After losing 116 pounds, Terri Pruitt of St. Louis gives herself a six-pound leeway to maintain a healthy weight.
“I stay between 168 and 172 of my goal range,” Pruitt said. Her goal weight is 166.6 pounds.
Over the years, the middle school history and geography teacher has tried several weight loss programs and even some fad diets (remember the cabbage soup diet?) without lasting success. The eating program that helped her commit to sustained weight control is called Medifast.
“The doctor wanted me to lose weight in 2010, and I hadn’t,” Pruitt said. She was weighing 291 lbs. at the time and she said her blood pressure was “sky high.” After it took her six months to lose nine pounds on her own, Pruitt relented and was ready to make a real change before her 50th birthday last December.
Not wanting to wait until the beginning of the week, Pruitt started the purchased meal plan after the UPS delivered the goods mid-week.
“We had a big snow and my shipment had been delayed and I didn’t want to wait any longer,” Pruitt recalled. “So I started, it was on a Thursday, February 10 and I basically have not looked back.”
I have not looked back.”
She ate around 850 calories a day and lost 12 pounds the first week.
“I averaged between two and three pounds a week for 10-1/2 months and it was just amazing.
“It was easy – I was very committed from the beginning to follow the plan as written,” Pruitt explained.
In addition to lower numbers on the scales, Pruitt said she immediately felt the benefits as well.
“It was like, ‘Okay, if you feel this good and you’ve only lost 30 pounds, how are you going to feel when you lose 50?’” Pruitt described. “It was exhilarating and I began to move more – I wanted to walk and I wanted to do things and I wasn’t coming home totally worn out. It was just amazing.”
It was easy and it was amazing, but it wasn’t cheap.
Pruitt estimates she spent $250-$300 per month for 10-1/2 months on the plan to get her weight under control.
She still eats six times a day to maintain her weight. Pruitt said she has learned how to incorporate vegetables and fruit into her busy day, not just at dinner.
“It really did teach me in a way that no other diet had,” she said. “This really taught me what I could have at this particular time of the day.”
Pruitt has shed a total of 125 lbs. going from size 24 (although she admits she really could have used a size 26 but refused to go up any higher) to sizes 10, 12 or medium. With no more swollen feet and ankles, Pruitt’s shoe size shrunk from 11 wide to 9-1/2 and 10s.
Her physical activity includes walking in her neighborhood, Pilates and Zumba.
Pruitt now prepares all of her meals herself to maintain her weight and she is and loving every minute of it.
“At this point, I want everybody to feel what I feel right now,” Pruitt said. “It literally, I believe – put 10 years on my life.”
