An Opera Singer’s Fat Relocation Project

BY TARA PARKER-POPE

I first met Austin opera singer Cindy Sadler through her blog, “The Next Hundred Pounds.” After a lifetime of being overweight, Ms. Sadler last September set out on a journey to gain control of her health. Nine months later, on June 12, she reached an important milestone, losing 100 pounds.

“Diets do fail,” Ms. Sadler wrote me recently. “I have never liked the term diet, and I don’t consider myself to be on a diet. (I have many alternate names for it … “fat relocation project” is one of my faves.) I consider myself to be in the process of making a lifestyle change, and to a large degree I have made that change, though there is a lot of work still to be done and there will never be a time when I don’t have to work at it. Some days I simply have to work harder than others.”

To stay motivated, Ms. Sadler regularly refers to a book she has filled with reminders and sayings that keep her on track.

“I have a lot of tools to help me keep motivated, but the main thing is to get what my friend Karen calls the mental game in place,” she said. “The mental game has to be tight. That is what I have been able to do this time that I never was able to do before…. I’ve been able to counter every roadblock (eventually — some are harder than others!) and learn to demand honesty from myself. The main motivation, though, is probably that I like how I look and feel now, and I like eating and exercising the way I do now, better than I liked the way I looked, felt and ate before.”

To learn more about Ms. Sadler’s weight loss journey, watch the video below.