Taking Charge of Your Health
How St. John's Can Help

The Big Loser: John’s Story

A year and a half ago, John Nichols was sick.
At 400 pounds, the 47-year-old former construction contractor’s body mass index was 57. His cholesterol was 320 and his resting heart rate was 100 beats per minute. He also was diabetic and on 14 different medications.
But Nichols wasn’t just physically sick. He was sick of being obese.
“Like most people with a weight problem, I had tried lots of diets and other methods to lose weight, including gastric plication surgery when I lived in Texas several years ago. Due to complications, that surgery was reversed. Finally in June of 2003, I knew I had to do something to keep the weight off permanently … it had gotten to the point to where I needed help just bathing and getting dressed because I was so heavy.”
Nichols joined New Images, a medically supervised weight loss program operated by dietitians, exercise physiologists and psychologists at St. John’s Hammons Heart Institute. Through New Images, Nichols learned about exercise and nutrition. He even got to the heart of his weight problem.
“I ate for emotional reasons, and I ate all of the wrong kinds of foods. I ate very few vegetables and I ate a lot of high-carbohydrate foods. Now I eat lots of vegetables and I’ve learned about portion control. You can satisfy a craving with just a taste of the food, rather than with a large amount of food,” Nichols says.
He says the only food he misses from his former diet is bread. “The hardest part of losing weight for me was the exercise component. I started with five minutes on the treadmill and slowly worked my way up. Now I exercise six days a week at Hammons Heart Institute, through New Images, and I look forward to it because it really makes me feel good,” he says.
By November 2004, Nichols had dropped from 400 to 250 pounds. More importantly, as a result of his 150-pound weight loss, Nichols is now asymptomatic for diabetes and with his physician’s approval, was able to slowly eliminate all 14 of the medications he was taking for his obesity-related conditions. His wife and family are thrilled with his progress. He says his faith in God and his family’s support have been his source of strength to finally take charge of his health.
“My wife is a nurse, and she knew the dangers of obesity. For the last seven years that I was obese, we rarely left the house together because I never felt well enough to do anything,” Nichols says. “Now we travel all the time and I can play with my grandchildren. New Images has given me my life back.” Though he’s proud of his accomplishment, Nichols isn’t satisfied yet. “My target weight is 190, and I hope to reach that by June,” he says.
Nichols’ advice for anyone needing to lose weight?
“Don’t beat yourself up for what you did or didn’t do yesterday or the day before or the week before. Focus on what you can do today.”

Do you need help losing weight? St. John’s is here for you.
• New Images: 417-820-3031
• LEAN (Learning, Exercise And Nutrition, a program for moderate weight
loss: 417-820-2172.
• Gastric bypass surgery is now available at St. John’s to those who have a body-mass index of more than 40 and have tried unsuccessfully to lose weight through diet modification and exercise. St. John’s surgeons Cameron Hodges, M.D., and Christopher Edwards, M.D., perform the procedure. Call Dr. Hodges at St. John’s General & Vascular Surgery at 417-888-5671 or Dr. Edwards at St. John's Clinic - General & Pediatric Surgery – Fremont at 417-820-3800 for more information about the gastric bypass surgery program.