It's Not
About
the Scale

By Karen Preston

Karen lives, plays, and works
in Portland. A member of TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly), she also founded Pounders, a weight-loss support group focusing on being fit through exercise and healthly lifestyle changes. Her story
was recently featured in Self magazine (September 2003).

I still find each
day too short for
all the thoughts
I want to think,
all the walks I want
to take, all the books
I want to read and
all the friends
I want to see. 

— John Burroughs

Smart Metabolism?

Yes, I know! The title of my column sounds like a rip-off of the Lance Armstrong book, It’s Not About the Bike. I promise I will get around to explaining the title in my next column, but first perhaps you would like to know a bit about me? You may be wondering why the editors invited me to chat with you about weight loss and maintenance. Is it because I am a journalist or have a proven track record as a columnist? Absolutely not! I have never attempted this sort of thing before, but I am not about to let that stop me. I love having challenges drop into my lap. I look at them as opportunities to push my boundaries and grow.

Nope, the real reason I was asked to write this column is because six years ago I weighed a whole heck of a lot more than I do today. I weighed so much that the scale could not even accurately weigh me.

Scales, as many of you know, usually only measure up to 350 pounds. When I finally stepped on one in mid-August 1997 (after years of steadfast avoidance), the needle floated up to the top and wavered just a fraction of a tiny bit. It was definitely not 350. I count my starting weight as 351 pounds. That’s quite a bit of extra weight even for a tall woman of 5’11”. I joined Weight Watchers for four months and then switched to a weight-loss support group called TOPS, Take Off Pounds Sensibly. By December 2000 I had reached my goal of 167 pounds, a total loss of 184 pounds in three years and four months.

Like many overweight people I had avoided any type of exercise more strenuous than getting off the couch to refill the chip bowl. But after losing 100 pounds I discovered I had a lot more energy and was pretty darn impressed with what I had already accomplished. I began wondering if there was an athlete hidden inside my still pudgy body. I also reckoned that if I could lose that much weight, perhaps there were other major things I could accomplish. I began exercising in July 1999 and by December of that year I made a New Year’s resolution that startled my friends and family and scared me just a tad to boot.

I vowed to walk the Portland Marathon! Of course I did not have the slightest idea how to accomplish this task. But I made a smart move, I told all my friends, family, and even some total strangers about my goal. That’s called “painting yourself into a corner” and pretty much forces you into following through since you have been boasting about your goal to anyone willing to listen. On October 1, 2000 I walked my first of four marathons in 7 hours and 19 minutes.

Along my journey I have come across a lot of tools that have helped me in both losing and maintaining my weight loss. I will share those with you in future columns. I don’t bill myself as an expert or as perfect. As I struggle to maintain my weight loss, I have learned that keeping it off is just as hard as losing it. So I invite all of you to write in and share what has helped you. I look forward to supporting you in our mutual weight loss and weight maintenance.