For about six years, Betsy Isaacs left her home only about once a week. Weighing in at 357 pounds, the Sugar Grove, N.C., woman only went to the grocery store and when she did she had to ride in a wheelchair or an electric cart.

 “I had fatigue so bad. I had body pains, especially in my legs, hips and lower back. It hurt so bad when I tried to walk,” says Isaacs, 50. “The more weight I gained, the less I was able to do.”

Mentally, Isaacs said she was depressed because she couldn’t work in her garden or walk to her mailbox or even bend down to put on her shoes. She finally decided to go to the doctor for all her pain and came home with a shocking triple diagnosis: diabetes, fibromyalgia and osteoarthritis in her hips and knees.

“I was really upset, especially about the diabetes,” says Isaacs. “My grandparents had diabetes and I didn’t want to go through what they went through with insulin and all that.”

Movement as Medicine

Instead, Isaacs’ doctor started her on medication and gave her one big prescription: movement. “She said that I needed to walk a little bit – even if it was just in the house or on the porch or down the driveway.”

Isaacs’ doctor told her about a wellness center about 20 miles away where there was an Arthritis Foundation Walk with Ease Program. Isaacs enrolled in the program and started walking with a group several times a week around an indoor track.

“I felt I was going to be out of place because I was so big, but they accepted me for who I was and not for what I looked like,” says Isaacs.

In the beginning, she could often only go one lap around the track, but at then end of the six-week program, she walked one mile – a full 18 laps.

“I found out the more I walked, the better I started to feel,” she says.

Changing Eating Habits

But walking wasn’t the only way she fought her weight and pain issues. She decided to go on a self-imposed diet, cutting fried foods, sugars, heavy starches and sodas out of her daily menu. “Once I started taking all those foods out of my diet, I felt so much better,” says Isaacs who also changed her portion sizes, switching from a 9-inch dinner plate to a 7-inch salad plate.

Her husband Kenny, who has osteoarthritis in his hip and back, is on the diet and exercise bandwagon, too. In addition to eating right, he takes turns with his wife on the stationary bike he bought for her last Christmas. The two also enrolled in an Arthritis Foundation Tai Chi class.

“We encourage each other. If I’m tired one day and don’t think I can make it around the track, he says, ‘C’mon, we can do it,’” she says. “Having someone else with you really helps with the motivation.”

So far, Kenny has lost 45 pounds and Betsy has lost 80 pounds. Her goal is to lose about another 80 more, putting her below 200 pounds.

So she keeps eating right, walks a mile three times a week, takes tai chi and an aerobic swim class for arthritis three times a week, and rides a stationary bike three times each week.

She hasn’t missed a day of exercise since she started in June 2008. Even when she visited her daughter in the hospital for three months, Isaacs found a way to get in her fitness time, walking in the hospital hallways and parking lot.

“There are ways you can work it out,” she says. “I have always been overweight all my life and my weight has always been up and down like a yo-yo. I thought enough is enough. You have to hit that point that you can’t do it for others. You have to do it for yourself.”

Betsy Isaacs’ Diet

Before: three pieces of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, two biscuits and lots of butter, and a candy bar or cupcake for dessert

Now: half plate of steamed vegetables, quarter plate of baked chicken or fish, quarter plate of salad