START ME UP\HOW YOU DID IT\She wins by losing\Careful weight reduction gives her a healthy outlook.

Byline: Lynette Rice Daily News Staff Writer

First, Joyce Stone broke into tears. Then she begged for help.

It was a year ago January when Stone, a shelter service coordinator for a battered women's shelter, discovered why she was feeling dizzy and suffering from fainting spells: Her weight had topped 270 pounds and her blood pressure was at an all-time high.

The doctor told the single mom from Reseda to lose 100 pounds. She told the doctor "no way."

"I just started crying," recalled Stone, now 46. "I said 'I can't even lose 20 ' I thought the only way I could lose it was surgery."

But then Stone, already diagnosed as an uncomplicated diabetic who lives without insulin, remembered why her mother died at the young age of 57. The woman was a 310-pound diabetic who ate "whatever she wanted to eat."

"When my daughter turns 18, I'll be 52," Stone said. "I don't want to be unable to get around and not enjoy my life. I want to be footloose."

So Stone went to work. A bitter veteran of commercial diet plans, Stone took her doctor's simple advice to forgo red meats, sugars and sodas for low-fat meals and big glasses of water. Stone also turned to friends and family - she has four children, ages 13 to 29, as well as a 9-year-old grandson - for support.

Within weeks, Stone shed a cool 40 pounds.

But she wasn't ready to celebrate.

"Then I just started losing 8 or 11 pounds at a time. I was getting mad," Stone said. "But the doctor said, 'You can't expect to lose it that quick. It's not good to lose it so quick.' "

Exercise was the logical next step. She began to walk around her Reseda neighborhood, first for 15 minutes, then 30, then 45. Soon, she was walking four miles a day every morning before she went to work at the battered women's shelter - a routine she still follows today.

Her weight now? A healthy 168 pounds. Stone wants to lose 18 more but already is sharing clothes with her 13-year-old daughter and being referred to as a sexy grandmother by her grandson.

Most importantly, Stone feels she can serve as an inspiration to her clients. A victim of an abusive marriage herself, Stone wants her clients to find the courage to start a new life.

"I never look back," said Stone, who spends her spare time participating in open-mike nights at local comedy clubs. "I turned my whole life around. I know I'm the same person, I treat people the same way, but this has given me a different outlook. I know I can do anything."

Joyce Stone's prescription for a healthier life:

Forget the fad diets. Do your homework and learn to cook low-fat meals.

Drink 10 to 12 glasses of water a day. Start a walking program.

Drum up support from friends, co-workers and family.

And get a doctor who understands. She says her own doctor "understood what I was going through and would talk to me any time. He's not the type who would look at you and say, 'You have to do this or you're gonna die.' "

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PHOTO

Photo (1) Joyce Stone now walks four miles each morning as part of her weight management program, which helped her lose more than 100 pounds since January 1995. Bob Halvorsen/Daily News (2) This photo was taken in February 1995, shortly after Stone's doctor told her she needed to slim down from 270 pounds.