Dancing With a Pritikin Star

Sherri DeJesus, 32 - Houston, Texas

It all started with a head injury.

In 1996, Sherri, a college student, was in a nasty car accident and suffered a skull fracture. For several months after, “I just really wasn’t myself. I had short- and long-term memory loss and other problems. People would hand me food and I’d eat and eat.”

The 5’7” 136-pound coed started gaining weight, and in the years that followed gained even more, the fallout from an unhappy marriage.

“What am I doing?”

In 2004, the scale hit 220 pounds. Dejected, struggling through the dissolution of her marriage, and all the while maintaining a high-stress, high-travel job managing a partnership between MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston and the University of Puerto Rico, Sherri took a step back and thought, “What am I doing? I’m huge. My dad and brother have diabetes. I’m headed for diabetes if I don’t do something soon. I’ve got to learn how to eat right.”

She had no clue where to get good solid nutrition advice, but working in medicine, she knew how to do the research needed “to pick out the best, most scientifically solid program I could find.”

She found that program in Pritikin and flew to Florida to the Pritikin Longevity Center for a week’s stay right after Thanksgiving of 2004.

Today, 2½ years later, Sherri is still giving thanks for her week at Pritikin. “On the last night, when awards were being given out, I was in tears because the whole week had been such a life-changing experience for me.

“To this day, I’m still in awe of all that I learned. It wasn’t like going to a spa. It was like going to a university, the best university, and being wowed by one hard-hitting, eye-opening class after another. I left knowing what I needed to do.”

Size 18 to 8

And she did it. Within eight months, Sherri shed 60 pounds and dropped from a size 18 to a size 8.

Even more importantly, she’s kept the weight off, going on two years now. “For the first time in my life, I’m mindful of what I’m eating. I know how vital it is to plan ahead so that whenever hunger hits, I’m surrounded by the right food. Pritikin empowered me with the tools I needed to change my life.”

These past 2½ years, she’s also been pleased with how doable healthy living is. “In class, dietitian Jeff Novick told us, ‘Think small stuff. Don’t try to do everything at once. Take one step at a time.’”

Sherri’s first step was getting rid of caffeine – the 10 to 12 diet sodas she drank every day. She now keeps a big bottle of water on her desk right alongside the many fresh vegetables and fruit and Pritikin-style sandwiches she brings to the office every day. “When I’m really stressed out, I tend to eat even if I’m not hungry. Well, it’s a lot easier to stay thin if you’re reaching for Pritikin food instead of fast food. I never eat fast food anymore.”

"Dancing with a Pritikin Star" Continues...

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