TELEVISION
Lulu Roman: Hee Haw Star Loses 200 Pounds
By Jay Edgerton with Mia Evans-Saracual
The 700 Club
Original Air Date: October 20, 2010
CBN.com
– The Emmy-winning TV series Hee Haw generated laughs for nearly a quarter of a century. Country’s biggest stars lit up the stage…
Buck Owens and Roy Clark led the cast of off-beat characters, including comedienne Lulu Roman. Hee Haw made Lulu a household name… and her weight was always part of the punch line.
Lulu Roman: I was hired to be the fat girl.
Nearly two decades after Hee Haw ended its run, Lulu Roman has improved her health and dropped 20 dress sizes, and she’s working on losing more weight.
Mia Evans-Saracual: Losing 200 pounds at any age is amazing. But in your 60s, how do you feel?
Lulu: I feel like a kid. I do. I feel like the Lord’s just given me a whole other chance.
Mia: This is amazing! Unbelievable! You went from a size 54 to a size 14.
Lulu: 54, well actually, it was 56 / 58 to a size 14 /16. That is amazing. I still have clothes that I can hold out here that I can stand in one leg and go "hee hee". I kept them.
After years of trying and failing on all sorts of diets, the battle to beat obesity became the fight of her life. There were emotional problems to overcome.
Lulu was born Bertha Louise Hable, at a home for unwed mothers, and abandoned by her mother.
Lulu: I think food became my drug probably the day that they put me in the orphan’s home. Sugar became my friend, because it didn’t hurt me. And it didn’t talk back to me, it didn’t call me names. I think sugar became a comfort to me when I was very young.
Her food addiction was compounded by a medical condition
Lulu: I have a thyroid problem. I was never a small child. I was always round.
She always used humor to hide her pain, and eventually those extra pounds became part of her comedy act. But when her 5 foot 6 inch frame ballooned to nearly 400 pounds, Lulu realized her life was in danger.
Lulu: It was hard for me to try to lose weight. I tried everything that there was and I couldn’t. I was about 380 some-odd pounds. I was in a scooter. I could not walk. My legs were in trouble. My back was in trouble. I came to the place that I was 60 some-odd years old, about 61, 62. I said Father, 'I can’t be an effective witness for you like this. I can’t travel. I can’t stand up. I can’t breathe.' And so I knew that I had to make a change. I had to make a life change.
Lulu opted for surgery in 2005.
Lulu: I cheated, I did. Because I discovered that there was an option out there called the lap band surgery where they put a little band around the top of your tummy and it restricts your intake of food.
But in 2009, complications brought on by pre-existing periodontal disease forced her to have the band removed permanently.
Mia: Were you afraid that you’d gain the weight back?
Lulu: I was terrified. I was. But then I said, "Father, I’m going to trust You that You’re going to allow me to maintain this."
Lulu’s faith in God, coupled with portion control and regular exercise has helped her stay on track. For the first time in her life, she’s been able to keep her weight down.
Lulu: Now not only can I walk, I can run. Not far and not fast, but I can run. I can. I don’t have to take medications like I used to. I had high blood pressure. I don’t have that anymore. I had asthma. I don’t suffer with that anymore. I don’t.
Lulu says she’s not only experienced physical healing, but emotional healing as well. The weight of rejection and abandonment she carried for over sixty years is finally gone.
Mia: Tell me how you’ve been able to forgive your family.
Lulu: That has been one of the biggest parts of my healing. It was a process. You have to choose to be a forgiver. You do. I had to first of all choose to forgive that family that threw me away. Then I had to choose to forgive myself for all the stupid choices that I made for my life because I thought nobody cared. When you choose to forgive, that person who so mortally wounded you no longer defines who you are. You can allow the blood of Jesus to define who you are. In that is freedom. That gives you the peace of mind that nothing can give you but the blood of Jesus.
Today Lulu shares the freedom she found in Christ through southern gospel music. The Dove Award winner’s latest album is called Seven Times. She plans to spend the rest of her life sharing hope with hurting people through music.
Lulu: I can stand and tell people there is hope if you put your trust in the Lord. You can do this. If you let Him, He will totally change everything about you. That’s what happened in my life.
Can God change your life?
God has made it possible for you to know Him and experience an amazing change in your own life.
Discover how you can find peace with God.
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