Local dieter loses ‘whole person’

By Timothy Churchill
newsletter@seacoastonline.com

NEWMARKET - Jean Burt is feeling good these days, and she often tells herself, "If I did this, then I feel like I could do anything."

Burt lost 127 pounds over the course of four years - that’s a "whole person," said her personal fitness trainer Rocco Boulay of Health Oriented Technologies at the Great Bay Athletic Club.

Burt’s efforts paid off last week in a fun way. On Friday, many businesses in New Hampshire and Maine donated a variety of services for a complete makeover of Burt, in honor of her incredible accomplishment.

Burt didn’t shed the pounds by renouncing all carbohydrates; nor did she have her stomach tied, a procedure called gastric bypass surgery. Burt’s was not a faddish or a quick-fix method. It was based on the commonsensical, and elusive, notion that obesity can be overcome by eating better and exercising more.

"I love food, period," Burt said, adding that cutting back on all foods worked for her, yet she was never willing to give up any one particular item. So she stopped eating two bagels with cream cheese for breakfast every morning.

"There’s almost enough calories for an entire day" in one bagel with cream cheese, Burt said with a laugh.

At dinner she stopped eating twice as much as everyone else at the table. And she began going to the gym to walk on the treadmill and lift weights very early on, because she "didn’t want to be flabby" after the weight came off. Losing weight, as Burt sees it, is not exactly rocket science.

The makeover

Last Friday at 11 a.m. she was picked up by Boulay and taken to the Great Bay Athletic Club for a makeover, including hair, nails and makeup. Talbot’s in Stratham fitted her with new clothes in the afternoon. And in the evening she and her husband were taken by limousine to Cape Neddick, Maine, for a romantic dinner at Clay Hill Farm restaurant. Next, onto the Seachambers Hotel in Ogunquit, Maine, again by limousine, for a champagne reception and a room for the night.

"It’s all amazing," she said, adding that she was "not used to being the center of attention like this."

Looking at an old picture of herself at Disney World when she weighed nearly 300 pounds, Burt said her mind-set at the time the photo was taken was, "This has got to stop."

"I really had two things going against me," Burt said. Her mother, who is a diabetic, had "been on my case" about the link between obesity and diabetes. Maternal solicitousness, coupled with a likely genetic predisposition to diabetes, convinced Burt she needed to take command of her health and her life.

Newmarket resident Jean Burt, who lost 127 pounds over four years, gets her hair done by Jeffery James of Merlin's Ultimate Images of Manchester.   Courtesy photo

Keeping motivated

It was a long, frequently discouraging, haul, Burt says. To keep herself motivated she employed certain tactics. By measuring her waist every couple of months she was able to see how the weight was coming off and see she was making steady progress toward her goal.

Also, Burt said, it was important to "give myself a reward like a manicure now and again." That boosted her esteem and reminded her, "You really are worth doing this for."

She said her husband Gerald and son Gabe were a constant source of strength and support.

Most overweight people want to make the choice to get healthy, Burt speculates, and many attempt to do it and quit, but there are many reasons why those who attempt it never reach their goals.

One is that weight comes off fairly quickly in the beginning, but then dieters reach the dreaded plateau. Burt said she lost weight consistently for the first 20 weeks, then reached that dispiriting stage. It takes a good deal of willpower to keep plodding on when that happens, she said.

Also, many dieters are convinced they need to remove certain beloved food items from their eating habits altogether. Any restriction of food, according to Burt, should be of quantity and not type. She said the common notion that, for instance, fried food or pizza must be renounced is a huge and false obstacle, and it is one that causes many dieters to abandon their goals.

Then there is the problem of dieting without proper exercise, Burt said. When dieters are "just cutting back on food but not willing to exercise," they’re not going to achieve the desired results, or at least achieve them as fast as they’d like, she said.

Her trainer, Boulay, said Burt had lost 80 pounds under his watch, more weight than any other client. He added that she was "very committed to get it done." Although Burt said she couldn’t have done it without her trainer, Boulay says humbly that he deserves very little credit for her accomplishment.

"She did all the work. I just had a system that she used."

Old shirt fits like dress

Physically, Burt, who will continue to eat her favorite foods in moderation and exercise for one hour every morning, is obviously a different woman than she was four years ago. Her waist went from 51 to 33 inches, she said, while her hips went from 58 to 39 inches. She jokes that the shirt she is wearing in the photograph taken at Disney World now fits her like a dress.

But what were the spiritual and emotional benefits of losing 127 pounds for Burt? For one, she says proudly, "I am just a lot more positive and full of energy" these days. And "instead of living life for other people" all the time, she said, "I have learned to live for myself, too."

Merlin’s Ultimate Images of Manchester also helped create Jean Burt’s perfect day, as well as Dr. Richard Zeff of Stratham, who did a medic micro skin peel treatment. The Hampton Vision Center performed an eye exam and offered Burt contact lenses or new eyeglasses, and Great Bay Limousine service donated the rides in style. Other contributions: Great Bay Athletic Club gave Burt a yearlong membership; Patrick McNamara Photography photographed the dinner and reception in Maine; and Flora Ventures of Newmarket gave Burt a floral arrangement.

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