After 10 months apart, Kim surprises husband with weight loss
Ziplining? Hiking with her family in the Grand Canyon? Until recently, these were unheard-of activities for 47-year-old Kim Wainscott, mother of four adult children. Yet she’s done both and more since losing 100-plus pounds in 2018.
“I’m not on the sidelines anymore. I’m participating,” she says. “In the past, I would have just stayed in the car and say, ‘You go on without me.’”
Like many people, Wainscott struggled with her weight for years.
“I’ve tried everything,” she says. “You name it. Nothing worked.”
What was different this time?
“I did it for me,” she says, with quiet determination. “I wasn’t feeling good about me. I needed to get healthy, whatever that looks like for me.”
At the same time, Wainscott wanted to get healthy to be able to better care for her 27-year-old daughter, Brittni, who has severe epilepsy and lives at home, where she requires full-time care. Brittni also participates in Special Olympics track, bowling and cheerleading.
“Brittni will need me for a very long time,” says Wainscott. “I want to keep up with her, to provide her with a full life just like everyone wants.”
Gentle and soft-spoken, Wainscott is devoted to her family. She speaks with pride about her husband, Aaron, an Army reservist, and her four grown children.
“Early on, one of the things that kept me motivated was when my son, who’s in the Navy, came home after being gone for three months, and was so surprised and proud of me for losing weight,” she says.
Wainscott started in MultiCare’s Medical Weight Loss program in October 2017. She was paired with a nutritionist she meets with regularly for advice and support.
“I need that guidance and support,” Wainscott says. “She helps me keep on track, like uncovering what may be going on when I hit a plateau. I need someone to talk to.”
This last year, with her husband deployed in the Army Reserves for 10 months, was especially hard. Her daughter’s epilepsy took a turn for the worse, intensifying her stress and anxiety.
Wainscott persevered.
“My New Year’s resolution was to take care of me,” she says. “I gave myself 24 hours to wallow in self-pity, then I cleaned up my house and got rid of inappropriate food.”
And that’s where the Medical Weight Loss program comes in.
“We help patients set goals and improve their health,” says Anne Corley, Wainscott’s dietitian. “My whole goal is to help people be healthy.”
Corley counsels her patients about whole food, clean eating and the changes they’ll need to make to reach their goals.
“We focus on small changes that are achievable, like drinking more water or walking at lunchtime,” says Corley.
They also discuss barriers patients may be facing.
“Many times, emotional hurdles are the biggest barrier,” Corley says. “We all receive messages about food as a child, such as food as reward or comfort, or ‘Always clean your plate.’ We explore those issues. We provide nutrition education, including how fad diets don’t work. And we address physical activity. Some people have physical limitations that prevent them for being more active, so we tailor our approach to what works for each individual.”
Wainscott agrees that what she is doing is not dieting, but instead making permanent changes in how she chooses to live.
“I don’t tell myself I’m on a diet, that doesn’t work for me,” she says. “If I want a treat occasionally, I have one. I make sensible food choices and drink lots of water.”
Although Corley counsels her patients not to focus on numbers like the scale, there are some numbers Wainscott points to with pride.
“At the beginning, I was wearing tight size 28 jeans and now I’m in size 16,” she says. “I just bought my first pair of size 14 jeans.”
Wainscott also relishes her “big reveal” moment, when she surprised her husband at Sea-Tac Airport in late October 2018. After 10 months apart, he walked right past her without recognizing her. It wasn’t until their daughter, Brittni, ran to hug him, that he realized who his wife was.
“He was stunned,” Wainscott says. “I never told him I was losing weight, because I wanted to surprise him.”
During their video chats while he was away, she always disguised the fact that she was dropping pounds.
Wainscott has also reaped other tangible benefits.
“I sleep better, I have more energy, I think better,” she says. “I can keep up with Brittni better. We get out and do more.”
“Kim really seems to have come to a peace with the emotional eating that people struggle with,” adds Corley. “She understands this is not a diet, but a lifestyle change and choices. She has flipped that switch in her thinking.”
Wainscott is still going. She would like to lose more weight. Her goal for 2019 is to run a 5K race pushing her daughter in an adaptive all-terrain push chair. She has longer-term goals as well.
“I don’t have grandkids yet, but when I do, I am going to participate and be active in their lives,” she says firmly.
The MultiCare Center for Weight Loss & Wellness supports you before, during and after the weight loss journey.
