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A Success Story from RuthAnn

RuthAnn After NS 		With the years came the pounds. I had always heard about "middle-aged spread" and now I was living it. I hated it. Getting up in the mornings to face my closet for work became increasingly emotional. Some mornings I literally got sick to my stomach as I approached my closet, not wanting to put those same black pants on for the 4th time that week, but they were the only thing that fit. I remember finally going into Target and making myself buy the next size up. I entered the dressing room and gasped at my image under those unforgiving fluorescents. I choked back the tears while buying sizes I thought my pride would never allow me to balloon to.

You would think my self-loathing would have fueled me to get myself in gear to make drastic changes, but -- alas! -- I could NOT get motivated. If anything, my weight gain seemed to send me spiraling downward into a blubbery, who-cares-anyway abyss. I knew that all I had to do was get motivated, because many many many times before in my life, once I became motivated, nothing could stop me. Nothing.

But where could I manufacture this badly needed motivation? Oh, how I tried. I bought diet books and read them cover-to-cover while licking peanut butter off a spoon. I bought fitness magazines, praying for inspiration while sipping a frozen margarita, lightly dusted with a salty rim.

Then, on June 6, 2006, I called my friend, Donna, whom I touch base with only occasionally. She said she had lost 46 pounds on NS in 5 months and that it was the easiest food plan she had ever followed. Key word: *Easy*! I ran to my computer and ordered my 1st month of NS, no questions asked. I had NO idea what a wonderful journey I was about to begin.

Recently I heard Dr. Oz on Oprah say that for some people it's the doing of something that actually becomes the motivator. That's what happened to me. I started NS fully unmotivated; but once that huge box hit my front doorstep, I became super pumped about losing this weight. Today (6 months after beginning NS) I'm 6 pounds away from my goal. Almost daily I get a compliment from someone about how thin I've gotten or how much younger I look.

I love NS and the wonderful community of people on the bulletin board that keep me motivated. Most of all, I can't wait to get up every morning and face my new best friend: my closet!


RuthAnn Before NS

(photos used with permission)