El Centro de Pérdida de Peso ayuda a una mujer de Tiverton a ganar una larga batalla contra el peso

Terri Murray, of Tiverton, RI, always struggled with her weight, but it reached a crisis in 2022.

For most of her life, she tried to control her eating with willpower and the latest fad diet. She would shed pounds until she strayed from the eating plan. Pasta, potatoes and bread called her name, and she rarely could resist.

“They’re so lovely,” she said. “And they were definitely an addiction for me. People don’t understand the struggle. They think just diet and eat a salad and it will be OK. But I just smelled pasta and I gained two pounds.”

Terri, who has two adult daughters and four grandchildren, realized she needed help in January 2022. She quit smoking during the COVID-19 pandemic and had little energy to dedicate to weight management. When she reached 306 pounds, she broke her resistance to New Year’s resolutions and vowed to get help.

Around that time, an email about bariatric surgery arrived in her inbox from the Centro de pérdida de peso Southcoast Health. Terri didn’t want surgery, but she called to see if there were non-surgical options. She ended the call with an appointment for a consultation for medically managed weight loss.

When she first visited Southcoast Health’s Weight Loss Center in Wareham, the immediate priority became current state of Terri’s health. At 63, she got so winded on stairs, she feared she would have to sell her house. What she didn’t know was that she had dangerously high blood pressure, a condition that can cause stroke and heart attack.

Terri was prescribed a blood pressure medication right away, but before she started taking a drug for her weight, she was sent to see a Southcoast Health nutritionist to make a healthy eating plan.

“The truth is, if you don’t change the way you eat and think and relate to food, you’re just going to gain it back,” she said. “I learned that from a good 50 years of trying to lose weight.”

What many don’t realize is that long-term obesity is not a character flaw or a simple lack of willpower. For some individuals, the body‘s system that regulates weight doesn’t function properly. Hormonal imbalances, genetics, and metabolic factors can make weight management an uphill battle, turning food cravings into something far more powerful than just a moment of temptation.

Terri started an injectable medication that fights obesity by controlling a patient’s appetite and cravings. Like many people who take GLP-1 medications, she saw her taste change dramatically.

Terri started losing weight at the rate of two to three pounds a week, and in about a year lost 120 pounds. While her closet had a variety of sizes from her days of gaining and losing weight, she had to buy a new wardrobe when she reached size 14.

As a ‘foodie,’ she sometimes misses the joy she took in a great meal but the benefits of Terri’s new life at a healthier weight far exceed the satisfaction of a dinner out. She can now climb up and down her stairs, and last summer was thrilled to play in the sand with her three-year-old grandson at Horseneck Beach.

“It was a wonderful feeling,” she said. “Before, I couldn’t have gotten down in the sand with him and I most certainly couldn’t have gotten up.”

Terri’s blood pressure is under control and her ankles are no longer swollen. She enjoys shopping for clothes again and has new energy for her work managing fuel at the 11 Gulf stations along the Massachusetts Turnpike. When she is not working, she makes whimsical moose decorations to sell at holiday craft fairs. Hauling her work to and from the booths was grueling when she was carrying “the equivalent of sacks and sacks of potatoes on my body.” But now she does it with relative ease.

She is grateful for the care of the Southcoast Health Weight Loss Center team in Wareham, in particular Jessica Breen Sheth, PA. If she needs help with the final 15 pounds she wants to shed, Terri said she is confident that Jessica and others will be there for her. Using medication and medical care to manage her obesity are small tradeoffs for the improvements she has seen in her life, she said.

“I was really skeptical about getting a doctor’s help,” she said. “I thought I could heal myself, but I couldn’t. I am overwhelmingly thankful for the Southcoast Health Weight Loss Center. I feel that they saved me.”

Visite southcoast.org/weightloss to learn more about your weight loss options.