Anne M. Fletcher - Thin for Life: 10 Keys to Success from People Who Have Lost Weight and Kept It Off

Eating Thin for Life

Thin for Life Daybook

Sober for Good

For Steve, Wes, Ty and Juliamy family, who support me

Copyright 2003 by Anne M. Fletcher

Foreword 1994 by Jane Brody

All rights reserved

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

www.hmhco.com

The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

Fletcher, Anne M.

Thin for life : 10 keys to success for people who have lost weight and kept it off / Anne M. Fletcher ; foreword by Jane Brody.Rev. updated ed.
p. cm.

ISBN 0-618-34055-6
ISBN 978-0-618-34055-2
Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Weight lossPsychological aspects. I. Title.

RM222.2.F536 2003
613.2'5dc21 2002192154

eISBN 978-0-547-34634-2
v2.0815

THIS BOOK IS NOT INTENDED AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL ASSISTANCE. THE AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER DISCLAIM ANY RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY ADVERSE EFFECTS RESULTING DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY FROM INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS BOOK.

The designations of various organizations, systems, and/or products are claimed by their owners as trademarks or servicemarks. These include: Ask the DietitianSM, Cooking Light HMR, Jenny Craig, Inc., Lap Band, Meridia, Nutricise, Nutri/System, Inc., OPTIFAST, POINTS, TOPS, Weight Watchers International, Inc., Xenical

PERMISSIONS : Questionnaire in Setting a Comfortable Weight Goal adapted by permission of Kelly Brownell, Ph.D., from Brownell, K. D., and Wadden, T. A., 1992. Etiology and treatment of obesity: Understanding a serious, prevalent, and refractory disorder. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 60 (4), page 509. Copyright The American Psychological Association, Inc. Sections of Are You Ready? adapted from The Truth About Addiction and Recovery by Stanton Peele, Ph.D., and Archie Brodsky with Mary Arnold, pages 203205. Copyright 1991 by Stanton Peele and Archie Brodsky with Mary Arnold. Reprinted by permission of Simon & Schuster, Inc. Calorie Values for 10 Minutes of Activity reproduced with permission from The LEARN Program for Weight Management2000, by Kelly D. Brownell, Ph.D. Dallas: American Health Publishing Company, page 94. All rights reserved. For ordering information, call 1-888-LEARN-41 or visit www.TheLifeStyleCompany.com. Rosy Red Beet Dip, Snow Peas and Carrots, and No-Stir Five-Minute Risotto with Salmon adapted from Quick Harvest: A Vegetarians Guide to Microwave Cooking by Pat Baird, Prentice Hall Press, 1991. Food lists and serving sizes in the Jump-Start Diet are based on the Exchange Lists for Weight Management. Copyright 1989 The American Diabetes Association and the American Dietetic Association.

First, I wish to thank the hundreds of people who shared their time, enthusiasm, recipes and, most important, their inspiring stories. My deep appreciation goes also to friends, relatives, weight-loss organizations and professionals who helped recruit the masters.

I am grateful to the weight-control experts who shared their time, opinions and expertisenotably Drs. Kelly Brownell, Susan Ross, Susan Olson, Daniel Kirschenbaum and John Foreyt. Also, Larry Lindner and Gail Zyla, of the Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter, were always available to give feedback and thoughtful advice at various stages of Thin for Life. Carla Chesleys recipe-testing skills and willingness to be on call were invaluable. I also want to thank Don Mauer for his time and contributions. For help with the revised edition, I am particularly thankful to Drs. Thomas Wadden, Gary Foster, Suzanne Phelan, James Hill, Mary Lou Klem, Robert Jeffery, James Anderson, Susan Bartlett and Richard Atkinson. Tammi Hancock, R.D., owner of Hancock Nutrition Analysis, was most helpful with updating the nutrition information in the book.

For her time and expertise, which she gives way beyond the call of duty, I am indebted to my agent, Chris Tomasino. And for their fine editing and wise ways, I thank my editors, Rux Martin and Lori Galvin-Frost. In addition, I appreciate editor Barry Estabrooks tireless efforts on behalf of Thin for Life. Finally, I thank my family members, Steve, Wes, Ty and Julia, for their infinite patience and support for each of my book projects.

As with all diets, weight-loss programs and exercise regimes, you should obtain your physicians permission and seek his or her supervision before and while following the diet, menu plans, recipes and/ or advice in Thin for Life. This is particularly important if you have a medical problem, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, or an eating disorder. A registered dietitians counsel is advised as well. If you have psychological distress, such as serious depression or high stress in your life, you should see a licensed mental health professional before following Thin for Lifes recommendations.

All masters in Thin for Life have given their permission to share information about their weight histories. Some of their names have been changed to protect privacy and anonymity. Sometimes the masters remarks were edited slightly for clarity.

People who have met me within the last 25 years find it hard to believe that I was once a third bigger than I am now. Like many women in their early 20s, I had become obsessed with weight and quite miserable about the extra pounds that had begun to clutter up my 5-foot frame. So, like millions of others in the same boat, I tried dieting. All kinds of diets. Many commercial programs and gimmicks and a few I made up on my own. And sure, I would lose weight, but then Id gain it backand usually some extra pounds to bootwhen I got sick and tired of feeling deprived and living on eggs and grapefruit or cottage cheese and carrots or whatever happened to be the popular weight-loss concoction of the day.

Believe me, I tried them alleven the ridiculous drinking mans dietand all they did was result in an ever-bigger me. As my girth expanded, I got increasingly desperate and tried starving all day and eating only one meal at night. But as soon as I put the first morsel of food in my mouth, I couldnt stop eating. Like the starved person I was, I ate and ate and ate until I would fall asleep, often with unchewed food still in my mouth. And like a starved person, I became increasingly undiscriminating about what I would eat, until I was living on an alternating intake of sweet foods and salty foods, all of questionable nutritional value. I had turned myself into a compulsive eater who knew the locations of every all-night grocery in town.

Then one day I panicked. I was fat. But even more important, I realized, I was probably killing myself with my atrocious eating habits. I vowed to turn over a new leaf. I decided that if I was going to be fat, so be it, but at least I could be healthy and fat.

I gave up diets and gimmicks and cycles of starving and bingeing, and I started eating: three wholesome meals, with wholesome snacks if I was hungry between meals, and one little no-no each daytwo cookies, a couple of spoons of ice cream, a thin sliver of cake or piesomething I loved and did not want to miss. No deprivation, no starvation, no bingeing. Only moderation. And I put myself on a regular exercise program. Every day I would do something physically challenging: walking, cycling, skating, swimming, tennissomething that got me breathing hard (I kept thinking about how all that oxygen was restoring my cells to health) and feeling good about my body.