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Show Advertisement) Wasnt JI kb dn Lane set i I'd probably never be married now, if | hadn’t lost 49 pounds I ues 450 pocknle, ear Ruth McCarthy: D You den’t know me, but I’ve been reading your stories about people who've lost weight and I'd like to tell you mytale. I was a junior in high school. A fat, dateless teenager who spentherlonely evenings at the refrigerator. Fither at my house or baby-sitting at someoneelse’s. The bad thing about baby-sitting was that there was always food in the house, which turned into fat on myhips. WheneverI got a chance to dance (usually in the armsof myfather at a family wedding), I iooked like a bowlofjelly,jiggling acrossthe floor. Sounds funny, doesn’t it? But it wasn’t. Particularly not when you had a slim sister, who dated regularly. She andherboyfrienatried to fix me up with fellows, but who wantedto do the Twist with 150 poundsoffat. I kept telling myself that I’d outgrowit. I didn’t. And you don’t when youeatlike I did. My inotheris Maltese and myfather Czechoslovakian. When he married my mother,he insisted that she learn how to bakeall those fancy Czech pastries. Of course, she had a few Maltese specialties of her own. And me, I just lapped them up. By the time I'd becomea junior in high school, however,I began to think more about boys than baked goods. Not too far from whereI lived, in Flushing, New York, there’s a very nice place that has dancesfor teenagers on Friday evenings. I used to go sometimes, but nothing ever cameofit. I always woundupa wallflower. Summerswere hard,too. Bathing-suit time. Mine wouldalways be one-piece. And black. I'd stay in the water, up to my neck, as much as possible. On the sand, I'd wrap myself in a robe and watch theothers havefun. I’m sure they thoughtI wasshy, butI was really ashamed. After unhappy timeslike these, I'd try to “starve” myself. I'd lose a couple of pounds, butat the end of the week, I'd go on a binge andgain it all back. Then one day I read an ad abouta reducing-plan candy, called Ayds. And the word “candy” got me. This sounded like the answer to myproblem. Afteral!, I thought, it wouldn't belike tak- ing a reducingpill. And it wasn't, onceI tried Ayds.Onething I liked, this candy contained no harmful drugs. And it was sweet enough to satisfy my sweet tooth, so I didn’t feel I was denying myself at all. I just took one or two before meals as directed, with a hot drink. And it helped me control myappetite. Really. It was as pleasantas could be.I lost 25 poundsin three months. That’s when my friends began to notice mylooks. I even began to like the way I looked myself. In fact, I began to think aboutgetting contactlenses. “Might as well go all the way,” I thought. When I reached 125 pounds,one of the girls got me a date for Rye Beach. It was great. And it was only the beginning. There were dates and more dates. Every pound I lost motivated meto lose another. By the time I graduated, I had dropped to 115 pounds. And it wasn’t long myself to eat less. And like it. And the habit haslasted. in January, I was married to a wonderful man, whofoundit hard to believe I was ever heavy. During our engagement, I showed him the enclosedpictures of myself. I supposeit wasn't the brightest thing to do, but, thank goodness, it didn’t scare him off. He did say though: “If I’d seen you when you were that big, I’d never have asked you out.” And I'm sure that, without Ayds, I'd never havethis wedding band on myfinger today. Piggariley before I lost more. The only reason I took baby-sitting jobs from then on was to make money.Notfill up my evening, After years of being wrappedin 150 pounds offat, I was slim—andfree. I'm 5'2%”tall and today, I weigh 101 pounds, down from 150. In the measurements department, I've gone from 40” to 334”in the bust; from 29’ to 2312” in the waist; from 40”to 34” in the hips; and from asize 1612 toa size 5 dress. Isn't that wonderful? And what really makes mefeel good is knowingthat I haven't gained any of the weightback in six years. And I haven’t even hadto continue using Ayds to stay slim. On the Ayds Plan, I had trained Mery Un /01. Ae Kucbind Carritathie Ont in Aus welll. |