TUPELO, Miss. (AP) - Tabitha McRunnels remembers the day her life changed vividly. It was Feb. 3, 2015, and she was sitting at her desk at the Lee County Extension Office on Cliff Gookin Boulevard.
“I could hardly breathe and I felt myself slipping away,” said McRunnels, who weighed 381 pounds at the time. “I couldn’t go to the mall with my girls. I wanted to see grandbabies born and I knew I wouldn’t. So I decided, ’Today is the day.’”
Fast forward two years. McRunnels, the nutrition educator for the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program at Extension, has dropped 150 pounds and is starting a class called “Commit To Be Fit.”
The class, which begins today, meets every Monday at Extension from 6 to 7 p.m. through Feb. 27. It is free and open to all ages and preregistration is not required.
Each week, participants will learn different aspects of a healthy lifestyle, such as food preparation, exercise, the different food groups, healthy snacking and grocery shopping. There will also be time for recipe sharing and interaction.
“The biggest thing for me was support,” said McRunnels, 40. “My goal is for this to be a support group - for people in the same boat to be able to talk to each other.”
McRunnels, who lives in Plantersville, wasn’t always overweight. In fact, she was an average-size woman until she had her first child. And then, when she was pregnant with her second baby, her husband died.
“I was depressed and my weight spiraled out of control,” she said. “And I carried that extra weight for 20 years.”
The day McRunnels had her “aha” moment, she pulled out an indoor walking video like the one she gives clients at Extension and walked for 25 minutes.
“And then I started walking at lunch every day for 15 minutes,” she said. “I didn’t try to walk fast, just move more. I started drinking more water and added the rest gradually. I gave up fried foods. I didn’t cut out sodas, though, until I was a year in.”
She added lean cuts of meat to her meals and started baking them, and she put more fruits and vegetables in her grocery cart.
“I used the app myfitnesspal to track what I ate,” she said. “If I put a peppermint in my mouth, I tracked it. I tracked everything I put in my mouth.”
By December of that year, she had lost 70 pounds, but still weighed more than 300. The next month, in January 2016, she had bariatric surgery, which has helped her to lose another 80 pounds.
“It is a journey, I tell you,” she said.
Her exercise plan includes water aerobics at the Tupelo Aquatic Center, walking a mile every day, and 30 minutes of strength training three days a week.
Today, McRunnels weighs 231 pounds, but she still has another 40 to go. Her goal is to lose half of her highest body weight.
The difference in her life has been immeasurable. She’s been able to take trips with her daughters without having to worry if she can fit in a seat. She doesn’t have to wait in line for the handicapped bathroom stall anymore.
“But I have to keep my eye on the prize,” she said. “I want to be here for my children, for my grandchildren.”
Like it or not, her whole family has gotten on board with the healthy lifestyle. McRunnels’ husband of 10 years, Joseph, has lost 30 pounds, one daughter has lost 20 and her nephew has dropped 5.
“The whole house is losing, which is a good thing,” she said. “It’s maintaining the weight loss that scares me, but it’s 100 percent mental. If I blow it at lunch today, I start over with the very next meal, not the next day or the next Monday. The very next bite.”
McRunnels hopes to have a room full of hopefuls at tonight’s class. The first time she did one of these programs, in May 2016, she had 10 faithful participants.
“I just want to help people learn how to live a different lifestyle,” she said. “If they leave the class doing one new healthy thing, then I’ve reached my goal.”
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Information from: Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, https://djournal.com
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