People tell Samaria White she looks good these days. Lovely cheekbones. Radiant smile. Streamlined silhouette.
Too, White has the glow of confidence that comes with losing 100-plus pounds of body weight.
It was a long road, says the 51-year-old home health care aide who is studying to be a certified nursing assistant. She's gone from 303 pounds to 197 pounds and wants to get down to about 180. Any more might be overkill, she says.
"I'm a Southern girl," she says, wryly. "I want to stay thick in all the right places."
White says it's the little things associated with her weight loss that are the most satisfying.
"I can cross my legs, now" she said. "And I don't need a (seat belt) extender on the airplane."
The weight loss didn't happen overnight. It was a multiyear process that started before the pandemic and continues to this day, White says.
"(Living) a healthy lifestyle is a big change physically, mentally and spiritually," she said in an interview.
When she was in her late 40s, White decided she could no longer ignore her weight. She was a diabetic with high blood pressure. She also has spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spinal chord that compresses nerves and causes pain in a person's extremities.
As she neared 50 years old, it seemed like a good time to get serious about resculpting her body. Or, as White always says, "If you think you're too old to do something, DO IT (anyway)!"
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Back in 2019, White lost 30 pounds through exercise and dieting; a challenge from her medical doctor to prove she was serious about a life-changing bariatric surgery ahead. She also saw a psychiatrist who asked her about her relationship with food.
"He asked me why I ate," White recalls. "And I said, 'Because I grew up with two great cooks in the house.'"
After some fits and starts with her weight loss, White was scheduled for bariatric surgery in October 2020. The procedure involved shrinking her stomach down to the size of a golf ball, she said, which curbs the urge to eat. For awhile, she thought it was working too well.
"I got nervous because, at first, I didn't eat anything at all," she said. "The first month I lost 30 pounds. I couldn't keep anything down. Everything smelled funny."
Eventually, White said she forced herself to eat a few foods, including scrambled eggs. Her appetite came back little by little — although never like before the surgery.
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"Even now, I sometimes eat three bites and I'm not hungry any more," she says.
White can almost always eat avocados, cucumbers and tomatoes and sometimes treats herself to a sweet iced tea or a homemade version of orange soda.
White said he has cut her A1C (a measure of blood sugar) from 10.0 to 5.2. An A1C of 6.5 signals diabetes. Her overall fitness has improved, too, partly due to her daily walks that average 10,000 to 15,000 steps. She still has bouts of sciatica pain that originates in the back and radiates down the leg, but, in general, her health is much better.
When asked if she has a "before" picture of herself, White pulls up an image on her phone. She's gone from a size 26-28 dress to a size 12-14, she says.
Interestingly, White said her weight loss has cause mixed reaction in her social life, which is something her doctors had predicted before her surgery, she said.
"A lot happens after have you have surgery," White said. "Things changed. I gained some friends; I lost some."
White said that because her looks have changed so radically, some former friends treat her like she's a different person — perhaps because she gets more attention than before. But more importantly, White said she has gained many friends by encouraging them to adopt her motto that it's never too late to start living a healthier life.
White said her favorite Bible verse is Philippians 4:13: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
She says that because of her weigh loss she's felt a shift in herself that has boosted her mental, as well as physical, health.
"It's healing," she said of her weight loss. "It's therapeutic."
"Life Stories" publishes on Mondays. To suggest a human interest story, contact Mark Kennedy at mkennedy@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6645.