mind you, your cholesterol is supposed to be under 200.” And he said he wanted to put me on Lipitor.
Wendy Myers: Oh, hell no.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah. And I looked at him and said “not on your life.” And he said “well Deanna, you have one choice, you’ve got to work out and you’ve got to change the way you are eating immediately or you are heading for a heart attack. I’m just being real with you.” And I was like, that’s all I needed. It was so funny, it was like the trigger that went off and I feel this way about anything. I don’t care if it’s drinking, smoking, whatever addiction you have, food being mine, you have to make the decision to really make the change and be serious about it. You can’t do it for two weeks, you can’t do it until you hit a plateau, you have to literally say “I’m doing this.”
Deanna Della Cioppa: So I went to the gym, I signed up for boxing classes. I hiked. I did cardio bar, yoga. I changed it up every day because I realized I’m the type of person that will get bored if I do the same thing every day. And as your listeners know from listening to you, you’ll testify to this, your body gets used to the same work out. You have to switch it up, right?
Wendy Myers: Yeah, absolutely.
Deanna Della Cioppa: OK. So I was doing something different every day. I was just giving myself little goals. I started doing elliptical 20 minutes; I thought I was going to die. I then got up to an hour on level 18, 20 being the highest level. Now I just kicked it up to stair climber and I started the stair climber the first day, I literally did 5 minutes; I thought I was going to die. I’m not even kidding. The sweat was dripping off of me. I’m now up to 45 minutes. I started 2 weeks ago. I’m on up to 45 minutes on the stair climber at level 9 which is really incredible and in that time, will burn about close to 700 calories.
Wendy Myers: Amazing.
Deanna Della Cioppa: In 45 minutes. But, again, I started “ok, 5 minutes. Now I just want to do 20. Now I want to do 25. Now I want to do 30” And now up to 45 minutes. I’m praying and hoping I get to an hour, but you know at this point it hasn’t happened yet. So I did the working out, and I did it every day. I’m now addicted to working out. If I don’t work out, I feel like crap. I don’t take Saturday off, I don’t take Sunday off. Every single day, something different. If I go to the gym, I try to add in weight training while I’m at the gym. So I’ll do legs, I’ll do back or biceps, you know, whatever I have to do. I’d do weight training in addition to my cardio.
Deanna Della Cioppa: And then the diet – I didn’t go on a diet. I did about five meals a day; small, about the size of my fist. I broke them up over about 2 or 3 hours, every 2 and 3 hours, I would eat. And I didn’t go on a diet meaning: I didn’t limit myself. If I wanted a handful of Doritos, I had a handful of Doritos. Did I try not to do that? Yes, absolutely.
Cate Beehan: I had Doritos last night.
Wendy Myers: You know what? I did too. Ahhhhhhhh! I admit it.
Deanna Della Cioppa: No, I did! I so did because… I’ll tell your listeners the reason why, I had some cool ranch Doritos last night because I knew that I was starting Jenny’s program today that absolutely was going to limit me. I’ve never been limited in the year that I’ve been on my wellness program. But I knew I have to get serious about Jenny’s program. She asked me for pictures, she asked me for measurements, she wants me to do them every week. She’s going to expect results. She knows, that people on her program lose from 3 to 11 pounds a week on her program. So with that being said, if I lose a pound, she’s going to know something is up, you know what I mean?
Wendy Myers: Yeah, yeah. I think it’s really interesting how we’re used to be roommates and we’re still in sync that we all had Doritos last night. Haha. I was PMS-ing so I was like “I’m having some Doritos!”.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah. What I want to tell your listeners is though, the 4 to 5 meals a day literally were mostly lean proteins, vegetables and fruits. And if I did do any kind of carbs, it was farro, it was quinoa, it was like flax seed bread, and it was very limited. It wasn’t giant portions of it. If I did pass it, it was wheat or rice pasta… No. What’s the other pasta? Not wheat pasta. What’s the other pasta?
Wendy Myers: There’s rice pasta, quinoa pasta.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah. I think it was a rice pasta that I would do, a brown rice pasta. Yeah that was it – brown rice pasta. So I was still doing what I needed to do but if I went out with friends, yeah, I like to have a cheesecake, I didn’t have the whole cheesecake. I’d be like, “Hey let’s get dessert and let’s all split it, 3 forks, 4 forks” So I tried not to limit myself. And I think that that really helped. Did I have 4 to 5 small meals a day of cheesecake? No. Haha. I stuck to my veggies and I have to tell everybody; I got this thing, you can get it anywhere, you can get one at Costco, I mean I think I got mine at Ross. But it’s a grill that covers two burners on your stove.
Wendy Myers: George Foreman?
Deanna Della Cioppa: No, no. It’s literally just… it looks like a grill, and then on the other side is a griddle. But I use the grill side, you put it over the two burners on your stove and you’ve got an amazing grill in your house. Just turn your fan on high. And I was literally grilling chicken, salmon, all of my veggies, zucchini, asparagus, broccoli, cauliflower, corn, you name it. But I have to tell you, you spray it with a little bit of palm cooking oil, so it doesn’t stick and you throw whatever you want on there, marinated or not, and it’s freaking delicious. So, I just found ways like that to entertain me. I know I was on a diet, mind you, I want to tell everybody that I lost 80 pounds twice before in my life. So losing weight for me is not the hard part. Going to the gym for me is not the hard part. The hard part is going to be maintaining my weight loss. And I’m telling all of my friends and you two included, the minute you see me packing it back on, I need you to tell me “Deanna, get back on your program”.
Wendy Myers: I want to bust out that whip.
Deanna Della Cioppa: No, seriously. I want you to be like “boo, you’re getting fat. What’s up?” Like I want you to be mean to me. Cate, I need you to be mean like “Bitch, get your ass at Soul Cycle.” Like whatever you need to do, I mean I really do need my friends to help me because, I’ve already done this twice before. I have to tell you, I don’t want to do it a fourth time. I really don’t.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, I remember you telling me that you used to do long distance cycling on a bike and then you would do a 600 calorie day diet.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yup.
Wendy Myers: It’s hard to sustain that.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Let me tell you something, I used to live on 38th in Ditmars in Astoria Queens, would ride my bike over the Queensboro Bridge to 14th Street in Manhattan. Work out with a trainer for an hour doing weight training, then would do 45 minutes of cardio, then would get back on the bike and go back to the Queensboro Bridge and was literally eating and I’m not kidding – egg whites, chicken breast, broccoli, and asparagus every day. Oh and my treat, was a rice cake.
Wendy Myers: Haha.
Deanna Della Cioppa: I’m not kidding. And I only drank water. And I did that and in 4 months, lost 80 pounds.
Wendy Myers: Wow.
Deanna Della Cioppa: But I gained it all back plus because that’s no way for me to eat. I realized I wasn’t going to live for the rest of my life on grilled chicken, you know, grilled broccoli was just not going to happen. So that’s why this time around I said, “ok!”.
Wendy Myers: Yeah that really illustrates the point that it has to be a lifestyle change. You can’t do this diet and then go back to eating Doritos or whatever it is that you like. You can have it every once in a while but you do have to deal with consistent lifestyle change and really learn to love your veggies.
Deanna Della Cioppa: You do. And not only that, it’s like I think people think I’m changing the way that I eat and it has to taste like crap. It doesn’t. I make teriyaki salmon. It’s mind blowing. I make grilled chicken with this lemon garlic sauce that I get in Versailles which is this incredible Cuban restaurant. They sell their marinade. I marinade my chicken in that. My veggies, all have chili spice on them and powder like garlic salt and you know, I use salt because I sweat so much that it’s cool but I use a Himalayan sea salt and ground black pepper and make it tasty. It doesn’t have to be bland boiled chicken. This isn’t your mother’s diet from 1942, you know what I mean?
Wendy Myers: Yeah.
Deanna Della Cioppa: And with the invention, I don’t know, the sudden rise of things like quinoa which I never heard of until like 2 years ago. Quinoa is incredible, it’s such a great source of fiber, protein. I chop up parsley, cucumbers and tomatoes and a little bit of feta cheese and I make one quinoa Greek salad, and it’s amazing! Just fun little things, fun little diets, like technically diet food but fun little recipes that make this wellness change. I’m trying not to use the word diet, but make this wellness change in my life – just tastier along the way. But the key is really good portion control and the key has been the 4 to 5 meals a day.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. That can really kick start your metabolism and keep your blood sugar even.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah. Heck yeah! A handful almonds, whatever I need to do. I got this great flax seed bread that I use, and I’ll get some almond butter, and I’ll throw some almond butter on that and I get a really, really dope organic preserve. That’s like a dessert for me!
Wendy Myers: Yeah.
Deanna Della Cioppa: I’ll use one piece of bread, a tablespoon of that peanut butter and a little bit of that preserve and it’s like “oh my God!”, I’m having an apple pie with ice cream or something. It’s like a dessert. And once you changed the way you are eating, your taste buds literally will avoid it. I can’t do those sweet drinks in Starbuck’s anymore. My system goes crazy.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, I know. I had the same experience too. Because now you get more in touch with your body. I think when you start eating healthier food, you realize how the other junk you used to eat really makes you feel sick. And now when I eat sugar I just feel my adrenaline just soars and I don’t like that feeling. And I love hearing in your voice how passionate you are about healthy food, how excited you are about it.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah.
Wendy Myers: Because both you and I are really excited about food and love food. You can fall in love with healthy food and get passionate about healthy food. You don’t have to remain stuck in this thing eating fast food and unhealthy food and sugar and carbs. You can love a healthy food and get passionate about it too.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Oh, absolutely. And that’s where I am with it now. I mean like I said, don’t get me wrong ok, I like those fries at In and Out, but again my system… if I ordered the fries at In and Out, once in 3 months, my system will allow me to eat maybe a handful and I’m sick. I’m like “I can’t eat anymore”. And that’s the other thing, like my skin is clear. I go ahead and have anything fried, I’ll break out instantly. It’s so funny the effects these things have on your body.
Deanna Della Cioppa: My friend Jenny I’ll tell you, just broke down coffee to me because when she sent me her version of her diet that she wants me on, she said no coffee and I said, “ok you’re killing me. Of everything that’s killing me”. And she broke down to me that it makes you, and you know this Wendy, it is very acidic and harder to lose fat, right?
Wendy Myers: Yeah.
Deanna Della Cioppa: And because I said to her, please explain to me why I can’t have coffee, that’s going to kill me. Because as we know coffee is a bit of appetite suppressant. It’s a diuretic and it just wakes me up in the morning. So now she’s got me on oolong tea instead. I’m drinking green and oolong tea instead. I’m actually sipping a cup as we speak. She said that’s your replacement. It will give you the caffeine you need but it’s a fat burner and will move your body. So, it’s like, OK.
Wendy Myers: That’s right people do get off coffee. Some people have been drinking it for years. I’ve gone on and off coffee myself. But most of my life I haven’t drank it and I was ok. You get natural energy but you do have to deal with that little crash for a few days, but then you are fine. It’s not that hard to get off it.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah, it’s not, it’s just delicious. Haha
Wendy Myers: Yeah. Haha.
Cate Beehan: I’m so glad that I don’t drink coffee and I never have.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah. Well you know my family, Cate is an East Coast girl. My family mails me bags of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee. So Dunkin’ Donuts coffee is incredible. And I have bags of it in my freezer and it’s just delicious and it’s so funny you have a cup of it and you are like, “I’m back home.” So now I’m just going to be this skinny mean bitch who will be here that misses home because I don’t have coffee.
Wendy Myers: Haha. And green tea is good too. That’s very good for weight loss too.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah. That’s what I’m sipping right now. And Wendy I want to mail you, my before picture, because even though I’m kind of like not done with my journey, obviously. Just so everybody knows too, I’m not doing a weight thing. Meaning, I’m obviously getting on the scale to see how much weight I’m losing but I don’t have a weight goal in mind. I have a size in mind. I’m a 12 right now, I started at 22, I’m a 12. I actually got into a junior’s dress the other day, I was very excited. And I got that bitch, because I couldn’t believe that I fit into it. But my goal is that I never ever been in my adult life a size 8. So I’m figuring I have another 40 to 50 pounds to lose because like one size is about 10 pounds. And I’m a 12 now. So I figure 40 to 50 to lose to be a is a size 8. But my goal is a size 8 comfortable.
Cate Beehan: Is that your dogs?
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah. My dogs are going crazy upstairs. I’m a rescuer everybody and I love the pups, but the pups upstairs are freaking out.
Wendy Myers: That’s ok. Haha.
Deanna Della Cioppa: But for me a size 8 comfortable would make me really, really psyched and it’s just a personal goal. And I don’t care I weigh above 60; I don’t care if I weigh above 70. Because I might, I have a lot of muscle mass on me. I might be really tall and really hold it well, but I will technically might be 160 at that point. But I want to be in a size 8. It’s not a weight thing for me. I don’t desire to be 115 pounds. I just want to be healthy for my height. I wanted to look in the mirror and be psyched about the way I look.
Wendy Myers: I’m excited for you to get to that weight. I mean, that would just be amazing.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah. And you girls have always known me heavy, I mean, FYI, where I am right now is what I weighed in college. I have not been the weight or the size that I am right now for about 14, 15 years.
Wendy Myers: Wow.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah.
Cate Beehan: Crazy.
Deanna Della Cioppa: But it’s just when you make the commitment to do both and you have to do both. You have to work out every day, you have to change the way that you eat, you have to regulate some things, you have to take some things out of your diet. For me carbs are just danger, sugar is just danger. And I try to really, really make sure that that doesn’t enter my mouth a lot.
Wendy Myers: Yeah but it’s good you get to replace it with fat. Fat is more satiating. I guess a lot of people who are trying to lose weight, they don’t realize they can eat a lot of fat. They can eat the egg yolks and eat butter and they don’t contribute to weight gain like people think.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah, exactly. I mean it’s kind of funny, do you want to have a brownie or do you want to have three strips of bacon? The bacon is actually better for you, believe it or not. Like the sugar and the carb and everything that’s in that brownie, I mean I don’t know if you agree Wendy, but, I’ll slice off the excess fat of it, but I’ll have that freaking bacon and call it a day before I have a brownie.
Wendy Myers: Oh it is. Bacon is very nutrient dense. And the brownie, it’s got nothing in it except empty carbs that’s going to make you gain weight.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Precisely. So, for me it’s like, if you have the choice it’s funny. If you ever play that game, which one is better for you. People might go “Oh, half of brownie over three slices of bacon,” but technically the bacon is better. Dr. Atkins, he touted that. I did that for a while, that diet and there’s bad things about that diet I think too but he was like “eat all the bacon you want, as long as you don’t have carbs you’re good.”
Wendy Myers: Yeah, I know. Paleo it’s just a high class Atkins diet. That’s all it is. It’s just touting grass fed meat rather than just pepperoni sticks and factory farm meats.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Exactly, exactly. That’s what it is, the Paleo diet. And that’s what she’s gearing me – is more of a Paleo lifestyle which is cool and I’m willing to do to get this last 40 off because I have in this journey hit plateaus for about a month, a month and a half.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, those for me were so frustrating. How did you feel when you hit a plateau?
Deanna Della Cioppa: Oh, miserable. I mean I literally cried. The first plateau that I hit, I was like “Ok, It’s lasted two weeks”. And then by week three, I was just like “ok, I don’t know what I’m doing”. And I actually had a friend of mine, he’s built and ridiculous, and he was like “Deanna, take more water in,” he’s like “change up your work out” and he gave me a few things and they worked. Rather than do more weights at the gym, less weights, more reps. That helped. And definitely the water, taking in more water. And then he did advise me, try to trim down your sugar, even more and your carbs even more. I did that and I did get over the hump and ironically I got on the scale and lost like 6 pounds in a day.
Wendy Myers: Wow.
Deanna Della Cioppa: And I got over the plateau hump and I started losing again. And you guys know this too, about four months ago; I had surgery on my back and had cyst removed from my spine and the only thing I was allowed…
Wendy Myers: I thought it was removed from you booty hole.
Deanna Della Cioppa: No, no, no. My spine.
Wendy Myers: Oh the base of your spine.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah base of my spine.
Wendy Myers: I was confused.
Deanna Della Cioppa: My booty hole. Oh my God. Haha. Are we on iTunes X rated yet? No!!!
Wendy Myers: Haha.
Deanna Della Cioppa: It was the base of my spine, they couldn’t biopsy it because of where it was. So they didn’t even know if that thing was cancer. They didn’t know what it was until they went in, luckily it wasn’t. But, you have to understand that four months ago, my whole workout regimen got nailed because I couldn’t do anything except elliptical. It hurt to sit because of where it was. So within 5 days the doctor ok’d me to go back because I told him “I’m going to kill myself if you don’t let me go back to working out. I feel like a piece of shit”. And he was like, “Ok Deanna, all you can do is do the elliptical and take it easy. I don’t want you to rip your stitches out or whatever”. So, your listeners have to understand too that I feel like I’m off course by four months because I had to really scale back my working out. I couldn’t do boxing, I couldn’t do cardio bar, couldn’t do yoga. Hiking was tough, like long hikes – they were hard. So I really kind of threw myself off with having the surgery, but I had to get the surgery done so.
Wendy Myers: I really admire your determination.
Cate Beehan: You forgot your Soul Cycle. What’s your problem?
Wendy Myers: Haha.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Babe I couldn’t do Soul Cycle, I couldn’t sit! You skinny psychopath!
Cate Beehan: Now when are you coming?
Wendy Myers: My ass can barely handle Soul Cycle.
Deanna Della Cioppa: I’m going to come Cate, I’m going to come, ok.
Cate Beehan: Wendy came.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah, did you die Wendy?
Wendy Myers: I didn’t! I did the whole 45 minutes, and I was totally blown away that my vajayjay wasn’t destroyed and my butt didn’t hurt that bad and I did it.
Cate Beehan: Yeah, see.
Wendy Myers: It was fun.
Cate Beehan: Do it.
Wendy Myers: I’m going on Thursday again too.
Cate Beehan: Come on down.
Wendy Myers: Get some torture. Sign up for some torture.
Deanna Della Cioppa: I’m going to come, I’m going to come. You know why, because it’s like I said, I am giant advocate of this too: changing up your work out every day. That keeps you from getting bored, big time.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, that’s really important because like you said, your body gets used to a certain work out and that’s when people hit plateaus. Like “what’s going on I’m working out 4 days a week doing cardio” and it doesn’t work.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah but if you are doing the same machine at the same level for the same amount of time. Then your body is going to go “Oh, this again, yawn I’m going to fall asleep.” And that’s exactly what happens. So I always switch it up. Like I said for me it was – weekends I hiked, I did a boxing training, a cardio bar is amazing. I don’t know if people have that or if it’s just an LA thing or what but it’s like ballet on a bar but it’s like a cardio version of it. You sweat your balls off. And when I do yoga, it’s Bikram. In Bikram you sweat your balls off. And it’s amazing. And I used to think that yoga, here we go X rating – I thought yoga was for pussies till the first day I did Bikram and literally, she was like “if you can just stay in the room and stay in savasana, you’ve accomplished something” and I was like “this bitch crazy”. And by the end of it, I mean I was doing all the positions that I could never even get into, and was doing them to full executions. So my flexibility improved, my joints improved, everything improved.
Wendy Myers: I can’t do Bikram. I actually got booted from a class because I drank a sip of water. Haha. Apparently, you are not allowed to drink water during Bikrams.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Oh no, no, no, no, that is completely false. Wherever you went, they’re psycho.
Wendy Myers: No, I went to Bikram. It wasn’t Bikram teaching it but I went to the original studio on La Cienega in LA.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Oh, I don’t know. I used to go one up in Encino and they totally would let you drink water.
Wendy Myers: It was just weird. I need a drink of water, it’s 106 degrees obviously you need water. And the guy had a little microphone on and he announced “Oh, excuse me we don’t drink during the poses.” And I’m going “I’m fucking dying here dude, I’m going to have a heat stroke if don’t drink some water”. So I actually left. I didn’t get booted out, I voluntarily left.
Deanna Della Cioppa: The one I go up to in Encino, they let you. I’ve yet to hear of a place. There is even one in Sherman Oaks – they let you drink water. Cate have you ever heard of that?
Cate Beehan: No. I think that’s crazy.
Deanna Della Cioppa: That’s craziness.
Wendy Myers: I never went back! I’ll never do Bikram again!
Deanna Della Cioppa: Oh my God, that’s insane. But that’s kind of in the deal. I mean I’ll be excited to do this podcast again with you guys when I’m at my goal. And we’ll be happier to show. When I started this journey, I didn’t do the photo. She literally made me get up in a bra and panties and take pictures from the front back and side.
Wendy Myers: You should send us and I’ll post them on the blog post. Haha.
Deanna Della Cioppa: I’m not going to send those until my happy afters. Because let me tell you, even after 100 pounds, taking those pictures today, it was painful. I was like “oh no, like this has to get better”. But I do have one photo that I’ll send you Wendy which what I’m using as my before. And there is an extreme, I mean huge extreme difference and I’m happy to send that to you.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, just send like a recent photo of yourself too just so that listeners can see what is going on. See how, if you put your mind to it, what you can accomplish.
Cate Beehan: Also just send a recent shot of your vagina. Haha
Deanna Della Cioppa: My vagina is gorgeous. I’d be happy to share them with your listeners.
Wendy Myers: It has lost weight too, right?
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah. I guess so. I mean “Have you lost weight?” “Yes, I lost weight.” She’s exceptional. Hahaha. You guys are such jerks.
Wendy Myers: One thing is I really admire your determination because you said in the beginning of the podcast, that you were barely able to do five minutes and you were just drenched in sweat. And then you hit plateaus, you had to do the surgery, you had all of these road blocks and most people would have stopped and given up. And you just have so much determination and that’s what it takes, you have to get pissed off and you have to get this mindset that I’m going to keep going and pick myself up and keep going.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah. Well I mean listen at the same time, if anybody is out there that has 50 plus to lose, your best bet is 20 pounds increments, because if you think about the whole kit and caboodle, between me and you guys, I have 100 pounds to lose total, really to be honest. And If I’m thinking about 150 pounds, I will lose my mind. I can’t do that. What I did was like “Ok, I’m going to lose 20 pounds. Ok, my first goal is under 300 pounds – Ok great, got that. My next goal is going to be 275 – Ok, I hit that. My next goal is 250 – Ok hit that. 225 – oh hit that. Ok 215 – hit that”. Because if you think of the whole thing, you will go crazy and you will stop. Those people that have 30 pounds to loose, I’m actually like “shut the fuck up!”. Like I just want to punch them in the face.
Wendy Myers: That’s me. I’ve been trying to lose it for like a year and a half, “why can’t I lose weight?”. Because I was not doing any cardio so it’s like hello, shut up.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah. No, but I mean that’s my thing. It’s like when somebody said to me “I got 30 pounds to loose”, I’d be like “Ok we can do that in about 2 months if you put your mind to it”. People that have, like I said 50 plus pounds to lose, that’s a whole lot of can of soup and I feel for them. And like I said for me it was literally 150 pounds.
Wendy Myers: So what is your drive? How do you feel? What is driving you? What is making you get up every day and get on that Stair Master or go for a hike and what not?
Deanna Della Cioppa: Well, first and foremost, let’s start with, I’m looking for some quality dick in my life. No I’m kidding, I’m just kidding.
Wendy Myers: Haha.
Cate Beehan: Oh my God!
Deanna Della Cioppa: X rating, have we achieved it? I’m figuring the better I look, the more penis I’ll get so… I’m kidding! I’m not. I’m kidding.
Cate Beehan: She’s not kidding at all.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Shut up Cate. You can attest to looking good gets you more penis, right?
Cate Beehan: I don’t know.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Cate! Has everybody seen Cate? If you haven’t, I’m happy!. And you know Wendy, we should post Cate’s twerk video from a couple of weekends ago.
Wendy Myers: Haha.
Deanna Della Cioppa: I think that will get you a lot more of listeners.
Wendy Myers: I posted it on… Deanna’s Instagram of Cate twerking. She is actually teaching my daughter how to twerk no less.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah and your daughter, FYI, I don’t know if it’s the sign of the times or future concern, but your daughter was like “let me try”, it’s exactly what she said.
Cate Beehan: Oh my god.
Wendy Myers: Haha.
Deanna Della Cioppa: But if you guys want to see that, my Twitter and my Instagram is @Deannabombchica, D-E-A-N-N-a, Bomb, B-O-M-B, Chica, C-H-I-C-A. Please follow me! I always put videos of Cate twerking. It’s well worth the follow. But anyway with that being said beside penis…
Cate Beehan: And all of those people that had un-followed you.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah, oh my God, you wouldn’t believe how many people un-followed me after posting those. They were just like, “Oh my God”. But no, I have to tell you that besides the fact that my cholesterol was 264 and my doctor literally looked at me and said “Eventually you’re going to die!.” I have a family riddled with cancer, diabetes, heart disease, Grave’s disease, thyroid disease, I mean you name it, we have it. And I firmly believe half of your health is genetic based and you have to work against your genetics. So, genetically me, I’m made to fail. Genetically, I’m supposed to be fat. I should have diabetes by now. And likely would die of cancer by the time I’m 50 if I didn’t do something about myself. I mean I lost two uncles within 6 months of each other from cancer. You know what I mean? I have an uncle that had two triple bypasses already. And FYI, he is a pretty fit guy. Not an overweight guy, which tells you that hereditarily, our hearts are screwed up on my dad’s side. So, the motivation is, I knew that about my family, and not until I went to the doctor and they literally wanted to put me on a drug did I go, “Oh, it’s a right around the block for me. This is right around the corner for me. I’m going to have all this stuff too.” And I got to say, I feel like I’m in the best shape of my life, definitely the best endurance of my life. I just turned 40 and nobody thinks I look 40.
Wendy Myers: You don’t.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Right. So people are like “what are you doing?” And I’m like “well I’ve never done a drug. I don’t really drink. I get proper sleep. I’ve really been working out. I’ve really been eating right. I get facials; I use an organic skin line”. I think it all helps.
Wendy Myers: Oh yeah.
Deanna Della Cioppa: And that’s that. I don’t get surgery. I don’t get stuff done to me. I’m just like “you know what, let me take care of myself” and I think it’s shining through. I mean my skin glows, my hair glows and without chemicals and products and stuff like that. I’m eating really well.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, you’re not eating all these like toxic edible food products. And I think, I believe, I know that all these foods are what is contributing to your family getting heart disease, cancer and diabetes. It’s toxic foods. It’s grains, it’s flour, it’s industrial seed oil, it’s trans fats. Haha.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Ok what is that? Is that more of Cate’s twerk music?
Cate Beehan: I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to play that.
Wendy Myers: That’s OK.
Deanna Della Cioppa: That was Cate’s twerk music.
Wendy Myers: But yeah just like your family in Italy, they’re not probably riddled with all these diseases. It’s when people that come over to the United States and start eating our edible food products; they get sick eventually after decades of consuming these foods.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Well thank you for bringing that up, because my family literally is a case study. My fathers, five sisters live in Italy; five brothers live here in the US. The five brothers here half are obese, half have heart disease and diabetes. Everybody in Italy, FYI people, they eat off of their farms. They almost never go to the store to buy anything. They get their meat from their farm, they get their eggs from their farm, they get their cheese, they make their own wine, all of their fruits and vegetables from their land, and nobody has any disease.
Wendy Myers: They make their own wine; they sound like my kind of people.
Deanna Della Cioppa: They make their own wine and none of them are overweight and none of them have any issues. And my father’s sisters are older than him, so they are in their early 60’s.
Wendy Myers: Yeah, I mean you are not a victim of your own genetics. You can kick your genetics’ ass just by eating the proper foods. By eating the right foods that were genetically designed to eat, which is not flour and sugar and industrial seed oils. Like canola oil and safflower, corn oils and all that garbage.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Right. Well there you go. So we are literally without meaning to be a case study, right there so it goes to show. And again my uncles here, some of them are a little heavier than they should be but, the one that had the triple bypass is not a heavy guy. But he is here in the States now eating the food from here and there you go.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. You don’t have to be overweight to have inflammation, toxins and heavy metals in your body that wreak havoc.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Right.
Wendy Myers: I would really like to see you once you do all the struggle with your last few pounds you got to lose. I really would like to see you get on detox program.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Ok. I’m down.
Wendy Myers: To detox all these heavy metals and things and people don’t realize that really negatively impacts your metabolism. They negatively… mercury, the things negatively impact your thyroid and adrenals which set your metabolism and they can be why people are struggling so much to lose weight. And it doesn’t have to be that hard of a struggle. You just have to fix your metabolism, it can be corrected and fixed.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah, absolutely. And I mean like I said I feel like I’m a testimony to it. So, I’m happy. There is lots of things that I want to do once I reached my goal. I want to really, I know you’re going to fight me on this Wendy, I don’t want to be a vegan. I do want to try to limit at least the dairy products that I’m bringing into my system. Like I definitely want to stick to like lean fish and lean chicken…
Wendy Myers: Oh, you’re not going to be far hand fight for me, I think a lot of people have sensitivities to dairy and it can promote weight gain and resist that weight loss.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Right. And I just want to try to do less animal over all if I can.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. It can help. I think they play around with it and see what works for them, but a lot of people are having trouble losing weight. The dairy and gluten got to go and you can see where you are at.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Right, exactly. I mean for me when I get my goal. I want to add more of the quinoa, more stuff like that, that will give me protein. Tofu based stuff, if I can, like I said, I’m unfortunately the vegetarian vegan that can’t give up sushi, of course sashimi, I just love it. So I don’t think I’ll be able to say no to meat forever. But just being an animal advocate and loving the doggies and the kitties and all that, it just kind of breaks my heart a little.
Wendy Myers: Yeah.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Just for me, as much as I can and I will sit down with you and talk about the detox. On top of that I will sit down with you and say “Ok Wendy, I want to eat less of this kind of stuff, what can I then, satiate my diet with to make sure that I’m getting the proper nutrients.” Oh and the other thing too, when I started this journey, I’m on pre-natal vitamins, not because I’m trying to get pregnant just because. I’m on a multivitamin, I’m on pre-natal vitamins, I’m on vitamin D, iron, zinc, calcium, and I also take something called Biocil, which is…
Cate Beehan: Oh yeah I’ve heard of that.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah. Really good for your hair and your nails and all that kind of stuff. So I am also into all of these and I highly encourage it. Making sure that you have a really, really, really good vitamin regimen that you take every day.
Wendy Myers: Absolutely, because I think a lot of people don’t realize the underlying cause of obesity is malnutrition.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Right.
Wendy Myers: It really is true, because when you have malnutrition it will promote inflammation, it will promote low thyroid function and low adrenal function and all these things that undermine in your metabolism. You have malnutrition, you crave more food. Your body is driving you to eat biologically and no amount of will power can overcome that. It’s your body’s craving food to get you to eat those nutrients. So when you are eating empty calories all day long, which a lot of overweight people are, they’re eating lots of grains and just non-nutrient dense foods. And you’re just in this vicious cycle.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Oh, and FYI too, water, water with lemon, water… like I can’t even tell you that that’s a huge appetite suppressant, flushes you out just over all. Like a purified water system in your house. Whatever you can do, water has been a huge key to, we were talking about cutting back on the coffee and cutting back on the something that I love oh so much, my diet soda, that is just so bad. So water is a big, big thing that I have to drive home try to drink as much of it as I can every day.
Wendy Myers: That’s great. I mean how do you feel now that you’ve lost 100 pounds? How does that just feel when you wake up in the morning?
Deanna Della Cioppa: If I did lose another pound, I’m happy, I could live my life the way I am right now. I feel great. I’m lucky that I’m a woman who has a very curvy body, so even though if I told somebody, “Oh, I’m 205 pounds right now”, they will be like, “Ooh she’s sheeeez.” But the response that I usually get is, “You don’t look like you’re 205 pounds.” because I carry it well. I got a booty, I got some boobs, I have a small waist. So I’m very curvaceous and it looks good on me. I got lucky that I’m not one of those women that carry all in their bottom half or all in their stomach. I mean we’ve seen those people that carry all in their mid and then they have skinny legs. I’m lucky that I’m proportioned. So for me, even 205 pounds, I feel great, and I feel like if I didn’t lose another pound I’d be OK. I feel amazing. And again, I just went hiking with my family in Utah. And I was at the head of the pack and my dad was like “Wow,” he was like, “You’re kicking everybody’s ass today,” I wasn’t panting. I wasn’t sweating. I did this huge apex in Utah and my dad, who is usually the fit one, was lagging behind. You know what I’m saying?
Wendy Myers: And your make up was still perfect.
Deanna Della Cioppa: And my make-up was perfect. And I popped it for a real one at the top of the mountain. But anyway, I twerked in Cate’s honor…
Cate Beehan: Ok.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Haha. Did nobody catch what I just said? I said “popped it for a real one at the top of the mountain”? It’s just a little Drake reference there for everybody. Was that Drake or Lil Wayne? I don’t even know.
Cate Beehan: I think it’s Lil Wayne.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Oh Lil Wayne. OK. All I have to say, I feel awesome, but I have to tell you guys that I’m really, really excited for the next 40 and it’s mid-October, November, December, I feel like I’m going to be at my goal. I’m going to be closer to my goal by New Year’s Day, which is really my goal. But even it takes me to like beginning of February or mid-February, I’m confident to say that I feel like I will comfortably be in a bikini by next summer which FYI, have never worn a bikini in my life either.
Wendy Myers: Really?
Deanna Della Cioppa: Never ever.
Wendy Myers: I want to see this momentous event, pass some Crystal.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Haha. Absolutely. We’ll be popping it in Malibu somewhere. But absolutely, I mean, there is more to this journey and I’m happy and excited to check in with you guys. When I put on those size 8 pants on and we can come back and show the listeners that I didn’t give up and you actually… you caught me about three quarters on the way through. So we have another quarter to go.
Wendy Myers: That’s amazing. Well Deanna, thank you so much for being on the show.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Thanks.
Wendy Myers: Why don’t you tell the listeners, oh actually I forgot to ask you about America’s Got Talent. Did you start to lose this weight in anticipation of being on the show?
Deanna Della Cioppa: Oh no, no. Not at all. I was already… I auditioned for the show in February of last year. At that point, I was already November, December, January, February – I was already 4 months in and told them when I went to my audition, “Hey, I’m down by 50 pounds.” And it was ironic; they never really used that as my story line. They cared more about the fact that I was 40 and never gave up on my dream, I was a dog rescuer. It was funny though because people that saw my first audition in New Orleans for the judges in March, then saw me in June in Vegas and then, they saw me in August in the Radio City live rounds. More like, “Wow you lost a lot of weight since you started.” And I was like, “Yeah.” Because at that point, by March, I was probably down about 60 pounds. By June I was down probably another 75. And then I probably lost the last 25 that last couple of months. So 100 pounds total by the time I had gone to Radio City, so yeah. The journey, it was a great show, it was great to be on. It was the top rated show on NBC and I got to sing at Radio City Music Hall and made it to the quarter semi-finals, which is pretty epic and I met some great friends along the way. But my weight loss has nothing to do with being on the show. That was something that I already decided to do and I was on my way.
Wendy Myers: It was just icing on the cake?
Deanna Della Cioppa: Yeah.
Wendy Myers: Well, why don’t you tell the listeners more about you and where they can find you?
Deanna Della Cioppa: OK. I’m singer-songwriter here in L.A. Actually working on a pretty fantastic kid’s project, animation project that I’m developing that I created myself for kids. So that’s really exciting me as well. But my Instagram and my Twitter is @Deannabombchica. Please follow me, I put my progress up on Twitter and on Instagram with pictures, food, meals that I’m making, recipes, all that kind of stuff up on my Instagram, inspirational things. And then from there you can find my Facebook fan page. Unfortunately I maxed out on Facebook for friends, but I do have like an artist page. And you know from there and just communicating with me, I can get you to my Youtube and all my other things. My reformation and all that kind of stuff because I’ve got music everywhere. My Youtube is actually, Youtube.com/deannasings, if you’re interested in seeing some videos. But I’m try to put videos up every few weeks, covers, originals. And again my whole platform is inspirational. Not only weight loss but just you know, I was a very heavy woman who had no self-worth, didn’t believe that she was beautiful, didn’t believe that she was worthy and I’ve been through a lot of crap because of insult. I’m really coming into my own and accepting my beauty. I wish I could have accepted my beauty at 305 pounds but I didn’t. I’m accepting myself now and working on it more. So I’m just a very big advocate for, especially young girls, to just love yourself, love yourself the way you are, if you want to make a change, make the change, but make sure it’s a healthy change and it’s doing it for the right reasons. Not doing it for some guy, not doing it because you want to look like the magazine covers. Those magazine covers are airbrushed and edited and hours of hair and make-up, please don’t compare yourself to a magazine cover. Try to embrace yourself and love yourself. And if this changes that you want to make, like I wanted to make it myself, do them the healthy smart way. Not, “I’m going to take this diet pills from China.” That is going to give me leukemia or something. Do it the right way. And make the changes, and make yourself feel better but you know just really being on inspiring being on a real life self-love platform.
Wendy Myers: Well Deanna, thank you much for coming on the show. I’m really happy that you agreed to come on the show and talk about your very personal weight loss story.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Thanks.
Wendy Myers: I’ve never seen you this thin. I’m so excited to see where the rest of your journey takes you.
Deanna Della Cioppa: Thanks girls!
Wendy Myers: Thank you. And if any of you listeners are interested in more information on how to lose weight, you can, of course, download my free weight loss guide, and read also more than 25 blog posts I have about weight loss on myersdetox.com™. And I also specialize as a health coach on weight loss, so I’m here for you if you need more personal support. So thanks listeners for tuning in and remember, the time to be thinking about your health is while you still enjoy it not waiting until you get sick. So, thank you so much for listening to the Live to 110 podcast. And if you want to learn more about health, you can follow me on Facebook and Twitter @IWillLiveto110. And I’m also on Youtube at WendyLiveto110. Some jerk took Live to 110 and is not using it. So I came up with WendyLiveTo110. So original and I can’t change that now so I’m stuck with it. And I have lots of super boring unprofessional videos over there, so go check those out. And I’m also in Instagram and Pinterest @liveto110. And Cate what are your social media?
Cate Beehan: My Twitter is @cbeehan, my last name and my Instagram is @catebee.
Wendy Myers: B-E-E?
Cate Beehan: Yeah. And, that’s it, I think.
Wendy Myers: Yeah. Everyone go checkout our websites, Cate can be found at Fitness-broad.com and I’m at myersdetox.com. And if you like what you hear on the show today, please give the Live to 110 podcast a nice review and rating on iTunes. Thank you. Sayonara.
