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By Florence Nash
Eileen A. grew up knowing all about
the Rice Diet from the women patients
who rented rooms at her grandparents'
Durham house, but she never
thought she'd be a patient herself.
However, in April 2003, she realized
that "the gun was loaded" and pointing
right at her. At the urging of her
doctor, she enrolled in the Rice Diet
Program because, she says, "once
that gun goes off, your life is over.
And I love life!"
You can tell that by looking at her: a
petite blonde with a big warm smile,
Eileen is full of pep and looks years
younger than 62. The medical staff
calls her an exemplary ricer.
Diagnosed with seriously high blood
pressure at the age of eight, she was
plagued with frequent headaches and
shakiness, and chronic malaise. Eileen
went from one diet to another, tried
shots and pills, but she couldn't make
real long-term change. Then when her
first son was born, she was diagnosed
with diabetes. Still, she never quite
registered how much was at stake.
"I did all the right things, but I never
knew why, never had a goal beyond
looking good, getting into that dress
for that party. The doctor never
said, you have to lose weight because
of your blood pressure, your
diabetes. He just said, you're getting
too big! My son always said,
'Ma, you need to lose weight. Do
you think you ought to be eating
that?' And I'd say, 'I'm watching
myself. Don't worry, I'm watching!"
She makes a rueful face. "When I
see pictures now, I can see how big I
was, but in the mirror then I didn't
see it."
Despite her sporadic dieting, her
weight continued to creep up.
Twice she was briefly hospitalized
with chest pains. She was put on
blood pressure medications and insulin.
But Eileen is determinedly optimistic
and, it must be said, pretty
good at denial. She still didn't get
the message. Her doctor advised
catheterization; Eileen wouldn't hear
of it. Instead, she talked to a doctor
whom her doctor son respected. He
told her that, without some major
action, she'd have a heart attack in
six months to a year. So how about a
gastric by-pass? Eileen asked him.
"He says, ‘Why? You want to die?'
And after looking over all my tests,
he said, ‘Go to the Rice House.' And I
took him at his word. I walked
through that door, and I haven't
turned back since."
"Since I've been on the Rice Diet, I've
never felt so good! I don't feel bad. I
don't get headaches, I don't have the
shakes.
"People say, ‘You've been on the program
eight months, you haven't
cheated?' I did once, and I felt so bad!
I had some half-and-half in my coffee.
And it wasn't worth the price. My sugar
went up, by blood pressure went up."
When she's invited to dine with
friends, Eileen says, "I don't eat. Will I
ever? I don't think so, because that
food is not worth the damage it's going
to do to me."
Once a heavy smoker, Eileen quit in
1976 and started lecturing for the
American Cancer Society. She'd seen a
friend die from lung cancer. A year
later she got her mother and husband
to quit, too, but couldn't persuade her
stepfather and sister. Her stepfather
died of lung cancer; her sister has emphysema.
So she's acutely aware now
of cause and effect.
"My whole family has had by-passes,
heart attacks, balloons. We're all genetic.
My father lost both of his legs to
diabetes. I want my legs. I love my
legs!"
When asked how she makes it look so
easy, Eileen doesn't hesitate. "This
works because it's a caring place. You
can't help but want to do your best for
them. When I had that half-and-half, I
thought, gosh, they care so much, and
here I went and did that? It hurts me to
see people do the wrong thing, and
there are a lot of people who are doing
the wrong thing."
"Look. You have a choice. You can eat
that piece of cake, because you don't
know when that bullet's going to hit.
Or you can have something else."
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