1KHO 523: From Couch, to Garden, to Whole Foods and a Whole New Life Down 160 Pounds | Helene Leeds and Penelope Popken, Step It Up

The 1000 Hours Outside Podcast

Ginny Yurich

Parenting, Kids & Family

4.9 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2025

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Helene Leeds and Penelope Popkin are living proof that transformation doesn’t come in a pill, a quick fix, or a viral trend—it grows slowly, like a garden. In this powerful episode, mother and daughter share their deeply personal journey through food addiction, depression, emotional healing, and ultimately, 160 pounds of natural weight loss. When every expert said to stay quiet, Helene refused. When Penelope was told she was “fine,” she knew she wasn’t. Together, they rejected the status quo and rebuilt their health, their relationship, and their lives—one home-cooked meal, one walk, one day at a time. You’ll hear how outdoor time, homeschooling, gardening, and unplugging from toxic influences became the unlikely foundation for radical healing. This is not a story about diets—it’s about reclaiming freedom. It's about moms modeling something different. And it’s about the power of doing hard things, together. 🔗 Learn more and join their program: stepitupwithus.com 📺 YouTube: Step It Up With Us Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey Spotify, is Dampson Idris here to celebrate Tommy Hill Figures' Apex GP collection.
0:06.0	Fuelled by the thrill of speed and the power of style,
0:09.0	Tommy Hill Figures capsule collection merges performance-driven design with limitless confidence.
0:13.0	This isn't just a lot. It's the uniform for those on a journey to achieve their dreams.
0:18.0	Discover Tommy Hilfiger's limited edition Apex GP Collection, inspired by F1, the movie, only in cinema's June 25th.
0:25.6	Welcome to the 1000 Hours Outside podcast.
0:29.6	My name is Ginny Urich.
0:30.6	I'm the founder of 1000 Hours Outside and I have new friends with me today, a mother-daughter
0:35.6	duo that we actually met in person, kind of briefly,
0:38.4	but pretty fun at a really cool restaurant in Washington, D.C., Helene Leeds, and Penelope Popkin.
0:44.5	You say people used to call you Penelope Pumpkin, which I do think is cute and you didn't really
0:47.8	like it, but Penelope Popkin, they're both here with us today, sitting outside with a fantastic
0:53.5	backdrop.
0:56.1	Welcome to the both of you thank you so happy to be here it was an honor to meet and sometimes that's how life goes you're in
1:01.5	these places and you and you meet people and then here we go we get to have a conversation together
1:05.8	we were there in washington dc when they were announcing how they're phasing out the food dyes which is
1:10.6	fantastic and i got to hear just a little bit of your story as mother and daughter and also Washington, D.C. when they were announcing how they're phasing out the food dyes, which is fantastic.
1:11.5	And I got to hear just a little bit of your story as mother and daughter. And also I did a little bit more of a deep dive online with some of the things you share.
1:19.7	And we're going to be talking today about, which we've never really talked about. I think, you know, we talk about, like I've talked to Dr. Kate Shanahan.
1:29.2	Weight factors into some of these conversations.'ve talked to Dr. Kate Shanahan, weight factors into some of these conversations. I've talked to Dr. Kate Shanahan about seed oils and I've talked to Mark
1:33.8	Shatsker about food, natural food flavorings, food, I don't know. It's a good book. It's called
1:39.6	the Dorito effect about how we can crave foods because there's all this fake flavor on them and
	...

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