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BY TIM SHELLBERG
Times Correspondent | Monday, July 04, 2005 | (No comments posted.)
Marcia Blatchford, a 53-year-old schoolteacher in Oak Lawn, spent the better part of a decade trying numerous methods to shed unwanted weight.
She ventured down relatively healthy avenues, such as calorie counting and the egg and grapefruit diet. She also tried less-than-healthy methods, such as diet pills and laxatives, in an effort to return to her high school weight. While some of these attempts occasionally would result in shrinking clothes sizes, she eventually would return to an undesirable weight.
All of that changed for Blatchford, however, in 1998. Through a friend, she was introduced to the Weigh Down Workshop, which promotes dropping pounds through a combination of food monitoring and spirituality.
"It replaced the greed for food with a want for God, and that sounded right to me," she said. "I cut my portions in half and I started losing weight right away -- I was a size 18, (and now) I'm an Eddie Bauer (size) six -- and at some stores, they even make me be a (size) four."
A higher power than dieting
Weigh Down pioneer encourages people to take personal responsibility for their eating
To say that America has a love affair with food is putting it mildly to Gwen Shamblin, who pioneered the Weigh Down Workshop nearly two decades ago.
"When people say they don't have a relationship with food, I say 'oh yeah you do,'" she said. "You dress for it, you put on your stretch clothes when you get home or a robe for a big meal to make sure nothing comes between you and a big meal. You think about it throughout the day."
"The Center for Disease Control is saying that 67, 68 percent (of the population) is overweight, is obese, and that's crazy."
Raised in Memphis by a surgeon father, Shamblin followed in her dad's medical footsteps and began her professional career as a nutritionist and nutrition instructor at the University in Tennessee. She also was reared with a strong spiritual upbringing, reading the Bible on a regular basis since she was a youngster.
Inspired by what she saw in her own mirror -- she admitted to being 20 pounds overweight for many years -- Shamblin created the Weigh Down Workshop in 1986. At the time, the only successful marriage between weight loss and faith Shamblin saw was at churches, where members participated in Weight Watchers.
"(Weigh Down) takes it out of nutrition books and puts it in the hands of the creator," she said. "There's this empty hole in your heart, and I started going 'God. Can you do better than rocky road ice cream? Can you do better than these indulgences that I was going through?' And I found the answer on my knees, praying."
At its most basic, Weigh Down doesn't offer much in the way of dietary tips; in fact, dieting, as a concept, is discouraged in the Weigh Down program.
Instead of overindulging, Weigh Down encourages its participants to pull away from the table and look to their higher power. Shamblin also doesn't point the finger at the food being eaten or any hereditary factors; the problem, as well as the solution, can be found in the individual.
"I have found that the only people who could change are the ones that will look (at themselves) in the mirror and say 'yeah. I know I eat too much,'" she said. "It's personal responsibility. If you ate three Big Macs, cut it in half. Or order a Happy Meal."
Rather than preach the program to the masses, Shamblin, on the onset, maintained a low profile. Over the next several years, she was encouraged by friends and associates who put her methods to use to make her methods known.
In 1992, she released the how-to audio cassette "Exodus: Out of Egypt: The Weigh Down Workshop" and followed that up five years later with her first book, "The Weigh Down Diet." Several more books, as well as videos, have since followed, as have classes throughout the country to give the program a more hands-on approach.
Shamblin also has made the small screen rounds, appearing on programs such as "Good Morning America," "20/20" and "Larry King Live." Additionally, the program's Web site, www.wdworkshop.com, was, at one point, receiving more than a million hits per month.
While some may see the appearances, books, classes and videos and question Weigh Down as nothing more than a marketing and sales-heavy endeavor, Kathy Held, chief dietitian at St. Margaret Mercy Healthcare Center, sees a place for the program in the weight-loss strata.
"It does bother me when someone says 'this diet works' and they try to solicit and get everyone to jump on the bandwagon, because what might work for one person may not work for another," she said. "But this (program) would work for some people. I think if you're not a spiritual person, it's not going to work."
"A lot of times people eat because they have other problems," she added. "And if (Weigh Down) can help them cope through their problems through prayer, that would alleviate the problem of overeating."
When Blatchford, who also is afflicted with high blood pressure and high cholesterol, first began Weigh Down eight years ago, she was 80 pounds heavier than she is today. After losing 25 pounds at first, she admitted to straying from the program for a few months before returning to it full-force in 1999.
"When I wanted to go to food, I would go to God. (I would go to) the workbook and the tapes. What it did was it opened up a spiritual end for me. I would go to the Bible more. It was this longing for food, but instead, I cried out to God and went to the Bible, and I couldn't stay away from the Bible, and I learned that it was more than just the food.
Blatchford, at 5 feet, 9 inches and 140 pounds, also credits Weigh Down for bringing her high blood pressure and cholesterol levels down. She currently serves as a coordinator for Weigh Down and conducts classes out of her home. Prior to that, she conducted the classes at Rush Medical Center.
Weigh Down currently offers eight-, 10- and 12-week classes that can be taken both hands-on and online, which consists of viewing a video, lecturing and discussion of successes and struggles.
For more information on the Weigh Down Workshop, visit www.wdworkshop.com.
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