Contact: Paul Meznarich
715-838-5805
EAU CLAIRE, Wis. — Eileen Dutter was just a child when she heard her mother’s astonished exclamation from the downstairs kitchen: “Who ate the box of doughnuts in the freezer for breakfast?”
Registered dietitian Eileen Dutter
One of 12 children, Dutter remained silent out of fear for what her parents and siblings would say, but she knew she’d eventually be found out.
“I could almost hear them saying, ‘No wonder she’s so fat,’” Dutter said.
But even more than the embarrassment of her selfish act was how distraught she was over her lack of self-control.
“I remember praying to God, ‘Please God, I don’t want to be fat, but I can’t stop eating,” she said.
Though Dutter’s mother’s words still ring sharp in her ears, she uses them now to inspire others as a registered dietitian with Luther Midelfort’s Weight Management Services. Dutter shares her painful and moving story in Luther Midelfort’s blog, “Sharing Luther Midelfort.”
“It made me sad to see all of my beautiful sisters become cheerleaders, go out on dates and to school dances, and all I did was stay at home and babysit because no one wanted to be seen with a fat girl,” Dutter wrote.
Dutter later enrolled in college to become a dietitian (“Maybe I could learn to eat right,” she wrote), but ended up feeling even more insecure and depressed as she compared herself to her thinner classmates.
“I turned to doughnuts to comfort the intense feelings of loneliness and fear that plagued me….It seemed they were the only answer to the discomfort I felt,” she wrote.
And even after being hired for her first job – at Luther Midelfort – the guilt of being an overweight dietitian drove her to binges of 3,500 to 4,000 calories in doughnuts in single sittings.
While working in Luther Midelfort’s medically managed weight-loss program, she began tracking her caloric intake much like the patients she was treating.
“I was then able to see the bigger picture about the role fruits and vegetables, exercise, meal replacements and especially environmental control had in my own food choices and the consequences of those choices that followed,” she wrote.
That’s when Dutter’s weight loss truly began. Within a year and with the support of her co-workers, she had lost 50 pounds, and now – 10 years later – she has kept it off.
“Don’t get me wrong, I still love doughnuts,” she wrote. “I just hate how they make me feel and the difficulty they create for me when I am trying to weigh a healthier weight.”
To read Dutter’s complete story, visit “Sharing Luther Midelfort” at http://sharing.luthermidelfort.org. For more information about Luther Midelfort’s Weight Management Services, call 715-838-6731.
# # #
In partnership with Mayo Clinic, Luther Midelfort offers a full range of quality medical services, including cardiac and orthopedic surgery, cancer and trauma care programs. Through a network of community-based healthcare providers in west-central Wisconsin, Luther Midelfort provides access to experts close to home.
