Elizabeth’s story

"I just wanted to thank you all so much for helping me with my weight loss. The program has been a wonderful experience for me and my mother. I not only feel better about myself, but I am more confident on things that I do now. I was also able to meet and become friends with others in our weight loss program. This has also helped bring my mother and I closer. When I look in the mirror in the mornings now, I see myself as beautiful; and I did not before. I can look at my mom as well, and it almost makes me cry when I think about how proud I am of her. I would not have been able to lose the weight that I did without her. Physically, I feel better because it is easer for me to play my favorite sports, and run. That is a great feeling. I just wanted to thank you again for your program. It has changed my life forever."

Elizabeth S.

Tracey’s Story
"Our journey began in January 2004. I took my daughter Elizabeth to her doctor for her annual physical in order to play a school sport and in the course of that visit, she tearfully asked if the doctor could do or give her anything to help her loose weight. I knew my daughter’s weight did bother her at times, but didn’t realize how much until then. The doctor said a 12-week weight management class through Forsyth Pediatrics and Sara Lee Center for Women’s Health was starting that week for adolescent girls and their parents. At least one parent had to commit to the program with their child. And, being overweight myself, I decided this was something we could work on together.

I had tried other “diets” and had some success, but nothing stuck. And being tall I did carry my weight well. But I had grown complacent over the years and figured my weight really didn’t matter. I was wrong, of course. And I knew I needed to be setting a better example for my children. So Elizabeth and I began our weekly meetings of “Healthy Family” with Dr. Gretchen Hoyle and Kirsten. They were wonderful. They started out by weighing and measuring us. Then they gave us cards with calorie and fat gram limits to try to maintain for the week. They also gave us small goals to strive for; try to loose 5% of your body weight as your first goal. They taught us how to log what we ate on a daily basis and how much we exercised. But most of all, they strived to make us realize that this is not a “diet”, it is a way of life, a change in the way you view food and to take charge of what you put in your mouth. They taught us about healthy choices and portion control.

The thing about this program is that you can truly eat whatever you want. There are no restrictions. You just control the serving size and your calories and fat grams for the day. You can even eat out in restaurants, once you know the healthier things to look for on the menu. But the thing is, over time, your mindset changes about what you “want” to put into your body, at least it has for me. After about 5 months, we no longer had to log our food intake. We learned what foods are high in fat and calories and which ones are not. And if we are not sure, we still look it up and adjust accordingly.

Elizabeth and I really helped each other out. If one of us had a bad food day, the other was there to tell them it was going to be ok. She got me to take her to the YMCA to play basketball, and a friend talked me into taking a yoga class. From there it slowly went to step aerobics to kickboxing and cycling. It has been a slow, gradual process, and we knew it would be. The change in my daughter’s self esteem is phenomenal. I have always thought she is beautiful, but now she thinks she is beautiful. She is more confident and is participating in more sports with fewer injuries. She and I both have so much more energy these days. We are both able to wear clothing we had given up on. And shopping for clothes together is so much fun these days.

It has been a little over 8 months since we began the program, and Dr. Hoyle is telling Elizabeth that she is to her ideal weight. She just needs to maintain now. I am almost there. I gave myself one year to lose the amount of weight I wanted to, and I think I will be pretty close. It is fun doing this with Elizabeth. We are both competitive, so the weigh ins are exciting for us. We are each other’s best cheerleaders. We are doing the continuation class where we meet 2 times a month for a weigh in and a brief class. These meetings are so helpful to us because it is a way that we feel accountable to someone and something else (the scale). And it is fun keeping in touch with others in the program and Dr. Hoyle and Kirsten. We just adore them and thank them for taking time to offer this program to the community. This class has been truly life changing. My husband has even reaped some of the benefits from my low fat grocery shopping and cooking. He has managed to lose 30 pounds just by eating most of what we eat. As for Elizabeth and me, at our last weigh in, we had each lost exactly 41.4 pounds. Talk about competitive!! I am extremely proud of her and I know the groundwork has been laid for her to continue a healthy nutritional lifestyle."