Healthy Weight Group: A Success Story

by Phyllis Walsh

Before	After

One year ago, Kathe experienced a terrible fall. Weighing 250 pounds at the time, she needed help to get up. Aside from significant pain, Kathe felt extremely embarrassed. It was shocking to her that she had let herself get to that point.

This was Kathe’s wake-up call. How to fix the problem was the question. Part of the answer to that question was the SESSC Healthy Weight Group. The group meets once a week on Wednesdays, from 1:00-2:00 p.m, upstairs in the multipurpose room.

At your doctor’s office, you may get weighed and have your blood pressure monitored. In group, we talk. The thing that we need, that we give each other and receive, is support. No bullying, no weigh-ins, just people who are glad for you that you’ve dropped 3 pounds in the last month. Or who tell you, “hang in there” if you’re stuck at a weight plateau.

We go around the table and each person gets to tell how their last week was -- for example, what strategies they used to eat healthfully during Thanksgiving. And we also help each other with advice. Kathe needed some hints on how to motivate herself to actually use the stationary bicycle she had been given. Every one at the table had an idea. We also receive and share information in the group: articles on appropriate portion sizes, or how to deal with emotional eating, or how to slow down and eat more mindfully.

Although we meet once a week, the support that we get is day-to-day. We get journals to record meals, snacks, exercise, mood and bits of advice. We talk about why we eat and what food offers us, and we help each other to regard food as merely food.

Another important part of the Healthy Weight Group is figuring out exactly what you wish to accomplish. Is it losing a certain number of pounds, or gaining the ability to move easier, or eating more healthfully to control diabetes or some other chronic condition? Whatever the reason, it’s personal and specific for each person. It is your own private goal.

Kathe knew, right then and there, sitting on that sidewalk unable to get up, that she needed to lose the weight, and never let this happen again. She saw her doctor for help with a specific program, and she joined the group for the other important part of successful weight loss: support.

Kathe has lost over 100 pounds. She has about 15 pounds to go in order to reach the goal weight that she and her doctor have decided on. She is still taking it slow and steady. She knows that most often, weight that comes off gradually is more likely to stay off. We learn not to diet but to change our relationship with food.

Today, Kathe has a busy life. She volunteers, reads, walks every single day, and goes to Healthy Weight Group once a week. Hers is a success story.