By sharing her experience through regular Niagara This Week stories and her blog, she’s shown a legion of followers the ups and downs one faces when trying to shed pounds.

It has assisted others in their lives, said Sharon Richardson, who has kept on top of Andras’s saga. What particularly helped, she said, was seeing that it wasn’t just her who was having a hard time.

“It was good to see everybody has problems,” Richardson said. “It was like, ‘OK, everybody has a setback.’”

In May, Andras, who spoke freely about many years of eating problems and not taking care of herself, announced to the world her intention to fit back into her wedding dress by Oct. 23, the time of her ninth anniversary of her marriage to Nick.

She thought she would need to shed 55 pounds, but found along the way that her strength training had helped her replace more fat with lean muscle mass than she anticipated. At the beginning of this month, at about 160 pounds and three weeks ahead of her ninth wedding anniversary, she easily slid into the dress.

Andras did have a few setbacks on the way, each of them noted in Niagara This Week or her blog, but kept forging ahead with her program.

“I think the fear of failure would keep most people from going public with something like that,” said Mary Warren, another woman who said she was inspired by Andras.

Warren said after reading about Andras and her mission, and seeing the wedding dress hanging on a wall at her Curves for Women outlet in Niagara Falls, she decided she would try something similar.

“I went home and decided I would hang up a black dress that I wanted to wear to a wedding,” Warren said.

A few weeks ago, after losing 11 pounds, she slipped it on successfully.

Curves employee Susan Lott said she talked with many members over the past few months about Andras’s daring move and wall display, with the dress, newspaper clippings and weight and body fat percentage charts.

“Through the whole summer members have come in and looked at the wall, checked out the numbers,” Lott said.

Many commented that Andras was “extremely brave.”

“I was really touched by it,” Pat Ranzan said of reading the first story about Andras’s journey. “It takes guts to do it. It’s really motivated me.”

Tuesday while getting a makeover, bra fitting and new clothes from Sears at Pen Centre, a deal husband Nick helped arrange as a surprise for reaching her goal, Andras said she was happy with what she has achieved.

Andras said the whole experience has changed her life more than she ever thought. Her confidence level is up significantly and she feels she has the ability to motivate others.

She said it also helped teach her daughter, Brooklin, a life lesson on perseverance, being able to do what one sets one’s mind to.

There were many times along the way when she thought her busy life — raising a child and running two Curves outlets among other things — would keep her from eating properly and exercising regularly. It’s that kind of thinking that often keeps people from achieving their goal, she said.

“Everybody has things that are going to stand in their way,” Andras said, “but about 80 per cent of it is in your mind.

“You will do it and there will be no stopping you.”

On Thursday (Oct. 23) the Andrases marked their ninth wedding anniversary. This Sunday, Andras plans to run the half-marathon portion of the Niagara Falls International race, completing another of her goals as part of a healthier lifestyle.

* * *

Linda’s Tale of the tape

presented in the following order: start; current; goal

Weight (lbs): 200; 159; 145

Body fat %: 38.5; 30.9; 34