The good fight

Woman takes long road to transform herself from 'chubby girl' to svelte 51-year-old

Nancy Dye will never forget the day she was walking home from grade school and a patrol boy called her a "fat a--."

Decades later, she can recall the incident in vivid detail and still remembers the boy's name. The New Lenox woman was in third or fourth grade then. She's 51 now, and for years she's been on a quest to achieve a goal that could help erase that memory.

"His meanness stuck with me and it's one of the reasons I'm so disciplined," the now svelte Dye said. Dye has done something that many Americans yearn for. Her odyssey to lose weight and take control of her own body in an era of fast food and TV remotes has been a long, tough road.

But it's also the type of behavior health care reformists would like to see more of as the nation fights rampant obesity and climbing diabetes rates. While the health care reform debate heats up in Washington, D.C., and legislators work to find incentives and programs to make the country healthier, Dye takes note. But for her, this fight is personal.

The patrol boy's comment, while cruel, was true. Dye said she was an only child in a household with loving but overweight parents, and she herself was overweight as a child and a teen.

"The three of us would polish off a bucket of chicken in one sitting and we didn't know any better," she said.

Dye wore "chubby girl" size clothing. And she was tall, which made her stand out and feel even more awkward around her peers.

In high school she turned to diet pills prescribed by a doctor to try to lose weight.

"I lost some weight on diet pills and then gained it all back."

It wasn't until Dye graduated from high school that she and her mother both went on Weight Watchers together. Back then, the program required participants to eat liver once a week and snack on green beans. Dye persevered and lost 35 pounds.

That's when her roller coaster began. Dye would lose weight, but then she would fall off the wagon. By this time she was working at the Board of Trade in Chicago living in New Lenox and married.

"I was one of those people who ate food for comfort," she said. "I was never disciplined enough to be on Weight Watchers maintenance plan."

In 1982, she had her first of four children (two boys and twin girls). The pregnancies wreaked havoc on her weight as well. She would gain enormous amounts of weight then try to lose it in between pregnancies. She reached her heaviest during this period weighing 220 pounds a week before she delivered her twins.

Dye's weight loss/gain pattern could have continued the rest of her life. But something happened in 1997 that made a huge difference. Dye got a promotion at the Board of Trade that included a free membership to a fitness club near her Chicago office.

In all her years of fighting her weight, Dye had never exercised. This was a first. She dove in with gusto.

"They were really good about helping me get started," she said of club staffers.

At first, Dye only worked out in water aerobics and used the treadmill. Then her husband bought her a personal trainer package as a present and she learned to use more of the club's equipment.

Something else would happen during this era to change the way Dye worked out. Her mother, a vibrant healthy woman up until the age of 83, developed osteoporosis.

"Overnight, she went from being a caregiver to a patient," Dye recalled. "I don't think either she or I expected that to happen because she was so active."

Dye's mother wound up breaking both hips and needing a wheelchair. Seeing what her mother was going through, Dye added weight lifting to her regimen, hoping to stave off osteoporosis in her own body by building bone density.

The biggest test to her new lifestyle came in 2007 when her job at the Board of Trade was eliminated and her mother died of cancer. Rather than turn to food as a comfort, something she had done her whole life, Dye resolved to stick to her plan. In honor of her mother, she ramped up her workout schedule and lost an additional 20 pounds. She would lie in bed in the morning envisioning how she would work out.

"I stuck with it religiously."

She also vowed to weigh 150 by the time she turned 50 in November of that year. She achieved her goal. And in the two years since then, Dye has shed another five pounds. The 5-foot-11 woman weighs 145 pounds and wears a size 8.

"I have never ever remembered being a size 8," she said.

She now knows all the secrets to a healthy lifestyle, things that were a mystery to her growing up in the 1960s and 1970s. She has signed up with the Weight Watchers Web site, which makes it much easier to keep track of food intake and exercise.

"If I can't count it, I won't put it into my mouth," she said referring to the Weight Watchers point system.

If she is going out to dinner, Dye finds the restaurant's menu online and scours the offerings looking for healthy alternatives.

"I'll order the scallops rather than the steak," she said.

She works out at a Cardinal Fitness center near her home because it's inexpensive and convenient. She swims at all four Lincoln-Way high school pools. And she walks her three dogs whenever possible.

Dye knows her mother would be happy.

"She'd be so proud of me because she knew how we both worked at it."

Dye has a new job in Chicago, and she always walks the eight blocks from the train to her office. And she's improved other areas of her life. She has served on the New Lenox Village Board since 2002, and she earned a bachelor's degree in business administration in 2008.

Lately Dye has been participating in charity fashion shows. It's a way for her to help others while feeling good about herself. Dye modeled clothing in the Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center Womens Auxiliary fashion show in September and the Joliet Hospice fashion show on Nov. 1.

"Doing so was as much (about) helping the charity raise money as it was to celebrate my accomplishments in becoming a healthy person," she said.

Dye has come a long way from the chubby girl walking home from school in the 1960s. But when she looks around, she sees that a lot of people are still struggling.

"Childhood obesity makes me sad," she said. "People don't know what to eat. I just feel so bad for kids or adults who have fallen into that."

Dye said Weight Watchers food has come a long way from liver and green beans. Nowadays, participants eat a wide variety of enticing foods, along with delicious treats and snacks. It's all about balance.

Dye plans to use the diet program and the recreational opportunities in her town to maintain her lifestyle. And she hopes others can find their recipe for success, too.

"No matter how much you weigh, start out slowly and don't give up," she advised. "Even 15 minutes of exercise a day is better than sitting on the couch doing nothing. Work your way up so you don't get discouraged."

When she looks back on the years of unhealthy eating habits, lack of exercise and yo-yo dieting, Dye knows there is one more thing she has to do.

"You come to a point in your life where you have to forgive yourself."