Losing half herself

Researchers have found it's easier for overweight people to lose weight than to keep off the pounds they lost.

Bonnie Smith of Mounds, Ill. has lost more than 150 pounds over the past two years, but it's not the first time she's lost weight only to see it return.

Twenty years ago she lost more than 65 pounds. Smith knows she can lose. Now she said she knows she can keep it off, thanks to a new diet program and a renewed dedication to her health.

"I learned a lot this time," Smith said. "Really it's like this is the first time."

The 46-year-old didn't have a weight problem until she was 12 and gained 40 pounds after her tonsils were removed. Then began the cycle of losing and gaining weight.

Smith said she dieted and lost most of the 40 pounds she gained that summer, but after she married at 15, and had two sons, the weight kept piling on. She dieted, lost weight and regained it. When she started the Weight Watcher program this last time, she weighed 324.8 pounds and wore a size 34, mostly clothing that stretched.

Two years ago, Smith reluctantly went to a Weight Watcher meeting because her daughter-in-law wanted to lose 15 pounds of post-pregnancy weight and didn't want to go by herself.

"She kept asking me," Smith said. "But I knew how I couldn't stay with it."

She joined, learned that the program had changed since she last participated, and kept going back. Now she wears a size 10 or 12. Most importantly, she said, she feels better.

"I feel like I have been reborn," she said. "I couldn't get around. My knees ached, my back hurt. My blood pressure was what worried me."

Smith's blood pressure has dropped from 190/80 to 118/67. She said she wants to lose enough weight that she no longer needs the pills that regulate it. Her mother developed diabetes in her 40s, and although Smith hasn't developed it herself, she worries she might.

Now that she has lost weight, she has more energy. Once the weight began coming off, Smith started walking and working out with exercise videotapes.

One of the lessons she learned that has helped her keep weight off this time is how to tell when she is really hungry.

"Habit is mainly what it was. Now I ask myself if I'm really hungry. People think they are hungry when they're really thirsty," she said.

Smith said she drinks 80 ounces of water a day.

"If you drink all that water and you're still hungry, then you know you are hungry," she said. "I was eating mostly out of boredom. It was there and I like to cook and I like to eat."

One of the benefits of all that water, she said, is that people who are well-hydrated don't have as much trouble with sagging skin following a large weight loss. The water helps with skin elasticity, she said.

Smith has learned to adjust her ways of cooking without sacrificing flavor. She especially likes that she can enjoy a pan full of fried potatoes with onion and bell pepper by cooking them with cooking spray instead of oil. She has discovered other ways to modify her recipes, and said she came across a Web site that will for a fee change favorite recipes into healthier ones. She said her husband, who can eat anything without gaining weight, eats whatever she puts in front of him and enjoys it.

"He's been eating sugar-free Jell-O for two years and doesn't even know it," she said.

Smith is known for her expertise in the kitchen. She said she still makes the cookies, pies, candy and other treats she's known for at Christmas, but has not eaten any since she began her latest diet.

"My husband is really proud of me," she said. "He will come up behind me and put his arms around me and call me skinny. I never heard 'skinny' before."

Since she has lost weight she has rediscovered blue jeans, which she hadn't worn for a long time.

"No telling what size I would have had to get," she said.

She used to avoid shopping for blue jeans or anything else. Looking for large sizes can be depressing. Now she has five new pairs of Capri pants, some short-sleeved tops, and loves to shop. She has even lost a half size in her feet and is buying smaller shoes. Her wedding rings are in a drawer waiting for the time when she feels she's lost enough weight to have them resized.

Smith has rewarded herself with a little pampering; she has had her hair styled and indulged in a manicure for the first time. A little indulgence can be one way for people to help keep weight off. People tend to gain back their weight, experts say, when the newness wears off, no one is remarking on their weight loss progress, and there are no more goals to be met.

Wendy Yellin of Weight Watchers Inc. in San Diego, Calif., says another way to keep weight off is not to look at the program as a diet, but to limit portions and eat a variety of healthy food, mostly fruits and vegetables. Eventually, she said, healthy habits become a way of life.

Smith is still working toward reaching the goal she has set for herself. And when she does, there's one more thing she's going to do:

"I'm going to be shouting hallelujah."

lredeffer@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 160