Dieter Explores Uncharted Territory

Five years and four children ago, I was active and weighed 150 pounds, about 10 pounds beyond ideal. Last summer, I snoozed past 170. I tried to lose weight and to exercise, but the vague promise of better health couldn’t convince me to do something as little as skin my chicken.

Then I discovered Pierre Cruzatte, the one-eyed navigator and fiddler of the Lewis and Clark expedition. The expedition, you may recall, involved the seemingly impossible trek--almost 200 years ago--of 31 men, one woman and a baby from St. Louis to the Pacific Ocean and back. Since I play the fiddle, I felt an immediate kinship with Cruzatte. Also, Cruzatte was short and wiry. At 5 feet, 4 inches, I’m not exactly Andre the Giant. And I aspire to wiry.

Wiriness became critical after I learned from the expedition journals that “a Frenchman” danced on his hands. I assumed that the Frenchman was Cruzatte. If he did it, I wanted to do it too. So I fashioned an exercise program from Cruzatte’s activities, beginning with 30- to 45-minute walks.

Then, as a first step toward dancing on my hands, I worked at standing on them. Most of the expedition members, however, danced on their feet, so I started learning to dance from a French-Canadian step-dancing video. In lieu of horseback riding, carrying 90-pound bundles on my back and running from grizzlies, I carried my kids up and down the stairs.

You don’t have to model your program after Cruzatte, though. Choose your favorite expedition member: the great hunter George Drouillard, for example; or the Shoshone guide Sacajawea, the expedition’s only woman.

Shooting for 150 pounds by Jan. 1 and 140 by my birthday, in May, I began to lose 2 or 3 pounds a month by exercising more while eating my usual diet, just less of it. For instance, rather than eating a whole steak or hamburger, I ate only half. I also cut back on dessert: Rather than the six or eight cookies I might have eaten throughout the day, I’d have one after dinner. And I started skinning my chicken.

To compensate for the limited rations, I grazed on lower-calorie snacks, drank lots of water and didn’t limit my intake of fruits and vegetables.

I discovered some other tricks:

1. Eat with a child in your lap. When my 3-year-old daughter camps out between me and my dinner, she can eat nearly half of my meal. Warning: This only works if you forgo seconds.

2. Trust your body. It knows that the less you weigh, the easier it will be to outrun an angry bear.

Finding Cruzatte filled a void that historically I stuffed with brownies and barbecue. I learned later that a different Frenchman danced on his hands, not Cruzatte, but who’s quibbling? I’ve lost 32 pounds, I can dance upside-down and my kids call me Pierre.

Vital Statistics

Name: Daniel Slosberg

Age: 42

Height: 5 feet, 4 inches

Old weight: 172 pounds

New weight: 140 pounds

Time to get there: One year

How Did You Do It?

Do you have a story about how you lost weight and kept the pounds off? Or a story about how you learned to mountain climb or in-line skate, trained for a half-marathon or discovered a unique way of keeping fit, dealing with a nagging ailment or persevering with a fitness regimen despite some obstacles?

If so, we’d like to hear from you. Tell us your story in a 500-word essay listing what worked in terms of diet, exercise and encouragement, as well as any emotional and physical changes.

For weight-loss stories, send us full-body color photos of yourself, before and after. For other types of stories, send a color photo of yourself doing the activity you’re writing about.

Send essay and photos to How I Did It, Health, Los Angeles Times, Times Mirror Square, Los Angeles, CA 90053. Include daytime and evening phone numbers. Submissions cannot be returned. And, please, no phone calls.

In addition to publication, winners will receive a Los Angeles Times Health section gym bag, a Sparkletts hot-cold travel mug, T-shirt and coupons for free water products, courtesy of McKesson Water Products Co.