"I had to swear off sugar"
WHAT PACKED ON THE POUNDS: Destructive dieting. Put on her first diet at the early age of 4 by her family, Shannon Hammer grew up feeling as though her weight was constantly monitored. As a child, she'd rebel by sneaking food—a bite of cake here, a few cookies there—and then covering her tracks. Later, she tried every diet from cabbage soup to grapefruit, but her feelings of anger and shame, coupled with the intense hunger brought on by calorie restriction, led to full-blown binges. One of her most vivid memories: finishing off a half-eaten pint of ice cream and running to the corner store to buy a new pint, then eating that to the halfway point to keep her family from discovering her shameful secret. "By the time I was thirty, I had tried every diet out there and even had taken laxatives and appetite suppressants—and I still weighed 230 pounds," says Hammer.
MY LOWEST MOMENT: Eating the cupboards bare. "I'd eat whatever was in the house—half a loaf of bread, four bowls of cereal. I wouldn't stop until I was panting in pain."
[sidebar]WHAT FINALLY WORKED FOR ME: Going cold turkey on trigger foods. After seeing a photo of herself in January 2001, Hammer, then a size 22, knew things had to change: "I was looking at an obese woman with my face. I was horrified." She started following a low-carb diet, largely because it eliminated sugar and flour, her trigger foods. She began looking at cake, cookies, and pasta the way a recovering alcoholic views a glass of bourbon: as off-limits—forever.
She also began walking almost every day, and, eventually, 20 minutes became 2 hours. Over the next 2 years, she dropped 40 pounds. Another 2 years later, exercising nearly an hour a day and controlling her portion sizes, Hammer had shed an additional 70 pounds.
WHAT KEEPS ME MOTIVATED: The fear of backsliding. "I still feel like I'm one bite away from a binge. You can't return to your old habits after you lose the weight. This is a lifestyle that has to continue."
MY "TAKE IT OFF, LEAVE IT OFF" SECRETS
No more straight to the plate. "I weigh or measure everything I eat or drink. Practicing portion control is key."
Fight pig-outs on paper. "I used to turn to food for comfort, but now I write in my journal when I'm frustrated or worried."
Investigate ingredients. "I always check labels to make sure I avoid sugar."
[header=I Finally Put Myself First]
Lynn Greenhalge
47, Webster, MA; credit analyst
Lynn's Slim-Down Stats
Her success: Lost 113 pounds; has kept it off for 2 years
How she did it: Yoga and portion control
Height: 5'1"
Heaviest weight and size: 225 lb; size 18
Current weight and size: 112 lb; size zero
"I finally put myself first"
WHAT PACKED ON THE POUNDS: Putting my family's needs first. Lynn Greenhalge's scale struggles began at age 27, after the birth of her third child. "Between work and chauffeuring the kids, I didn't have time to lose the baby weight," she says. By 2006, at age 42, she weighed 225 pounds.
MY LOWEST MOMENT: Barely fitting into a size 16. "I dreaded shopping, so I squeezed into embarrassingly tight pants for my son's high-school graduation."
WHAT FINALLY WORKED FOR ME: Yoga plus portion control.
"Yoga helped me reconnect with my body," recalls Greenhalge, who began practicing twice a week in the fall of 2006. Next, she signed up for Weight Watchers online and began walking 30 minutes 2 or 3 times a week. By the end of the year, she'd dropped 30 pounds. In 2008, to blast through a plateau, she upped her cardio: daily 5 AM, 60-minute walking and running intervals on a treadmill in her bedroom, torching calories as her husband snoozed. Within 8 months, she'd lost another 50 pounds.
MY "TAKE IT OFF, LEAVE IT OFF" SECRETS
Wear workout clothes to bed. "I sleep in a sports bra. When I get up, I'm exercising."
Tune out the TV. "I'll forgo my workout to take a walk with my family, but not to watch TV with them. I've worked too hard not to put myself first."
[header=I Stopped Mindless Eating]
Tammy Pennington
46, Manchester, KY; child-support caseworker
Tammy's Slim-Down Stats
Her success: Lost 138 pounds; has kept it off for 4 years
How she did it: Weight Watchers and exercise
Height: 5'6"
Heaviest weight and size: 295 lb; size 24
Current size: 157 lb; size 6
"I stopped mindless eating"
WHAT PACKED ON THE POUNDS: My unhealthy focus on food. Tammy Pennington's childhood dinner table groaned with traditional Southern fare: fried pork chops...mashed potatoes...gooey mac and cheese. "Food was always the focus in my family," recalls Pennington. "I ate even when I wasn't hungry, mostly because it was there." By her late teens, she tipped the scales at 250 pounds. Over the next 20 years, she cycled through diets, including the Blood Type Diet, but the weight always came back on—and then some. Shortly after her 40th birthday, she stepped on the scale, shocked that she'd reached a new high of almost 300 pounds.
MY LOWEST MOMENT: Not qualifying for gastric bypass surgery.
Tired of avoiding mirrors and ducking out of photos, Pennington applied for bypass surgery. To her surprise, her insurance company turned her down, stipulating that she needed to first try a more traditional weight loss method. "I was so angry and depressed," says Pennington. "I felt like a total failure."
WHAT FINALLY WORKED FOR ME: Weight Watchers plus workouts.
Mostly to appease her insurer, Pennington signed up for Weight Watchers. The portion-controlled, balanced-eating method, paired with ongoing group support, helped her drop 5 pounds in the first week.
Three weeks later, she'd lost a total of 10. "I couldn't believe that I wasn't starving and was still losing weight steadily," she recalls. "It upped my motivation to stick with it." Three months later, she'd shed a total of 25 pounds but seemed stalled. To kick fat loss into overdrive, she set her alarm for 4:45 each morning and did an hour-long DVD workout—The Firm series was a favorite—in her living room.
WHAT KEEPS ME MOTIVATED: Weekend races.
By the end of the year, Pennington had lost 60 pounds, but it took her another 2 years to reach her goal weight of 155. To stay motivated, she began walking or running a 5-K almost every weekend. "When I ran my first 5-K, I felt like I'd conquered the world," says Pennington, who now frequently finishes local races in the top three of her age group. "Every time I get a medal, I hang it up to keep me inspired."
MY "TAKE IT OFF, LEAVE IT OFF" SECRETS
Banish grandiose goals. Aim to lose 5 pounds at a time, not 50 all at once. "Achieving small goals regularly inspires you to stick with it instead of becoming overwhelmed and throwing in the towel," she says.
Weatherproof your workouts. Invest in easy-to-store fitness items like DVDs, exercise bands, and hand weights: "You won't be able to make excuses when it's raining or you're too busy to make it to the gym."
Brown-bag it. "At work, I avoid eating calorie-heavy take-out food by cooking a little extra healthy fare—like grilled chicken or fish—at dinner and packing it for lunch the next day."
[header= We Turned to Prayer Instead of Food]
Catherine Zanoni 
46, Brentwood, TN; bank loan officer
Catherine's Slim-Down Stats
Her success: Lost 78 pounds; has kept it off for 12 years
How she did it: Weigh Down Method
Height: 5'8"
Heaviest weight and size: 247 lb; size 14
Current weight and size: 137 lb; size 6
Aldith Diaz 
52, Nashville; medical receptionist
Aldith's Slim-Down Stats
Her success: Lost 110 pounds; has kept it off for 9 1/2 years
How she did it: Weigh Down Method
Height: 5'2"
Heaviest weight and size: 198 lb; size 22
Current weight and size: 120 lb; size 4
WHAT PACKED ON THE POUNDS: Back-to-back babies. At times during each of her three pregnancies, from ages 21 to 27, Catherine Zanoni (pictured left) felt like she wasn't just eating for two—it was like she was eating for 12. "I ate with abandon," she says. "I'd eat a pint of Haagen-Dazs in one sitting." Zanoni gained about 60 pounds with each pregnancy, eventually tipping the scale at 247 pounds. A string of diets over the next 15 years still left her at 217.
Aldith Diaz, whose childhood chub earned her the nickname Butterball by age 5, can relate. Although she lost about 30 pounds when she married at age 26, she put the weight back on with each of her three pregnancies, weighing 198 pounds by age 34. "All I wanted to do was eat and sleep," she recalls.
OUR LOWEST MOMENT: Realizing we were too tired to live our own lives. "I couldn't believe that reflection in the mirror was me," Zanoni says. "I felt hopeless." Diaz remembers listening to her kids tear through the house while she lay on the couch, too tired to stop them. "It just took too much effort."
WHAT FINALLY WORKED FOR US: The Weigh Down Method. Both devout Christians, Zanoni and Diaz were drawn to the Weigh Down Method, which uses biblical teachings and a spiritual emphasis to help participants become more mindful about their eating habits, rather than approaching diets as a mathematical equation. One of the main goals: switching the focus from food to faith. "I used to deal with my stress by plowing through a pan of brownies," says Zanoni, who began strictly following the WDM in 2001 because it doesn't force a prescribed set of food rules or preach regular exercise. "Now, when I feel stressed, I pray instead," she says. Over the next 2 years, she lost 80 pounds and has kept the weight off for more than 9 years.
Diaz, who dropped 30 pounds on a 30-day juice fast in February 1998, knew she needed to find a more sustainable way to reach her goal weight and began the WDM a few weeks later. Within a year of following the principles, Diaz dropped 50 pounds. "I ate only when my stomach growled and stopped when I was satisfied," says Diaz.
OUR "TAKE IT OFF, LEAVE IT OFF" SECRETS
Take the work out of working out. "I haven't gone to the gym in ten years, and I don't miss it one bit!" says Zanoni. "I stay active by running after my grandkids."
Eat your favorite foods first. "It helps me eat less overall without eliminating my high-fat favorites like ice-cream sundaes and chips and guacamole," says Diaz.
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