Redefining oneself isn’t only about starting a new job or a whole new career. For some of us, it is deciding to live a healthier lifestyle, for others it is time to conquer weight issues we have dealt with our whole lives, and for many , it is a combination of the two as it was for Kris Ronchetti, from Glendale, California, who struggled with yo-yo-ing weight her entire life. She was on every type of diet and weight loss program you can imagine as many of us were, the usual suspects like Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, Overeaters Anonymous, the grapefruit diet, the cabbage diet, among them. You name it she tried it. Plus “back in the day”, she says, “I took diet pills….because we all did. No wonder we could clean our houses at 2am…still wide awake!!”
Let’s pause for a moment to discuss diet pills because many of us have taken them in the past and still do today looking for a magic, quick fix. That is a fantasy and in some cases can be a dangerous one. When Kris was younger, diet pills like Dexatrim contained the decongestant, phenylpropanolamine (PPA) and the amphetamine-like compound, ephedra. You read that right, “amphetamine-like.” People didn’t know at the time, but a Yale University study in 2000 showed an increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke (bleeding in the brain) with taking PPA. Myocardial (relating to the muscle tissue of the heart) injury taking the Dexatrim recommended dose, was also reported related to PPA. Ephedra was found to raise blood pressure and contribute to having heart problems and stroke. Can you imagine that people were taking drugs like this over the counter and without supervision by a doctor? Some took more than one lill a day. Others too diet bills every day. For all we know, doctors may have even recommended it. While diet pills like Dexatrim, are evaluated and regulated now and have done away with some of the more dangerous ingredients of the past, they still contain things like caffeine and Dehydroepiandrosterone (an endogenous steroid hormone precursor) we should not be taking without a doctor managing their intake.
What was the turning point for Kris? She said it was not one thing. “When you are as big as I was…there seems to be a lot of little things that you start thinking about regarding losing weight. I think that it is a multiple of events that start you thinking you need to make a change. This was me….but the kicker was getting behind the wheel when I had just seen my doctor.” On that day, she weighed in at 278. After that, she stopped weighing herself. Her doctor told her, her blood sugar was too high and if she did not bring it down she was going to have to go on Metformim (a diabetic drug). At the time, she was already on 3 blood pressure meds.
Kris said she felt sick to her stomach at how far she had let herself go…“I looked down at my steering wheel and it was pushing against my stomach. My first thought was if I get into an accident the wheel will kill me. When I got home I decided that I needed to take a look at what I was eating, and change. I thought it would be very difficult at my age, 67, but what was my alternative??? Keep getting fat and die early? I knew that a keto or low carb program had worked for me before. So, I stopped with the white stuff…sugars, bread, pasta and rice. I did not really follow any type of diet this time…I just cut out those food groups.”
Next month when she went to see her doctor, she had lost 8 pounds (water weight too) and her blood sugar was in a normal range. her doctor was shocked and asked what she was doing differently. She was thrilled because she is a big advocate of no sugars.
People don’t realize that food can be an addiction. Kris says food was her drug of choice and that she was no better than someone that had a drinking problem. It is similar to several other disorders including binge eating disorder, bulimia, and compulsive overeating. It is particularly difficult to manage once you have worked hard to overcome it, unlike smoking and drinking which are damn hard, because you don’t need to have a cigarette or a scotch a few times a day to stay alive whereas you must keep eating while getting over and living with an addiction to food. Kris says, “everyone will tell you, you just need motivation to start” as if that in itself is so easy…..”NO!” she say says emphatically. “You NEED courage. Courage to own your addiction, courage to start, courage to ask for help. Courage to believe you can do it.”
Being 67, almost 68, and always hearing how hard it is to lose weight as we age, Kris assumed she had age going against her. She thought she better incorporate some kind of diet into her life to help her lose weight so she started researching keto . She found there are dozens of ways to follow the keto or another low carb program. For her, the main component had to offer something that would fit into her lifestyle or she knew it would be like in the past and she would not maintain it. Kris loves to cook. She also reads a lot. She took the time to read, listen to podcasts and watch you tube videos on transitioning and cooking the low carb/keto way. “I knew this had to be a way of life for me and I had to understand what was happening with my body. Women and men much younger than I am can lose a huge amount of weight in a shorter length of time so I had to acknowledge that for me, there can be no time limit. I had to force myself to keep going.” That was probably huge psychologically, for Kris. People young and old often put a time limit on losing weight and weigh themselves every day and if they don’t see the needle move by X-day, they use that as an excuse to cheat on their diet or give up all together.
“Did I fall? Kris asks, “yes. But I got back up again and again. For me losing it slowly became my new normal. I learned to cook with different flours and sugars. Now, the people in my life love the food I make, and some do not even know it is part of the keto program!!”
Kris’ family and friends were very supportive through her journey. They knew the weight she was carrying was dangerous. Eventually that support worked both ways. She started encouraging others to try to change the way they ate. Soon several of her family members were doing a low carb diet too.
Kris is 72 now and as of the other day, has lost 100 lbs. That is the weight of some young adults. At age 72, she lost an entire, young adult off her body!! It has taken over 4 years but she has gone from a size 24 to a size 8! That was definitely worth the wait. She has only about 12 pounds to go to reach her personal goal.
“I am happy and proud of myself,” she says. She should be!! In some ways Kris is a different person now. Not only has she gone on this weight loss journey but in the past two years, she went through a divorce from a man she was married to for almost 29 years. They sold the home they raised their family in. She moved to her own apartment, and she has worked on building a better relationship with her ex-husband.
She loves to dance and exercise. She feels much lighter and so many things have started opening up for her. A national magazine even contacted her for an article regarding her weight loss just like we did! Most importantly, she is healthier now and will live longer because she realized that if she did not lose weight, “then what? What would her future be, bad back, legs that don’t work, having a difficult time walking? Carrying around an extra 100 pounds??? What would be my quality of life???”
She did not want to go down that path and is proud to say, “I have great blood panels and only take 1 blood pressure medication for something that runs in my family and is unrelated to weight.
Kris wants people to know they are capable of doing anything. “But it’s not an easy fix. You have to put in the work. You have to make yourself a priority. Women in particular have the added challenge of always making everyone around them feel good.” She feels strongly they need to turn that inward and make themselves feel good.
“There is nothing special about me,” she says. “Losing weight was all about never giving up. I want to let people know,…they don’t have to buy a program. Make your own. You don’t have to buy pills, or exercise equipment. Make a new lifestyle.”
