Toby Robertson

OKLAHOMA CITY — If First Lady Michelle Obama decides to look for a farmer role model for her “Let’s Move” campaign against obesity, she probably couldn’t find a better candidate better than Toby Robertson, a farmer from Corpus Christi, Texas.

Robertson, 38, has lost 45 pounds with a combination of running and watching his diet, he explained over dinner during the Southwest Ag Issues Summit earlier this week.

His initial motivation, Robertson said, was a divorce and the desire for new female companionship, but he also began to think that at 245 pounds he “didn’t want to get caught in the wilderness” on a fall hunting trip he has planned.

His new diet is one that almost any doctor would endorse.

Robertson still eats whatever he wants on weekends (on Sunday night he had a bone-in filet mignon and mashed potatoes) but during the week he limits himself to 2,000 calories a day and watches what he eats. On Monday morning he had eggs and bacon for breakfast, but no potatoes and no toast.

“The hardest thing for me was giving up drinking milk and eating pizza,” said Robertson, who said he used to drink a half gallon of milk a day and now barely drinks any. “I don’t eat pasta anymore except on special occasions,” he said. He has also given up Coke and said he rarely drinks alcohol at all any more, even on weekends.”

Some farmers fear that if more Americans would get in shape, food sales and farm prices would go down. But Robertson believes American restaurants should reduce their portion sizes.

“The world population is growing fast enough,” he said. “The Chinese are too skinny. They need to eat more.” Consumers in China and India “are the key to everything,” he said, referring to global market growth for American farmers and producers.

Robertson has lost the weight despite the stress of a multiyear drought on his 9,000-acre farm where he raises cotton, wheat sorghum, sesame and sunflowers. Joe Outlaw, a Texas A&M professor and friend who also attended the meetings, said without crop insurance Robertson would be out of business.

Robertson has been a guest lecturer in Outlaw’s classes to give his students a chance to hear the experiences of a real farmer. “It was about time” he lost weight, Outlaw said.

Robertson said he is determined to keep the weight off.

“I feel so much better,” he said. “It was hard to get started. You have to make a commitment.”