Healthy Living: Tight Budget, Big Success

Weight Loss: Facing health problems brought on by her weight, Deerfield’s Sandra Brown took off 58 pounds and did in on a food-stamp budget.

by Kathleen D. Bailey
Special to the Sunday News

Little things mean a lot to Sandra Brown of Deerfield. This summer, she was able to relax in a tank top and jeans for the first time in her adult life. She’s able to climb the steps to her front deck without having to stop on each one. And in October, she’ll be able to attend the Deerfield Fair again – because she can walk. Last winter, Brown tipped the scales at 268 pounds. She dropped 58 pounds over the spring and summer, with changes in every aspect of her life. And she did it on a budget – one of the strictest food budgets in existence: She stayed within her approximately $300 per month allotment of food stamps.

Brown began putting on weight after she had her children. She has a son and a daughter from a previous marriage and one daughter, Tiffany, 13, with her husband, Roland Wallace. The 5-foot-2 Brown wore plus-plus-sized clothing and had difficulty walking. She had a heart condition and several other medical problems she believes were exacerbated by her weight. “But all the doctors danced around it,” Brown said, relaxing in her antique- and basket-filled living room. “No one would come right out and say, ‘You’re fat!’ “

This spring, a doctor finally leveled with her, Brown said. She was in Exeter Hospital for six days, with a variety of medical problems, and the doctor who treated her told her she would have to lose weight or face a shortened life span. “I want to be around a long time,” Brown said, and she made up her mind to do it. The doctor put her on a strict diet, cutting down on fat and sodium, cutting out red meat and caffeine, and bringing on the fruits and vegetables. She was willing, but faced another hurdle – her husband was laid off from his job in the wood-products industry and hasn’t worked full time for a year. While he does odd jobs when he can, the family was forced to apply for food stamps, and at $313 per month, Brown wondered how she was going to afford nutritious food.

“There was no way I could buy one set of food for me and another for the family,” she said. But her husband told her, “Eating better will benefit all of us,” and he urged her to “put the food money toward what YOU can eat.” So Roland and Tiffany joined her on the diet. Brown made gradual changes, substituting skim milk for whole and fruit and vegetables for snack foods. In many cases her family didn’t notice, she said. With items such as potato chips, she found she could just eat one – or none. She bought low-fat cheese, made pasta less often and cut back on bread. “We’re more careful about portion control,” she said of her family. “When I do cook pasta, we have smaller helpings. We’ll have salad along with our spaghetti, and we’ll eat the salad first.” They still barbecue, but their grill will sizzle with chicken or turkey burgers, she said. And TV snacks are fruit or a couple of crackers with a dab of peanut butter, instead of chips, soda or ice cream.

Brown found more direction and a new friend in Terri Schoppmeyer of the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension’s Nutrition Connection program. Schoppmeyer, who coaches low-income people on how to cook and eat well, found a ready student in Brown. “Terri taught me to read labels, to figure out if something is a good deal,” Brown said. “I look for the calorie content, the sodium content.” Schoppmeyer was also her cheerleader, praising Brown if she even lost one pound, she said.

Brown also began walking again, and when an older couple who were downsizing gave her a treadmill, she added that to her exercise regimen. She went from clothes designed by “Omar the Tentmaker” to off-the-rack clothes. She was happy to hit a size 18, but as she pinched the folds of her new jeans, she said, “These are already too big.” One pair of pants, she said, literally dropped off her hips while she was walking across the living room.

Brown’s goal is to get under 200 pounds. After that, she said, “We’ll see.” For now she’s happy to be able to move around, to join Roland and Tiffany at activities, and to retire her “fat” clothes. Brown has had her share of before-and-after moments. After changing her lifestyle, she did not see her in-laws for several months. When the family finally gathered, she walked into a room, “and jaws dropped,” she said with a smile. “They were asking, ‘Where’s the rest of you?’ “ A woman she knew from a food pantry asked her when she’d had her weight-loss surgery, and Brown had the pleasure of telling her, “I didn’t.”