Sun, The (Lowell, MA)
August 19, 2006
Section: Today's Headlines
Her Law is Living Light
REBECCA FATER, Sun Statehouse Bureau
LOWELL -- Colleen Garry was 45 pounds heavier when she walked into The Club on Middlesex Street last January with a new determination. She was out of shape. She'd belonged to the gym for the last several months, but regular exercise was far from tops on her priority list. Nevertheless, the Dracut resident committed to a punishing routine that included sweating over four cardio exercise machines -- the treadmill, the stationary bike and two elliptical machines -- per visit.
"I could only do five minutes on each," she recalled.
Today, a thinner, trimmer Garry smiles ear to ear when she reflects on how far she's come in those 6 1/2 months. She's more than quadrupled her time on each machine, totaling an hour and a half of cardio and a grand 890 calories each day at the gym. She dedicates another 30 minutes to straining over weights.
And just two months ago, she dug into the back of her closet and triumphantly zipped herself into the skinniest business suit she owns.
Gripped with a new determination, Garry has a plan to lose a total 110 pounds from when she started -- she has 65 to go -- and conquer the unhealthy lifestyle and extra weight.
"I joke that I was born heavier than that, and I don't know how that's going to look," chuckled Garry, 44, who is also running for re-election for her seventh term as a Dracut state representative. "This is something that's always been eating away at me, and I'll conquer this too!"
While there were a lot of great things about growing up in Dracut, Garry's childhood memories are also filled with all the things the little girl couldn't -- or wouldn't -- do, out of embarrassment over being heavy or sheer physical strain. She remembers bringing occasional notes to school to excuse herself from gym class to save her self-esteem from a weekly bruising.
Regular, healthy nutrition was part of the problem. With her father working long and irregular hours as the principal at Dracut High School until she was 9, family mealtime was all over the map. Nor was exercise a major part of her family's lifestyle, and Garry fell into the trap of emotional eating: using food to soothe emotional pain.
As an adult, her unhealthy habits began causing physical problems. She lacked energy. She suffered from bouts of stress, especially around the holidays, which translated into extreme migraine headaches and tension around her neck and jaw, diagnosed as temporomandibular joint disorder, commonly known as TMJ.
Every two years when campaign season rolled around, more calories would pile on as Garry stumped for votes at spaghetti suppers and bean dinners.
And last December was a whirlwind of stress, worry and an extra 25 pounds of emotional eating when her father's health plummeted.
"I got to the point where I was unhappy with myself," she said.
It was a Monday morning in late January when Garry picked up the phone and dialed the Jenny Craig weight-loss center in Chelmsford. When she went to the center for her first visit, a counselor snapped her picture to hang on the community board as inspiration. Garry was wearing a boxy, purple suit.
When Garry hit a total weight loss of 30 pounds, Jenny Craig consultant Sue Dunlop snapped a new picture.
"The difference is remarkable," said Dunlop, who spoke with permission from Garry, as client information is normally confidential. "It's like watching a butterfly come out of a cocoon."
That January day when Garry marched into the Chelmsford weight-loss center for the first time, Dunlop sensed this client was serious about change.
"People need to be ready to do it," she said. "She came in and said to my boss, 'Give me your best consultant.' She has been just taking my guidance every step of the way and doing really well with it."
For Garry -- who spends her days running between her Statehouse office, her law office where she works part time as a divorce attorney, and her family obligations -- the turning point was all about giving herself permission to take the time to care for herself.
"A lot of women have that caregiver syndrome," said Garry, wearing a pretty green flowered dress at a recent interview in her law office on East Merrimack Street. "They put everybody else first and themselves last. (I realized) I'm not going to be any good to my family, my district or my clients if I'm not well."
Six and a half months since Garry started her journey, life has a greater sense of balance. While she spends five to six days per week going to the gym and taking walks around the Statehouse, she doesn't get the migraines and hasn't seen her chiropractor for the TMJ in six months. Her clothes have dropped three to four sizes. She doesn't let stress get the better of her.
"When I would have gone home and pigged out, I go to the gym now, and an hour and a half later I feel great," she said.
Evidence of her success has gone well beyond her own clothes closet. Fellow lawmakers and colleagues at the Statehouse and at home have commented, congratulated, even joked about how they don't recognize her. But the most exciting compliment, Garry said, is the fact that several people have taken up the challenge to get fit themselves.
"I've been told by many people that I've inspired them," she said, beaming. "And it feels great. If I can do it, anybody can do it."
Viewing herself as a "local Oprah," she considers it extra motivation when temptation or tiredness threatens to trip her up. The last week of formal sessions at the Statehouse in July was especially trying. Late nights of roll calls, meetings and long hours interrupted her workout schedule and threw off her discipline. She gained back five pounds.
But when the very Italian Speaker of the House Sal DiMasi ordered a spread of delectable, calorie-rich dishes for his members at dinnertime that last week, Garry didn't give herself the chance to sink to temptation.
"I didn't even go in the room," she said. "What I would do is go for walks during that hour, and eat my Jenny Craig (meal) in my office."
That extra 65 pounds to go is not the only goal Garry has in mind. She also plans to run a half marathon at Disney World in Florida next January, 13.1 miles of sweat and pain to raise money for the American Heart Association in honor of her parents.
And she wants to be a role model for all those little girls with poor self-image and unhealthy habits, like one member of a local Brownie Troop she met last week who refused to climb a rope bridge for fear it couldn't bear her weight.
"The little girl looked at me and said, 'I can't do that,' " Garry remembered.
"I thought, that's how I was when I was a kid. I thought about all the things I missed out on. I said (to the child), 'You know what? I'll get on it. I'll show you.' "
And she did.
Rebecca Fater's e-mail address is rfater@lowellsun.com.
(c) 2006 The Sun ( Lowell, MA). All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Media NewsGroup, Inc. by NewsBank, Inc.
