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Show husband got more he bargained for...220 pounds. By Fran Brownell —as told to Ruth L. McCarthy Would you everbelieve I was only 25 years old here? That's what 220 pounds can do for you! ’m a newspaper woman whose first job was writing a colum on cooking. What an assignment for me! A person who was always thinking about dieting and now whose job was to have food on her mind constantly. In her mouth,too, for I had madeit a rule to sample whatever recipe I wrote about.I’m sure that my husband got more than he bargained for, when I reached 220 pounds. The habit of overeating, however, was with melong before that “rst job. As early as fourth grade, mygirl friend used to say: “Let’s go on a diet.” That meantrun around the block and come home to chocolate sundaes. Fact is, I stuffed myself all the wayto college. The year I entered the University of Omaha, however, opened my eyes. The campuswasfull of slim girls and I wanted to be one of them.I started taking dietpills to depress my appetite. Sure, my weight came down. But each time I quit, the pounds went up. So, for two whole years, I took dietpills. Not to get high on, but to havea family. So I spent my spare time working on potato chips, popcorn, peanut butter, french fries and lots of avocados. My overeating was almost a self-destructive attitude. Larry had another explanation for it. He said that I’d caught a man andlet myself go. Whichever was true, the figure on the scale scared me. So did the one in the mirror. I remember looking at myself on my anniversary. Larry had wanted to go dancing, but wesettled for a cookout. I just didn’t want the world to see me. In aneffort te help myself, I decided to get a job again, as a reporter on the local paper. This took me away from food, both in the house andout. The nextthing I did was pick up a box of Ayds* at the drugstore. The chocolate fudge kind. I’d read those stories of people who had lost weight on the Ayds Plan and I wanted to see if it would work for me. Well,it did. And there were no drugs involved. I took one or two Ayds, like the directions say, before meals with a hot drink, and they really helped curb my appetite. I stopped frying foods, too, and creaming vegetables. Instead, I began to broil my meats and eat my greens “asis.” And I started to lose weight. All I can sayis, if I hadn’t met and married Larry, maybe I'd still be at it. Fortunately, If only I hadn’t started cooking cream sauces andtestingall those delicious recipes for mycolumn. ButI did, which made shoppingforclothes a traumatic experience. Nothing would fit, so I’d go home,turn ontelevision and watch re- ducing exercises while I ate a plate of brownies. We had moved te Montrose, Colorado when I finally hit 220 pounds. I had given up myjob BEFORE AND AFTER MEASUREMENTS After Height . 57" Weight . .186 Ibs. BRR caw nciowieey . 85" WAcccccivaawaat +27" FEDS soos. Drese Size ....... this can’t possibly be the same person. 4 When I’d lost about 40 pounds,I set up a goal for myself. For my fifth anniversary, I wanted to be the girl my husband had married. Slim enough to wear my weddingtrip dress. Size 14. Of course, there were times when I was tempted to weaken and have a binge. But no matter how good the food looked at the moment, I knew I hadto weigh it against my next mealand thenext dress size. And, with the help of Ayds,I'd resist. When,at last, I had lost 84 pounds on the Ayds Plan, someone I hadn’t seen in a jong, long while stopped me on the street and said, “Say, didn’t you used to be Fran Brownell?”It wasreally funny. As for my anniversary, you'll be interested to hear that by then, I weighed 136 pounds. But I never did get to wear my wedding trip dress. Thanksto the AydsPlan,it was too big. So I wore a miniinstead. te shake the weight. It wasterrible. when he moved in,thedietpills were thrownout. I bet you think . 38" 7 |