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Mind
Over Maintenance!
Weight Loss
Success Story Reveals Her Secrets For Sticking With It
I
had the pleasure of meeting Sheri several years ago at an
event in Washington D.C. and a lot of you probably know
her from the forums. I asked her to share her story because
I truly admire her dedication and her ability to never give
up.
Name:
Sheri Ackerman
Age: 53
Dress size then: Twenty and
twenty-twos
Dress size now: Size sixteens
and a whole bunch of fourteens!
Total Pounds Lost: 30!
KD:
Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Sheri: I'm a single woman
living in the Washington, DC area but I am originally from
small-town Ohio. My father was a tiny little man (about
135 pounds) who had a passion for food, to him, food was
joy! I grew up having a love affair with food. To this day,
when I have a really good meal, I have a hard time not vocalizing
the pleasure I'm experiencing from it. Unfortunately,
I wasn't born with Dad's skinny little genes,
but rather the ample hips and behind of my pear-shaped mother.
Such is life!
KD: How did you take off the
weight?
Sheri: I worked white carbohydrates
out of my diet and worked in more whole grains. I increased
exercise frequency, variety and, to some extent, the intensity
of my workouts. I made vegetables a larger part of my meal
than in the past. Meat and starch became the supporting
actors instead of the stars and veggies went from having
bit parts to having the lead parts. I worked very hard—with
the help of the forum—on changing my all-or-nothing
mindset and giving negative internal dialogue an about face.
KD: How do your size 14 workouts
differ from your size 22 workouts?
Sheri: There were periods of
time "then" when there was no exercise. There
were periods when I walked regularly and times when I went
to the gym but usually irregularly. Now, my goal is to exercise
5 times a week and I meet that goal pretty often. I rarely
fall below three to four workouts per week.
KD: How much cardio do you
do?
Sheri: I don't do as much
cardio as some folks believe is necessary, but I believe
that a variety of workouts is beneficial to my body in all
sorts of ways. Therefore, I do about two to three cardio
workouts a week and two to three toning workouts a week.
I take an aerobics class and do other cardio and heavier
weight training at the gym. But at home, I power walk and
jog and do Pilates, kickboxing, balance ball, light weight
training, lower body and ab toning. I'm a huge fan
of DVDs.
KD: What were your worst food
habits at your heavy weight?
Sheri: There was a time in
my life when I ate fast food about four to five times a
week. I stopped at a different fast food joint almost every
night on the way home from work. It was easy and fast and
I was hungry and hated to cook. Up to the week before I
started my journey, I had lunch in a sit-down restaurant
every day. All of the meals out contributed to my high cholesterol.
KD: What are you best food
habits now?
Sheri: I'm off on Mondays
so I cook three to four healthy recipes to last throughout
the week. This way, I get the whole week off from cooking.
Bringing my lunch to work has not only made an incredible
difference in my weight and health, but in my pocketbook.
Even though I'm spending more at the grocery store
now, I still come out ahead overall. I can't
believe how much money I save.
KD: How do you stay motivated?
Sheri: For the first year,
I just had a fire in me—a passion—that made it
easy to stay motivated. Within the first 2-3 months of my
journey, I lowered my cholesterol dramatically. That felt
great, and my early success at weight loss (though it was
slow) helped keep me going. After the first year, it got
harder, especially when the weight loss stopped. I continue
to eat healthy and exercise and I think that's a great
testament to my persistence because I'm getting very
little weight loss payoff for it. But hey, that's what
maintenance is all about, right? I'm learning about
maintenance before I even get to goal weight!
KD: What do you do when you
have a slip up?
Sheri: When I started my journey
in 2003, I decided to delete, "I screwed up—I'll
start again next week... or next month... or January 1"
from my internal dialogue. I'd made false promises
and lived that way for decades and it didn't work.
I just got fatter and fatter. I was ready to lose the weight
for good this time so I made a deal with myself that I wasn't
going back there—and I haven't.
When I get off track, it's for a meal or an afternoon,
but when the next meal or next day comes around, I am back
on track. I truly don't believe I could have succeeded
at weight loss or at maintaining what I've lost so
far for if I went back to my old thinking and behavior patterns.
KD: How do you feel emotionally
and physically?
Sheri: I feel much better.
I'm 30 pounds lighter. I've increased my cardiovascular
endurance and substantially improved muscle tone. I'm
healthier overall and thrilled about it.
KD: What are your goals now?
Sheri: This past year has been
a real challenge because I haven't lost any more weight.
I still have hope. I've created my own personal weight
loss challenge. I'm gearing up for weight loss mode.
My motivation is a trip to Hawaii in March 2006.
KD: How are your check ups
now versus before you lost the weight?
Sheri: My cholesterol and triglycerides
are both dramatically reduced. My bone density was actually
better at age 52 than my baseline bone scan at age 47—I
thought that was pretty impressive!
KD: How has your family benefited?
Sheri: I don't think my
journey has impacted my family much other than that it has
allowed them to see a different side of me. I think there
are people in my family who did not believe in my ability
to do this so seeing me lose weight and maintain it has,
I think, has given them a new appreciation of me. Of course,
because they love me, they're happy I'm taking
care of myself and my health. I wouldn't say they are
actively supportive of my journey, but they are supportive
in quiet ways that are still important and beneficial.
KD: How have your friends benefited?
Sheri: One of my greatest pleasures
in this journey is having been able to inspire others to
make a change in their own lives. Two of my closest friends
are cooking healthier and exercising more. Another friend
is eating healthier lunches and has lost weight. Some of
my coworkers are on their own journeys. I started and ran
a support group at work called Eat Smart for Life to support
weight loss and healthy living. It makes my heart swell
to think I may have had the slightest bit of influence in
anyone else making the decision to change.
KD: What can you share with
people who are at the beginning of this journey?
Sheri: It's human nature—at
least in our society—to want weight loss to be fast
and easy. The truth is, if you want to lose weight in a
healthy way and keep it off for a lifetime, it isn't
going to be fast or easy at times. But it can be
done—and you're worth it. You just have to decide
in your mind and heart that you're worth it—that
it's time to change and not just temporarily this time,
but for good. There are many people who can help
you. Seek them out. Ask for help. Accept help. You are
not alone.
KD: What can you say to encourage
someone who has fallen off the wagon?
Sheri: One day, one meal; is
not failure—it's a rut in the road, a blip on the radar
screen, it's temporary. Be committed to making it temporary.
Don't give yourself permission to stay off the wagon until
next Monday or the first of the month. Grab on and pull
yourself back onto the wagon right away. Staying off the
wagon for even another meal or another day will just make
you feel more hopeless and weaken your resolve to do what
is right for you and your health.
KD: Anything else you want
to share?
Sheri: As important as all
the eating and exercise changes are in this process, I think
the mental changes are even more critical. We learned in
our weight loss support group that a lot of us share common
traits. We're perfectionists. We think in terms of
all or nothing. We berate ourselves. We don't believe
in ourselves. We've learned to actively encourage each
other to be mindful always that negative internal thinking
and unrealistic expectations will drag you down every time
and make it really difficult to succeed. Weight loss is
tough work, but it can be done. And it gets easier. You
just have to want it.
If you'd like to submit your weight loss success story,
click
here.
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