Terry Foster / The Detroit News
Helen Phillips tried every quick-fix diet known to mankind.
She ate cabbage soup for a week. She went on the vanilla ice cream and hot dog diet, and she popped diet pills like candy, hoping for that miracle body. The results? She'd lose weight, then gain it back.
"I was a yo-yo dieter for 13 years," said Phillips of Sterling Heights.
Eventually Phillips swelled up to 257 pounds and ended up on the national television show "The Biggest Loser." Now she does things the right way. The days of the quick fix are over. She is now a motivational speaker for Henry Ford Hospital and is working on changing the nutritional menu for Warren Consolidated Schools.
We met this weekend during the Curtis Granderson celebrity basketball game. Phillips is 140 pounds lighter, lost 54.47 percent of her body weight -- and making it up and down the court was not the hardest thing she's done. Phillips has run a marathon, won "The Biggest Loser" and has agreed to join our cause in promoting 40 days and 40 nights.
We are entering the final third of 40 days and 40 nights. Phillips recognizes the importance of our program and others that encourage good, healthy living. Phillips is intrigued by the concept and has agreed to share some of her experiences during our next phase of good living. (Next month we will begin 40 days and 40 nights of exercise.)
"Quick fixes do not work," she said. "It makes things worse. It is quick fixes that really messes you up and creates havoc with your metabolism."
The message is we must do things the right way. Phillips' stint on "The Biggest Loser" was excessive. She worked on her body for six to eight hours a day.
But when she came home, reality hit. The same lifestyle that caused her to gain weight was still there. She needed to work and take care of her family, and did not have endless hours to work on losing weight. "Nothing else changed. I changed," she said. "And I needed to introduce it to my friends. I wanted to come in and be accessible to everybody. You can do this at home. You won't lose like you did on "Biggest Loser."
"When you gain weight your self esteem gets lower," Phillips said. "You get tired and exhausted and you are always looking for a quick fix. It is not a diet. It is a lifestyle change. You can lose 50 pounds with a quick fix. Then what? What happens after that?"
What happens? You normally gain the weight right back.
You can reach Terry Foster at Terry.Foster@detnews.com or (313) 222-1494. You can follow him on Facebook and twitter.com/terryfoster971.
From The Detroit News: http://detnews.com/article/20100127/LIFESTYLE03/1270306/-Biggest-Loser---Quick-fix-diet-is-no-fix#ixzz0doN8N1vO
