Episode Details

In this episode of The Art of Imperfect Adulting, Amy Stone speaks with Lori Balue about the journey of sustainable weight loss after 50, holistic functional health, and how embracing adventure can transform life in midlife and beyond. Lori calls Los Angeles home. The audience will learn about the impact of food sensitivities, inflammation, and the difference between dieting and truly changing your life.

Lori Balue is a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and former obesity survivor who lost 100 pounds naturally in her 50s and has kept it off through low-carb nutrition, metabolic repair, and a movement-forward lifestyle. Now in her 60s, she hikes rim-to-rim across the Grand Canyon, runs half-marathons, and teaches women over 50 how to reverse metabolic dysfunction and reclaim their energy without medications or extreme dieting.

Main Topics Covered:

1. Why midlife and post-50 weight loss often requires a fundamentally different approach, especially for women
2. The lifelong “diet merry-go-round”: Lori’s story of cravings, diet culture, and not just losing, but keeping off significant weight
3. How food sensitivities, inflammation, and functional health labs became breakthrough tools in Lori’s transformation
4. Reversing asthma, depression, and metabolic blocks by personalizing food choices—not just following trends
5. Moving beyond “willpower” and working with biology: protein, gut health, and understanding how diet drugs compare to real food
6. Finding real joy and motivation by embracing movement—hiking, half marathons, and making nature a regular part of life
7. The difference between short-term dieting and creating an adventurous, joyful lifestyle that sustains lifelong health
8. Lori’s work as a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and how she supports women in breaking through metabolic blocks

Quote from the Episode:

"I look in my mirror, see, you know, I've still got, like, a flabby abdomen, and I'm 63, and I was 225 pounds, but I look and I feel slender. I feel slender and confident in my body, and I think that's great... I just started planning another half marathon and I'm going back to the Grand Canyon next September because this is what I love. And it keeps me activated and excited and joyful and happy. And I look forward to it." — Lori Balue 32:43

Timestamps:

00:08 Amy welcomes Lori and introduces the conversation about adulting, art, and daily beauty

00:39 Lori shares her home in the Los Angeles high desert and love of her victory garden

03:02 Shifting to the main topic: weight loss after age 50

04:24 Lori’s backstory—struggles with childhood/adolescent weight, first diet at age 11–12

06:07 A lifetime of diet programs, food cravings, and learning what did (and didn’t) work

10:18 The turning point: functional nutrition, discovering keto, and what changed for brain health and joy

15:51 Functional lab testing for food sensitivities—and finally reversing long-term asthma and inflammation

20:19 Personalized transformation: experimenting, testing, and finally cracking the code

22:40 Why profound, lasting change only happened when joy and health—not thinness—became the goals

27:05 Commentary on weight loss meds, protein, and food “noise” today

29:04 Discovering her adventurous self through movement, hikin