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Two days after Thanksgiving, Freeman finally settled on the UCLA program. Under the supervision of doctors, nutritionists, and psychologists, she switched to a diet of 100 calorie shakes made with vitamin enriched powder, drowning up to seven per day. (Low calorie...Pure Protein Program).
“The first week or two, you’re holding on by your fingernails,” says Freeman, who also attends weekly,” AA-like” support groups with fellow dieters.
“You don’t have to do it as strict as I did, but once I made my mind up, I said, ‘I’m going to go for it.’”
Indeed, Freeman displayed “a very positive attitude,” says Dr. Jean Hardesty Radecki, a clinical psychologist who works with Freeman on the program, which she estimates has an 80% per cent success rate. “The most successful people come in and say, ’You guys are the experts.’ Yvette did that. She’s an inspiration.”
As the weight came off, Freeman added six-day-a-week workouts with personal trainer Monica Karzanian, who runs her through light weight training and kick boxing. On July 4th she had her first regular meal in months, enjoying grilled fish, vegetables, and a salad. After slowly increasing her solid food intake since then, she is now down to one shake per day and adheres to a daily 1400 calorie limit.
She is enjoying the perks that come with being a size 8 rather than a size 24,”Cute bras and underwear,” says Freeman who was a size 16 when she began ER. “You don’t get that when you’re a large woman.” Even as an overweight child growing up in Wilmington, Del., one of seven children of Ruth, a housewife, and Charles, a pianist, both now deceased, Freeman dressed in frumpy sweaters because dresses were not plentiful in her size.
Her weight never kept her from getting work. She landed in regional productions of Ain’t Misbehavin’ and The Wiz before moving to L. A. in 1991 and starring in ER three years later. She met her husband Hartley that same year, when he was the musical director for Dinah Was, her L.A. one woman show about singer Dinah Washington. |
