TRUE INSPIRATION I THOUGHT I'D SHARE WITH YOU

 

By Mike Celizic

TODAYShow.com contributor

updated 8:28 a.m. CT, Mon., June 22, 2009

When she hit 575 pounds, Tammey Burns tried to commit suicide. The attempt didn’t work, leaving the Missouri woman with no other choice but to finally lose the hundreds of pounds of fat that had robbed her of her life.

It took seven years and a journey deep within herself, but today the newest member of the Joy Fit Club weighs in at a trim 165 pounds.

Burns showed off her new figure and shared her story with Joy Fit Club founder Joy Bauer and TODAY’s Matt Lauer Monday in New York. To illustrate how much fat she lost, huge buckets filled with 410 pounds of lard were piled on risers on the stage. Next to them stood three TODAY interns — two women and one man who together weigh as much as Burns did before she lost all that weight.

A life of limits
“Food was my drug of choice,” the 50-year-old woman told Lauer and Bauer. It took the failed suicide attempt to force her to discover that.

At the time, the list of things Burns couldn’t do was endless. She couldn’t visit friends for fear she’d break any furniture she sat on. Couldn’t get in a car. Couldn’t go to the movies. Couldn’t attend to her own hygiene without help.

She couldn’t pick her foot up high enough to climb even one low step, couldn’t take more than two or three steps without gasping for breath. Just standing for more than a couple of minutes caused severe pain in her hips and back.

Even sleeping lying down was a near impossibility.

Burns was going through five liters of oxygen a day. She had hypertension, restrictive lung disease, sleep apnea, respiratory insufficiency, obesity hypoventilation syndrome, venous stasis insufficiency, diabetes. The right side of her enlarged heart was failing.

For years, Burns had tried every fad diet without success. But, she said, the secret to finally taking control of her body and her life came down to “working from within — from the inside out.”

She started by water-walking in the center’s therapy pool, and worked her way up to an exercise bike. Then Young challenged her to walk four days a week.

“My perspective on life is positive and healthy,” Burns wrote. “God is taking me on an amazing journey to give hope to others.

“I am preparing for my certifications as a personal trainer and wellness coach,” she added. “I am training to be competitive in race-walking events. I cannot imagine returning to my formal dismal state, because life is an amazing adventure ... if you let it be.”

“I don’t even know you, and I’m proud of you,” Lauer said with emotion. He asked Burns what advice she has for others who have despaired of ever losing massive amounts of weight.

“Quit the fad diets,” Burns replied. “Make it a healthy lifestyle change. Work on your emotional issues, and combine exercise with a healthy lifestyle change.

“And focus on your goals — not the struggle,” she concluded.