280-pound scale wasn't big enough for either of them
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, The, Feb 13, 2003 by CROCKER STEPHENSON
The scale in Diana and Curt Bauer's Town of Waukesha home goes up to 280 pounds, which may seem like plenty to you, but just a year ago it wasn't nearly enough for either one of them.
A year ago March, Diana stepped on and watched in disbelief as the numbers went spinning past the little window between her toes and stopped in the uncharted regions above 280.
Diana drove to a place that had a proper scale: one with the two parallel slides at eye level, the lower slide bearing a heavier weight and notched to increase in 50 pound increments, the upper slide bearing a lighter weight capable of measuring fractions of pounds.
The person weighing Diana set the lower weight on 300 and slid the upper one to 3.
When Diana got home, she was crying. Now it was Curt's turn to be weighed. He, too, sent the family scale above the 280 mark; using Diana's known weight as a marker, they guesstimated that Curt weighed 290 pounds.
Diana, who is 40 years old, and Curt, who is 43, decided that for their sake and for the sake of their two daughters, the fat had to go.
Now, there are all kinds of ways a person can lose weight. There are all kinds of programs, all kinds of diets, all kinds of techniques. Diana and Curt decided to go with what they knew, and what they knew was Avon.
Diana and Curt are in the Avon business. Together, they have more than 400 customers and manage roughly 550 Avon representatives.
It was Diana who got the couple started on Avon. She was a secretary and, about a decade ago, she began selling Avon products to herself and the people around the office.
Curt was a salesman in the construction business. One of his big accomplishments was selling 500,000 burnished concrete blocks, 40 pounds each, to the people who built the Bradley Center.
Diana began selling Avon full time and bought Curt an 18-foot speedboat with her earnings. Bright red. Name: "Lipstick Lady." Fully equipped with Skin-So-Soft bug guard and sun protection. About a year later, an impressed Curt went from selling foundations to, well, selling foundations.
Avon offers a weight-loss program called SlimWell. It's one of those meal substitute programs with shakes, meal bars and vitamins.
If the proof of the pudding is in the tasting, here are the results: Diana, who is 5 feet 9 inches, has dropped 88 pounds. Her dress size went from 28 to 16. She lost 2 1/2 ring sizes. Curt can join his hands when he hugs her, rather that stopping at her shoulder blades.
Curt, who is 6 feet, lost 95 pounds. His pants size went from 46 to 38. His neck, from size 18 to size 16.
Or, to put it another way, Curt and Diana together have lost the equivalent weight of Diana's father: 183 pounds.
I end this column with an inappropriate joke:
Q. What do you call a 300-pound Packers fan?
A. Anorexic.
Contact Crocker Stephenson at (414) 224-2539 or by e-mail at cstephenson@journalsentinel.com
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