Trimming down and reaching out
Making smart choices and encouraging friends to join the fun are key to woman’s healthy new lifestyle
When Mona Ford donned a cap and gown to graduate for the second time in as many years from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, she felt accomplished. The years of study while also working full time had paid off, and things were about to change — she knew she was ready.
“I knew I was unhealthy — 100 percent unhealthy,” Ford said.
With a body-mass index in the obese range and having had high cholesterol for years, she knew she had to make a change.
“As an adult, you just can’t keep going on like that. It’s going to have major repercussions later,” she said.
A NEW FOCUS
In 2011, Ford earned a bachelor’s degree in media production and design, and in mid-May of this year, with a Master of Education degree in technology under her belt, she adjusted her priorities.
“I decided I would focus the energy that I was using for grad school, now that I was out of school, into getting healthy,” she said. “And [down more than 45 pounds], it’s working.”
At 10 pounds 8 ounces the day she was born, Ford said, she’s been overweight her entire life, so she knew losing weight wasn’t something she could do on her own. And starting yet another fad diet wasn’t the way to change the foundation of her lifestyle, so she enrolled in the Weight Loss and Metabolic Control program at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, where she works.
“This isn’t just another quick fix or fad diet,” said Betsy Day, a registered dietitian and the program’s clinical manager. “It really involves a lifestyle change. We want to help patients lose the weight, but more importantly, the mission of our program is to help patients maintain that weight [loss].”
Under doctor supervision, the weight-loss program offers meal replacements, individualized counseling and 16 weeks of classes taught by registered dietitians covering issues such as emotional-eating behaviors, vitamins and minerals, and how to create balanced meals.
In her initial program consultation, Ford met with Day.
“Mona had just had enough and was tired of not feeling good and not feeling positive about herself,” Day said. “She was really motivated to make changes.”
What Ford said she really likes about the program is that it is tailored to each person. Individuals set their own goals without being pressured by program staff. Going to the classes, participants learn the tools they need to be successful and are often inspired by others.
“I’m so grateful for them because I had no idea where to start,” she said.
“It’s a lot of mental energy, just like with school, but once you learn it and you practice it, it becomes part of your everyday life,” Ford said.
“It really hasn’t been that hard to lose [the weight],” Ford said, because she’s been making the right choices. “If you make smart choices, it will happen.”
MAKING SMART CHOICES
Before beginning her weight-loss journey, Ford said, she didn’t make healthy choices. If the choice was between water and soda, she’d pick the full-calorie soda every time. But now she knows the consequences of those decisions and strives to make better ones.
“I didn’t even make choices,” she said. “It was just eat what was in front of me, or eat what I like. Now I feel much more educated about how to make smart choices. And when I make an unhealthy choice, I know the repercussions. I’m building on that — it’s a start.”
Making smart choices doesn’t have to cost a lot, but it does take consideration and preparation. Having healthy snacks on hand helps Ford avoid temptation and makes her decisions regarding food much easier. For a person on the go, the key is to make it easy to plan what to eat by making food portable and measurable.
She offers this advice: “Have a little vending machine of measured-out food because that’s when you’re likely to overeat — when you don’t have it portioned out.”
Measurable amounts of food also help her to log what she eats in her My Fitness Pal app that she shares with her dietitian and a few friends, to help hold her accountable.
Ford eats an apple a day for breakfast on her morning commute to work. It’s easy to plan, portable and measurable. She also hopes that like the saying goes, the apple helps keep the doctor away.
Although the apple-a-day routine is a recent development for Ford, the choices she has been making have proved to affect more than her waistline. Within the first six months of beginning her new lifestyle, her once high cholesterol has come down to normal.
In addition to making good dietary decisions, she’s working on getting fit mostly by just having fun. She tried a brief stint on wheels with roller derby because she likes to skate but quickly found the risk of injury wasn’t worth the rewards.
She never thought she would complete a 5K, but she has. In fact, she has participated in three of the events. It wasn’t about coming away with a prescribed time, but rather staying active while enjoying the company of friends and coming away doused in an array of color.
For someone who doesn’t like to exercise, yoga has been her saving grace.
“I can’t encourage enough people to try it,” she said. “It’s not about how long you work out. It’s just getting in touch with yourself and getting stronger.”
She has fun with yoga, too, attending charity glow-yoga events she tries to get her friends involved with at Barefoot Studios in Little Rock.
SETTING SMALL GOALS
In the program, patients are encouraged to set small attainable goals to be celebrated with nonfood-related rewards.
People have years of bad eating habits to break, and it’s not as easy as “exercise more and eat less,” Day said, or she’d be out of a job. Rather than having clients focused on losing 80 to 100 pounds, “We just say, ‘Let’s work on 1 to 2 pounds per week,’” Day said. “We take baby steps and work toward that.”
“That was the key,” Ford said. “Don’t look at the end finish line. Look at 10 pounds, 20 pounds, and that’s when I made the little cups for inspiration.”
In her bathroom, she keeps two cups: one labeled “pounds to lose” and one labeled “pounds lost.” In them she keeps little glass pebbles representing her overall goal of shedding 95 pounds, which would put her in the healthy BMI range.
After going to class and weighing in on Thursdays, she goes home and moves over the number of pebbles corresponding to the number of pounds she lost.
“That really puts things into perspective,” she said.
Every now and then on her journey, she has had to move a pebble or two backward, but rather than thinking of it as a failure, she considered it a time to evaluate her choices.
“It wasn’t the end of the world because you know you can reverse it and go the other way. It was more than just a number on a scale — it was progress.”
Reaching small goals of 10, 20, 30 and 40 pounds of weight loss along the way and being able to reward herself gives her a feeling of accomplishment, Ford said.
After losing 10 pounds, Ford rewarded herself with new running shoes; 20 pounds was a new purse; 30 a massage; and after losing 40 pounds, she picked up a new bedding set.
“Because they are nonfood rewards, you can be shopping for that new bed set or that purse while you’re working to get to that goal, so it’s fun,” she said.
VISUAL REMINDERS OF SUCCESS
Not only is it fun to shop for rewards, but every time Ford ties those running shoes, slings that purse over her shoulder or lays her head down on that new bed set, she’s reminded of her success and is inspired to continue.
Another way she’s motivating herself is by making a list and checking it often. Every time Ford sees that her life is somehow improved by her weight loss, she adds that accomplishment to a list she keeps on her smartphone.
“When I come across something that is easier to do — buckle your seat belt, sit in a movie-theater chair, your coat fits better — I add it to the list so that if I ever do start going backward on the scale, I can look at all those reasons to start making better choices,” she said. “I come across things every day, like bracelets fit now — just stuff that my whole adult life I haven’t been able to do because I’ve always been really overweight.”
She also takes pictures of the sticky notes she gets from the doctor saying how many pounds she’s gained or lost and is happy to see the results when she gets her blood work done because she knows the choices she makes every day affect those numbers.
“It’s all about seeing it in a hundred different ways because it’s just so rewarding, and it’s easier to turn down that cupcake at the company party,” Ford said.
Feeling confident as her body shrinks, Ford feels comfortable wearing dresses and will even throw on a pair of heels, something she wouldn’t do before.
“I was so overweight that I couldn’t wear high heels for 10 minutes without my feet hurting,” she said. “Now, I can wear them all day, go to yoga and come home, and my feet don’t hurt.”
From the outside, she could always put on a happy face, but now, with more confidence, she said she sees a difference in the way people perceive her.
“I feel like more people see me,” she said. “When you feel good, I think other people can feel that.”
MAKE AS MANY SMART
CHOICES AS YOU CAN SO THAT WHEN YOU DO MAKE A BAD CHOICE, YOU’VE ALREADY BANKED ENOUGH SMART CHOICES THAT YOU KNOW IT’S NOT GOING TO BE THE END OF THE WORLD.
MONA FORD, PATIENT AT THE WEIGHT LOSS AND METABOLIC CONTROL PROGRAM AT UAMS
STRUGGLES
The more smart choices Ford makes, the easier the next ones have been, but her journey hasn’t been without struggle. Early on, she had issues with her liver and had to cut out alcohol completely. It was especially hard because it was summer, and she had just graduated — it was a time to celebrate.
She managed to get through it, and through her experience, she now knows how important it is to have the proper supervision when undertaking a weight-loss regimen.
“That’s why your doctors monitor your weight loss,” she said. “You don’t really need to do your own weight loss without a doctor because things in your body can be upset.”
Holidays, the stress of starting a new job and moving have also been difficult for Ford. The way she’s managed and her advice to others is that when one has a lapse, don’t let it turn into a relapse.
“Make as many smart choices as you can so that when you do make a bad choice, you’ve already banked enough smart choices that you know it’s not going to be the end of the world,” she said.
The important thing, Ford said, is mot to let lapses turn into a full-blown collapse.
“I’ve told all my friends to kick my butt if they see that happening to me,” she said. “There’s not an excuse big enough for me to have a collapse. I want to be held accountable. I don’t want to be that overweight ever again.”
REACHING OUT
Having a good support system has been critical to Ford’s success, and she credits her friends Amy, Mandy, Lizzie, Lorrie and Rachel for helping to inspire her to get on a healthy track.
She would see them on Facebook sharing photos and posts about getting healthy and happy, so now she tries to share her story and encourage others to join in the fun.
“It’s like quitting smoking. You’re not going to do it till you’re ready,” she said, “but some people don’t realize they are ready until they see other people are ready, too. That was my big thing. I saw my friends doing it, and I was ready to do it.”
Shortly after graduation, Ford and a friend put together a private Facebook group, the Rock City Ladies Club, to share events and encourage the 35 ladies who belong to the group to get together.
“Anybody can start their own private group of their friends to help encourage each other,” she said. “I try to share what I do on Facebook so maybe my friends can see it and want to come join in the fun, because my friends were sharing what they were doing, and I wanted to join in their fun.”
Ford said that beginning the group has given her an opportunity to expand her support system.
“I’ve met so many wonderful ladies,” she said. “Sometimes it’s two of us, and sometimes it’s 12. But fun is fun; you don’t need a whole big group.”
Some of the events have included getting physical exercise with 5Ks, trips to the gym and glow-yoga, but even going to a painting class or concert and enjoying the company of friends is important for the mental aspect of leading a healthy lifestyle.
“It shouldn’t be a pain to lose weight,” Ford said. “You’re taking back your life, you’re taking control of your body, and that’s a good thing. I still have a lot of work to do, but I have full confidence that I can do it.”