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"I knew I wanted to eat differently than I ever had before
because I wanted a different outcome."
—Joyce Rainwater
 "Somebody
help me. Please, tell me what to do. I'll do whatever you say.
Just please, help me," I cried aloud in despair, arms reaching
upward for mercy. There I stood, alone in my apartment's small
living room one dark and rainy Saturday afternoon in February,
1991. At 46 years old and 220-pounds (on a 5'4" frame), I was
locked in a destructive cycle of binge eating and strict
dieting. I had become my grossest, loneliest, most hopeless
self. I was exhausted by the battle with weight I'd been
fighting since age 18.
As a chunky child, I was praised by my mother as a "good eater."
I remember being overly excited about food, asking for my
siblings' dinner leftovers and being perplexed at how friends
were able to resist eating all of their Halloween candy in one
day. But I was also an active child, which prevented me from
becoming overweight; that started during college. Instead of
gaining the "Freshman 15," I gained 30 pounds before coming home
for Christmas break.
During college and the years that followed, I'd often go on
diets, but they never worked for long. Toward the beginning of
my dieting I tried those fudge-like diet candies called "Ayds,"
and would eat one before each meal to curb my appetite. However,
they didn't work for me since it was too easy to eat the whole
box in a single sitting. So, I'd go on a strict diet to
compensate for taking in so many calories, and thus began the
cycle of binging and fasting.
After my two children were born, I gained even more weight,
eating lots of cheese and dairy foods (pizza and ice cream were
favorites). Unlike my mom, who cooked from scratch and had a
knack for moderation, I regularly took my kids to McDonald's and
31 Flavors. My blood pressure crept up and my energy level went
down, and though I never went to the doctor for help or took any
medication, I knew I needed something.
But on that desperate, rock-bottom day in 1991, as I begged
heavenward for help, little did I know that only ten months
later I would be transformed into a 110-pound, size-4 woman
about to move out into the world and meet my future husband. Nor
would I have imagined that 18 years later I would still be trim.
It all started with a promise I made to a concerned friend who
happened to call me on that Saturday: I promised her that I
would attend an Overeaters Anonymous (OA) meeting.
Empowered self-responsibility
At OA, something miraculous happened. As I walked into the room,
feeling frightened and ashamed, I immediately felt a weight lift
off of my shoulders (no pun intended). Though I didn't talk to
anyone, and no one talked to me, I felt that I was no longer
alone. I related to the speaker's story of struggle with
overeating, and after that first OA meeting, I began going to
meetings daily instead of binge eating alone in my apartment. I
never got an OA sponsor, or made many OA friends, or completed
the 12 steps, but I did listen and learn, and I began reading
about nutrition, motivation, behavior theory, psychology, and
physical fitness.
 Someone did show up to help me, as I had fervently prayed for
that saving Saturday—I showed up. I rescued myself. Instead of
being a helpless, hopeless, childlike victim begging, "Please,
somebody, tell me what to do," I went from a state of learned
helplessness to one of empowering self-responsibility. I became
a thinking, analyzing, responsible adult making decisions for
myself about what to do in order to get out of my obese
situation.
Hitting this lowest point propelled me to action—my pain and
misery were just too great. This combined with the promise I had
made to my friend (my self-esteem rested on keeping that promise
to her) were my two biggest motivations to change. As time went
on, I made and kept other small promises to myself, such as, "I
promise I'll attend an OA meeting whenever I feel the urge to
overeat," "I promise I won't binge eat today," and "I promise
I'll walk today." I came to trust myself to keep these promises,
finally realizing that I was worthy of trust.
But you could also say that Dr. John McDougall showed up to help
me. The McDougall Plan was among the many books I read in my
quest to figure out how I could change my life. I came across
the book in my local bookstore's "Diet and Nutrition" section,
where I'd often browse during my dieting phases. From the first
page, I was hooked, as I learned that my understanding about
proper nutrition (courtesy of the meat and dairy industries) was
all wrong. I learned that the rich Standard American Diet (SAD)
was "pathogenic," which means that it is disease-causing. I knew
I wanted to eat differently than I ever had before because I
wanted a different outcome.
I followed Dr. McDougall's plan using the recipes of Mary
McDougall that I found in The McDougall Plan and The McDougall
Health-Supporting Cookbooks, Volumes One and Two. I also devised
my own recipes as my tastes adjusted to a plant-based diet.
During that time I never added a drop of oil or margarine, or
ate high-calorie nuts or seeds, which is to what I attribute my
very fast weight loss. I also ate high-fiber foods at every meal
to keep myself full, including whole grain pasta, bread, cereal,
brown rice, beans or lentils. And I converted my favorite meals
into vegan versions, such as sloppy joe lentils and garden
burgers.
I also discovered the zest of citrus, adding fresh-squeezed lime
juice to baked sweet potatoes or on an ear of corn. The zing of
the lime complements foods so well that no butter is needed. At
the end of every meal, for sweetness and to signal the end of
eating, I'd have a few raisins. I also promised myself that I'd
never eat anything I didn't like. I knew I wouldn't stick with
it if I had to force myself to eat unpalatable food. My body
immediately responded to taking in such nutrient-rich,
low-calorie foods. My energy level increased as my weight
decreased.
My family and friends were skeptical at first. When I started my
program, my sister Jean said, "Oh, Joyce, you've got more than
100 pounds to lose, it'll take you forever. You'll go off this
diet long before then." But I responded with complete
confidence: "It doesn't matter how long it takes, because even
after I lose the weight, this is how I'm going to eat and live
from now on." I knew I was making a permanent lifestyle change.
How long it would take became irrelevant with this approach. If
I couldn't sustain the change for the rest of my life, I didn't
want to waste my time trying it.
Today, everyone knows that I am vegan, and they gladly
accommodate the way I eat. But I never push my choices on
others. My husband, for example, is not vegan, though he eats my
whole grain spaghetti with marinara sauce and often has fruit
for dessert, after my example. He very proudly tells people my
story and seems to be moving in my direction, eating more and
more salads, and vegetable soups and stews.
Building on a healthy foundation
 My vegan diet is the foundation of my healthful lifestyle today,
but I have also made other changes. I began exercising
regularly, walking daily, then after a month, joining a gym
(first walking on the treadmill and then taking aerobics classes
after another month). Eventually, I earned three fitness
certifications from the American Council on Exercise: Group
Fitness Instructor, Lifestyle and Weight Management Consultant,
and Personal Trainer. Today, I'm an aerobics instructor and a
yoga teacher. Regular exercise is absolutely one of the keys to
maintaining my weight loss.
At first, I didn't know that I'd learned the secret of permanent
weight loss. It takes time, after all, to prove permanence.
Gradually, though, it became clear that these methods work.
Others got heavier while I remained trim. Remarkably, the one
with the lifelong weight issue turned out to be the one to
maintain her weight loss. I, the "disordered eater" for whom
eating is still the greatest pleasure and food the greatest
temptation, have succeeded where others have failed.
To help maintain my weight loss, I devised six tools to stay
motivated. I call them the "Six
Kicks". They are "velvet hammers" that "check" me in the
choices I make along that fine line between controlling weight
and letting it control me. We each need standards high enough to
get results, but we don't want to adhere to them so rigidly that
we become fanatical, obsessed, or humorless.
The Six Kicks are firm but flexible governors of behavior that
can help us be vigilant without becoming victims of the diet
trap. They bring us into a state of psychological readiness to
overcome daily challenges to our resolve. For example, Kick 1 is
"Own Your Weight Fate," meaning take responsibility for the
choices you make. It's the first step in rescuing yourself.
Followers of Six Kicks stay mindful of:
- their surroundings (an environment which doesn't
support weight loss because it bombards us with messages to
eat while pressuring us to be thin),
- the problem (the Standard American Diet and a
sedentary lifestyle),
- the solution (lifestyle changes that we can
maintain day after day, not dieting),
- themselves (we must be different than the average
American, 67% of whom are overweight or obese), and
- their goals (to focus less on food and eating and
more on health and well being).
 Knowing how painful it is to struggle with weight, I now share
my success with others and help them achieve permanent weight
loss. Today, I work as a motivational speaker and weight-control
advisor, sharing my story and insights in seminars, workshops,
support-group sessions, and individual counseling.
To anyone struggling to lose weight and keep it off, I can
tell you there is a way to lose weight permanently. It takes no
special talent or intelligence. Once you have the facts, such as
those presented in The McDougall Plan and in the Six Kicks
Academy, you can formulate a set of strategies and techniques
that work for you, transforming yourself into a healthy and
energetic person. If I escaped the prison of food obsession and
obesity, you can too!
Joyce Rainwater
Sacramento, CA
July 2009
Dr. McDougall's Comments
The first book Mary and I wrote was called "Making the
Change," because, as Joyce so clearly documents, change
is what permanent weight loss and excellent health is all about.
There are many parts of our lives that we have little or no
control over: our bosses dictate pressures from work, our
family's troubles appear beyond reason or solution, and world
chaos always looms over our heads. But there are two parts of
our lives we can regulate 100%: the foods that pass our lips and
whether or not we exercise. Even as the sky is falling all
around us, we can choose a couple of baked potatoes over French
fries, water over fructose-filled soda, and a daily walk over
the sofa.
I did leave out one important stumbling block: many people
really don't have choice because they don't have the truth. They
live by "nutrition facts" created by industry and spread by
advertisements; such as, lose weight by eating yogurt, fish is
the secret to a healthy heart, meat is a necessary protein
source, and starches are fattening. Even if any of this rhetoric
were true, it is obviously not working for the two-thirds of US
citizens who are overweight and/or obese—and ill. A new set of
rules is needed; one that has worked for eons for all of
humanity: 1) Throughout human history all successful
populations of people have lived on starch-based diets and every
one of these people was trim and avoided diseases that plague
modern societies today. 2) Aristocrats of old ate foods like
those served now at Burger King and Dairy Queen. Rich foods
always have and always will make people fat and sick. Combine
only these two simple thoughts and you now have the secret to
super health and life-long weight loss. You would think with
just one thing to change—the kinds of foods on a person's
plate—everyone would succeed. But obviously this is not true and
there are pieces of the behavioral puzzle yet to solve.
Take some lessons from Joyce Rainwater at her web site at
www.mysixkicks.com. Adding a support group such as
Overeaters Anonymous or Weight Watchers can be beneficial. Spend
time on the McDougall Discussion board. The Maximum Weight Loss
forum just announced (August 7, 2009) a 1000-pound collective
weight loss since
the beginning of the year. Attend a local athletic club or
vegetarian society meetings. Get friends or family members to
join you. Surround yourself with the truth to become insulated
from the lies of special interests. It takes a long time and
hard work to give up destructive habits. In the process the mind
plays tricks. People believe calories consumed after dark don't
count and a little bit won't hurt. The three most common reasons
I have observed for lack of progress in losing weight are:
eating out, consuming "healthy" vegetable oils, and allowing too
many high-fat plant foods (nuts, seeds, avocados, olives, soy).
The body is going to move those fat calories into the fat
storage banks (thighs, abdomen, buttock, etc.) effortlessly—and
here they will remain until the person's diet becomes really
clean. Then without a thought, prayer, or lucky charms, the body
sheds pounds and diseases. Stop looking elsewhere for the
answer—the McDougall Plan is the only way to become both trim
and healthy for a lifetime—and it's free.
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