Beauty
Best Weight-Loss Group
The Village Temple
33 East 12th Street
800-651-6000
It's 9:55 on a Wednesday morning at the Village Temple. In the front of the
room, a woman stands beneath a Hebrew prayer on the wall, combing her thick
white bob and schmoozing about a recent attack of acid reflux. Someone
compliments her on her sweater pin and she launches into a spiel on her
obsession with antique costume jewelry. Welcome to Weight Watchers, Lenore
Schmidt-style. The 69-year-old leader brings her life into every meeting
(Wednesdays, 10 to 11 a.m. and 12:15 to 1:15 p.m.), and she expects those
longing to drop some pounds, and maybe some baggage, to do the same. She'll
be the first to tell stories of sneaking cookies in the shower or internally
debating whether to eat a scoop of ice cream after it's fallen from cone to
pavement. Such candid discussions -- not typical fare at the company that
employs a British royal as its figurehead -- attract an unlikely mix that
includes a Broadway actress, a best-selling author, a soap star, a
contingent of Orthodox women, gay lawyers, healers, freelance everythings,
and chubby transvestites in full regalia. Ask for a low-fat recipe, and
Schmidt will direct you to a cookbook. And when Schmidt asks how you're
doing, she doesn't mean whether you lost three pounds this week. She means
how you're doing. "I'm not a carrot-and-celery leader," says Schmidt, who
looks endearingly approachable for a guru. "That's not what they want in the
Village."
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