You Lost Weight. Now what?
Evelyn Wells: Miracle of miracles, a physician heals thyself
We don’t have time for cynicism here at Second Helping. Want proof that people can be extraordinary? Here you go. This article is part of an ongoing series highlighting how people adjusted to their weight loss successes and answered “Now what?” for themselves.
A fateful moment in step class sent Evelyn Wells' body -- and more importantly, her life -- in a new direction. In between stints at the ER, the doctor runs her own wellness center
Weighing more than 200 pounds and two year fresh out of residency, Dr. Evelyn Wells attended her last step class in 2004. Boxy yellow paneling and a long mirror documenting exercises in futility. Plus-size shoes tapping on plastic. The “whoo-hoo-whoo-hoo!” rallying cries. The endless loop of bad techno music.
Amid the traditional clamor, Evelyn looked around. She was stepping with all the same people for 10 years, who were no thinner. And then she looked inward. She ran through the litany of all the “right things” she had been done while struggling with her weight. All the things she studied at Howard University and practiced in residency. The group classes, the endless dieting … Lots of stepping but no actual climbing. It was like some decade-long tithe to the Fat Gods.
The diagnosis was as decisive as it was definitive.
“This sucks!”
And in New Jersey, that means: the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
“It felt like when you go to school and you get Ds, but you keep doing the same thing,” recalls the mother of two in between rounds at the emergency room. “‘That’s it,’ I said, ‘I’m not doing it anymore because nobody’s advancing. I know how much proof is out there. You know what? I don’t need it. It’s not helping me, it’s not been helping me for 10 years.’”
Long after our phone conversation ended, that “This Sucks!” rang in my ears for weeks. It’s a far cry from a plaintive, polite voice message she leaves at Physicians Fitness Solutions, the weight loss practice she runs when she’s not in the ER. Five years had passed since Evelyn had her “ah-ha!” moment, and her honest rage hadn’t gone anywhere.
It was that moment when Evelyn ditched the bad techno and started following her own beat. She abandoned the confines of the step shrine in search of what would work. Only then did she notice the success stories in their natural habitat. Turned out her answer was always just around the corner, the “whoo-hoo-whoo-hoo” traded for grinding metal. She watched men lift many times her weight (she was 200 pounds at the time, mind you), and realized these were the guys producing results.
So she picked up the weights and whittled down to a sculpted 150 pounds. She ditched the stack of Shape magazines and began picking up men’s muscle magazines. The Fat God tithe and Shape magazine seemed tepid by comparison.
“I really wasn’t learning anything from Shape,” she says. “Whatever mainstream people are doing, I want to do something not necessarily different … but the hardcore people that are really dedicated, that’s what I want to do. Be dedicated.”
Before her weight loss, Evelyn Wells and family were all overweight, and doing the same diet method again and again.
After her weight loss, that dedication extended to helping others leave the figurative weight loss treadmill. She became a certified personal trainer, and discovered the American Society of Bariatric Physicians. Lately bariatric medicine is known for gastric bypass surgeries, but it is merely a medicinal focus on obesity that conventional medical teaching breezes past.
In studying bariatric medicine, Evelyn’s interest turned to their intense study of thyroid imbalances and how they apply to obesity. Finding results both for herself and her husband (who was 300+ pounds and is now a personal trainer), she now prescribes a series of medications geared toward bringing thyroids back into balance. Not covered by insurance, Evelyn has to find clients not only willing to pay full price for visits and prescriptions, but also educate her clients in methods that conventional medicine doesn’t fully understand.
So it’s an uphill battle. But that fiery dedication that she learned in her weight loss and toning translated well to the dedication required to walk your own path. It’s a quality she imparts on her clients. She sees it as her job to put her traditional medical training and her specialties in thyroids and metabolism to snuff out that reason.
She rules nothing out, regardless of trends. “People are given this cookie cutter approach. It isn’t working, but everybody’s still being put on it,” she says.
You may or may not agree with all this, but getting caught up in the details misses the point. It doesn’t matter whether you agree that thyroid treatment or bariatric medicine is the answer to obesity. Should step classes provide you a life-changing experience, that’s fantastic. And if you love Shape magazine and it provided you your own “this sucks!” moment, don’t be offended.
Evelyn Wells understands the need to forge your own path. Magazines, opinions and “the way things ought to be” be damned — if they don’t prove useful for you.
That’s nothing short of brave. And as a before-and-after weight loss philosophy, it most definitely does not suck.
“Thinking outside of the box is how people succeed in life … in business, in school, in love,” Evelyn says. “Whatever I do in life, I’m just thinking outside the box, and I tell my patients to do that too.”
I laughed about that particular “this sucks!” for weeks after Evelyn and I first spoke. Even just recounting a memory, it was the more honest response I’d heard about someone’s fitness/weight loss/etc. in a long time.
So my hats off to Evelyn, and her fearlessness and independent spirit brings up such great points for discussion:
A) Was there ever a point, pre- or -post weight loss, that you had to throw “the right things” aside? This could be about your dieting, your life, or any of the adjustments following weight loss. Did anyone try to talk you out of it, and did they eventually warm up to what you knew you needed to do for you?
B) How did forging your own path in that instance effect you? Terrified, empowered, little of both, neither of the two?
C) Are there still areas in your life where applying that sense of independence is relatively easy, and yet other areas in your life that could stand to use a little chutzpah?
D) Do you think the weight loss process encourages that independent thinking. A separate/related question: do you think the dieting industry encourages that kind of thinking?
Best,
Russ
Russ,
I had to laugh when I read your last question! “Industry” and “out-of-box thinking” are mutually contradictory. The current flurry of discussion about health care as income stream comes to mind. If it’s “industry” it’s about manufacturing a product that enough people will buy to make it profitable. How to do that? Convince people you have “The Answer” – it’s not about you the individual, it’s about being willing to hand money over to someone who says they will fix you.
My 2C
Heya Shrlzi!
*Blushes* This is what I get for asking questions before appropriate caffeine amounts in the morning, LMAO. “Should” might have been a better phrasing.
Not directly — and certainly not as directly as it should — the diet industry does kind of forces folks to think on their feet, I think. If for no other reason than the public gets so bombarded by what you “should” do and “should” think and “should” buy … if you paid attention to all that it’s a miracle anyone’s lost any weight at all. The hyperbole and righteousness, the over-emphasis on the *how* of dieting and not nearly enough of the skills required to pull it off … I’m pretty sure you and I could go on and on about that.
Way I see it, society is going to do what society is going to do until the collective consciousness stop listening to the same tired conversation. So my real question is this — what do you, I and everyone else do in the meantime? Whether it’s weight loss, managing it long term, or some other area of life, I’m not sure we can all wait until the capitalism stars align.
It all goes back to “OK, now what?”
What’s so wonderful about Evelyn’s story is how her example reinforces the beauty of walking your own path. That’s a key idea on this Web site. I’m pretty sure Men’s Muscle Mags didn’t think she’s be a devotee, but she made her goals work. And I can only imagine the judgments and assessments she dealt with in that process. But she not only lost the weight, she took it one step further and sent her life in a brave new direction. So even with the diet/medical/media/fitness industries creating (inadvertently, to be charitable) such a whirlpool, it is still possible to work with what you have and keep fighting to make your life the way you want it. Be it your body, profession, goals, and what you want to provide for others.
Thanks for the .02! Would love to hear more!
Best,
Russ
Interesting concept. I pose one question- what came first- the industry with the magic pills or the people who want the magic pills. If exercise and eating healthy were as easy as it sounds, the market would not exist. Lets face it, magic pills and magic packages of food that show up at your door step are easy. $30.99 for a pill or 7 hours of exercise to lose one pound?
It’s an interesting dilemma-most people will have to spend some many to lose weight (new shoes, treadmill, organic food- it adds up)Some will pay for advice or some weight loss program- Many people understand that if they have help- they may achieve results faster. It’s like a statistics class just trying to read labels for crying out loud. Most people have tried countless diets and failed- somehow its expected and acceptable- but if we kept failing the same college class or kept boucing checks without getting help from a specialist- we would ask someone to slap us. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is insanity.
On my side- paying out of pocket to see a nutritionist, a diet coach, a holistic practictioner, a physician…that is not the norm. It’s an extra expense and even though that person may spends two hours with a person uts often a strategy of last resort. Many people I have met would rather give a ten dollar co pay to a health care specialist and see if that person can solve their problem in five minutes just like their primary care doctor does (weight loss is not covered by insurance and hence the real reason why people turn to the TV for help).
Unfortunately seeing results usually costs money. If a child is failing school, there is
Kuman and other after school private programs that will get those grades up. No one would fault you for spending $75 dollars and hour for lessons, especially if the child seems to have difficulty grasping the subject despite hours of studying. If someone’s health is failing- why are they so reluctant to seek out help of a professional coach, whether it is a personal trainer or a weight loss specialist. Usually people will tell themselves they cant spare anything for these “LUXURY” expenses. Yes you are right losing weight doesnt have to cost a thing-just eat less and go outside for a walk. That’s free………Everyone knows how to lose weight, get more active and just say no – to bad foods, yet we dont do it OR we do it and do not see any results. Thats what coaches are for, they help people do the things that seem so simple to do, yet they are not doing. They help people learn about what constitutes good nutrition and how to exercise in a manner to increase one’s metabolism. A physician can find out why you are gaining weight when you are exercising like crazy, eating like a bird- and still gaining weight (cortisol, thyroid, insulin resistance, sleep deprivation…)
Not everyone in the “industry” is trying to strike it rich or sell a pill. Most like trainers are providing services, education, years of experience etc. Thats why I have a financial advisor, that’s why my daughter has a piano teacher…I am paying people who have skills that I do not possess. I am paying because I want to see results and I do see those individuals as the answer to my prayers.
I do agree that many people are selling gimmicks and many people are biting- they are buying magic potions and magic pills but that may be because they do not have the faith in themselves to accomplish what seems so impossible- losing weight. Simple law of supply and demand. Now I never took an economics class- too busy in medical school etc- but it seems to me that the DEMAND for an easy way out is really whats wrong with the current picture.