Looking hale and hearty, Michael Bare and his wife, Lorna Wimberley, pedaled effortlessly into the parking lot outside an Irvine weight-loss center. Despite the 10-mile bike ride from their Fountain Valley home, they’d scarcely broken a sweat.
Yet four years ago, Bare dreaded simply leaving his second-story townhouse – knowing that eventually he would have to climb back up the stairs, pausing every other step to catch his breath.
With his 5-foot-10 frame carrying 424 pounds, Bare often relied on walking sticks to get around.
“All my doctors started telling me, essentially, that I was going to die if I didn’t do something,” Bare, 64, said.
Wimberley, 63, was in much better shape, but wanted to lose the extra 45 pounds she’d put on after reaching middle age. “My motivation was to look better,” she said.
A retired contract facilitator for a pharmaceutical company, Wimberley got busy using her research skills to investigate options – choosing the UCI Health Weight Management Program. “We liked it because it focuses on overall lifestyle changes,” she said.
Today, her husband is the center’s biggest – or, rather, slimmest – success story in its three decades.
“Michael was our first patient to lose 200 pounds,” said Katie Rankell, program director for the Irvine clinic. “We had to custom-make a milestone pin for him.”
Bare would go on to whittle his weight down to its current 205.
His journey started with a seven-month-long liquid diet. Gradually, Bare added solid foods, cutting out many of those things that got him there in the first place.
What does he most miss? “Cinnabon,” Wimberely concisely answered. Still, he occasionally allows himself a small treat: “At Thanksgiving, I had an inch-wide slice of pumpkin pie.”
Bare began his habit of overeating as a child coping with problems at home: “I learned to make jokes about myself before other kids could,” he said.
A bookworm and movie-phile – who recently retired from his job managing a college bookstore – Bare was content to immerse himself in science fiction and mysteries. “I was not into sports at all,” he said.
But over the past several years he has learned that, in order to lighten up, “diet and exercise go hand-in-hand,” Bare said.
Rather than drive their car to pick up a few groceries, Bare and Wimberley now walk to stores – often rewarding themselves with Splenda-sweetened coffee at a Starbucks. They even take aerobics classes – an idea once completely alien to Bare.
And they ride their bikes all over Orange County. Bare and Wimberley can tick off every route they take to avoid four-wheeled traffic. Their meandering itineraries include the river trail, golf courses, beach paths and parks.
On a recent morning, Bare and Wimberley attended their now-monthly weigh-in and class at the weight management center. About 20 other chatty weight-losers, who have bonded over their mission, also showed up.
The December workshop’s time-honored topic: surviving the holidays.
Health educator Suzan Varga clicked through a PowerPoint reminding students of common pitfalls. One slide illustrated on a scale of zero to 10 the optimal moment to put down the fork – not at “full,” and certainly not at “ravenous” or “stuffed,” but at “satisfied.”
To combat “mindless eating” at parties, Varga suggested, “front load” beforehand on a healthy meal. Bring a platter of fruits or vegetables to share and munch on.
A useful tip for restaurant dining that applies year-round: “If you already know what you’re going to order – like the veggie egg white omelet at Denny’s – don’t even look at the menu,” Varga said. “Those beautiful pictures of food are a trigger.”
Physical activity, she reiterated, is “non-negotiable, like brushing your teeth every day.”
Bare certainly provides testimony to that advice. “I no longer have to take blood pressure medication or shoot myself with insulin to control my type 2 diabetes,” he said.
Once upon a time, he and his wife didn’t travel beyond uncomfortable flights to Ohio, their home state. But over the past two years, they’ve toured England, France and Washington, D.C.
“We are having a lot of fun,” Bare said. “I got my life back.”