Meet Nancy and Ron from Kentucky!

August 5, 2011 8:50 AM

I bet you've never heard this reason to motivate you to lose weight, "You'll weigh too much to take any luggage on this flight!" That is exactly what was said to my husband, Ron and I on January 5, 2003.

Let me begin "my story" by telling you a little about myself. I will be 71-years-old next month. I guess of all those years, most of them I have battled being overweight and wished I could magically be thin. I developed a love affair with food at a very young age. One of my earliest childhood memories is a friend's mother telling me "I was as broad as I was long." Those were very painful words for a child to hear and they certainly lacked the ability to motivate me to stop eating!

Back in those days walking was most peoples only mode of transportation. I walked everywhere I went: to school, stores and movies. So I imagine all of that walking only managed to stimulate my enthusiastic appetite. Then came the teenage years, I finally realized that there was more to life than eating. I managed to lose weight and have a wonderful time. The summer after my freshman year of college, I met the love of my life and soulmate at the place where I worked. We were married the next year and that was 51 years ago.

When we began our marriage June 17, 1960, Ron and I both looked great. Ron had recently returned from a two year Army tour of duty in Hawaii and I had gotten toned and fit and was actually at a normal weight. We had a beautiful wedding, but I do believe that the minister must have said at the conclusion of our wedding ceremony, "Let the eating begin!" And that is just what we did!

We were definitely in "expand mode." When our only child, a daughter, was born, we did not set a good example. Unfortunately because of us, she had a weight problem through most of her childhood. As the years passed, we began to travel a great deal. We ate our way across the country many times. We had favorite places to eat in most remote cities from the Atlantic to the Pacific and I don't think any of the places were healthy.

Occasionally, after harsh words from our doctors, we would diet and lose weight. We went to Weight Watchers in the 80's and I got to goal. Ron was only a few pounds from his goal. I kept the 42 pounds off for 5 years. Sadly, I went back to my old eating habits and so did Ron.

We resumed our old life style of over indulging in food, and unfortunately, I gained back all of the weight I had lost plus MORE. We neglected to listen to our doctors and were oblivious to the health issues we had disastrously allowed to develop. This leads me to that opening sentence of our story.

We were visiting our daughter in Montana for Christmas in 2002. We had tickets to fly back home to KY on the morning of January 6, 2003. We, however, did not make that flight. Ron began having chest pains on January 5, and my son-in-law rushed us to the hospital. The physician in the E.R. told us that the hospital was unable to provide the procedure that Ron needed.

The doctor explained that we would have to be taken by helicopter to a larger hospital 150 miles away. Being in Montana in January, something happened very common for that location--a blizzard blew in. The helicopter was unable to navigate in the blizzard and we were told that a small private airplane would have to be used. When the pilot arrived, he explained to me that because of the strong elements of the blizzard, a de-icing process would have to be done. As if we weren't stressed enough, he said he needed to know our exact weight in order to correctly perform the de-icing process. After I gave our exact weight (which was the only time in my life that I did not lie about my weight), I was told that I couldn't take my overnight case because we weighed too much.

So on January 6, 2003, instead of flying back to KY, my husband was having open heart surgery in Billings, MT and I was prayerfully sitting in the waiting room in the same clothes I had worn the day before. The story has a very happy ending. Ron's surgery was successful! After a month of recuperating in MT, we returned home. We joined TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) and began a serious weight-loss journey. In June 2005, I reached my goal weight. I lost 35 pounds at TOPS but my total weight loss was 45 pounds, since I really began my diet the night of that life-changing flight. Ron met his weight loss goal at TOPS of 80 pounds in November 2005. Ron was also diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2007. He came through the surgery for the removal of his kidney with flying colors. He did not even have to have chemo or any other treatment. I really don't think the outcome would have been this wonderful if he hadn't turned around his poor eating and physical activity level. How thankful we are for the blessing that resulted from our lifestyle change!

About six months ago, I started losing my focus and motivation and was very afraid I would revert back to my old eating habits. Then I miraculously found Kim Bensen's book Finally Thin! This book and Kim's weight loss support group and meetings were exactly what I needed to reenergize my enthusiasm to continue a healthy life style and to maintain the weight which my doctor recommended. Ron is also happy with all of the help that I have received at KimBensen.com because neither one of us ever want to go through the fear and terror we experienced on that snowy flight in Montana. We have kept off the weight and are looking forward to joining the maintenance group at KimBensen.com.

Nancy (aka New-Nan)