Six local residents share weight-loss success stories

More than a third of adults in the U.S. have a body mass index that puts them in the “obese” category. About two-thirds of adult Americans are either obese or overweight, according to a new study released this summer.  

If you’re among them, don’t give up. That’s the advice of a half-dozen local residents who’ve managed to lose a lot of weight – from 70 to more than 300 pounds.

They used a variety of methods including gastric bypass, Weight Watchers, Medifast, and simply cutting out categories of food.

But their stories have common threads: They hit a moment of truth, decided to change their lives, and kept going.

Stephanie Regalado, a diet coach with 100YearBody in Spokane, said her clients share those attributes. They’re tired of the roller coaster, and are ready to “do anything and everything it takes to change the trajectory of their life,” she says.

Regalado and fellow coach Billie Gaura – who’ve lost 70 pounds and 120 pounds, respectively – emphasize a plant-based diet and provide continuous support for clients of the business. The most important thing, Regalado says, is to continue to focus on the goal.

“We constantly take them back to that space, to living a big, full life of possibility.”

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JoLynn Yates, 52, Lost 122 pounds

Having 10 kids, averaging about 17 months apart, Yates lost the battle with pregnancy weight. “I didn’t lose all the weight before I got pregnant again. My weight just catapulted,” she says.

She tried diet programs including Weight Watchers and Jenny Craig, and typically lost about 60 pounds each time, but kept gaining it back. “I kept thinking, I can do this, I can do this. But I just couldn’t keep the weight off.”

She knew she was at risk of diabetes and heart disease because of her family history, and wanted to enjoy her children and five (soon to be six) grandchildren. That’s difficult when you can hardly move, she says.

Yates finally explored surgery as an option. She researched the various procedures and decided on gastric sleeve surgery, where part of the stomach is removed. Her insurance company wouldn’t cover that procedure, however, so she went to a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico. She discussed her decision with her long-time family doctor; she was ready for him to try to talk her out of it, she says, and he peppered her with questions about the clinic’s track record and physicians. In the end, he endorsed the plan and provided the follow-up care necessary. “He knew my weight struggle,” Yates says. “He knew I would have a better quality of life once I got my weight under control.”

Within eight months of her 2012 surgery she’d lost 90 pounds from her 5-foot-6 frame and she’s lost the rest gradually since then. She’s changed her eating habits, focusing on protein, fruits and vegetables, and cutting out refined carbohydrates almost completely.

She said she knows some people believe she “cheated,” or “didn’t diet the right way,” because they’ve told her so. But she’s grateful she had that option. Losing more than 100 pounds has given her the confidence to sing in front of groups again, something she loves. And she knows she’s treated better now. “When I was obese and walking through a grocery store, I would be invisible. It’s a very lonely world being obese.”

Jenny Duncan, 34, Lost 313 pounds

A stay-at-home mother of two, Duncan lost the weight through diet and exercise beginning in 2004. She started gaining weight at age 5, part of a “messed-up childhood,” she says. “I don’t remember ever not being obese.”

By middle school she weighed 300 pounds and finally hit 509 pounds. Despite her weight, her head was still telling her she looked fine, she says. “I remember looking in a mirror saying, ‘Dang, I’m sexy.’ ” But finally, one photo convinced her otherwise. She cried. Then she called her mother-in-law, who had offered to pay for her to attend Weight Watchers. That first meeting, “I thought they were going to shout my weight out” to the others, Duncan says. “I was terrified.”

When she’d lost 100 pounds she decided she’d do a triathlon someday. She started Zumba at 370 pounds. She had setbacks and gained back some weight. But when she began hiking in 2011, it made the difference. At 5-foot-9, she now weighs 198 pounds and has about 20 to go. On Aug. 8, she completed a sprint triathlon, her first, with her husband at her side. “I’m enjoying running and the triathlon world,” Duncan says. “I’m doing yoga, Zumba – I pretty much just love being active.”

While her story is inspiring enough to land her on “The Dr. Oz Show,” she confesses she still struggles with motivation. She uses tools to help her, like that “before” picture and some of her old pants. “Keep focusing the mind on what you’re fighting for,” she says. “People think they can’t do it, and you’re going to have your up and down weeks. But if I had given up when I had those (weight) gains, I wouldn’t be where I am today.”

Rita Vigil, 30, Lost 115 pounds

Vigil, who’s 5-foot-2, weighed 255 pounds when she decided she wanted to slim down for her wedding. She lost 40 pounds and decided to keep going. “It started with walking, then a gym membership, then I started running,” she says. It’s taken two and a half years.  

Besides the exercise – which culminated in her competing in a marathon last year – she cut out what she calls “the bad foods – the ones that I knew were my Achilles heel.” She used to eat lots of fast food, lots of pasta, and she’d wash it down with sugary sodas. “It was a lot of uncontrolled overeating,” she says. She cut out pasta completely, but still eats bread occasionally. “I do allow myself some wiggle room because you’re totally miserable if you cut it all out,” she says.

Vigil’s advice: Don’t let a slip derail the process. “You’re not failing – you’re being human. Just keep going.”

Jon Calvert, 55 Lost 235 pounds

Calvert had lost 30 pounds when he joined TOPS (Take Off Pounds Sensibly) five and a half years ago. “I’d lost weight, I just wasn’t having very good luck,” he says. He’d tried other diet plans, plus hypnosis. Each of them taught him something about eating right, but it wasn’t enough. He’d had both hips replaced, and his doctor told him he needed to lose the weight.

He ended up going for gastric bypass surgery. TOPS helped him learn to eat right and support that decision, he says. “The food I was eating before was definitely not right. I would have Jimmy Johns delivered to my house and could eat three or four of their sandwiches and think nothing of it. I could eat a large pizza in one sitting.”

The 6-foot-tall Calvert was so successful he was honored at an international TOPS event in Reno in July. Calvert, a landscaper, says he’s back to climbing trees, climbing on roofs, and even riding horses and dirt bikes.

Jennifer Balthrop, 32, Lost 223 pounds

Balthrop, who’s 5-foot-7, was always heavy, topping out at 413 pounds. Taking stock of her situation when she turned 30, “I made a decision I was not done living my life,” she says. She looked into gastric bypass surgery and started the process.

Her surgery was May 28, 2014. The weight came off more quickly than she expected, but it wasn’t easy, she says. “Right after surgery you can’t eat anything solid for weeks. I compared it to being a drug addict going through withdrawals. When you’re so focused on food your whole life, food’s your constant thing, to be an emotional eater and then not be able to eat at all – it’s been really rough.”

But she made it through that period. Now she rides her bike about 8 miles a day, she walks her dogs and she climbed to the top of a waterfall with her son this summer. She sees food as fuel, nothing more.

“It’s the best decision I ever made,” she says. “On every level life is better being healthier, everything is easier. I’m going to go to Scarywood with my son and get on a roller coaster with him for the first time in my whole life.”

Grace Schluter, 61, Lost 70 pounds; Byron Schluter, 58, Lost 71 pounds

Grace Schluter’s turning point was when, at 5-foot-3 and more than 200 pounds, she was afraid to get into a friend’s sailboat. She didn’t know if she’d be able to get out again. Her husband, Byron, at 5-foot-7 and 250 pounds, was on three blood pressure medications and had back and knee problems.

Grace started first, using a health coach through Take Shape for Life and the Medifast eating plan, which includes meal replacements like shakes and smoothies, lean protein and greens. “Within a week I noticed a difference in my knees,” she says. About six months later Byron, seeing the improvement in his wife’s health, joined her. “Within a month he was off one of his blood pressure medications,” she says.

It took about a year to lose the weight. Now, “We can walk better, we can move better, we want to play with the grandkids more,” Grace says.

Grace says she’d been thinking about trying to lose weight for a year before she got serious. “That one day when I tried to get in the sailboat I said, ‘This is it.’ ”