Being called a loser is okay with Osgood woman
Char Bultman shares weight loss success
Wanda English Burnett - Editor

These days Char Bultman doesn't mind being called "a big loser," or "a cheap date." Matter of fact, she's proud of both titles.

Char, who has in a year dropped 160 pounds, says she's glad to be a loser of weight, because she's gained so much in return. As for the "cheap date" tag - "It's true," she laughed, "I can eat off my husband Tim's plate, and be full!"

"I was the number one loser for Curves for last year," she noted, saying since she had joined on March 9, 2004, she has lost 49.25 inches, 72.5 pounds, and 41.0 body fat. "I love to exercise, it makes me feel great," she noted, saying before the surgery she could barely walk from her chair to the kitchen.

When Char first told her story in March of last year, she had endured gastric bypass surgery on December 3, 2003, and had then lost 72 pounds. She told The Osgood Journal at that time she was desperate to have her life back and be able to enjoy her grandchildren.

Today, she has both.

Going from a size 5X to an 18 shirt and x-large pants, Char is now able to play with her grandchildren, take long walks - she walks five miles at a time - dances and karaokes with her daughter.

"Over the Christmas holidays, we (her grandchildren and Char) pitched a make-shift tent in the kitchen and I could get in and out of it with no problem," she noted.

Char says she is so much more active now and has a lot less TV time.

crochet, play Euchre up at the American Legion, where I have made a lot of friends, karaoke and dance - I'm enjoying my life," she shared. She loves to be outdoors and could be found taking her twin grandchildren for a walk in the snow singing "Jingle Bells." Char can also be found volunteering at the Trustee's Food Store once a month.
The 48-year-old mother and grandmother says she doesn't feel a day over 25. "I feel like I've been born again," she related in a recent interview. Char told about going to Coney Island and riding every ride there. "It was just fantastic, my sister was begging me to stop, but I couldn't, I rode the carousel five times!" she exclaimed, saying she laughed the whole day long.

Char still suffers from chronic pain from a car accident she was in a few years back. "That's just part of my life," she noted. She also has arthritis problems that brings her low at times. She knows she'll never be 100 percent...but losing the weight has helped get her going again.

"I'm rediscovering things I had forgotten even existed," she noted, saying the simplest things make her happy. "I can sleep on my back now, feel my bones, and yes, I've even got muscles," she laughed. "I can sit in a booth in a restaurant, I'm not ashamed to go to school and attend functions for my grandkids."

Char's husband Tim has been her 'rock' as she's lost the weight over the past year. "Sometimes I just catch him looking at me, and I know he likes what he sees," she noted.

When Char checked in on December 14, 2004, with her gastric bypass surgeon, Dr. Wesley Alexander at Christ Hospital in Cincinnati, he was very pleased with her progress. "He told me I would lose about 100 pounds in a year, but, I lost much more," she noted. The doctor told her to keep on doing whatever she was doing, because she came through all her lab work with flying colors.

Of course Char's diet has completely changed, but she says she eats what she wants. She attributes exercise to her successful experience. She does have some stomach skin that will have to be removed surgically, but overall, due to her stringent exercise program, she has avoided some surgery and added muscle tone she wouldn't have had with just cutting the calories. She takes vitamins and feels good about herself.

"I don't think like I used to," she shared, saying she used to have thoughts of suicide, and self-hate. "I love to exercise and when I go to Curves, I always come away with my spirits lifted." Apparently, she lifts the spirits of others as well according to those who are around her. "You are an inspiration to everyone...your positive attitude is a joy," a friend writes her.

What are Char's plans for the future? To lose more weight of course, but now she's focusing more on plans for her life that don't center around weight loss. "My sister is taking me on a cruise after I have the skin removal surgery and I'm just looking forward to life everyday." She drinks a lot of water, stays away from caffeine and sticks to about 1100 calories a day.

Char still dreams of roller skating and playing ball, and jumping. "I still can't jump because of the excess skin on my stomach, but one day I will," she says with determination. She loves to ride a bicycle, and while
she can't afford one right now, says she'll get one someday and be riding around town.

Her journey has been one filled with laughter and tears and Char has begun a book that will tell about her experience entitled, "Big Girls Do Cry". "I don't care if it sells or not, it has been good for me to write," she noted.

Char says she's had 57 letters from people who are interested in her surgery and she has responded to every one of them. She knows the struggle first hand of losing weight, gaining it back and even more. She also knows the gastric bypass surgery is not an instant fix, but something that she has worked at to make it a success. She encourages obese people to look at their options and remember their lives are worthwhile. "If telling my story helps one person, it's been worth it," she concluded.

WANDA ENGLISH BURNETT PHOTO

Char Bultman of Osgood, doesn't mind posing for pictures since she's lost 160 pounds.