Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, June 23, 1995 TAG: 9506230028
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: DONNA ALVIS-BANKS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG LENGTH: Long
She wore a lacy white gown. A sparkling tiara teetered on her head.
"It felt just like being crowned Miss America," she confided, her hazel eyes shining behind the thick lenses of her eyeglasses.
Altizer, 60, was named tops in her TOPS division.
TOPS - Take Off Pounds Sensibly - is an international support group for people who want to lose weight and gain self-respect.
Altizer did both.
In April, Altizer was crowned the queen of her Radford club chapter. Ironically, she won the yearlong honor for being the best loser in the group.
Since she joined TOPS in 1993, Altizer has shed 19 pounds. For the past year, she has maintained her present weight: 128 pounds.
"I weighed 147 pounds when I started and I thought that was a little bit chunky. My clothes were beginning to get too tight," she said.
At 5 feet 3 1/2 inches, Altizer isn't exactly an Amazon.
Others have lost more poundage, but in TOPS, each person is put into a division according to weight. The emphasis is on attaining a weight goal prescribed by a physician and maintaining the weight after the goal is reached.
Lori Sheppard, last year's chapter queen, has dropped 90 pounds since joining the organization in 1988. The 31-year-old woman never had a problem with obesity until she found herself bedridden for three months following an automobile accident.
"I put on 80 pounds," she said.
"TOPS made me take a look at what was really going on. It brought me to reality," Sheppard noted. "I learned that dealing with your weight is not a quick fix. It's a lifetime commitment."
Sheppard was glad to turn her crown over to Altizer when her year's reign as chapter queen ended.
"It has been wonderful to see Anna grow," Sheppard said. "When someone has a lot of success, we take it to heart. It's almost like it happened to you.
"Anna's a special person," she added. "She really is."
Anyone who spends a little time with Altizer would agree.
"Just a cat and a bird is all I have," Altizer says, opening the door to her small, homey apartment in downtown Christiansburg. "I've lived by myself ever since my mother died 10 years ago."
"I never spent a night by myself until Mama died," she adds, her eyes welling. "It was hard, but you just have to face it and go on."
Altizer has faced more challenges than most.
She quit school in the seventh grade.
"I never did like school," she admitted. "I was sick a lot and that threw me back. You know, when you fail that makes you lose interest."
When she was 17, Altizer was injured in an automobile accident that broke her left leg and paralyzed her right arm.
When she was 19, the house she shared with her parents was destroyed by fire.
A few years later, her father died of a heart attack.
Then, nearly 10 years ago, Altizer was involved in another automobile accident. As she was crossing Franklin Street in Christiansburg, she was struck by an oncoming car. She suffered a broken hip and eight fractures in her right leg.
"When I woke up in the hospital, I asked where it was broken," Altizer remembered. "The doctor said, 'Just touch it. Anywhere you touch it is broken.'"
Altizer spent three weeks at Montgomery Regional Hospital following the accident. She credits orthopedic surgeon Dr. S.D. Barranco with saving her leg.
Although her step is rigid and her movement is labored, Altizer is determined to exercise regularly.
"Dr. Barranco wanted to send a physical therapist to the house to help me," she noted. "I said I didn't need one."
She flashed a roguish smile.
"He told me I was the toughest cookie he ever had."
Since she joined TOPS, Altizer works out an hour every day. She just pops her favorite video, "Sweatin' to the Oldies," into the VCR and tones up in her living room. She says nobody gets her heart pounding like Richard Simmons.
"Sometimes I feel bad and tired and I tell myself, 'This day I'm not going to do it.' I'll lie down and 10 minutes later I'm up in front of the TV. I've gotten used to exercising with Richard Simmons."
Because she doesn't drive, Altizer also gets her exercise by walking. Townspeople in Christiansburg often see her at the post office or the bank or at Kroger where she does her shopping.
"I walk up there to get my groceries and then I get a cab back," she explained. "It's $2 for the ride back."
Her friend, Olga Kirk, drives her to the weekly TOPS meetings in Radford.
"She comes all the way from Radford every week to pick me up," Altizer said. "That's the way TOPS is. It's like one family."
Before joining the weight-loss group, Altizer's only social outlet was the Main Street Baptist Church. She has attended Sunday school and worship services there for 18 years.
"I took my crown to church and showed it," Altizer beamed. "Everybody thought it was the biggest honor."
It was an honor that worried Altizer at first.
"I worried myself to death because I knew I had to have a long, white dress and I didn't know what to do. I asked the Lord how I was going to afford an expensive, formal dress."
The answer came to Altizer on one of her treks through downtown Christiansburg. As she passed the Salvation Army store on Main Street, something told her to go inside.
"I saw a long, white dress hanging on a rack and I couldn't believe it," she said. "I asked, 'How much is it?'"
The clerk told her the dress was only $2.
"It was a perfect fit," she said.
When she started with TOPS, Altizer's dress size was 10-12. Now she slides comfortably into a size 5-6.
How did Altizer lose 19 pounds and keep it off?
"That's easy," she said. "You just eat what you want but you eat sensibly.
"Sometimes I get depressed or bored and I want to eat," she admitted, "but I don't.
"I just get me a drink of water."
by CNB