fun

they finally posted my story, even without pictures. please ignore the gratuitous use of exclamation points!!!!!! and overly cheerful tone. its a marketing thing i think.... http://www.dukediet.com/publicsite/successstories/andrea.asp x

Andrea, That is so awesome!!!  You should be proud.   I love their overzealousness with the !!!!.  But it's people like you who help THEM to be successful. I had an article done on me by our local newspaper, pics and all.   I was excited to do it until the 4 page spread came out.  My 15 minutes of fame lasted too long.  It's up in our faculty room and all.  Now just a tad embarassing. LOL  Thankfully it was me and 4 other woman who had successfully lost weight in our little part of the world.  It was fun though. Congratulations!!! Donna

yeah donna, its a fine line. i was MORTIFIED by the article written up for Quick and Simple. they took everything i said out of context and it was very upsetting. "its all about moderation - sometimes you can have a cupcake" turned into  "Andrea still eats cupcakes!!" (that supposed quote was on the cover!). luckily the magazine had just started and i don't think anyone who i didn't specifically tell about it saw it.   i was talking to a Woman's World Weekly person in the past few weeks - they are doing a story about the Duke Diet book in June. i was all cooperating until i spoke to the woman and found out that they want someone to actually be the cover model. i was like, thanks but no thanks. ihave you seen taht mag at the check-out counter? the woman of the month is the ONLY thing on it - like full body shot and all!  i'm trying to convince my sister to do it though. for me, there are some ethical issues involved as well because of my profession so i need to be careful. fame is okay in moderation but i feel like it also creates a lot of pressure with people assuming you're perfect and that you never mess up or something. at the same time, i want to share my story to give others hope and all that. its complicated.

I actually spoke to a woman from Quick and Simple as well.  She was all about doing a story but she was concerned that I hadn't gotten to goal.  Then I remembered what you said and I was like, uh no thanks.   I really wanted to share and motivate people, which is why I wanted to do the article.  But when you are in the paper, big as life, it's a little unsettling.  Add to that that I just started a new job at the beginning of this school year and I had lost all my weight the year before.  I was a little unsettled when they came up to me and said things like "I never knew."  I knew they meant well...well you get the idea. No cover of a magazine for me, thank you very much!!! I wonder if Lynette ever did that spread?  Remember her?

Hi Andrea,      Grats on the write up! :-)  And kudos on taking all that weight off.

Somehow I don't think I would mind the fame and being the cover story. Though, I've never been there so what do I know.  I would be very upset too if they had misconstrued my words.  Perhaps they were trying to speak to an audience who wants to lose weight but is not yet ready to give up their cupcakes.  Break `em in easy so to speak.  Hopefully there was some truth in the article and they didn't tell people you could be like Andrea and lose weight eating cupcakes. Mm cupcakes sound good!

Wow thats great! You are an inspiring woman!