Weight Watchers Founder Jean Nidetch Dies At Age 91

PARKLAND, Fla. (AP) — A half-century after dropping 70 pounds and keeping them off, Weight Watchers founder Jean Nidetch made some allowances: Cokes in her fridge, Klondikes in her freezer, the occasional potato or extra piece of bread on her plate. But she never again touched the chocolate marshmallow cookies she called her ultimate weakness, the treat she'd stash in the hamper and eat by the boxful in the middle of the night, all the while praying she'd choke on her next bite. "Why would I want to see that movie again?" she asked. Weight-loss royalty to the end, Nidetch died Wednesday at 91, her son David said. Her brainchild made her a multimillionaire, a late-night fixture, the inspiring face that could stir droves of Weight Watchers adherents to a frenzy. But she kept her vow to never be overweight again, and beamed with pride she had helped so many others do the same. Jean Evelyn S.sky was 7 pounds, 3 ounces, when she was born in Brooklyn on Oct. 12, 1923, to a manicurist mother and cab driver father. As a child, she remembered struggling to squeeze out from behind her desk in a fire drill, and never riding a horse on a merry-go-round, afraid of what she'd look like climbing atop it. The pounds piled on, with food her antidote for any hurt or sorrow. Before she even reached high school, she was attempting diets of every kind. She tried fasting, eating nothing but eggs and grapefruit, mixing oil and evaporated milk and drinking it three times a day. She'd drop some ...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news