Profile /Ida Shapiro
A great gift is in the trim
Ida Shapiro remembers the day she placed her last bottle of diet pills on her basement shelf.
“I vowed I’d never take diet pills again,” recalls Shapiro, who ballooned from a size 12 to a size 18 after having her children.
“One year later, I flushed these pills down the toilet, one by one.”
It was a meaningful ritual, letting go of the pills. Shapiro then learned the secret of staying slim and trim, dropping those extra 35 pounds forever without using drugs.
“I then set a goal,” the Amherst residents said, “to reach out to overweight people to help them to lose weight.”
And she’s done just that, reaching out to others who struggle with weight problems at Western New York schools, senior centers, churches and synagogues for decades, still keeping off those extra pounds that plagued her from her days as a 1950s stay-at-home mom. When you’re only 5 feet, 2 inches tall, 35 pounds is a lot of extra weight to carry.
As a newlywed, she didn’t have a weight problem, Shapiro recalls.
“Two years later, I gave birth to my daughter. Not only was I eating my meals during the day, I became a snacker in the middle of the night. I gave birth to my second daughter. Gaining more weight put me into a size 18.
“My son was then born. I was extremely unhappy about my appearance, and my level of energy slowed down,” Shapiro said.
Shapiro then turned to a dearth of weight-control classes and doctors, who saddled her with shots and diet pills.
“I’d take off 35 pounds — be happy. However, within a short time, the pounds piled back on. I became a yo-yo dieter for the next 12 years,” said Shapiro.
She was able to shelve her fluctuating dieting pattern, along with the shots and pills, when she joined a weight-control class at her synagogue.
Today, at a Williamsville Starbucks, the petite Ida Shapiro looks even tinier next to her “grande” drink. Nonfat, she points out, noting that there are choices that won’t wreck a diet, even in places known for serving diet-spoiling, high-calorie products.
“I changed the way I viewed food, and changed my mind-set to attain a healthier me,” says Shapiro, who presently lectures at classes at the Amherst Center for Senior Services, Town of Tonawanda’s Zion United Church of Christ and St. Gregory the Great School in Amherst.
“I continued to have a positive attitude, and accept that I needed to make many changes in my lifestyle, by eating healthy and exercising at least five days a week,” she said.
She encourages her clients to fight temptation and stay trim by keeping healthy foods in the fridge like fruits and yogurt. Don’t forget portion control — you’ll be less likely to stray from your diet during the summer’s barbecues and picnics by having a bite to eat before leaving home, Shapiro said.
Shapiro catches her dieters when they fall off the low-cal wagon with personal phone calls and messages of support.
If you get into the hot fudge one day, she says, just take up the low-cal popsicles the next.
“Don’t get down on yourself,” she advises. “Go back to healthy eating.”
Have an idea about a local person whose life would make a good profile or a neighborhood issue worth exploring? E-mail lcontinelli@buffnews.comOr write to: Louise Continelli, The Buffalo News, P. O. Box 100, Buffalo, NY 14240
