11/20/2007
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Staff photo by Jeff Poulandenlarge
Staff photo by Jeff Poulandfrom the Kennebec Journal
Sport of Kings
New Medicaid billing system inspires doubts among some
Christmas spirit
Guidance counselor: Dismiss complaint based on criticism of same-sex marriage
CHELSEA: 'Practice burn' provides thrill for 9-year-old
Trust eyes orchard purchase
GOLFER OF THE YEAR: Bonenfant rises up Cony ranks
YOUTH SOCCER: Local team gives 'care package' to children in Afghanistan
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Kennebec Journal
from the Morning Sentinel
YES ON 1 BACKER REBUTS CLAIM
New system for Medicaid payments worries providers
After petition drive, Clinton police force budget will go a third time before voters
A rock musician makes trip home via Black Taxi
MADISON: After revaluation, abatement requests reviewed
Parks to have facelift
GOLFER OF THE YEAR: Sweet does job for Madison
YOUTH SOCCER: Local team gives 'care package' to children in Afghanistan
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
Lee, 49, is the Waterville woman who two years ago gained fame by losing weight -- lots of weight.
Once 506 pounds, Lee lost more than 300 pounds, and she did so the natural way, by eating a healthier diet and by committing to a regular and rigorous exercise regimen.
She now stands 5-foot, 4 inches, and weighs 180 pounds.
Her remarkable success led to appearances on "The Today Show," "Good Morning America" and CNN, and resulted in stories in The Boston Globe and People magazine, among other publications.
Now it's Oprah -- the show, taped on Nov. 8, is expected to air later this month or in December.
On one level, Lee's story is one of triumph, of overcoming great odds.
"I'm on the radar screen now," she said. "I've gone from not being noticed to being like I had cured cancer."
But there is another side, too -- a sad side.
Lee cannot forget her former self. As much as her life has changed, she does not separate the person she is today from the person who had no mirrors in her house.
She still identifies with the 506-pound Cathi Lee -- and sympathizes with those who remain morbidly obese.
Lee understands the stares they must endure, the cruelty they often face.
"I see it now," she said, "as the last socially accepted form of discrimination in the country."
INTO ISOLATION
Lee became a fat kid at age 7.
She stayed that way for more than nearly four decades, getting heavier as the years went by.
And with each additional pound, Lee retreated more and more from society, fearing the ridicule that so often is the lot of the morbidly obese.
Lee mourns those lost years.
"I spent more than 30 years detached and isolated from real life and from what other people experience," she said.
She had no social life beyond the interactions she had with her immediate family.
During the day she worked at her brother's insurance adjuster business. As for her nights, Lee found sanctuary in her home, where she ate alone in front of the TV.
Often, she said, she ate a lot -- and not always the most nutritionally sound choices.
One time she bought a three-tier vanilla wedding cake -- price $65 -- from a local bakery and finished it over two evenings, washing it down with a gallon of milk.
Food was her comfort.
PIVOTAL EVENT
She has described the turning point in her life many times.
The scene was a party at a brother's summer camp. Lee lined up with the rest of her family for a round of introductions. But something awful happened that day:
Lee was passed by, her name not mentioned -- an invisible 506-pound person.
She realized then, she said, that she had become a non-person.
A few months later she looked into gastric bypass surgery. But once she learned of the risks, she rejected that option. She decided, instead, that if she were to lose weight, she would do so on her own.
And so began her three-year effort. She lost 90 pounds the first year on dietary changes alone.
The second year, she added exercise, walking at a local cemetery to avoid the derision she faced on city sidewalks.
She talks of the time teenage boys threw a glass bottle at her from a moving car.
They missed, but the bottle shattered against the sidewalk in front of her, putting jagged shards of glass in her path.
Such hatred frightened Lee. Yet it didn't stop her.
When winter arrived, she took the next step: She joined Gilly's Gym in Waterville, a place that became a second home for her.
She goes to Gilly's six days a week to this day, working out up to 21/2 hours each time.
The combination of better nutrition and exercise worked. The weight, she said, came off fast, and her life changed just as dramatically.
"When I realized what I was doing was working," Lee said, "I went out and bought a full-length mirror. I had never owned a mirror."
STANDING TALL
Sandy Schaffer understands what Lee endured.
Schaffer is the New York chapter chairwoman of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance.
She, too, grew up having to endure the stigma of being obese.
"I certainly bought into it," she said, "that you have the right to make fun of me because I'm an awful thing."
Unlike Lee, Schaffer remains obese.
But she makes no apologies for her size anymore. She turned to exercise in her 30s, and that decision helped her become more mobile, more confident and much happier about herself.
She came to realize, she said, that she made the mistake of letting her weight define her -- and she took responsibility for that mistake.
"As a person of size," she said, "you have to take responsibility. You have to open your mouth and stop being a victim."
Social prejudice against obese people exists, she said, but it exists in part because of a failure to fight back.
"You get beat up emotionally and after a while you start buying into it," she said, "but that doesn't make for a productive person in society. So don't buy into it. It is not true. It is not the reason you don't have a good job. It is not the reason you don't have a good marriage."
Schaffer said her organization distributes literature and offers presentations that seek to combat prejudice against obese people.
"I make myself known, not in a nasty way, but in a way that says, 'I'm standing here, too,'" Schaffer said.
"This idea that fat people are to blame for all the ills in the world is a bunch of political garbage."
NEW LIFE
Lee does not hate her former self. Quite the contrary.
"I'm not going to deny the person who was 506 pounds," she said, "because that Cathi was the strongest person I've ever met. She is the one who got me where I am today."
Where she is today is a happy, highly active professional. She works as an administrative secretary in the office of alumni relations at Colby College.
She travels frequently, works out religiously, and embraces new experiences.
"The Oprah Winfrey Show" is her latest adventure.
Lee said she flew into Chicago on Sunday and spent four wonderful days in the Windy City, staying at a topflight hotel, eating in the best restaurants and getting limo service to wherever she chose to go.
Two days before her appearance, Lee went to Macy's to choose her outfit for the show.
"For four hours I must have tried on over 200 pieces of clothing," she said -- she got to keep the outfit she selected.
It was uncharted territory, she said of the experience, much like her remarkable weight loss.
Lee still faces challenges. Keeping weight off, she said, is more difficult than losing weight.
This summer, moreover, Lee said she was diagnosed with hepatitis.
The disease kept her out of the gym for an extended period, she said, and caused her great anxiety.
But Lee said she has the illness under control now and is back to her regimen. Quitting, she said, is not an option.
"I've come too far," she said, "and worked too hard and feel too good to go back (to being obese)."
Colin Hickey -- 861-9205
chickey@centralmaine.com
Reader comments
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I think your comment that 1/3 the population in Maine needed to join to lose weight is a gross underestimate. Have you been to a Walmart lately?report abuse
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