Actor Tom Arnold loses 75 pounds; a St. Louisian helped him do it | Lifestyles

So what makes her think her recent 75-pound weight loss will be any different?

For starters, the circumstances that prompted this latest attempt involved a health crisis and her young children. In January, Arnold, 63, bathed his two children, Quinn, 6, and Jax, 9. He turned around and felt like a curtain was falling over his right eye. His vision went black. He was about to leave for a project in Alaska, so he googled what was wrong.

If I hadn’t had children, I would have left, he said. Instead, he went to see an eye doctor the next day. A doctor told him it looked like a mini-stroke in his eye.

Oh my God, here we go again, Arnold thought. A few years ago, he suffered multiple organ failure. As soon as he learned he may have had a mini-stroke, he checked himself into a UCLA hospital for tests. Doctors changed his medication and he was allowed to fly to work.

But he knew he had to prioritize his health and make changes he had overlooked given the demands of parenthood and work.

At the time, I would have thought: I’ll take care of it. I still have one eye. How bad could that be? he said. Now, with a kindergarten and a second grader to follow, he wants to be healthy and active for his children for all the years to come as they grow.

Arnold isn’t alone in his struggles with yo-yo dieting and his weight. More than two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese. Research suggests that over 80% of people bounce back from dieting and regain the weight they lost while dieting. Anyone who has tried to lose weight knows that the toughest challenge is keeping it off.

Arnold reached out to a St. Louis-based weight loss trainer he met at a party at Arnold Schwarzenegger’s in 2018. Charles DAngelo, author of Think and Grow Thin, has helped many clients lose significant amounts weight. His book has a testimonial from former President Bill Clinton on the cover. Many of his clients are doctors, who know intellectually clearly what it takes to lose weight by eating less and moving more, but who rely on him for motivation and accountability.

The work with me is more about the relationship to food and consumption, he says. We all know that an apple is better than a Snickers bar. The challenge is to change your mindset and maintain your motivation so that you create new habits and stick with them.

DAngelo doesn’t describe his job as a therapist, nutritionist, or personal trainer, but he helps his clients find a clear focus for their motivation, define their goals, and come up with a diet and exercise plan. He knows the challenges first hand, having weighed 360 pounds as a teenager. He lost 160 pounds in two years, changed his relationship with exercise and food, and maintained his weight.

The process is a lot of work. There is no magic formula. There is no simple solution other than consistency, he said. Having to check in with him regularly is a way to add accountability to the process.

Arnold was ready to do the job. He is well known for playing Arnie Thomas on the 90s TV show Roseanne and for a four-year marriage to the show’s star, Roseanne Barr. Since then, he has appeared in several movies and hosted a show on Fox Sports Net.

Just like he did when he got sober, he took it one day at a time. He doesn’t eat breakfast until he’s done half an hour of cardio on the elliptical. He gradually worked up to an hour of exercise. He wakes up earlier now to make sure he has time to train.

He got rid of junk food and other temptations in the house. The DAngelos book offers a strict, limited diet for the first 12 weeks, six meals a day, with only two to four different options per meal. Arnold started traveling with a blender so he could make his daily protein shakes.

In the six months since his mini-stroke in January, Arnold lost 75 pounds, dropping from 285 to 210 pounds. It improved his health and future prospects, and he proudly announced his weight loss on social media in several interviews.

I don’t focus on food, he says. I stay focused on what I’ve written and want to accomplish each day.

DAngelo says there’s a science to weight loss, but life transformation is an art. People get into trouble spontaneously making decisions about food. It helps clients think and act more strategically about food choices and learn to disconnect food from emotions.

It’s not like you can talk to me and lose weight, he said.

Arnold describes how he used to look only at his eyes in the mirror and avoid looking at his body in the reflection.

Then you see pictures of yourself and you think, Oh my God. It’s a hell of a deal.

He said he decided he wanted to live and be the best version of himself.

Now he can look at himself in the mirror again.