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" &amp;quot;I lost it for Mr. Right&amp;quot; As a teenager, Laci Mahler had the life she wanted mapped out in a notebook: Go to college, get a master&amp;#039;s degree, be married by 30, and start a family. But in her 20s, that plan seemed elusive: Her weight \u2014 324 pounds \u2014 kept her from socializing much, and as an elementary-school teacher with only one male (married) coworker, she wasn&amp;#039;t likely to meet a guy in her daily life. To get her happy ending, Laci would need to go after it. With her master&amp;#039;s degree almost complete in February 2006, Laci looked forward to the next phases of her life plan: marriage and a family. But she knew she needed to get serious about weight loss to feel more confident and comfortable socially. She often chose staying home over doing physical activities like rock climbing (uncomfortable because of her size). She didn&amp;#039;t even like going to the movies (where many times she couldn&amp;#039;t fit into the seats). She&amp;#039;d tried, and failed, to diet before. This time, she joined Weight Watchers.  On the program, she cut back on portions and filled up on fruits and vegetables. She also found healthy outlets for her emotions: &amp;quot;After a great day at work, I&amp;#039;d walk with a friend,&amp;quot; Laci says. Though the pounds began to drop off, she hit a few plateaus where the scale barely moved for weeks. During those times, she panicked that Weight Watchers, like all the other plans she&amp;#039;d tried, had stopped working. She kept her focus, though, and after one year was 100 pounds lighter.  Now feeling bolder, Laci was excited when a friend passed along the email of a guy who seemed like a good match. For two months, the two emailed and talked on the phone. Her first date with Chris was at Applebee&amp;#039;s, which offers a Weight Watchers menu; they both ordered off it. &amp;quot;I had been up front about my weight-loss goals,&amp;quot; Laci says. &amp;quot;When Chris ordered off the Weight Watchers menu, it showed me that he was supportive.&amp;quot; Future dates were more adventurous: Laci was finally able to go rock climbing and horseback riding \u2014 and to see a movie comfortably. If all they did was watch TV, she admits, the relationship might have fizzled. But it didn&amp;#039;t. In May 2009, Laci walked down the aisle in a size 10 wedding gown, one with a snug corset, and pledged her love to the man who&amp;#039;d helped her complete her storybook dream \u2014 at 30, just like she&amp;#039;d planned. &amp;quot;I lost it for my kids&amp;quot; Kourtney Ferrua was a size 10 when she headed to the foodie mecca of San Francisco for college. &amp;quot;I loved the burritos at one restaurant, the fried calamari at another, and I had to hit the happy hour at another place,&amp;quot; Kourtney says. &amp;quot;I always rationalized the food, convincing myself that I deserved it after a hard day or because I was celebrating something.&amp;quot; By graduation, Kourtney had ballooned to a size 16.  Hovering at 212 pounds in her 20s, Kourtney mostly ignored her weight problem. It wasn&amp;#039;t always easy. After getting married, Kourtney, then an elementary-school teacher, had difficulty conceiving. She was told by a midwife that obesity might be to blame. To hear herself described as obese was devastating. &amp;quot;I didn&amp;#039;t own a scale or pay attention to how I looked, so I had never considered myself obese,&amp;quot; Kourtney says. &amp;quot;I felt embarrassment, guilt, and a horrible sense of self-loathing.&amp;quot;  When she was able to become pregnant without losing weight, she slipped back into denial about her size \u2014 until another dose of reality hit. After her daughter, Eva, was born in 2005, Kourtney watched other moms in playgroup swinging their babies around; meanwhile, she was worrying how she&amp;#039;d push herself up from the floor without dropping her daughter. Wearing a bathing suit during Eva&amp;#039;s swim lessons was so humiliating that Kourtney stopped going.  By the time Kourtney&amp;#039;s son, Dylan, came along two years later, she felt disgusted about her body once again. Worse, though Kourtney had never really tried to lose weight, she believed that change was impossible. Then a friend turned her on to podcasts from Dr. Joy Browne, a clinical psychologist and radio personality. Listeners with a range of problems, often weight-related, called in to hear Dr. Browne present positive ways to solve their issues. &amp;quot;When people on her show try to paint themselves as victims, she says, &amp;#039;Interesting, but not particularly helpful,&amp;#039;&amp;quot; Kourtney explains. The message sunk in. Kourtney decided, No more excuses. It&amp;#039;s time to start doing. &amp;quot;I thought, I&amp;#039;ve been blessed with two children who I love so much. Conquering my demons about food, weight, and body image was going to be my way of showing them that anything is possible.&amp;quot;  She began walking to the 45-minute podcasts \u2014 essentially pep talks \u2014 and lost six pounds. Then, in August 2008, she joined Weight Watchers. Her food journal showed that she was consuming too many calories. She made swaps: Her high-calorie granola breakfast changed to a low-calorie, high-fiber cereal; ground poultry substituted for ground beef; and she served whole-wheat pasta rather than regular. When she had slipups, she avoided the negative self-talk that had become habit. Rather than telling herself she was a total failure after eating a few cookies at work, she acknowledged the indulgence, wrote what she ate down in her food journal, and moved on without letting guilt consume her.  In October 2009, Kourtney reached her goal weight of 159 pounds. But the real achievement was giving her children an active, happy mom. She half-jokingly prides herself on performing a superfast version of &amp;quot;Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes&amp;quot; with her kids without getting winded. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s important that I&amp;#039;m a good role model,&amp;quot; she says, &amp;quot;because I love my kids too much to ever want them to feel the way I did about my body.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;I lost it for my husband&amp;quot; As the oldest of eight kids, Katie Squires learned early on to fill up her plate before the food was gone. Years later, at size 20, Katie, then 33, still didn&amp;#039;t pull back on portions. But at nearly 6 feet tall, she wasn&amp;#039;t worried about looking fat. &amp;quot;I figured I could carry the extra weight,&amp;quot; she says.  Instead, her concern turned to her husband, Scot. At 33, he was overweight and had high cholesterol. After medication failed to work, his doctor urged him to lose weight. In January 2007, Scot asked Katie to join Weight Watchers with him; he needed her support. Because he was too embarrassed to walk into a meeting of all women, Scot hoped Katie would attend meetings on Saturday mornings, while he followed the program online. At the time, Katie was working full-time and going to school as well as caring for their two young children. &amp;quot;I assumed that Scot thought I needed to lose a little weight, but that wasn&amp;#039;t what bothered me,&amp;quot; says Katie. &amp;quot;I was upset because I didn&amp;#039;t want another commitment, especially on the only morning I could sleep late.&amp;quot; But she decided she had to do this for her husband. He&amp;#039;d always been supportive of her \u2014 when she&amp;#039;d wanted to go back to school to become a speech language pathologist, he&amp;#039;d brought home school brochures. She also worried about the health problems that ran in Scot&amp;#039;s family, such as diabetes, high blood pressure, and congestive heart failure. Katie wanted to have her husband around for a long time. Every week the couple shared the Weight Watchers tips they learned. At first they used special measuring spoons Katie bought at her meeting to figure out &amp;quot;normal&amp;quot; serving sizes. They began reading labels and cut back on processed foods. And they found ways to eat fresher, more healthful foods without spending a fortune: Once a week, they logged on to e-mealz.com and printed out a week&amp;#039;s worth of budget-conscious recipes that worked with the Weight Watchers points system as well as a grocery list. Katie was happy to see her husband losing weight \u2014 and it felt good to know that she was helping him stick with it. After a year of teamwork, the couple had a lot to celebrate. Scot lost 35 pounds, and best of all, his total cholesterol level was in the healthy range, dropping to below 200. Katie slimmed down to a size 10. Looking at old pictures, she realizes now that she&amp;#039;d needed to lose some weight. &amp;quot;I don&amp;#039;t regret those lost minutes of sleep at all,&amp;quot; Katie says. &amp;quot;Going to those morning meetings was the best thing I could do for us as a couple.&amp;quot; &amp;quot;I lost it to save the world&amp;quot; In February 2007, Kara Richardson felt like the most powerful woman on the planet. She was completing the final stretch of an amazing weight-loss journey by hiking to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro and, in the process, raising $12,000 for AIDS orphans in Africa through an online donation page. But that feeling faded just a few months later, when Kara became pregnant \u2014 and her old eating-for-comfort habits returned. She used all the pregnancy excuses: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;m eating for two!&amp;quot; &amp;quot;Dieting is a no-no.&amp;quot; After daughter Anna arrived in February 2008, breast-feeding \u2014 and its calorie-burning benefits \u2014 was Kara&amp;#039;s fallback excuse for continuing to eat a lot. The new mom, just shy of 300 pounds, also hadn&amp;#039;t resumed her pre-pregnancy walking regimen. &amp;quot;I was overwhelmed with being a mom and working,&amp;quot; Kara says. &amp;quot;Taking care of myself took a backseat.&amp;quot;  In a slump, Kara asked herself, How can I get myself out of this and moving again? She remembered how she&amp;#039;d felt on Kilimanjaro. &amp;quot;When I reached the peak, my legs were like jelly and I was light-headed, but I had tears rolling down my face from the sense of relief and elation I felt,&amp;quot; she says. &amp;quot;Throughout the training, it was empowering to be working for a cause bigger than myself. I couldn&amp;#039;t come up with excuses to skip the gym when a child in the world was relying on me for fresh water and a chance.&amp;quot; This compassion was innate and deep-rooted. As a child, Kara had doodled pictures of orphanages; years later, she organized service projects in school. After reflecting on her Kilimanjaro experience, Kara came up with a solution: The Save the World Diet. During each month of 2009, she&amp;#039;d participate in a physical event for charity. Her exercise changed each month to help her train for the next event; for the 220-mile Hershey&amp;#039;s Tour de Pink bike ride for breast cancer, for instance, she went full-force with spinning classes. The causes were often personal \u2014 she walked the Cincinnati Flying Pig Marathon for the American Heart Association to honor her dad, who has heart disease. A few activities bordered on wacky: During February&amp;#039;s Penguin Plunge for Special Olympics, she jumped into icy Lake Champlain. &amp;quot;Every event wound up giving me something,&amp;quot; Kara says. &amp;quot;The plunge provided some fun, whereas walking the marathon helped with my endurance and the bike ride brought out courage.&amp;quot; Meanwhile, she worked on eating solid meals \u2014 three a day, plus two snacks \u2014 instead of grazing mindlessly. Now 25 pounds lighter, Kara just completed her final charitable event of 2009: her second climb up Kilimanjaro for the Global Alliance for Africa orphans. But she keeps her eye on the cause, not the scale. &amp;quot;I feel so much stronger physically, spiritually, and emotionally, and I know that having a cause in front of me is something I need to stay healthy for life,&amp;quot; Kara says. &amp;quot;I won&amp;#039;t lose sight of that again.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/body/health-fitness/advice/a5809/weight-loss-for-love/>