SAN ANTONIO -- People look far and wide for weight-loss success.
They spend a lot of money on programs, packaged food and personal
counseling. They try crazy fad diets and fasts.
Ruth Gonzales-Paul didn't do any of these things.
When it came to losing weight, she relied on her friends, her
family and her faith.
It worked. Since June 2007, Gonzales-Paul, 35, has lost over 60
pounds.
She had already lost 40 pounds after her daughter, Ruthie, was
born three years ago, by walking two miles a day. The needle on the
scale stopped moving.
She had hit the dreaded plateau.
It was going to take some serious lifestyle changes to get that
remaining weight off, and Gonzales-Paul didn't think she could do
it on her own.
"I went to a couple of different places that help you lose
weight and I listened to them, and they all made sense," says
Gonzales-Paul.
"And as I sat there I thought, you know, my Bible should change
the way I think about food and why I eat and that should be my
motivation."
So, she called her closest friends and explained her idea.
"I said, 'Look, here's the deal, I need to lose some weight and
I want you all to hold me accountable,' " she says.
"'I'm going to get on a scale in front of you once a week and
you don't have to participate but you have to be willing to write
(my weight) down and you have to pray for me."
Four women joined her for the Sunday afternoon get-togethers
where they shared their challenges and successes, read Scripture
and traded diet and exercise tips.
For Christi Howe, 36, a middle school teacher, being part of the
group helped her lose 65 pounds.
"You can do great on your own for a while, but it was knowing
that I could call on someone to help me made all the difference,"
says Howe.
In November, Gonzales-Paul was talked into training for a 10K,
even though she wasn't completely convinced she could do it.
"I thought, all right, I'll try it, but I don't like running,"
says Gonzales-Paul.
"I looked for a race that was sometime in the spring when it
would be good weather and on a Saturday, and the Round-Up came
up."
Gonzales-Paul registered for the April race held in Austin,
Texas, and at the same time entered the program's Fit Texan contest
even though she thought she was a long shot to win it because she
was still overweight.
"I told my son, Caleb, about it, and he will try every fitness
challenge there is," Gonzales-Paul says. "So he entered the Fit
Kid contest."
Caleb, 10, had been a big part of Gonzales-Paul's success,
getting up early in the morning before school to walk with her or
ride his bike while she ran.
"He'd tell me, 'Don't quit, mom, you can do this,' " she says.
In February Gonzales-Paul learned she and Caleb had together won
the Fit Family award.
The entire family traveled to Austin -- husband Bobby Paul, 35,
and daughters Ruthie, 3, Noa, 5, and Madison, 7 -- where
Gonzales-Paul ran in a 10K and Caleb ran in a 5K.
"If she puts her mind to something then she can accomplish
it," says Bobby
Paul, who, like his wife, works for AT&T.
"She had a commitment to what she felt she was called to do so
I tried to support her."
Sharon Anderson, a member of Gonzales-Paul's Sunday group, calls
her friend "pretty awesome."
"She's really active with her kids, balances a married life,
work, she's very active in church and she has time for her friends
and goes to school," says Anderson, 32, a radiation therapist.
"She and her husband work tremendously well together to make it
all happen."
While Gonzales-Paul still doesn't consider herself a runner --
"I call it jogging," she says -- she acknowledges that tackling
exercise has been easier than tackling eating.
"For me food is the issue. Food has been to satisfy me and
comfort me and fill the void, but really only the Lord can do
that," says Gonzales-Paul.
When she feels a twinge of weakness in her willpower, she will
turn to Scripture, such as John 4:34, "My food is to do the will
of him who sent me and to accomplish his work."
And Gonzales-Paul did have work to do: To be able to qualify as
a missionary, she needed to have a body mass index of less than 30.
In May she reached that goal, so next January, Gonzales-Paul and
her family will leave for a four-year mission through the auspices
of First Baptist Church of San Antonio.
But before that happens, she has another idea.
"I was thinking I would start working toward perhaps a
half-marathon. There's one in Houston in August and maybe I can do
it," says Gonzales-Paul. "Then I started swimming and I have a
bike and I thought hmmm, maybe I could do a triathlon.
"For me food is the issue. Food has been to satisfy me and
comfort me and fill the void, but really only the Lord can do
that."
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(E-mail: phunt@express-news.net)
c.2008 San Antonio Express-News