Her words not mine

As part of the publicity for the Live Well Lakewood Health fair my friend and neighbor Paula Reed wrote an article for the Lakewood Observer about me. The idea was to make me the poster child for losing weight which was fine with me as long as I wasn’t on the poster. Her article was honest and made me think about how far I have come.

Lakewood’s Own Biggest Loser by Paula Reed

by Paula Reed 

I met Lisa Griffis in 2001 when she enlisted my help in buying a house.  We talked a couple of times on the phone before we met in person, so I had formed a mental picture of her from her voice.  I was hoping my surprise didn’t show when she walked in to the office.  My first thought was, “She has such a pretty face.”  My second thought was, “Oh no—there are arms on the chairs in the conference room.  How embarrassing will it be if she doesn’t fit?!”  Then I realized she had to deal with situations like that on a daily basis and somehow she must have managed to adapt.

During the time we worked together I gained admiration for Lisa’s dry, self-deprecating wit, her sharp intelligence and her kind heart.  The house she bought happened to be directly behind my house, making us back-door neighbors.  However, between our busy schedules and the 6’ wooden fence separating our yards we didn’t see much of each other, though we talked on the phone periodically, mostly when Lisa had a house-related question. 

In 2005 Lisa called to invite me to a craft show at her house and mentioned that she had lost 75 pounds.  I went to the event, looking forward to seeing the change in Lisa with that huge weight loss.  To my surprise, although she looked a little different, she was remained very overweight—she probably still carried about 265 lbs. on her 5’2” frame.

The next time I saw Lisa was more than a year later in my front yard as she walked by with her dog.  She called a cheery hello and headed up the driveway, and I returned her greeting while thinking frantically, “She looks vaguely familiar—who the heck is she?”  What a shock to realize it was Lisa—then strikingly different at about 175 lbs.

It wasn’t until October 2008 when Lisa and I started working together on Live Well Lakewood, a new initiative that promotes healthy living in Lakewood, that I had the nerve to ask her how she got to 340 lbs., and what life is like when you’re “morbidly obese.”  But I needn’t have worried about offending her with my questions—Lisa happily shares her story in the hopes it will help someone else who is struggling to get control over their body:

Lisa was born at 9 lbs. 4 oz., so she was never small!  She grew up in a family of hearty eaters whose gatherings centered on food and ignored exercise. Dinner table discussions seldom reflected the harsh criticism she endured for being the largest girl in her class. In high school she took up photography and journalism as a way to show that the fat girl had talent under the excess pounds.  At Ohio University, where she majored in photojournalism, Lisa was able to shed a few pounds by walking to classes and swimming.

Lisa lived the next 20 years as a nomadic journalist, chasing better jobs across the country, and began binge eating to compensate for the pressure and loneliness that comes with moving to a new job and city. By age forty the combination of getting older and carrying around twice a normal person’s weight was beginning to slow Lisa’s pace in life. She stopped traveling due to the embarrassment of having flight attendants chase her down the aisle brandishing a seatbelt extender.  She tried and failed many times to lose weight, and had given up doing anything about her weight problem except for overeating to mask the pain of not being able to control her weight.  She had let food become too important–a comfort for bad days and lonely nights, situations that were created partly because of her weight.  Her weight was defining her lot in life.

A trip to the doctor for any reason triggered a lecture about her weight, and the label morbidly (Webster’s definition:  diseased; gruesome; horrible) obese. When the scales at the doctor’s office hit 340 pounds she heard a chorus of medical professionals telling her that she needed to seriously consider gastric bypass surgery.  She just continued to ignore their pleas to do something before it was too late.

What Lisa calls her “aha moment” came after a trip to Washington where she connected with old friends. After dinner one night they snapped a photo that forever changed her life. When the picture arrived at her home she was delighted to see her old friends hamming it up for the camera but was awestruck that she seemed to be the stranger in the picture. It was finally time to do something.

So, she grabbed the Suzanne Somers book, “Eat, Cheat and Melt the Fat Away” off the bookshelf containing the myriad of diet books she had accumulated over the years and actually read it. It was the first of many books she read and took to heart as she tried to break her lifelong habits of excessive eating and virtually no exercise.  Lisa didn’t tell her friends that she was embarking on a life-changing mission.  She feared they wouldn’t believe her–she had failed too many times before.  As her own trainer and nutritionist, she became more aware of what she was putting in her mouth, portion sizes, and how much she would need to move to work off the extra pounds. With in a year she was down 70 pounds and for the first time in her life believed that she could make her dream of becoming a normal-sized person come true.  To date, Lisa has lost 190 pounds and burned more than 660,000 calories to accomplish that feat, proving that healthy eating and exercise do work.

Her friends and colleagues began to cheer her on, like fans at a marathon race. She was encouraged by their support, even when a consistent “compliment” was that they didn’t recognize her from behind, leading her to assume her former backside was quite memorable.

Lisa became totally committed to her new routine.  With fewer pounds on her petite frame she was able to increase her workouts and began to enjoy walking the lovely streets of Lakewood.  She bought exercise equipment for her basement; added strength training, biking, pilates, and swimming at Foster Pool. She started cooking for the entire week on weekends to make sure she ate balanced meals every day. She took her favorite recipes and began to retool them to include more vegetables, lean meat and less fat.

Within two-and-a-half years of starting her lofty goal of losing 200 pounds, Lisa has lost more than half of her former self.  On Octover 8th, I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see Lisa appear on the Today Show.  She looked fantastic in hot pink as she was inducted into the Joy Fit Club, led by Today Show nutritionist Joy Bauer, for people who have lost 100+ pounds.  Because of Lisa, Joy Bauer will be a featured speaker at the Live Well Lakewood free health fair at Garfield School on January 24th.  Lisa plans to achieve her ultimate 200 pound weight-loss goal by that date.

Lisa’s triumph last week was buying a pair of size-8 jeans at Ann Taylor Loft.  Shopping for clothes is now a treat, not a chore.  She has begun traveling again and dating, and now knows that anything is possible.  She is writing a book about her experiences; has a website (lisagriffis.com) and hopes to coach other people to help them achieve their weight-loss goals and live healthier lives.

If you ask Lisa how she did it, she’ll tell you:  “It’s simple:  Put down your fork and move your butt.”