POUNDING AWAY: BOOKS STRESS THAT LOSING WEIGHT INVOLVES PIVOTAL LIFESTYLE, ATTITUDE CHANGES.

By Jean Williams, Food Editor
   Feast on this frightening fact, the downside of dining: one in every three Americans is obese.
   And with the onset of a new year, tons of folks with this weighty condition have resolved to lose it.
   Statistics say that corpulent crowds spend nearly $38 billion each year on weight-loss efforts. But even with all our dieting for dollars, we continue to rack up the pounds.
   So what to do after discovering that your favorite trousers have been stolen by aliens, replaced by a smaller size?
   A typical Resolution Routine goes something like this:
Someone faxes you a copy of the Cabbage Soup Diet, guaranteed to touch off a frenzy of falling flab, up to 12 pounds a week!
   Psyched, you race to the grocery store, buy a bunch of juices and vegetables (ones that you've never before been able to stomach) and return home to brew the magic weight-dissolving elixir.
   After three days of starvation, tummy trouble and gastric mayhem, you feed the cabbage potion to the disposal. Giving up, you search the cupboards, pour yourself a tall glass of milk and begin the slam-dunk cookie ritual.
   Unfortunately, it's the "quick-fix" diets that eventually trigger a weight gain.
   Oprah Winfrey's amazing 1988 television debut as a much thinner person due to a restrictive Optifast diet (she went from 211 to 142 pounds) was truly memorable.
   To see the petite talk-show host pull a wagon full of the same amount of fat she had dropped was impressive indeed; business boomed for Optifast.
   In Make the Connection, a book she co-authored with Bob Greene, her physical trainer, Winfrey's journal reveals the usual aftermath of rapid weight loss:
   November 29th, 1988: Exactly two weeks after the diet show. I've gained five pounds. I'm 150 today. I've been eating out of control. I've got to bring it to an end. I can't get used to being thin.
   December 7th, 1988: I read an article today, one criticizing the Revlon shoot, making fun of the weight loss, saying "Let's see her in two years." It really hurt my feelings. I'll show them.
   December 13th, 1988: "I came home and ate as much cereal as I could hold. I eat junk all day. Not good at all. I've never decided how I'm going to keep the weight off. I keep experimenting, testing how much I can eat. It's all so ridiculous. How am I going to get through the holidays without gaining?"
   December 26th, 1988: "There's a party in Aspen, I don't want to go. I've gained five more pounds. I'm 155."
   January 2nd, 1989: This was my day to start dieting again. Instead, I made pork chops . . .
   In 1992, as Oprah self-consciously appeared onstage to accept an Emmy Award, she weighed her heaviest ever - 237 pounds.
   Fortunately, Winfrey changed her eating and exercise habits, with a little help from her friends, personal chef Rosie Daley and her trainer.
   She's 85 pounds lighter and has kept the weight off for over two years.
   The secret? It's the "connection" Greene talks about. It's a change in perception. It's first realizing that weight loss is not what is most important; the excess weight is only a symptom of a larger problem, and losing it is a side effect of something much more important.
   "It is really about increasing self-confidence, inner strength, and discipline," says Greene.
   "It is about feeling better on a daily basis, having control over your life, and caring about yourself. ULTIMATELY IT IS ABOUT SELF-LOVE," he says.
   Locally, Dana Thornock, author and creator of "The LEAN & FREE LIFESTYLE" used to travel the roller-coaster diet ride, beginning with her overweight teen years.
   "I was fat, unhealthy and frustrated," she recalls. She wanted to be lean, healthy and "free from the horrible bondage of dieting."
   At the time, Thornock thought that her dream of having a trim, healthy body was impossible.
   Over the years, her weight jumped to 204 pounds. She was barely able to wear a size 14 dress or squeeze into size 18 pants. "Each thigh measured greater than my waist," she recalls.
   She married during her junior year in college and continued her studies, focusing on nutrition and communication. But after giving birth to two children, she was once again overweight - 200 pounds.
Discouraged, she contacted a professor who put her through a treadmill/stress test.
   The results revealed a high pulse rate, erratic heartbeat and other serious problems. But what he told her would set off her search for a permanent solution to weight and health problems.
   "Recent scientific research indicates the body can't tell the difference between starving and dieting, so the answer to a lean, healthy body may be eating more, not less."
   Thornock knew that every time she dieted, she only seemed to get fatter. The professor's theory intrigued her. She studied all the literature she could find from reputable sources: the World Health Organization, the National Institutes of Health, the American Cancer Society, the American Diabetic Association and the American Heart Association.
   She researched reputable weight-loss systems and books. While they all contributed to an understanding of body-fat management, each fell short of a complete solution.
   Thornock began incorporating a few scientific principles from each source. A year later, she was exercising moderately and eating 2,000 to 3,500 calories per day - a dramatic change from her previous habits. And was a proud size 4.
   She now heads a highly successful corporation in Kaysville, writes books, videos and tapes and continues to teach her system.
   Struggling over why you've been unable to maintain an ideal body size?
   Dana knows.

© 1997 Deseret News Publishing Co.