FORT KENT, Maine — My friend Marla Jandreau Landry can’t wait for the carnival to come to town.
“I want to ride a carnival ride,” she told me a week or so ago. “It’s been years since I could because I did not fit in them.”
For years Marla dealt with life challenges — moving as a kid, bad relationships, depression, divorce — by turning to the comfort she found in food. Until one day in 2014, the 45-year-old looked up and realized at 315 pounds, she was in trouble.
“That was in March [2014], and I was trucking with my husband,” she said. “I did not feel good, I was waking up choking and had heartburn all the time.”
Her husband, Lenny Landry, a truck driver, said at 355 pounds he was facing his own weight demons.
Marla told me she remembered watching the television show “My 600 Pound Life” and telling herself she was halfway there.
“I started to cry and just bawled my eyes out,” she said.
So, she made up her mind to do something about it.
To date, the couple has lost a combined 187 pounds with Mara losing 112 and Lenny down 75 pounds.
And they did it all on their own. No gimmicks, no fad diets and no weight loss surgery. They found what worked for them and ran with it, albeit slowly at first.
“I’m too cheap, and I refused to pay for weight loss products,” Marla said. “I figured I got myself into this, I will get myself out.”
She began by taking a hard look at her lifestyle and eating choices.
“For me it was carbs,” Marla said. “I think I have food-attention-deficit-disorder. You know how people will talk and then joke by saying, ‘Oh, look, squirrel!’ With me it was, ‘Oh look, cake!’”
So she went online to research safe and effective weight loss strategies.
She determined a daily caloric threshold of 1,200 nutritious calories would allow her to safely lose her target of 2 pounds per week.
At first, she concentrated only on what she put into her body, weighing and keeping a meticulous log of everything she ate.
“A digital kitchen scale will be your best friend,” Marla said.
After losing 40 pounds on diet alone, she added some exercise into the mix.
“When I started, I could not even walk for five minutes without having to stop,” Marla said. “I slowly added minutes, and now I do 5-kilometers three or four times a week.”
She also goes to a local gym to use the treadmill.
“Talk about motivation,” Marla said. “I was on the treadmill and there was a beauty pageant winner on the one next to me.”
She said she noticed progress almost immediately.
“When I lost the first 15 pounds, I really felt it,” she said. “Now I look and I’ve gone from a size 28 to a 16, [and] I can go shop on the regular size [clothing] racks at Wal-Mart now.”
For his part, Lenny was all in and is down to 270 pounds, feels great and is controlling his high blood pressure.
“When she had lost 40 pounds, I gave her a 40-pound bag of wood pellets to carry,” he said. “Just to show her how far she’d come.”
Marla said her eating style for years was “grazing” as she went throughout her day nibbling on high calorie snacks and drinking sugar-loaded soda.
“I’d have a Devil Dog here, a piece of cheese there all day,” she said. “Now I ask myself, “Am I hungry or just bored?’”
A lot of times, Lenny said, they are simply thirsty, and going for a tall glass of fresh water hits the spot.
Though it took until last year to make meaningful changes, Marla said she knew long before then that she had to do something about her weight.
“In 2003, I was set to have gastric bypass surgery,” she said. “But a week before it was going to happen, I lost my insurance.”
Looking back, she believes that was ultimately for the best as she has since been forced to revise her eating habits and has developed the willpower to stick with them.
That’s not to say the two do not still enjoy a good meal — now it’s just healthier.
“Last night we had fiddleheads, potatoes and grilled chicken with just a spice rub on it,” Marla said.
“Grilling is awesome for losing weight,” Lenny said.
Knowing she will want a snack later in the evening, Marla said she “saves” 300 calories and will enjoy a nutrition bar or pretzels with her coffee at night.
“At Easter I discovered Peeps,” she said of the marshmallow treat. “I can have a whole row of those for just 100 calories.”
Marla and Lenny have more weight to lose, but they say it is still coming off. They are looking forward to carnival rides and want to go ziplining, ride motorcycles and get leather jackets.
“The other day I really splurged on myself for the first time,” Marla said. “I actually went to Victoria’s Secret and got a new bra.”
I think it’s safe to say that is not on Lenny’s to-do list.
Marla also would like to have skin-removal surgery to take care of pounds of loose skin she’s been left with after her dramatic weight loss.
But, with no insurance and the operation costing around $20,000, she’s reconciled herself to putting that dream on indefinite hold.
“It’s OK that I have ‘arm flaps,’” Marla said. “Those are my weight loss battle scars.”
The Landrys say anyone can lose the weight when ready to put his or her mind to it.
“It’s a lifestyle change,” Lenny said. “I like food as much as the next person, but I like feeling good better.”
Julia Bayly of Fort Kent is an award winning writer and photographer, who writes part time for Bangor Daily News. Her column appears here every other Friday. She can be reached by email at jbayly@bangordailynews.com.
