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" Days after winning The Biggest Loser, Helen Phillips whisked her husband, Russell, away for a weekend in Las Vegas. It was a treat in return for his support during the six and a half months she&amp;#039;d been away at the Biggest Loser Ranch, pounding her size-22 body into shape. But when Phillips hit the palm-lined pool at the MGM Grand hotel last May wearing a rhinestone-trimmed, size-2 swimsuit, the treat was all hers. &amp;quot;A year before I could barely leave my house because I was so ashamed of my body,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;And there I was in a cute bathing suit strutting my stuff!&amp;quot; Feeling confident in a blingy suit is only one of the triumphs Phillips, 49, has celebrated since shedding 140 pounds to become Loser&amp;#039;s oldest winner. When the newly buff mom returned home to suburban Detroit, there were TV appearances, charity events, and a series of parties that &amp;quot;are still going on,&amp;quot; she says with a laugh. She posed in a chalky mustache for a &amp;quot;Got Milk?&amp;quot; ad. And she spent some of her $250,000 prize winnings on a Jeep Liberty and a stylish new wardrobe. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s been a tremendous change,&amp;quot; Phillips says when I meet her at a photo shoot in New York City. Dressed in a teeny pink exercise top and tight black workout pants, her blue eyes sparkling with energy, she looks far younger in person than on TV. When I remark on her impressive muscle tone, she grabs my hand and strikes it against her rock-solid thigh. &amp;quot;Feel how hard that is,&amp;quot; she says proudly. While losing an astonishing 54 percent of her body weight (plummeting from 257 pounds to 117), she dropped from a 46DD to a 34C bra size and shrank a full shoe size (to a 10). Although the 5&amp;#039;6&amp;quot; Phillips is now &amp;quot;a healthy size 6&amp;quot; and weighs a more realistic 128 pounds, she looks as strong and fit as she did the day she left the Ranch, thanks to a regimen that includes everything from putting in two-hour workouts to packing her car every day with a cooler full of healthy snacks. She hasn&amp;#039;t touched fast food \u2014 &amp;quot;I feel too good now to ever go back to that,&amp;quot; she says. And her palate has become so geared to a lean, low-fat diet that a pot roast she cooked recently tasted too rich. &amp;quot;I knew the moment I began eating it that I wouldn&amp;#039;t go back to my old ways. I truly have changed \u2014 on the inside as well as the outside,&amp;quot; she says. But the transition from the Ranch to real life has had its bumps. Phillips hit a rough patch when she arrived home last spring. &amp;quot;The show was over, there was no more Ranch, and I realized I was now the Biggest Loser winner \u2014 and the pressure was really on,&amp;quot; she recalls. &amp;quot;I would lie awake at night and think, What if I gain the weight back? What if I slip back into my old ways?&amp;quot; It was a natural reaction. &amp;quot;If you&amp;#039;ve used drastic measures, which are unsustainable in the long term, to lose weight, then some transition has to take place,&amp;quot; says Graham Thomas, Ph.D., coinvestigator at the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR), which tracks adults who have lost at least 30 pounds and kept it off for a year. &amp;quot;You&amp;#039;re either going to find a way to balance your life or you&amp;#039;re not going to be successful.&amp;quot; The Biggest Loser&amp;#039;s strenuous regimen, which has been known to cause contestants to vomit and even pass out, is certainly drastic \u2014 and increasingly controversial. A recent New York Times story raised health concerns over the possibly dangerous practices (a mile-long race in the hot sun, for example) that precipitate rapid weight loss of 15 or more pounds a week. The same article revealed that the season one winner, Ryan C. Benson, had gained back almost all the weight he had lost. That wouldn&amp;#039;t happen to her, swore Phillips, who was, if anything, exercise-obsessed. Convinced that she needed to keep up the Ranch&amp;#039;s six-hour-a-day exercise schedule at home, she got up at 4:30 every morning to fit in those long hours. She was so fanatical, she could barely go to a movie. &amp;quot;I just couldn&amp;#039;t sit still for that long,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;d say, &amp;#039;What are we doing sitting here? I need to go to the gym or something.&amp;#039; &amp;quot; Within weeks, she was exhausted and nearing burnout. That&amp;#039;s when Russell; son Alex, 17, a high school senior; and daughter Shanon, 31, who was her mother&amp;#039;s partner at the Ranch, staged an exercise intervention, saying, &amp;quot;You can&amp;#039;t do this! You can&amp;#039;t work out so much now that you&amp;#039;re home. Look how tired you are!&amp;quot; Next: How Phillips keeps the weight off at home So Phillips enlisted their assistance in slowing down. &amp;quot;I called a family meeting,&amp;quot; she recalls. &amp;quot;I said, &amp;#039;I know I&amp;#039;ve been a little crazy. I&amp;#039;m trying to readjust. I realize I need to be here more for you and we need to be a family again.&amp;#039;&amp;quot; They agreed to make getting healthier a family affair: On weekends, they exercise together (running, walking, and riding bikes) and group-shop for fresh fruits and vegetables, which they then chop and prepare for the week. And they support one another in making sure the house is stocked with healthy cereals and other staples like low-cal unsweetened almond milk (half the calories of skim milk). &amp;quot;We eat fresh, unprocessed food that grows on trees and in the garden, plus chicken, fish, and lean meats,&amp;quot; says Phillips, a former gourmand who specialized in cooking the fattening foods of her Polish heritage, like pierogis and kielbasa. &amp;quot;When I cook now, I use no butter and only a tiny bit of olive oil. And I still eat small portions five times a day, just like I did on the Ranch.&amp;quot; Since his wife&amp;#039;s return, Russell, who struggled with his weight in the past, has lost almost 60 pounds and is off his diabetes medication. And Shanon has whittled away 117 pounds; she now weighs 172, her lowest in 13 years. (Alex, fortunately, doesn&amp;#039;t need to slim down.) Phillips&amp;#039;s strategies for keeping the pounds at bay follow some of the proven basics of weight maintenance, says Thomas of the NWCR. Here are some of those keep-it-off behaviors:  Stick with a low-cal, low-fat diet \u2014 about 1,500 calories per day, with less than 30 percent coming from fat (Phillips consumes about 400 additional calories per day to help fuel her daily exercise; see Helen Phillips&amp;#039;s 5-a-Day Meal Plan). Eat breakfast every day \u2014 it helps prevent overeating. Forgo the high-fat, high-sugar empty calories of fast food. Keep a daily food journal and step on the scale regularly. Exercise at least 200 minutes per week (Phillips works out about 120 minutes per day). Cut TV viewing to 10 hours or less per week (the national average is 28 hours). Phillips went from watching up to five movies in a row when she was heavy to almost zero now. Avoid taking weekends and holidays &amp;quot;off&amp;quot; (Phillips indulges in one higher-calorie day a week, a practice she started at the Ranch).  Having a strong desire to break free from the past is also key. &amp;quot;From the beginning, Helen had such focus and determination, and most of all, the desire to change her life,&amp;quot; says Biggest Loser trainer Bob Harper, who helped make her a champion. &amp;quot;She is a true success story.&amp;quot; Although Phillips took some knocks for being selfish during The Biggest Loser when she stayed and Shanon went home, the two enjoy a supportive camaraderie symbolized by the matching pair of giant Calvin Klein jeans they were wearing the day they learned they&amp;#039;d been selected for the show. &amp;quot;We&amp;#039;ve cleaned out our closets of clothes that no longer fit,&amp;quot; says Phillips, &amp;quot;but we both kept those matching jeans as a reminder.&amp;quot; Most recently mother and daughter have decided to get cosmetic surgery to remove loose skin remaining after their extreme body makeovers. &amp;quot;I have extra skin on my torso and I&amp;#039;m a little self-conscious about it,&amp;quot; Phillips says. &amp;quot;I know I&amp;#039;m fit; it&amp;#039;s not fat. But it still bugs me. The more weight lifting I do, the tighter it gets. But no matter how long I work out, it will always stay somewhat stretched out.&amp;quot; One of the biggest post-Ranch stunners for Phillips has been seeing how her experience has motivated others. &amp;quot;Women now contact me on Facebook and say, &amp;#039;Because of you I&amp;#039;ve lost weight, and my family has, too.&amp;#039; Some of them have dropped over a hundred pounds,&amp;quot; she says. Many more come seeking help and guidance. To provide it on a broader scale, she&amp;#039;s developing a Website where she&amp;#039;ll write a weekly blog. She&amp;#039;s also hoping to open a small gym and wellness center near her home. Already Phillips has made an impact in her Detroit community \u2014 specifically in the arena of healthy eating. An avid cook, she worked with the chef of the local Andiamo restaurant chain to promote a lean menu, which offers three-course meals including dessert for 600 calories. She&amp;#039;s also spearheading a project in the local Warren Consolidated School District, overhauling kids&amp;#039; lunch menus. Thanks to her input, whole wheat pizza with vegetables has replaced greasy cheese-filled breadsticks, french fries are now baked instead of fried and served only once a week, and there&amp;#039;s a popular salad bar. Of course, there&amp;#039;s still the occasional bit of ego gratification, too. Last summer, Phillips attended a charity gala wearing a slinky beaded gown that showed off her new body. Feeling confident after giving a short speech, she was nevertheless starstruck when introduced to celebrity guest Cindy Crawford. She needn&amp;#039;t have worried. After taking Phillips&amp;#039;s hand, the model gave her a dramatic look up and down and said, &amp;quot;Congratulations! You look fantastic.&amp;quot; Talk about positive reinforcement. Tips from Six Biggest Loser Contestants Season nine of The Biggest Loser is now under way on NBC, and 11 teams of family pairs have thrown themselves at the mercy of trainers Bob Harper and Jillian Michaels. Here, six contestants (including SunShine Hampton, who was sent home with her dad on day one, but has since returned to the Ranch) share tips on what works for them \u2014 and could help you, too. 1. Stephanie Anderson, 30, West Hollywood, CA Starting weight: 264 lbs Lbs lost so far: 39 Use a mantra: Since I&amp;#039;ve been at the Ranch, I&amp;#039;ve learned not to &amp;quot;try,&amp;quot; but to &amp;quot;do.&amp;quot; It&amp;#039;s great to keep in mind when you&amp;#039;re struggling. Breathe right: For the first time in my life, I&amp;#039;m running. It&amp;#039;s remarkable. I can do it because I&amp;#039;m breathing deeply from my diaphragm and not hyperventilating.  Talk yourself through it: During a recent challenge, we had to do 500 sliders, an exercise on a long board. When the three winners were chosen, I was only at 370. So I thought, OK, I&amp;#039;m going to 400. At 400, I thought, I can do a hundred more. My legs felt like Jell-O. But I did it. 2. Michael Ventrella, 31, Chicago Starting weight: 526 lbs (heaviest contestant ever) Lbs lost so far: 83 Tune in to your body&amp;#039;s signals: I was an emotional eater, so there were times I felt extremely hungry \u2014 but in my head, not in my stomach. Now I listen to my body and say, &amp;quot;Is my stomach rumbling, or is it my mind that wants to grab something?&amp;quot; I know that when I get upset or nervous, I start picking up food. So I try to catch myself, and walk or listen to music instead. Find healthy ingredients: I use fat-free Greek yogurt as my white sauce base for a low-cal fettuccine Alfredo, and whole wheat pitas for pizzas on the barbecue grill. 3. SunShine Hampton, 24, Minneapolis Starting weight: 275 lbs Lbs lost so far: 30 Make room for your goals: When I went home, my mother and brother were still eating regular food and drinking pop, but my dad and I had only 1,200 calories a day. We would eat two different dinners. Wherever I was in the house, I could hear my mom opening a can of pop. I learned to separate my goals from my surroundings. Say so long to soda: I&amp;#039;ve always loved it, but I never realized all the empty calories I was drinking. Now, instead of soda, I drink sparkling water with a little added vanilla and Truvia, a natural sweetener. It tastes like pop, but it&amp;#039;s calorie-free. 4. Miggy Cancel, 48, Pemberton, NJ Starting weight: 240 lbs Lbs lost so far: 34 Do what you can: One night at the Ranch I woke up in terrible pain and had to have emergency surgery. When I got out of the hospital, the only exercise I could do was walking. I had three days until weigh-in, so I walked 45 miles and lost five pounds. Face your fears: I&amp;#039;ve been afraid of water since I almost drowned when I was 14. One challenge required us to cross deep water while balancing on a narrow board. It was very, very stressful, and I almost didn&amp;#039;t do it. I hadn&amp;#039;t been in water for over 34 years. I fell in once, and it was terrible. But the second time, I made it across. 5. Sherry Johnston, 52, Knoxville, TN Starting weight: 218 lbs Lbs lost so far: 38 Read labels like a hawk: When you eat a frozen diet meal, you may think you&amp;#039;re doing great because the calories are low. But the sodium can be off the charts. It makes you retain water, which can affect the number on the scale. Use good form: I was filmed while running and saw that I lean back when I run. Dr. Huizenga [Loser&amp;#039;s staff doctor] calculated that the impact on my legs and knees was almost twice as much as my extra weight! Now I&amp;#039;m running on a slight incline because it makes you lean forward a little and takes the pressure off your joints. 6. Lance Morgan, 38, Aspermont, TX Starting weight: 365 lbs Lbs lost so far: 51 Be flexible: I&amp;#039;m a Texas rancher, and I never imagined myself doing yoga. But Bob likes to do it a couple times a week. I find the added flexibility and balance help make my other workouts easier. Find out your body age: Dr. Huizenga ran tests that show my real body age is almost 60. I&amp;#039;m only 37 years old! It was a shock, but it propels me to change. Partner up for workouts: My wife [and Biggest Loser partner], Melissa, is my best motivator. The week she trained me, I had the highest percentage of weight loss of all. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.goodhousekeeping.com/health/diet-nutrition/a18673/helen-phillips-weight-loss-success/>