Carole Carson Lost 60 Pounds at 60

You can't help but listen to someone who dropped 12 dress sizes at the age of 60, and kept the weight off the past seven years. Meet Carole Carson, slim and trim author of "From Fat To Fit: Turn Yourself into a Weapon of Mass Reduction" -- it's a great read. A grandmother of two French granddaughters, 67-year-old Carson recently spoke with That's Fit about her own weight-loss journey and ways to raise a healthy family the French way.

Carson's initial claim to fitness fame was simply starting a diet at the age of 59 and submitting a "you're never too old to get fit" story about it to a local newspaper. At 5-feet, 1-inch tall and 182 pounds, Carson was obese. When her article surprisingly hit the front page, she was so embarrassed she considered moving. But public response was overwhelmingly supportive -- the front page splash turned her into a regular columnist outlining her impressive 41-pound weight loss over the next 16 weeks.

Carson shed more, eventually landing at a size 6. She acknowledges her body size only requires between 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day, even with her impressive weekly exercise goals. "Once you've lost weight, you think you can go back and have that occasional cookie and [that] you're good to go. You aren't. It's a way of life," says Carson.

There are also the personal observations of her French granddaughters. "Eighty percent of the kids who have overweight parents are overweight themselves," Carson says. "The most influential thing is what are the adults around you eating." She says her French daughter-in-law spends as much energy training the palates of her 2- and 4-year-old little girls as she does toilet training. "They really emphasize the pleasures and social aspect of eating, so even though Matisse is 4 years old and goes to nursery school, they have a formal meal in the middle of the day where they sit and talk to each other and use silverware. It's a four-star meal with poached fish and some leeks, and some exotic rice or grain and then a delicate little dessert." How many American parents short order cook mac 'n cheese for their kids at dinner versus setting the expectation that they eat the fish and leeks? Or pack a Lunchables for school? We're training our kids to eat processed foods from a very young age, the very foods underfunded U.S. public school nutritional programs can afford.

Carson saw the French eat seasonally, grow organic food everywhere and eat much less meat than Americans. "They might have five out of seven meals completely vegetable or maybe something with a little bit of meat in it," she said. "I grew up in the Midwest, we prepare our meals around the meat. I've had to train myself to start with the vegetables and the grains." Then there's dessert. "I was so surprised to hear the French consider yogurt a dessert. Here, women diet with yogurt," said Carson. A French child may receive a rare, tiny bit of chocolate for dessert or some fruit and cheese. In America, parents scoop up ice cream with chocolate sauce, slices of cake, pie, handfuls of cookies and candy. And the French incorporate walking and bicycling into their natural daily patterns of movement. We jump into our cars.

Fit Family Fall Assignment. We'd ask Carson for advice on this one, but she's off to France to hug those grandchildren. She'd likely tell you to start moving more and eating less. Write down calories in/calories out. Pick up wholesome foods, not the boxes of frozen bagel dogs she regrets buying for her own young boys when she was a single mom working full time. Get sugary soda out of the house. Focus on your own weight-loss goals -- the behaviors you model are one of the most powerful influences of your child's physical and nutritional health.

If you can't get your kids away from mac 'n cheese, Tanya Zuckerbrot gave this dish a Recipe Rehab.