A Shadow of Her Former Self

Stacy Ferda, an office assistant at the Oceanside Family Resource Center, lost 57 pounds in six months.

The visual was startling.

Stacy Ferda walked into her last diet support group pulling a cart with more than 50 pounds of food in it. It was equal to the weight she had lost up to that point.

The purpose was to show new program enrollees that attaining their weight loss goals was possible and to celebrate participants’ goal attainment with a donation to the food bank equal to their dropped pounds.

For Ferda, an office assistant at the Oceanside Public Health Center, it really hit home how far she had come since she began the program weighing 198 pounds.

“I thought ‘I was carrying this on my body?” she said. “It’s pretty eye-opening.”

She’s down to 141 pounds now, having dropped a total of 57 since she began the weight loss program on July 2, 2013.

It was tough to face up to her food addiction. But when her good knee started to give out she realized she had to.

“I could no long fake the fact that my weight wasn’t affecting me, even though I was active,” she said.

She liked to eat alone and would often hide how much she was eating.

“I did the March of Dimes walk in Oceanside and it really bothered me that I had to get a size 2X shirt,” Ferda said.

While she was on OPTIFAST, Ferda had five ready-to-drink shakes and two servings of low-sodium broths each day.

“If you go into it with the right mentality, you’re pretty OK with being on a liquid diet,” she said. “The cravings go away.”

Ferda said part of the reason she was successful was the support offered by her co-workers and husband. Her husband went on the same plan and lost 100 pounds.

“It helps to have the work environment and encouragement to have a healthy lifestyle,” she said. “Our Public Health Nurse Manager Audrey Lopez sets a great example.”

She said Lopez walks a 30-minute route every day - rain or shine.

“We have a pattern we walk every day,” she said. “Audrey does it in 30, but I’m at 35 minutes right now.”

Ferda says she tries to ensure she walks at least five days a week and also goes on bike rides.

Just as she was finishing the OPTIFAST program, the County’s Employee Wellness Program was wrapping up it’s “Maintain Don’t Gain” campaign. It was perfect timing.

“’Maintain Don’t Gain’ was going on right when I’m about to go back on regular food,” she said.

 “There are 16 steps in my house and it used to be that every step I went down I hurt, and every step I went up I hurt. It doesn’t hurt anymore.”