Articles and Appearances
Check out the January 26th issue of Woman’s World, page 19
Jerry has made is national magazine debut. The article focuses on winter walking. Something that he likes more than me but together we make the effort no matter how cold it is outside.
Lakewood’s Own Biggest Loser 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.”
The Sound of Ideas®
The Obesity Epidemic for WCPN, Cleveland’s NPR station
Nearly two-thirds of Ohio adults are overweight or obese, making Ohio the fifth heaviest state in the nation. Obesity is more than a weight problem – it’s a community health issue that leads to preventable illness such as diabetes and heart disease. It also contributes to skyrocketing health care costs. We’ll talk about what communities can do to help people live healthier lives. The obesity epidemic, Friday on The Sound of Ideas.
Hosted by Regina Brett
Guests on the show
- Alisa O’Brien, Chief, Community Wellness & Obesity Prevention,Office of Healthy Ohio
- Dr. Eileen Seeholzer, Director, Weight Management Center,MetroHealth Medical Center
- Lisa Griffis, lost over 200 pounds
you can download the MP3 here
When I stopped treating my body like a trash can I lost 200 pounds
by Lisa Griffis for the Cleveland Plain Dealer
Who would ever thought that the simple actions of putting down my fork and starting to move my butt would have such living changing results; not me, that’s for sure.
My colleagues here are the Plain Dealer have seen my transformation from a front row seat. They have encouraged me along my journey like supporters that line the route of a marathon race. It has taken me five years to lose 200 pounds but I finally did it.
I am not sure where all the patience and perseverance came from but I am now living the life I always dreamed of having for myself.
For years, my New Year’s resolutions revolved around losing weight. Within weeks of changing the calendar year, I was off the wagon and using food to comfort my problems with the stress in my life. My doctor’s all urged me to consider gastric bypass surgery but it was my problem and I had to fix it.
It was hard to lose the weight and even harder to keep it off but I have beaten the overwhelming odds. I burned more than 700,000 calories and had to forgo thousands of my favorite treats to accomplish the feat but I will never regret my decision to overcome obesity.
Like many American’s I had let my unhealthy eating habits overtake my life and body. When I did a comparison between my old and new vital signs it was a real eye opener to what I have done for my overall health by losing my excess pounds.
At 340 pounds in 2003
Blood pressure: 134/84 Good range: 120/80
Pulse: 92 Good range: 60-90
Blood sugar: 92 Good range: 74-106
Overall cholesterol: 205 Good range: 80-200
HDL: 55.3 Good range: 35-78
LDL: 101 Good range is below 130
Triclycerides: 245 Good range: less than 150.
At 140 pounds:
Blood pressure: 102/70
Pulse: 76
Blood sugar: 93
Overall cholesterol: 181
HDL: 68
LDL: 95
Triclycerides: 91
With this information in hand, I used the website. www.realage.com to see how these figures changed my overall health.
At age 44 at 340 pounds my real age was 56 years old.
At 49 at 140 pounds my age was 48 years old.
Joy Bauer’s Tips to a healthier you
On October 6th I was inducted into the Today Show’s Joy Fit Club for people that have lost more than 100 pounds. I met Joy Bauer, the show’s nutrition expert, and she challenged me to use her new book, “Joy’s LIFE Diet” as a method to lose my last 24 pounds. It worked! I learned a great deal from my new friend and I asked her to give you advice on how to take steps to start treating your body better for a healthier you.
1. Substitute sodas: If you cut one 12-ounce can of regular soda (150 calories) from your routine every day for a year, you’ll have saved 54,750 calories. That could equate to a 15.5 pounds weight loss! Even though diet sodas don’t contribute calories, they keep your craving for sweet engaged, which prevents you from nipping your sugar addiction in the bud.
2. Forget fried food:
6-ounce skinless roasted chicken breast: 280 calories, 6 grams fat
6-ounce fried chicken breast with skin: 445 calories, 22 grams fat
The lesson here is clear: if you’re trying to lose weight stay away from fried foods completely.
3. Stop adding sugar: Every tablespoon of added sugar, whether it’s plain old white sugar, maple syrup or honey adds about 60 calories to your daily total. All that straight sugar can really wreak havoc on your blood sugars, not to mention your diet. Two sugar packets in your morning coffee, a tablespoon in your oatmeal, a few squirts of flavored syrup in your favorite afternoon caffeine fix, and you’ve already added 160 empty calories to your day.
4. Forgo the vending machine: A typical snack from the vending machine has about 250 calories. If you hit up the vending machine on every weekday for a year, you’ll have added 65,000 calories to your intake. That could add up to a weight gain of over 18 pounds in a single year!
5. Give portions a reality check: Portion sizes in America have grown exponentially over the past few decades. Everything from pizza to muffins and French fries to soda is being served up in bigger and more calorific sizes. Check out how quickly the calories add up as you move from a fun size Snickers bar to today’s popular king size version:
Fun Size Snickers bar: 80 calories
Regular Snickers bar: 280 calories
King Size Snickers bar: 510 calories
If you’re treating yourself to a snack food, check the package label and have one serving. You can find out what constitutes one serving by referring to the “Serving Size” line on the Nutrition Facts panel.
6. Diet friendly dining: When eating out, stay away from complicated dishes with lots of toppings, breading, and cheese, which can really pack on the pounds. Your best bet is to order broiled, roasted, grilled, poached, or steamed lean protein (chicken breast, lean steak, seafood, etc.) without any sauce. Then, ask your waiter to skip the starch and double up on the steamed veggies instead.
7. Nix late night nibbles: There’s nothing magical about avoiding nighttime munching. People do tend to take in a good portion of their day’s calories in the evening hours after they’ve already finished dinner. It’s best to close down the kitchen after dinner and avoid eating after 9 PM. If you feel like you need a snack, keep it to 150 calories or less, and don’t let your nighttime nibble spin out of control into a late night binge.
9. Walk off the weight: Walking is a low-impact exercise, meaning it’s easy on the joints. It doesn’t require any special equipment, just a good pair of sneaks, maybe an iPod for some musical motivation or a walking buddy.
10. Treat yourself: There is room in every weight loss plan for your favorite goodies as long as you enjoy them in moderation. Be mindful of your portions and how often you eat them. If you can’t stop yourself from eating your foods keep them out of the house
Voila you’re skinny!
By Lisa Griffis for the Cleveland Plain Dealer
Voila you’re skinny! A wave of the magic wand and your lifetime battle with those ample bulges are gone.
Better yet, just buy the latest wonder pill or enroll in that well-advertised weight loss program or go under the surgeon’s knife to do what Mother Nature has preached since the beginning of time. If you eat good food in modest portions and exercise your body will respond and you will lose weight.
So, why is it so hard to do? Why do we allow ourselves to rationalize how life has made us fat? Excuses like our family history, our frantic schedules, or our in ability to use willpower to prevent that junk food from jumping off the grocery’s shelves and following us home and eventually ending up on our hips.
I was one of those people who for years, really since birth, have battled a weight problem. I could take a Milky Way candy bar and try to convince you that it contained the four basic food groups essential to sustain life.
But at 44, I could no longer silence the cries of my doctors to lose the weight. It is not as if I hadn’t heard it before. I have no real health problems so I had been able to mutt their pleas to lose the excess weight. However, over time the medical profession has learned to use stronger and more hideous words like morbidly obese. They even have come up with charts to hit home the point that if you don’t lose the weight, you will die!
So as I lapsed into midlife, I realized that if there was going to be a second half to my existence that maybe it was time to start listening to the doctors, who by now all wanted to take my stomach in an attempt to make me lose the excess 200 pounds.
In the past, I tried most of the popular diet programs and had even with doctor’s supervision been put on diet pills but eventually I lost the willpower that was needed to continue such a monumental task.
Midlife is a strange period in a person’s life. Some people think that a new sports car will make life better. I was beginning to get the message that a new body was going to make mine better and would be cheaper than a shiny new Jaguar.
It was during a trip to see friends from college that the big switch went off about needing to get rid of the excess weight. I was tired of listening to them talk about the same 20 pounds that they have put on and had taken off for the last 25 years. Frankly, I think I had put on all their weight combined and I wasn’t the one talking about losing the weight but maybe I needed to be.
After all, I have been able to accomplish everything I had ever set out to do in my life so why was I still carrying around this 200-pound gorilla on my back!
I know I should of have gone to my doctor, he is a nice man after all, but I was afraid that he would put me on one of those eat-two-carrot-sticks-and-call–me-in-the-morning diets. So I did my own research and found a common-sense program that is working with my metabolism.
But some days I think starting the diet was the easy part, staying on it is really the hard part. The first 20 pounds came off pretty easily and then the real work began. If I was truly serious about losing the rest of it I was going to have to put my mind, body and soul into the task.
I would have to make myself a priority, which is something in the past I have not done. I needed to take the time to make healthy meals, make sure that I was making good decisions at the grocery store and learn to deal with feeling hungry. And then I had to embark on the task of learning to exercise.
I hate to sweat. That is why I love to swim; you can’t really tell if your sweating and when you get out of the pool you smell like chlorine and not a teenage boy’s gym bag.
But it takes many different types of exercise to make the scale keep moving and to help sculpt your new body. I tired working out after work but I found that I could come up with too many excuses by the end of the day not to make it happen. So now I get up at 6 a.m. and do my workouts. I find that I am too sleepy in the morning to come up with excuses. I even built a gym in my basement to make the rolling out of bed and hitting the exercise matt easier.
I also try to find little things to keep me motivated like watching TV programs about people losing weight. I even applied for the latest round of ‘The Biggest Loser’. I found it inspirational that they showed what the struggle is like to lose that much weight. Plus it was the first time in my life that I saw fat people moving fast on TV without a laugh track.
It’s been over a year since I started the rest of my life and I have lost 110 pounds. I finally made it over the halfway hurdle but even now I am realizing that I need to continue to tweak my diet and exercise program to reach my goal.
Some days it can just feel like the torture will never end. That is when you have to draw on the little accomplishments like keeping up with the fast walkers or fitting into clothes at department stores for the first time in ten years.
The complements from people are the greatest motivators. So many people have taken the time out of their busy life’s to take to encourage me to continue just like fans on a marathon course.
I weigh myself daily in an attempt to keep myself legal. Plateaus are the worst. I have been on one now for nearly a month. But you just have to keep believing in yourself and hoping that the scale will move downward again.
Because now I know is no magic involved in losing weight just hard work and perseverance.
The ups and downs of internet dating
by Lisa Griffis for The Cleveland Plain Dealer
You have a computer, your single and the next thing you know you are playing the roulette wheel of love on the Internet. Even if you are unlucky in romance, the monthly subscription price is worth the hours of tales that will amuse your friends.
After joining a popular dating site the emails start from perspective suitors. In my case recently, they came with the words love far too early in the corresponding stage for my liking.
One evening a thoughtful letter arrived from handsome Fernando, “I keep thinking about the future, about life, and what I want out of it. I keep thinking about us and what this relationship means to me. I keep thinking about these things and I realize they go hand in hand.”
Blurry eyed the next morning déjà vu happened. Reserved Ray had sent me the exact same letter. Where did this popular letter originate? Which sites are dispensing this service?
Face it guys if we are Goggling your names to make sure that your not a mass murderer, don’t think we aren’t going to Yahoo your prose to make sure that you are the real guy for us.
A Goggle search for love letters provided 68,000,000 hits and on Yahoo over 103,000,000 but with a few selected words the letter was found. Turns out the letter was written to Heather by Christopher and titled “Some of what I want” at lovingyou.com
I blocked the two suitors from my account and starting looking at love letters, poems, songs and quotes that were offered on the Internet. If you look for too long you will need insulin even if you’re not diabetic. But there are a few good ones out there.
Apparently, it is hard for some people to find the right words to express their feelings which is understandable when cupid’s arrow has pierced you heart. But it might be better to impress your sweetie by finding a wonderful quote about love from a literary master or a love song from their favorite group instead of copying and pasting fill-in the blank prose from a questionable literary talent.
