Rhonda Lokken still remembers being made fun of weight when I was little.
“I have been overweight since I was 5 years old and I was the kid on the playground being teased and bullied. The guys called me fat,” she told TODAY Lokken, 60, who lives in Bemidji, Minnesota.
“My mom had to order big sizes from catalogs because I lived in a small town in Southeast Alaska and that was the only way I could get clothes. That was always embarrassing.”
Lokken said she always had a sweet tooth and spent most of her life as an adult weighing more than 300 pounds. When she became pregnant with twins, the number on her scale grew even higher, so much so that she told her doctor that she didn’t want to know any more about it.
He tried many ways to lose weight: a liquid diet, a very strict calorie count, the ketogenic diet, Atkins, and Weight Watchers. Nothing worked long term.
At 5 feet 8 inches tall, Lokken had a BMI that put her in the severe obesity category and affected his health. In 2000, she developed type 2 diabetes. Doctors told her that she would never be able to get off insulin.
Severe sleep apnea meant that Lokken had to start using a CPAP machine. He had high blood pressure, found it hard to move, and got out of breath easily. Her self-confidence also suffered.
“They just treat you differently when you’re when you are obese”, he recalled. “People look at you and judge you…they see your weight as a character flaw. I always thought people didn’t take me as seriously as they take others who are normal weight.”
Weight loss plan: ‘I completely changed my mentality’
Things started to change when he moved from Seattle to Bemidji in 2017. He started seeing a doctor that kick-started his journey of better health, Lokken said.
In 2020, he began meeting with Sue Diaz, a nutritionist at Sanford Health who also has type 2 diabetes. Lokken was using a lot of insulin at the time, which can make weight loss difficult, so Diaz recommended an alternative medication that was approved by your doctor.
Together, they made changes to the Lokken lifestyle that included:
I only ate when I was hungry: “It’s about listening to my body and being very aware of what it tells me. Am I really hungry or am I just stressed, angry or happy?” Lokken pointed out. Before he started paying attention to that, “any emotion, and I was headed for food,” he said.
Looking for ways to eliminate added sugar: When Diaz begins working with patients, he asks them about sugary foods or liquids in their diet. “He just starts pecking at that,” he advised. “If someone is drinking five cans of soda a day, maybe set a goal to get down to three and see how it goes.”
Making certain changes: Lokken followed a vegetarian diet for a year, though he has now returned to eating some meat. She skips fast food and doesn’t drink alcohol.
Eat smaller portions: Diaz once had a patient whose favorite bowl of cereal was about three times larger than one would expect. He was basically eating the equivalent of three meals in one sitting and had no idea, he said.
Paying attention to serving sizes: Use measuring cups to determine the proper serving size. If they are not available, there are other ways to measure quantity: a clenched fist equals a cup of food; a thumb is like a tablespoon; a tennis ball is the size of a piece of fruit; and a computer mouse is about the size of a serving of a starchy vegetable, Diaz said.
Exercise: Lokken joined a gym in 2019 and started working out with a personal trainer. That routine continues today.
Indulging with care: “If I have a chocolate craving, I will eat some chocolate. I’ll try to have it in a smaller portion and then keep the rest where I can’t see it,” Lokken said. “I never want to feel deprived. If I start acting like I’m lacking and ‘Oh, I can’t have this ice cream’ and I really want it, then that’s a problem for me, then I might have a hard time not thinking about it.” She still loves sweets, so when the holidays come around or someone brings a box of donuts to share, she mentally prepares for it and is careful to treat herself.
Making it a way of life: “I completely changed my mindset. I never called what I was doing being on a diet,” Lokken said. Instead, he sees it as a way of eating for life that doesn’t get “ruined” by eating a piece of cake. Most people want a quick fix, he said, but he has taken it in stride and gradually changed his lifestyle.
After about three and a half years of this routine, Lokken has lost more than 100 pounds and now weighs 196. He is completely insulin-free and his diabetes is under control. He no longer has to use a CPAP machine when he sleeps. He went from a size 24 to a 12 and recently bought his first swimsuit in years.
“This whole journey is not just about losing weight for me,” Lokken said. “It’s about being the best version of me that I can be and focusing on my health.”
