FRAN'S SUCCESS STORY

My name is Fran, and I started the Optifast program in January of 1998.  I lost 160 pounds and have maintained for eight years.  I'm five foot four and 124 pounds.

I had reached the largest size that Lane Bryant sold in the stores (size 28-30 or 4X).  I had high blood pressure, and I was on medication for it.  I had high cholesterol.  I had been battling chronic pain for years, and I had just gotten bigger and bigger.  One of the ways I dealt with chronic pain was to eat.  When I'd eat, I'd get tired, and then I didn't want to move.  It was a vicious cycle.  I couldn't walk up a flight of stairs or around the block.  I was reaching a crisis point.  All of a sudden I couldn't button those size 28-30s.

Then my daughter ran Grandma's Marathon.  I wanted to see her off at the starting line, but I couldn't walk down the hill and get back up.  I knew I had to do something.

I'm retired now, but I worked then for a lab at a local hospital.  One of our health options was to pick Optifast or Weight Watchers.

I had tried dieting before, and there were missing pieces for me.  The thing that made Optifast successful for me was the lack of choices.  Once I was on it, I wasn't hungry, and I didn't have to make any choices.  It made it very easy.

The very first week at Optifast I only lost three pounds.  I was disappointed but thought I would stay with it.  But then, as the weeks went on, I was losing 3½ pounds a week on average.  I was on the program 9 months.  I followed it exactly. 

I also worked with a trainer.  At first, I had to start in a swimming pool because I was too heavy to do anything on land, and I would get  "taxed" easily.  I had a goal in mind that I would do Grandma's Marathon.  In June of 1999, I walked and completed it.  It took me a little under six hours.  Then I race-walked the Twin Cities marathon and a lot of half marathons in between and had lots of fun doing it.  I still try to walk as much as I can, and I lift light weights two times a week.  I do some kind of activity every day, seven days a week.  I continue to work with a trainer.

Some of my battles with health have not been fun.  I've struggled with low thyroid and back surgeries.  There were both crises and celebrations.  My husband died, and there were other family crises. My daughter got married.  I've had five grandkids born during this time, and I've moved two times.  But there's no reason for me to go back and overeat.  I've learned to use food for its intended purpose: fuel for my body, not comfort.

I weigh in once every two months at Medical Weight Management Centers and meet with the group.  It keeps you accountable.  I also weigh myself every day because I don't want to gain more than three pounds outside my limit.  If I do start creeping up, I cut back or move more.  Sometimes my physical problems mean I can't move more, but it's much easier to lose 2-3 pounds rather than 15 pounds.
My health has improved dramatically. I don't take pills for blood pressure any more, and my total cholesterol came way down.

The things I can do now include walking around my cart in the aisles at the grocery store, tying my shoes, getting off the floor, and needing only one seat on an airplane.

Optifast is a good intervention because it takes away choices and gives you time to see that you can succeed.  I don't think I could have succeeded without the program because making choices is the hard part.  It took me nine months to learn how to handle food.  That was the big thing.  To meet up with food and not have to eat it because it's there or to please someone or because I paid for it.

It's never really over.  It's a lifestyle change.  Losing weight is worth all the work even if you‘re only 30-40 pounds overweight.  I wished I had lost the weight 20 years earlier.