Super 75 Pound Weight Loss

From eDiets - The premier online diet, fitness, and healthy living resource

“The woman in the van mirror is not healthy to be around. I don’t want her around. She’s not getting back in my van,” the counselor -- and former Weight Watchers employee -- tells eDiets in no uncertain terms.

Looking at Pam today, you’d never know she was driven to great lengths to look (not to mention feel) this good. The Illinois resident has become the king of weight loss queens. Since placing her faith in eDiets, a new lifestyle regimen of healthy eating, exercise and plenty of water have helped her melt away the final 55 pounds. She's now a slender 157 pounds. Shes no longer a plus size who squeezed into size 22 clothing. Pam is comfortable in 10/12s now, thank you very much. Her blood pressure is normal and her medication has been slashed in half! But despite the drastic changes, Pam still recalls life in the fat lane.

Before joining eDiets, Pam, 52, stood 5’5" and weighed 212 pounds. Her blood pressure was through the roof. She was tired. She was heavy. She was miserable. And she lacked the energy to do anything. After a long day at work, the most activity Pam got was ambling back and forth between her refrigerator and couch.

Pam knew all about the agony of defeat. For decades, she had been a yo-yo dieter, losing upwards of 70 pounds at a time only to gain it back... again and again. She had tried everything from Weight Watchers to fads like Phen Phen. In a last-ditch effort to shed the extra weight, Pam turned to the weight loss medication Xenical.

She spent three years and countless dollars on the prescription. She did lose 20 pounds, but she remained a long way from her healthy goal weight. Sadly, her unhealthy eating habits were still firmly in place.

Her problem wasn’t simply humongous portions, excess amounts of fast food, or snacking on sweets. It was all of the above.

"Most of the time there wasn’t enough food to eat or enough reasons too eat," she says. She's only half-joking. "I was always thinking of the next thing I was going to eat."

Factor in a lack of activity and it all added up to obesity and its related health woes. Pam, a computer novice, switched gears and found herself on the right track at last when she clicked into eDiets one sleepless night last December.

A fear of failure kept her from signing up immediately. But after contemplating a membership to the leading online weight loss program, Pam came aboard last New Year's Eve. She vowed to make 2002 "The Year of Pam."

“I wanted to stay breathing. I wanted to live awhile longer,” she says.

Pam started off with baby steps. Her primary focus in the beginning was following the combination meal plan. By day, she feasted on frozen entrees, salad and fruit. By night, the avid cook prepared homemade recipes from the eDiets database. It was a simple solution, one that armed her with the knowledge she needed to live healthily for years to come.

As a former Weight Watcher, Pam already knew she couldn’t live by a calculator and points. What she needed were menus, recipes and grocery lists, the basic tools for slimming survival. She got that... and much more here at eDiets.

Over time, Pam lost her taste for the fattening foods that had caused her weight to balloon. She stopped gulping canned foods, fast foods, soda and mayo. Those vices were replaced with healthier alternatives like fresh fruits, fresh vegetables and low-fat cheeses. She followed the meal plan to a “T” and reaped the rewards in pounds lost.

After two weeks on the program, Pam went off Xenical. A month into eDiets, she began exercising. For the mother of two grown children, the concept of physical activity was foreign. She had never been an athletic person. In fact, she had never exercised at all. Yet, she didn’t let that hold her back.

Even on the coldest winter mornings, Pam found the will to walk. Neither sleet nor snow deterred her. What began as a stroll around the block has become a major stride in her journey to good health. The more she walked, the further she went. Pam now starts every morning with a 30-minute walk. As a supplement to her walking regimen, she also rides her bike on a regular basis. For Pam, exercise, not Folgers, is the best part of waking up.

The perky slimmer notes: “When I come back, I have more energy to start the day. Not everybody can exercise in the morning. Different times work for different people. This is what works for me. I’m focused. I don’t walk with anybody so I don’t have to depend on someone else. I just put on my headphones and take off.”

For many years, Pam had been afflicted with fibromyalgia, a condition characterized by chronic pain in the muscles and soft tissues surrounding joints, fatigue, and tenderness at specific sites in the body. Still, she's never used that as an excuse to keep from exercising. As it turned out, losing weight actually eased some of the pain.

“You always hear people with fibromyalgia say they can’t exercise. I have it in my head that I have to stay moving. It’s not going to go away. Sure, there are some days I don’t feel as good as others, but I’m not going to feel any better lying there. Getting the weight off has helped my muscles and stuff like that.”

Pam hasn’t had to go the road to weight loss success alone. Her husband Robert has stood by her through thick and thin. He shares his wife's healthy meals. Pam raves that Robert has lost nearly 30 pounds following her lead.

Whenever she needed guidance or support, Pam could also count on her fellow eDieters, who played an integral part of the losing process. For Pam, one of the perks of the support network at eDiets was that she could use the bulletin boards and chats as much or as little as needed.

So Pam chose what worked for her: mentoring. She shares the tried-and-true techniques that got her where she is today with fellow members. Because she doesn’t have an abundance of time to post, Pam concentrates on her pupils, who she touches base with once or twice a week.

Another helpful tool: Pam's online food journal. Pam keeps a record of everything she eats -- it helps keep on track. Even though she still has 20 pounds to go to attain her goal weight, Pam is already a super success.

“I have energy. I get busy and food isn’t my focus. I think I’m doing the right thing. This has motivated me. It’s been easy for me to stick with it. There are people there to talk to when you want. I feel good enough that I want to continue to do this. I don’t want to go back to what I was like nine months ago. There’s no way. I’m physically and mentally scared to go.”

And she’s got the overweight woman in her rearview mirror to keep her moving full-speed ahead.

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