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A Weight Loss
Success Story
By Tom Walsh
Given her genetics, Joan Cobb never should
have lived long enough to chase her year-old
granddaughter around the Bangor Mall.
Her father died of a heart attack on his
49th birthday. Her father’s brother died of
a heart attack, too, also on his 49th
birthday. Just weeks after her 49th
birthday, Cobb had her heart attack in
November of 2001.
This is Joan Cobb, shown here before
her weight loss program. |
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Photo
Courtesy Joan Cobb |
This
is Joan Cobb today. |
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Staff Photo By Tom Walsh |
Five years of determined effort later, she’s
now 54. She’s also a size 6, down from a
size 14-16 after shedding nearly 50 pounds
to drop her weight from 176 pounds to 127
pounds.
“Everybody has a reason for wanting to lose
weight,” she said. “Most people want to look
good. I did it for health reasons. I had to
do what I did to survive. I want to be alive
and to stay alive.”
As a young woman, Cobb’s weight hovered at
99 pounds. After giving birth to her oldest
daughter, she weighed 103 pounds. Her weight
didn’t begin to skyrocket until after her
second pregnancy.
It wasn’t until a treadmill stress test
after her heart attack showed nearly
complete blockage of one of her coronary
arteries that Cobb began to take her health
seriously. Blood work showed her level of
“bad” cholesterol was very high. It was also
a problem that seemed impervious to
treatment with prescription drugs.
“I didn’t think I was fat, but I was,” she
said. “I couldn’t be active, and I was tired
all the time. I realized I was allowing
myself to die slowly. I realized that I had
to do something.”
Cobb and a small circle of friends from her
job in the billing office of Maine Coast
Memorial Hospital joined Weight Watchers.
That program helped improve her eating
habits and made her more aware of nutrition
and portion control. It also helped her to
lose over 20 pounds before she hit a
two-year plateau.
“I realized that I needed to be more active,
and what was holding me back was pain in my
back, my hips and my legs when I did
exercise,” she said. “It took me a year to
make the decision, but I finally had breast
reduction surgery in June of 2005. After I
had it done, I was able to move faster and
walk faster. Exercise didn’t hurt.
“I felt like a whole new person. It was
amazing. I can’t explain how my whole life
changed and how much more I’m able to do
now. As I became more active, I began losing
more weight, 10 to 15 pounds.
“My goal was always 130 pounds, which is
what my body mass index should be for my
height, and I’ve been down as low as 127.
It’s been easy to maintain it, because I’m
there and I intend to stay there. It’s been
a very, very long haul. I don’t want to look
back, or to go back to where I was. I’ve
worked so hard to be here and to be alive.”
For exercise, Cobb climbs stairs at home.
Her cholesterol level is improving, and her
appetite is reduced, she said. Until five
years ago, she never owned a scale. Now she
weighs herself every day.
“My whole chemistry seems to have changed,
and my life is very different,” she said. “I
feel good. I don’t feel depressed, and I
don’t feel listless.
“Over the weekend, I took my granddaughter
to Bangor and chased her through that whole
mall. I never would have been able to do
that before, not without having another
heart attack. And not only was I able to do
it, I was so happy and she was so happy as
we were running around.”
Cobb describes her decision to improve her
health through weight loss as one step in
“getting ready to get old.”
“Nobody prepares physically to get old,” she
said “They might prepare financially, but
they’re not doing what they can now to get
themselves ready to be old. It will happen.
At 60 and at 70, I want to feel good.”
“But, even if I die tomorrow of another
heart attack, I’ve accomplished what I
wanted to accomplish. I’ve done some things
that were extreme, but I felt I had to. And
it was all worth it.” |
