Losing Weight Saved Our Lives

Just after Christmas in 2007, Bob Dawson left his father's hospital bedside and walked up a flight of stairs. He was so winded that he could barely catch his breath. "At the top of that stairwell, I realized that if I didn't make some serious changes, I'd be right where my dad was—recovering from a quadruple bypass—sooner rather than later," recalls Bob, who lives in Ellwood City, Pennsylvania, where he runs a cleaning business with his wife, Anne.

At the time, Bob was just 46 years old, but his blood pressure was on the cusp of being high enough to warrant medication, probably because he weighed 265 pounds and had a body mass index (BMI) of 36, which meant he was obese. Meanwhile, he was frequently taking aspirin and ibuprofen to cope with back pain. "I imagined myself in the not-so-far-off future being bedridden with a wife who wouldn't be able to take care of me because of her own health problems. It was a scary picture."

About two years earlier, Anne was diagnosed with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). The disorder, in which there's reduced blood flow back to the heart after sitting or standing, frequently caused her heart rate to increase by 30 beats or more per minute. "My heart would race, my vision would blur and then I'd hear loud thudding, which meant I was about to faint," she recalls. After driving to the grocery store, she'd often find herself clinging to the shelves to avoid falling. She carried 200 pounds on her 5'4" frame, which only exacerbated her symptoms, but her condition made doing any sort of physical activity difficult.

The night Bob came home from seeing his father in the hospital, he sat down with Anne to talk about how they both needed to lose weight or face potentially life-threatening consequences. "Seeing Bob's father suddenly be so debilitated was really scary, especially since my dad had had bypass surgery a few years before and Bob's mom had recently had back surgery," says Anne. "I had tried losing weight in the past, but this time I decided that quitting wasn't an option."

The next day, Bob sat in front of the computer for hours, hunting for a weight-loss program that seemed easy to follow and didn't cost a fortune. "Most of the plans were too complicated or required buying expensive premade meals." Finally, SparkPeople ( SparkPeople.com), a free online program, caught his eye. "It appealed to me because we could create individualized plans for our goals," said Bob. He and Anne typed in their initial goal weights (for Anne it was 150 pounds; for Bob, 225), and the site generated a meal planner and recipe suggestions for each of them.

Setting the Stage for Success

The first thing that Anne and Bob did together was clear out all of their frozen pizzas, chips, dips and cookies, and make a shopping list for a week's worth of healthy recipes. Since their three boys, now 30, 24 and 22, were out of the house, they only had to cook for themselves.

One of Bob's early goals was simple: Eat at least four servings of fruits and vegetables a day, something he had never really done. "Once I started eating these healthy foods, I noticed that the expert advice about fruits and vegetables filling you up rang true: I did feel full and wasn't hungry all the time," he says. Anne's big change: eating fewer starchy foods like potatoes and pasta and more protein. And both of them used the tool on Spark- People to track their calorie intake. Within three months, Anne lost nearly 30 pounds. Bob had lost even more and loved to tease his wife about it.

"I was kicking her butt for the first three months, and I told her so," Bob says. "Then my weight loss tapered off and she kept right on going. I was the hare and she was the tortoise. I was a little jealous when she reached her goal before me. But because her health was at stake, her victory meant more to me than my own."

One afternoon in the grocery store, shortly after Anne had hit her first goal weight, Bob hoisted a 40-pound bag of dog food onto the cart and pointed out to Anne that the bulky bag weighed as much as she had lost. "I couldn't believe my body had been carrying all that around, every day," Anne says.

By the time Anne had dropped those 40 pounds (20 percent of her body weight), her heart symptoms were less severe and she was energized enough to start walking. Within a few months, walking became jogging and then running. She still got lightheaded (POTS can't be cured), but her episodes became much less frequent.

The couple also gave each other advice along the way. "Over the two years we lost weight, we never reached our goals at the same time," Bob says. "Whenever one of us would hit a plateau, we'd sit down together and search SparkPeople for tips to trigger more weight loss. At one point, Anne was frustrated because even though she was eating at the lower end of her calorie limit, the scale was still stuck. I told her to eat a little more for a couple of days." It worked. "I think it gave my metabolism a jumpstart," she says, explaining that your body can go into starvation mode and hold on to fat if it's not getting enough calories.

Beyond Weight Loss

A few months after they started running, Bob asked Anne if she'd do a local 10K with him, and she reluctantly agreed. "He hadn't run that far in more than 25 years, and I had never run a race at all, but I was willing to try," Anne says.

During that race a tradition was born: Bob crossed the finish line before Anne, then circled back into the crowd of runners until he found her and crossed the finish line again by her side. Since then they've run more than a dozen 5K and 10K races together, and each time Bob— who has lost a total of 65 pounds—finishes and then jogs back to find his wife. "As soon as I spot him, I know I have about a quarter-mile to go," says Anne.

Today, Bob's blood pressure is normal, and his back pain rarely bothers him. And Anne can't remember the last time she had a near-fainting episode (though she still takes medication for POTS). Aside from helping her lose a total of 70 pounds—and keep it off for more than a year—Anne's regimen of running, aerobic dance workouts and strength training has strengthened her leg muscles dramatically. Her doctors say that helps pump more blood back to the heart, which may in turn reduce the symptoms of her disorder.

At a recent checkup, Anne's cardiologist marveled at her progress. "I told him that we'd just run a half-marathon and the doctor said, 'That's farther than I've run in my whole life!'" Soon after, at another checkup, the physician actually walked Anne out to the busy waiting room and announced, "This woman has lost so much weight and she's now healthier than ever, despite her heart condition. She's proof that it is possible to make a dramatic change!"

"I was embarrassed," says Anne. "But if one person who heard my story went home and made the commitment to get healthy, it was worth it." Photo: Gregg Ruffing

The Dawsons' Best Advice

Anne and Bob Dawson are proof that teaming up can go a long way toward helping you reach your goals. In fact, research shows that people who have weightloss partners shed almost twice as much weight as those who diet alone. Tips from the couple:

Encourage each other. It was Bob, the runner, who encouraged Anne, who was content walking, to jog with him. Once she started, she kept it up and eventually completed a half-marathon. Anne's good about lifting weights and doing core training, but they're not Bob's favorite activities. "Bob really only strength-trains when I ask him to do it with me," says Anne. "Now I'm trying to persuade him to join me for yoga!"

Compete kindly. The Dawsons had a good-natured competition to see who could get to goal weight first. They also challenged each other with their running. "If Anne told me she ran 9 miles, I'd increase my mileage so I could match hers," says Bob.

Celebrate small victories. Every time the Dawsons lost 5 pounds, they would treat themselves to something special—and remind each other to do it. Anne would indulge in a manicure or pedicure; Bob would buy himself new exercise clothing or shoes. Photo: Gregg Ruffing