Slim-Down Success Stories

Lexie Marino

Age: 22
Hometown: Rochester, Minnesota
Height: 5" 9"
Before: 196 lbs.
After: 152 lbs.
Pounds lost: 44

While she was growing up, Lexie Marino was an avid soccer player, and as a result could eat large portions of whatever she wanted without gaining weight. When she went off to college, all of that changed. There, she stopped doing sports and started eating lots of high-fat, high-calorie candy, ice cream, chips and fast food. "I ate at all times of the day, especially if I was up late studying," she says. "I'd snack just to stay awake! I never thought twice about what I was putting in my mouth, and by the end of my sophomore year I'd gained 40 pounds." The extra weight made Lexie's body ache and left her constantly tired and depressed. She also hated how her clothes fit; worse, she was up to a size 18-20. "Every time I went clothes shopping, I cried," she says. "It was so depressing to be twenty years old and wearing plus sizes."

When Lexie got engaged, she moved in with her fiancé, Joe. "We'd cook large meals all the time, because it was fun!" she says. "But I was really bothered by how big I'd gotten. Joe said he was happy with me no matter how I looked, and he would support me in whatever decision I made."

When the couple decided to get married, Lexie knew that "at some point I'd have to go dress shopping. And I also knew that I didn't want to be wearing a size 18 dress at my wedding." She made another important decision: She wanted to make a lifestyle change—not just lose weight for the wedding. For that reason she decided against crash dieting, in favor of a structured regimen. After researching different weight-loss options, she decided to join Jenny Craig. At the first visit, when she stepped on the scale, it read 196. "I felt very determined at that point: I simply refused to hit 200 pounds," she says.

The first thing Lexie learned was that she'd been consuming too much food—two to three times what she needed—and that she'd have to pay close attention to portion sizes. She gave up her favorite fast-food restaurants. When she and Joe went out to dinner, she'd divide her meal in half as soon as it arrived at the table, eat just that portion and take the rest home. The idea was to learn to stop eating when she was satisfied—not stuffed. "I realized I didn't have to eat a whole plate of food, just because it was sitting in front of me," she says. At the supermarket, she got into the habit of reading food labels and making simple substitutions, like skim milk for full-fat milk and light, low-calorie bread for regular bread.

Throughout the dieting process, "Joe was wonderful," Lexie says. "He'd tell me when my clothes looked too big for me, and that I felt skinnier when he hugged me. After I lost my first fifteen pounds, he took me lingerie shopping because he wanted me to show off my ‘rediscovered' curves! Best of all, when I'd had a stressful week and felt I couldn't go on with the diet, he'd tell me what a great job I was doing. He understood how important it was to me to stick to my goals."

Lexie made a point of adding exercise to her life. She signed up for a swim class that met twice a week, and encouraged Joe to work out with her. "When he did, it really helped both of us because we'd motivate each other," she says. She incorporated other exercise into her routine by walking everywhere, instead of taking the bus, and climbing stairs instead of using the elevator.

Eleven months later, Lexie had lost 44 pounds—and she had eight months to go before the wedding. Now the challenge was to keep the weight off. "Because I'd made healthy changes that worked for me, I kept my new habits," she says. When she finally walked down the aisle, in a size 12 dress, she says, "I felt good about myself in a way that I could never have imagined."