Yo-yo dieter gets consistent after health scare
Pam Broadhurst has a history of yo-yo dieting. Since her mid-20s, she has lost 40 or more pounds and regained it four separate times.
“After I lost the weight, I would go back to my old way of life. I didn’t make the changes permanent. I didn’t do maintenance.”
That old way of life included eating sugary and salty foods such as cookies, pastries, chips and crackers when she was stressed out or down in the dumps.
After several deaths in her family and a health scare, she gained 25 pounds in five months and hit 220 on her 5-foot-6 frame. “I realized that if I didn’t do something, I could reach 250.”
So in August 2008, she went on a low-calorie diet and started exercising regularly. She lost 70 pounds in nine months. She now weighs around 147 pounds. She has maintained her lower weight since May 2009.
“I learned you can’t go back to your old life. You have to find a new relationship with food,” she says. “Too many people live to eat. And it has got to be the other way. I eat to live,” says Broadhurst. Some keys to her success:
Weight-loss plan: She went to a Results Weight Loss clinic. She followed the basic 1,200-calorie-a-day diet and went in once or twice a week to be weighed and get counseling on eating right. “I always do well with weight loss when I have to be accountable to somebody.”
Now, she eats 1,300 to 1,500 calories a day. “I log my calories. I do it six days a week, and I take Sundays off.”
She eats pretty much the same thing every day. “I’m a creature of habit. I do well with routine.”
For breakfast, she has oatmeal and a banana. Lunch is flatbread with hummus. Dinner might be a salad and vegetarian burger with cheese and salsa. She eats fruit three times a day. “I don’t eat beef very much. I eat chicken and fish occasionally. I’m almost a vegetarian.”
For dessert, she has Greek yogurt flavored with low-sugar strawberry jam. She has four Hershey’s dark chocolate Kisses a day. “You either give up your trouble foods or learn to restrict them to occasional treats.”
Exercise routine: She walks for half an hour to an hour daily. Or she works out in the gym on the treadmill or elliptical for 30 minutes and weight-trains for 20 to 25 minutes. What motivates her: “I have a chance to experience life now, not having to constantly think about a diet. It’s a sense of freedom. It’s an awesome feeling.” Goal: Keeping off the weight. “There is no way I will ever go back, because this feels too darn good.”