Rodger Myers: A Sensible Approach to Long-Term Weight Loss

By Margaret Schauer

Where there were once diabetes and cholesterol medications in Rodger Myers' medicine cabinet, there is now empty space. The ice cream, frozen pizzas and sugary soft drinks that used to take up room in the 38-year-old Jeffersonville resident's refrigerator have vanished. But perhaps the most momentous missing items are 170 pounds of Myers' body weight and his diabetic condition. In their places are healthy habits that include eating soy foods, drinking green tea, practicing yoga and taking hikes around local parks.

Eighteen months ago, Myers, 6'2" and currently 205 pounds, began losing weight from a starting point of around 375 pounds. A lingering infection and a trip to the doctor's office ultimately triggered his lifestyle change. The office visit turned into a two-week hospitalization, where he received intravenous antibiotics to treat the infection after a blood test revealed diabetes.

"I found out a lot of my lifestyle choices had come back to haunt me," the Mid-America database and UNIX administrator says.

One of the first doctors Myers saw suggested he start with a 1,200-calorie-per-day diet, a calorie count he currently follows. "Even as scared as I was in the hospital room with an IV in me, I laughed at him," Myers says. "But when I went home, I began figuring out how much I consume and what I can start cutting back. I watched the carbs because I was diabetic, but right now, I'm not diabetic. But.as I age, my insulin production may decrease again to where I do have to go on medicines or eventually have to take insulin. At this point, it's all controlled through diet, which is an incentive I have to keep myself on an even keel."

Fad diets would love to lay claim to Myers' success story. However, he is quick to shed a sensible light in the face of these quick rise-and-fall diets: "I don't care what they show on TV. It's not going to be Atkins, South Beach .none of that. It may work individually.but if you want to lose a pound of fat, you're going to have to burn 3,500 more calories than you take in. There is no other trick to it."

In the beginning, Myers consulted references and guidelines for diabetics to help determine his diet. He replaced his Mountain Dew with diet sodas, water and iced tea. Myers used a few cookbooks that were diabetic and low-sodium in nature and has substituted red meat with chicken and some fish. In addition to incorporating more soy, he also looks up Internet sources, such as recipezaar.com.

Breakfasts are typically a high-fiber cereal with cinnamon and soymilk. Lunch is sometimes soy corn dogs or soy chicken nuggets or spaghetti with a low-sodium sauce. "I try to use 500-600 calories for lunch so that way I have some calories for dinner. My bigger meal is during lunch so I have time to burn it off," Myers says.

Myers is not chained to his diet plan, however. One day a week, usually on Friday, he enjoys going out to eat with friends. By following his 1,200-calorie diet during the week, Myers says, "I rationalize eating pizza [because] I did good the other six days." He is also realistic about eating restaurant food, which is often laden with sodium and calories, by realizing "it's very hard to eat healthy...it's all very poor from a nutritional standpoint."

Believing that exercise and diet go hand-in-hand, Myers' current schedule includes practicing yoga on his own, attending bi-weekly yoga classes led by Jan Foster, and hitting the gym for cardio and weights workouts on non-yoga days.

Myers began yoga after taking private lessons from Foster. After progressing to her Gentle Yoga class, he now participates in the Level 1-2 class. "There are a lot of aspects to yoga that help [with] clarity of thought and focus. When I go to the gym, I think about other things, plan out my day.it's mechanical in nature: it's just pushing against the weights, pulling back. The yoga actually requires me to focus on the moment and on the now and to center my thoughts more," Myers says. He also learned of a pose in the Gentle class that can lower blood pressure and plans to focus more on practicing it in order to get rid of his blood pressure medication.

Myers acknowledges that weight loss is not easy. When he first began losing weight, he approached it in stages. "Back then, I was thinking, 'Well, if I could lose 75 pounds.' Then, at that point, 'Another 25.'"

He says the important thing is to find a distraction "in place of the eating trigger." One of his distractions is working on computer projects or with the LifeTrak software program he designed to keep track of all aspects of his life. "I'm not sure how many people, when they're getting hunger pains, would prefer to write a little bit of code to distract themselves."

He also advises against crash-dieting. "I try to stress to people who lose weight that it's not so much of just getting down to a starvation level of calories, because it will only work for a couple or three weeks. If you're just trying to lose four or five pounds to get into the dress, to go to the high school reunion, it'll work. But long-term, it won't. Your body will adjust quicker than you can maintain it."

Myers encourages those attempting weight loss to "just tell yourself it's going to be a long process. There are a lot of changes you have to make. You'll stumble and fall a couple of times but you just have to keep going." He advises that "when you cheat, don't give up completely. Just roll forward from that day."

He adds, "It is in small changes over a long period of time where you really do net the results."

Margaret Schauer, a swimmer and aspiring triathlete, is currently completing her Master of Fine Arts in Writing degree at Spalding University .