Bio: A therapist with master’s degrees in both human and spiritual psychology, Robin Stiff has lived in the Denver area since 1999, when she moved here from California to be with her mother after her father’s death. Now 45, she grew up in Brooklyn, N.Y., earned her bachelor’s at the University of Vermont and counseled families for a foster child agency in Los Angeles before coming to Colorado. Today she works in the custom design department of the J.C. Penney store in Park Meadows mall. She lives in Centennial and is an active member of the Heritage Christian Center in Aurora.
The Challenge: A compulsive overeater from an early age, Stiff says she “always had an unhealthy relationship with food.” As a girl, she sought refuge from the normal pains of growing up by eating – even when it got her in trouble, as it did one time in fourth grade when she picked all the nuts off a holiday dessert her mother had baked. “I don’t remember grazing all day, but I ate both in front of and behind closed doors,” she says. “I remember relating to life through a lot of fear, and using food to cover up those uncomfortable thoughts.”
As an adult, she ballooned to more than 200 pounds, which on her 5-foot frame put her well into the obese category, placing her at risk for diabetes, high blood pressure and other chronic health problems. She tried Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig and diet pills, but nothing worked for more than a few weeks. Finally, at 40, she began to see her situation as an addiction and tackled it through a faith-based 12-step program that helped her lose more than 80 pounds in about a year.
How She Did It: “I learned that my weight isn’t a moral issue – that food isn’t good or bad. I realized I was not responsible for my compulsive behavior, but I was responsible for my recovery,” says Stiff, who has stayed around 125 pounds for four years.
Today, in addition to praying and serving as an “accountability partner” to others in her support group, she follows an unvarying regimen in which she decides every morning what and how much she will eat for the day, weighs and measures out each portion, and sticks to the plan no matter what. She even carries a scale in her car in case she finds herself unexpectedly on the road at mealtime.
“I’m known around work as the ‘Tupperware Lady,”‘ she says. “People often say, ‘You’re so disciplined.’ But I tell them, ‘No, you’re the one who’s disciplined.’ It would be very difficult for me to go to a buffet and just pick and choose.”
Still Working On: Keeping her commitment “to be a healthy person.” Stiff describes her approach as “basically three meals a day with nothing in between, except maybe coffee or tea or a diet soda.” Her menu typically includes a choice of yogurt, eggs or turkey bacon and an apple, pineapple or berries for breakfast; 4 ounces of chicken, 8 ounces of lettuce and tomato, and 8 ounces of cooked vegetable for lunch; and for supper, the same amount of protein and vegetable but 12 ounces of salad. She steers clear of starchy foods, fearing they will activate a craving for more. “It would be like asking an alcoholic to have just one light beer a day,” she says. “I have had to eliminate carbs in order to stay abstinent and healthy.”
Best Advice: “It’s important for me, when I am eating, to focus on the food and enjoy it, as opposed to eating on the run. What I’m proud of is that my meals have a beginning and an end – that I have a table and a chair to sit in, and once it’s over I don’t go back for seconds or snacks.”
-Jack Cox
