AFTER 128 POUND LOSS, WOMAN HELPS OTHERS

JACKSON -- A year ago Laura Englehart decided it was time to shed some pounds. In seven and a half months, she lost 128 pounds.

Now she wants to share what she discovered about food with others.

"For 10 years, I did not like the way I looked. All the time I was miserable. I absolutely hated myself. I would get dressed and not even look in the mirror.

"I had tried all the diets, the programs, Dexatrim. I even tried the egg diet. All you eat are eggs, bananas and potatoes. You can't live that way."

Then, Englehart says, she gave up. "I had gotten to the point that I just didn't care."

The turning point came last January. Her children came home after getting in trouble on the school bus.

"They were defending me. The other kids were saying I was fat. I decided I wasn't going to be fat any more."

She knew short-term solutions hadn't worked. She needed a long-term plan.

"I got all the books I could find," Englehart said. She read diabetic cookbooks, nursing textbooks, nutrition handbooks.

"There are thousands of diets and books out there," Englehart said. "I knew I was going to have to have something to eat, but the question was what."

As she read, some common-sense things appeared again and again, like eating more fresh fruits and vegetables, and utilizing low-fat food preparation methods.

"The things that seemed ridiculous, I ignored."

She decided some foods she will never eat again.

It worked. As she changed both her eating and cooking habits, the weight began to come off. She also took up walking. She walks daily, run or shine.

"I am half the person I used to be," she said proudly. "Now people don't recognize me."

"I was going to the grocery store and it was taking me hours to get out. Everyone who saw me would ask how I lost the weight. I would stand there and tell them."

Finally, she decided to hold a meeting and tell all her friends her diet secret at one time.

"I put up fliers and people came. Then they wanted to come back."

She started teaching the courses on a little more formal level. She made copies of the recipes she had used and information that worked and called her classes, "Just Laura." At one point during the fall, she had meetings scheduled three times a week.

With the holidays, Englehart said demand has slacked off. She is only holding meetings on Saturdays. For information, call Englehart at 243-7294.

"My children tell me I'm more fun to be around. I'm enjoying their lives a lot more than I have for the past 10 years," she said.

"What I learned is not a temporary thing. It's not just something to do for a short amount of time to lose weight. I have changed my life.

"Food is not this powerful thing anymore. I only eat things I need for my body. Food has been put in its rightful place."