This Lesson May Help You in Your Journey!
Joel Osteen speaks on overcoming addiction.
My Personal Journey Back to Health Began
on December 14, 2005.
(Before beginning any weight loss or exercise
program, please consult your physician.)
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In December of 2005, I knew I need to lose
over 100 pounds, and that my 50th Birthday
was coming up on Dec 1, 2006. I needed a
plan, if I was to get this weight off by
the time I turned 50, and I needed it now.
Like many of you, I have battled this problem
most of my life.
This was summer of 2004, when the Airline
Flight Attendants flew me to Florida to accept
the award for Small Paws, because we informed
people about the harm second hand smoke causes
our pets.
You know how I've always told all of you
to send in your prayer requests?! That we
serve a God that is the same God, when we
are on top the mountain, as He is when we
are down in in the valley?
At my father's graveside service with my
Aunt Lorene and our dear personal friend
Ann Isaacs. September 2005
Well, I do not know now, and I did not know
then, why it never even entered my mind,
it never occurred to me..to pray for myself,
about this issue of being morbidly obese.
Here I am telling the world how God can heal
the sick, make the blind to see, and the
lame to walk, and yet my own weight was completely
out of control.
I imagine some of you wondered how I could
be such a believer in the power of prayer,
and yet, so very heavy, myself.
I was wearing a size 3X. There wasn't enough
camera to get a picture of all of me.
Your's Truly feeding my Chipper, Spunky AND
OBVIOUSLY MYSELF at Aunt Bonnie's house.
My husband Dale never seemed to see the weight.
He always loved me for me, and that, dear
ones, is priceless. Oh that man, I love him
so.
I'm going to share with you what I did to
lose 103 pounds and why I did this at this
time in my life. Now, I still have about
15 more pounds to go, and I know that this
will be only half of this battle. Keeping
this off will be the rest of it.
Bonnie took this picture at our Tulsa Clinic,
back in September of 2006. These are the
two little girls she hand bottle fed from
birth.
This was taken at the beginning of October,
2006.
Taken on the last night of my 40's! November
30, 2006.
I was getting to where I could not walk,
and no I am not kidding. Sitting at the computer
over the last 9 years, for sometimes 16 hours
a day, and all of the stress involved in
getting an organization like this off of
the ground, was taking it's toll on me.
I didn't do this for reasons of vanity. I
never had a low self esteem. I never was
lazy. I was not depressed. My love life with
my husband of 21 years, Dale, was always
wonderful.
I was simply morbidly obese and I knew that
I could not continue to take care of these
Bichons, and of Small Paws, the way that
I needed to do, unless I got this weight
off.
Fitting in a plane seat was becoming difficult.
Walking through an airport was even harder.
Walking through an airport carrying a heart
murmur Bichon was nearly impossible. Bonnie
had to rescue me with a taxi, in NYC, when
I could not take one more step on my overtaxed
knees. And, I was also beginning to fall.
This is what I did. This is what worked for
me. I am praying for you if you are suffering
with this same issue.
You can change your life...if you can change
your mind.
First, I went to a weight doctor here in
Tulsa, Ok. I went to Dr. Guy Baldwin.
Dr. Guy Baldwin
Yes, he too was obese. At first this almost
detoured me, but then I thought...hey, this
guy probably understands this more than someone
who has never experienced it themselves.
He put me on an appetite suppressant for
three months, to get me used to consuming
1200 calories a day. The drug was called
Phentermine. This is a drug not intended
for long time use. It stops working after
about three months.
1200 calories. I was terrified. I don't know
what of, but I was terrified. I knew that
if I didn't do this now, I wouldn't do it
at all, and time was running out. After 50.
it is much harder to lose weight. It can
be done, but it is harder. I didn't need
harder. I already had a mountain of harder,
right in front of me as it was.
I grew to love Dr. Baldwin, who was determined
to see me through to my goal. It helped knowing
that I had someone to report to for weigh
ins and blood pressure checks.
He always knew the right thing to say. Once
he looked right at me and told me I was too
pretty to be overweight. I didn't know whether
to hug him or slug him. I only knew I had
to keep going.
Oddly, around May, as more weight came off,
my blood pressure began to rise and it was
a little alarming as I have never had this
problem before.
Dr. Baldwin put me on lasix for my rising
blood pressure, which today is 118 over 78.
Perfect and NORMAL.
Another tool I used is this. I told myself
that if I "thought I was hungry"
that I wasn't going to DIE from that. I couldn't
say the same about my own morbid obesity.
I also told myself that I might be uncomfortable
at times. But then I remembered this. There
was Someone who was very uncomfortable for
me over 2000 years ago. This proved to become
invaluable to me, and continues to do so
to this day.
I remembered Who loved me more than anyone
else ever has and more than anyone else ever
will, and how He suffered and died for me.
I MEAN THIS MAN, MY JESUS, DIED AN AGONIZING
DEATH ON THAT CROSS FOR ME AND FOR YOU.
I wasn't suffering at all. Not even maybe.
Dr. Baldwin told me that he thought I would
reach my final goal in March or April of
2007. The weight has come off at about 7
pounds a month.
He said that when I did reach my goal, he
would take me up for a spin around the city.
You see, he was an acrobatic pilot with his
own airplanes, as well as a physician and
an aviation medical examiner.
At the last of my doctor's visits with him,
I asked him if he had ever been afraid that
he would crash? He looked up at a plaque
on the wall, thought about it a bit, and
said a hearty, "NOPE!"
The plaque on his exam room wall said, "And
they will mount with wings of eagles. They
will run and not be weary. They will walk
and not faint." Isaiah 40:31
His plane had this verse painted on one wing.
He promised he would not retire until I reached
my goal.
He did NOT promise he wouldn't be killed
in a plane crash...and sadly, on October
4, 2006, he was.
I learned about this on the 6:00 news. His
picture was staring back at me. He was gone.
Over 1000 people attended his funeral service.
I was one of them. Six F-16's flew over the
church with the missing man formation. I
suddenly realized that Dr. Baldwin did not
have a weight problem anymore. He too, had
reached his goal.
The girls in his office and his wife, Felice,
told me not to let this detour me, not to
let this tragedy get in the way of my reaching
my goal.
I work out now, several times a week, lifting
weights (free weights and leg weights) and
doing crunches...on top of my bed, no less.
I had to loose probably 40 pounds before
I could do a single crunch.
In the beginning I was too heavy to do this,
or anything else on the floor. I could have never gotten up off of the floor
without a crane. So, I began doing my exercises
on top of the bed, while watching QVC. Ha!
I know all of the show hosts now by name!
I do 100 crunches before I ever get out of
the bed in the morning. My bust and hip measurements
are finally the same. I don't think that
has ever happened to me since...well, since
ever.
I knew I could no longer spend 16 hours in
front of the computer. I had to trust that
no one would die if I only spent 6-7 hours
in front of it. I knew I had to get out and
MOVE to be able to change my life.
Here are some tools that I used and I hope
they can be of help to you in your journey
too.
Surround yourselves with people who cherish
you and whom you cherish. Surround yourselves
with other Believers.
Believers can pray for you when you need
help from above.
Visit sparkpeople.com
It is a free website. They have an online
calculator that has over 10,000 foods listed,
with their nutritional info, including restaurant
menus.
For the first three months, I tried to eat
at home as much as possible. I learned the
caloric content of foods and of entire meals
at certain restaurants. I logged in every
morsel that went in my mouth on sparkpeople.com.
I put Crystal Light in my water, when I didn't
think I could swallow one more swig of H20.
I keep a bottle with me at all times now.
The more you drink, the more you want. The
more you drink, the more you detox your body
of fat cells.
DRINK DRINK DRINK!
I also found a website called waldenfarms.com
This site sells individually packaged salad
dressings, AND jars of caramel sauce AND
jars of chocolate sauce, all with NO FAT
NO CALORIES AND NO CHOLESTEROL. They are
ALL NATURAL.
I carry the salad dressings in my purse.
I use them on Subway sandwiches. A roast
beef subway with no cheese and no dressing
and lots of veggies is 320 calories. Good
stuff Maynard. Add a diet Minute Maid Lemonade
and you are in business. On days when I can
afford the extra calories I sometimes add
a package of baked Lays for 140 calories.
I also learned that salads will make ya FAT!
At restaurants, salads are often filled with
cheeses, and dressings, making a chef salad
have more calories than I am allowed for
a whole day. Run Muffy Run! Take your own
dressings, and hold the cheese!
I became intimately acquainted with Lean
Cuisine, Healthy Choice, and Smart Ones frozen
dinners and pizzas.
I divide my calories into two meals. I know.
I know. They say that you are supposed to
eat breakfast. I only know that for me, this
is what seems to be working.
I eat my main meal, about 800 calories around
1-2 o'clock in the afternoon. This is a big
meal and it sustains me all day. In the evening,
I have my other 400 calories.
Sometimes for dinner all I want is a bowl
of instant oatmeal for 130 calories and a
fat free no sugar added yogurt from Braums
for 100 calories.
I have changed my eating habits in the evenings
and I am sleeping much better now!
I park far from the door of where I am going
and walk instead of trying to find the closest
parking space.
I took my old clothes to the consignment
stores and that's where I get what I wear
now. I am "renting" my clothes.
I wear them for a while, and when they become
to large, I take them back and resell them.
I also kept some clothes from 10 years ago.
This week, I comfortably zipped my old jeans
from 1996. It was like finding an old friend.
(an old friend covered with dust and needing
a bath)
I ask for low fat menus in restaurants. Mimi's
Cafe has a great one. The chef's there can
almost tell if it is me placing the order,
but the way I have combined the menu items
to fit my plan.
Here are some rules that have and do continue
to help me.
Don't drink your calories. For me, this means
milk, fruit juices, and of course, alcohol.
You'll feel more satisfied if you eat solid
food instead. I have had two glasses of wine
since I started this last December and I
gained three pounds each time. Well, duh,
I don't think I'll do that again anytime
soon!
Don't have it in the house! If you don't
have it on your food plan, then don't have
it in the house. Your kids and your husband
won't die without twinkies. In fact, you
will be teaching them good habits. Dale lost
ten pounds when I began this! He is a runner
and biker. I didn't know he had ten pounds
to lose! DON'T BRING IT IN THE HOUSE!
Don't hide the fact that you are changing
your food habits. Your friends with understand
and your enemies don't matter. YOU matter.
Share what you are doing with people you
care for. It is contagious! Brant Cramer,
a member of our Board of Trustees, has lost
50 pounds in the last few months. WAY TO
GO BRANT! He is back at his college football
weight!
Don't pack your weights and take them in
your luggage on planes. They don't take kindly
to you doing this and almost charged me $40.00
once for overweight luggage! Use the weights
at the hotels. Start out light with one pound
weights if you have to. You will progress.
You will see lumps forming in your upper
arms. Dale told me these are called muscles
and they are a good thing.:)
Do be grateful for the journey and not only
for the destination. This year has been the
biggest blessing of my life. I learned to
pray for myself. I learned that even at almost
fifty, I can change my life by changing my
mind.
I learned that I am not suffering by reducing
my caloric intake. I feel like I could take
on the world, and win.
I learned that nothing tastes as good as
this feels. I feel like I have gone back
in time, to when I was a teenager, and no
I am not kidding. I had forgotten about this
part of myself.
Bars (Slimfast, Southbeach etc.) were ok
for me for emergencies such as on long plane
trips, but getting used to eating real food
is always going to be better for you. Learning
how to eat real foods, in moderation, is
something we can all do for the rest of our
lives.
I am surrounded by the best people on earth.
Our team leaders, our volunteers and foster
parents. And Bonnie Ferguson. By the way,
it helps to have a buddy to do this with.
Bonnie is my buddy. She has dropped 40 pounds
and I am so proud of her! She can also bench
press 35 pounds and I wouldn't want to meet
her in a dark alley!
I learned that my husband loves me completely.
Someone recently asked him if he feels like
he has a new wife, and he told them that
this isn't the part that he married. Sometimes
they come up with something that just makes
you stand in wonderment, don't they?
Well, I hope my experience has helped some
of you. I know it seems uphill. I know it
is overwhelming. You may have 50, 100, 200
or more pounds to lose. You may think it
will take years to do it. So what if it takes
years? You will be adding those years back
onto the span of your life, and they will
be good years!
You will have more energy than you knew existed.
Naps will become a thing of the past. You
won't need them anymore. (Ok, maybe once
in a while, just because the dogs like taking
naps with Mom.)
This is the last time I am doing this. I
will never go back to where I was before.
I love you all, and wanted to share my journey
with all of you. Please join me in praying
for myself as I head into the final stretch.
All My Love, Robin
Update January 23, 2007
87 pounds gone, Thank God and Greyhound,
it's gone.
I'm wearing a skirt from Talbots, size 14,
given to me by Lynda DeHart, and wanted to
show her what it looked like when it finally
went around me!
Dale was supposed to take a picture of this
baby for his new mama. We took him to the
airport, right after this picture was made.
(The doggie, not Dale)
He aimed the camera at me and nothing happened.
Of course, after what seemed like an eternity,
when I told him to take the darn picture
already, he clicked it right then.
Men always wait until your mouth is moving
to take a picture. They can't help it. They
are born that way. Dales says, "YOU
try to get a picture of her when her mouth
isn't moving." I'll deal with him later.
January 31, 2007 with our 44th heart murmur
baby.
May 1, 2007 in our living room. Yes, that's me in the picture on the piano,
when I was five.
What a blessed life I have been given. And
He let me sing, too.
In Lake Tahoe, filming PSA announcements
for Small Paws. June 4, 2007.
June 8, 2007 with Joanne Raus, our Northeast
Team Leader, at the Ct. Pre-Bash dinner.
September 02, Labor Day Weekend 2007 after
taking in 10 puppy mill rescued Bichons.
I thank God I have the energy to do this,
now.
Update September 20, 2007
Dale and I celebrating our 22nd Anniversary.
103 pounds gone. Thank God.
October 27, 2007
105 pounds gone Weight 160
My husband, Dale, took this. Here I am with
John, one of the wonderful wait staff at
Mimi's Cafe here in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
This was the last night of our Oklahoma Bichon
Bash. I'm havin' a ball now that I can walk
and move. Can ya tell?!
THANK YOU JESUS!
Dec of 2007. I swam with a Dolphin while
on vacation and will never be the same. This
is soehting I would have never done before.
No way would I have put on a bathing suit
OR climbed up on a dolphin at that weight.
Dec '07 cruise to the southern Carribean.
Outside on our state room deck. Yes, those
are shorts. E-gads.
Barbedos. Dec '07 with the green monkeys.
Thank God I can walk.
My goal is to lose 15 more pounds by the
end of the summer. It is coming off more
slowly now of course.
One of my sample daily menus.
Lunch
640 Calories
Frozen Lean Cuisine Lasagna 320 calories
1/2 cup Frozen Peas 70 calories
Sliced Tomato One Whole 30 calories
1/2 cup Low Fat Cottage Cheese 90 calories
Dinner Roll 100 calories
Dinner
590 calories
Subway Roast Beef Sandwich 320 calories
(no cheese no sauce. I use my waldenfarms
salad dressings with no calories)
Lays Baked chips 140 calories
1/2 cup (one dip in a cup) Frozen Yogurt
130 Calories
My husband Dale and I on June 20, 2008. I
am so thankful it doesn't hurt to walk.
This scripture is for you to read if you
think that you don't matter and that you
don't deserve to be healthy. That you are
not important. God knitted you together in
your mother's womb. He knows you inside and
out. He did a wonderful work when he created
you! YOU are fearfully and wonderfully made!
If you don't believe me, read this. David
wrote this to God.
Psalm 139
For the director of music. Of David. A psalm.
1 O LORD, you have searched me
and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O LORD.
5 You hem me in—behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.
7 Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
10 even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
11 If I say, "Surely the darkness will
hide me
and the light become night around me,"
12 even the darkness will not be dark to
you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.
13 For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully
made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of
the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts,
O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.
19 If only you would slay the wicked, O God!
Away from me, you bloodthirsty men!
20 They speak of you with evil intent;
your adversaries misuse your name.
21 Do I not hate those who hate you, O LORD,
and abhor those who rise up against you?
22 I have nothing but hatred for them;
I count them my enemies.
23 Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
24 See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.
And if you desire to break the bondage of
being overweight, or to stop smoking, etc,
this song is just wonderful to listen too!
To hear a clip ckick here. Scroll down to
"Goodbye Egypt"
Goodbye Egypt (Hello Canaan Land)
I was born in Egypt's bondage
I was bound by sin and strife
I was sure that I would wander
In the wilderness for all my life
But then I heard God's Spirit say
This desert's not where you should be
There's a land that flows with milk and honey
So pack your bags and follow me (I said..)
Chorus:
Goodbye Egypt
I'm leaving and I'm never coming back again
Goodbye Egypt
Hello Canaanland
Verse:
So listen, friend, if you're a prisoner
Tired of chains that bind your soul
Believe the Lord will break the fetters
He wants you to be happy and whole
Just call on Him and He will lead you
Out of your captivity
Into that promised land of plenty
Get up, get going if you want to be free
(and say..)
Chorus:
Goodbye Egypt
I'm leaving and I'm never coming back again
Goodbye Egypt
Hello Canaanland
Bridge:
Goodbye old way of living
Hello loved and forgiven
Goodbye death and the grave
Hello heaven thank God I'm saved