Hey, Ma! I'm in the Paper!

My friend has a friend who is a freelance writer.  About a year ago, she was looking to interview couples who lost weight together, so my friend asked me if I would talk to her.  I cheerfully agreed, and learned why you should think about what you are saying before you tell something to a writer or reporter, as they tend to quote you.  
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“Doubling efforts to shape up, slim down”
By Mary Lynn F. Jones
Chicago Tribune
January 28, 2004

But even among couples who lose weight, it's often an individual, rather than joint, decision that starts the process. Suzanne, who is slightly over 5 feet tall, weighed 167 pounds and "was at the point where I was going to have to wear teepees" before she made it her New Year's resolution in 1998 to lose weight. She joined a gym near her New York City apartment and started by walking on a treadmill. She lost 20 pounds in the first year, and had breast reduction surgery to reduce back pain.

Still, when [her boyfriend]Justin (now her husband) joined her at the gym in 1999, he was frustrated by his own lack of progress. An investment banker, he found it hard to keep a regular exercise schedule. It wasn't until after their wedding in 2000 that he sported a renewed interest in going to the gym. A change to a job with more regular hours also helped.

Keeping each other on task became easier. "On days when [Justin] wasn't up to going to the gym, I was like, `C'mon, I'm going to go,'" Suzanne said. "We went from being coach potato dorks to fitness dorks."

And if they are sitting in front of the television, Suzanne, 28, and Justin, 27, now snack on grapes and pretzels instead of potato chips.

Suzanne and Justin have each lost about 40 pounds, or the combined equivalent of a 4th grader, as she put it. "It used to be, if we got a double bed in a hotel, it was cramped," said Suzanne. Now, she added, "It's spacious."
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After the interview, I thought nothing of my quirky responses to the writer’s questions, until Justin read the article upon publication and pointed out what the other interviewees said.  Of course, they had completely normal responses, like “when Stacy, 29, wasn't happy with the way her clothes were fitting and asked again that September, Jesse, 30, figured he should go to support her.”  Nothing about teepees, losing an amount of weight the size of a 10 year old, or noting their social status.  Justin, incidentally, was not happy about being called a dork (and recently an internet quiz proved that he is in fact not a dork, but rather a nerd).  Oh well.  I still stand by my words.