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Kerry Schneider lost 118.25 pounds over more than 6 1/2years
AUSTINTOWN
Kerry Schneider, recently crowned the 2015 Ohio TOPS Queen after losing 118.25 pounds, said one of the most satisfying things about losing all that weight is being able to again cross her legs.
“Now, I look for reasons to cross my legs,” Schneider, 47, of Austintown, said laughing.
Schneider, at 5 feet 10 inches, is very specific about her weight-loss statistics.
She said it took six years, six months and seven days, starting in March 2009 at 303.25 pounds, to lose the 118.25 pounds and reach her goal weight of 185 pounds.
In TOPS, which stands for Take Off Pounds Sensibly, goal weights are set by the participant’s physician, and must be documented.
Schneider was crowned the 2015 Ohio TOPS queen April 16 during Ohio TOPS’s State Recognition Days at the Hilton Akron Fairlawn Hotel. Raymond Podkowa of Brecksville is the Ohio TOPS king.
It is the second-consecutive year that an area woman has been the state TOPS Queen.
At last year’s State Recognition Days, June Jackson Travis of Weathersfield Township was recognized for losing 107 pounds over several years.
Schneider said every state in the union and every province in Canada crowns queens and kings, who thereby earn the right to compete for national honors during International Recognition Days in July at Disney World in Florida.
One of the benefits of losing weight, Schneider said, is that she doesn’t get winded as much as she did when she was heavier.
“The unfortunate part for me, from carrying all that weight, is that I feel it in my knees and hips,” she said.
An accountant, Schneider, who works two part-time jobs, is married with three children: a daughter, Kaitlyn Price, 24, of Liberty; and two stepsons, James and Thomas Schneider, 13 and 11, respectively, who live in Kentucky.
Her husband, Greg, also lost a lot of weight via gastric by-pass surgery, reducing from 450 pounds to 150 pounds.
When asked what her husband thinks about his new, slimmer wife, she said – her sense of humor showing, – “He loved me when I was heavy, but loves me even more now he can wrap his arms around me.”
Also, she continued, “With both of us losing all of that weight, he can actually have his own side of the bed.”
Schneider, who described herself as a big sports fan who “loves the Pittsburgh Penguins,” was an athlete herself in her teens.
She played basketball at Austintown Fitch, from which she graduated in 1987; but her real love was playing softball in the Austintown Girls Softball League.
She played first base on the league championship team from 1984 through 1987, and is in the AGSL Hall of Fame.
“I was good at softball and good at school,” said Schneider, who graduated from Youngstown State University in 1999 with a bachelor’s degree in business.
Schneider, the daughter of Bill and Nancy O’Hara of Austintown, said she was not thin, but neither was she heavy as a child or teenager. She said her weight ballooned when she had her daughter.
She said a girlfriend talked her into going to her first TOPS meeting.
“I thought I would go and support her. But when I got on the scale, I couldn’t see it, but the weight recorder told me I was 300-something, “ she said.
“TOPS has changed my life. I’m happier, healthier and more confident now, and I owe it all to this wonderful organization. Our meetings are about nutrition and exercise and weight loss, but the support we get from each other is what makes all the difference,” she said.
There are 10 members, all women, from 30 to 80, including Schneider’s mother, in TOPS Chapter 2191, of which Schneider is the leader.
TOPS Chapter 2191 meets from 5:45 to 7 p.m. Thursdays at Wickliffe Presbyterian Church in Austintown. The fees are $32 per year and $1 per meeting.
“We’re a very tightly knit group. Five of the 10 TOPS members are members of Wickliffe Presbyterian, plus my mother. We are like family,” Schneider said.