RECREATION

Austin woman loses 500 pounds by moving more, eating less

Medical problems faded as weight dropped off.

By Pamela LeBlanc
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Monday, September 28, 2009

Three and a half years ago, Alexis Addison wrote these words on a blank page: "My goal is to lose 370 pounds."

It seemed impossible.

The Austin woman had gotten so big that she wasn't sure how much she weighed. The scale at her doctor's office didn't go high enough, and the last time she'd been weighed — on a truck scale at an auto shop — it read 680 pounds. The 5-foot-4-inch Austin resident had gained at least 10 dress sizes since then, and her doctor warned her she was risking her life if she didn't lose weight.

On Jan. 2, 2006, though, something snapped.

"I decided I needed to take responsibility for my own health by researching and reading as much as I could," she says. "As I learned, I created a plan to replace the negative behavior with a healthy behavior."

Addison has since lost more than 500 pounds.

A lifelong battle

Addison, now 50, has been obese since she was 5.

She says her compulsive eating began at age 4, when her mother entered the hospital for a yearlong stay. Her father wasn't a part of her life, and she was sent to live with her grandmother. When she did eventually return to her mom, she was put on a diet.

"I ate behind her back all the time," Addison says.

She was chubby at 8; by the time she entered Lanier High School, she was a size 22. As the years added up, so did the pounds.

She'd eat an extra-large pizza or a whole lemon pie in one sitting. "During the day I was not too bad, but at dinner I'd pig out," she says.

She tried dieting and even lost 200 pounds through Weight Watchers once. But she gained all the weight back, and then some.

"I had no shape. I had to take some pictures because I couldn't believe my own fat," she says.

Eventually, she got so obese she couldn't work. She was anxious and depressed. She took 27 medications, for an array of medical problems that included anxiety, asthma, acid reflux, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, sleep apnea and chronic fatigue. Her knees and back hurt.

That day in 2006, though, Addison decided to focus less on pounds and more on behavior. She wrote down what she would do — starting that day — to reach her goal: She would get up before 11 a.m. She would log everything she ate. She would sit at the kitchen table to eat her meals. She wouldn't eat junk food. She would cut back her TV-watching time by an hour.

And she would begin to exercise.

"I started by moving for 1 minute," she says. "That's all I could do. I could barely breathe and move because I was in so much pain."

One minute became two, and in a few months Addison was up to 10 minutes of moving a day. Then she started kicking a ball around her apartment. She started drinking more water and cut down on the amount of food she ate, too. Four pizzas a week became three, then two. "I just slowly weaned myself off of it," she says.

Diet and nutrition books began piling up on her bookshelves at home.

"I just referred to them as inspiration," she says. "None was the key. I've just changed my behavior. I try to think if my actions are working toward what I want my life to be."

Once she decided she was going to transform her lifestyle, not even the occasional setback could slow her progress. The secret, she says, isn't really a secret.

"It's changing your mind-set," she says. "Believing. I had to start working on that on Day One. At times I wanted to give up. And I had moments when I failed. I had to talk to myself and say, 'That's OK.' "

She focused on her goals and prayed a lot to get though the hard times. "I used affirmations and the Bible Scriptures on a daily basis when I felt like overeating," she says. "I had to teach myself how to parent myself."

She got a membership at a gym. But until December 2006, she was too intimidated to go there because of her size. When she finally did, she waded into the pool and moved for a few minutes. That grew into 20 minutes, then 30. A year after she joined, she was jogging in the water for more than an hour at a time.

The weight kept dropping off.

In September 2007, when she'd whittled her body down below 400 pounds and a BMI, or body mass index, of 98, she had gastric bypass surgery. She's lost 172 additional pounds since then.

'I'm just so proud of her'

In her apartment recently, Addison holds up a black, tent-like dress she once wore. It dwarfs her. She used to sew her own clothes because stores didn't sell them in her size.

She nibbles edamame and red cabbage salad as she explains how her life has changed.

She swings opens the refrigerator: watermelon, a carton of egg substitute, veggie burgers. Then she opens a cabinet: Fiber One cereal, quinoa, millet and popcorn for the air popper. Tomatoes and lettuce sprout from pots outside her front door.

She eats six small meals a day. Her diet is heavy on beans, vegetables and fruit. For a treat, she has an organic toaster pastry, a sugar-free Popsicle or a few chocolate chips. Instead of delivery pizza, she makes a healthier version with a little frozen phyllo dough.

"I don't deprive myself, I just make sure I go and walk it off," she says.

She has a lot of excess skin from the weight loss, but that can be surgically removed. She calls the droopy flaps under her arms her "flags."

Addison's physician, Dr. Paul Keinarth , says he has never seen anybody lose so much weight. "And she did it in a safe manner," he says. "It was extremely gradual — there was nothing really drastic about it."

People trying to lose large amounts of weight should strive for dropping one or two pounds a week, he says. "To some people that doesn't sound like much, but I always tell them in a year that's 50 pounds — and if you add exercise into that it's faster."

"I'm just so proud of her and it's a tremendous effort that she's put out over these years. She's a great example for everyone that this is possible," he says.

As Addison's weight has disappeared, so have many of the medical problems.

"Many of the joint and muscle aches and pains from the stress of all that weight have resolved, and her blood sugar is now fine," Keinarth says. Addison's blood pressure is still high, but she's on fewer medications.

"I have seen a big change in her," he says. "She's a lot happier and has a much better sense of self-esteem and confidence. She's done something for herself nobody can do for her. We can preach at people all day long, but it's something people have to decide is right for themselves. And she's really done that."

Not done yet

Addison still writes down what she wants to accomplish each day, from a prayer of gratitude to recalling what things bring joy to her life to meditating, painting, deep breathing and studying Bible Scriptures.

She gets up at 6 a.m. and does crunches, lifts weights and does a little yoga. She heads to her job at the Department of Aging and Disabilities early, so she can walk for 45 minutes around the office building before she starts work.

Her next goal? Earn a belt in karate.

She now weighs 216 pounds and wears a size 12. Her BMI is 38. Her goal is to reach a size 6 and a BMI of 22 or 23.

She is thankful to be alive.

pleblanc@statesman.com; 445-3994