Fasthuber's desire to drop 50 pounds was sparked by a friend's success with Weight Watchers. "I've tried just about everything to lose weight," she says. "I figured, if she can do it, so can I." They began attending meetings together and, within weeks, the numbers on Fasthuber's scale started falling.
Keeping a daily food diary – a major part of the Weight Watchers program – led Fasthuber to redesign her diet, fast. "Right away, I realized that I wasn't drinking enough water and I wasn't paying attention to what I was eating," she says. "I now have water instead of iced tea and regular pop, and I measure my food instead of just filling my plate."
Fasthuber has also embraced exercise. But when it comes to working out, she believes that slow and steady wins the race. "Before I started losing weight, my idea of exercise was parking two blocks away from the mall," she says, noting that she gained nearly 80 pounds on her five-foot-six frame since her days as a high-school cheerleader.
After she joined Weight Watchers, Fasthuber dusted off her Walk Away the Pounds video and started doing just that in her living room, adding on to the workout as she went along. "When it got boring, I bought ankle weights and then started using a step," she says. "I moved up in baby steps." Her routine now includes a regular rotation of fitness videos – which she borrows from her library – and weekly belly dancing classes. "I need variety to stay motivated," she says. And since her library has a steady stash of fitness videos that must be returned every five days, she always has something new to try.
Fasthuber says that a strong support system has been crucial to her weight-loss success. Her mom now joins her at weekly Weight Watchers meetings and motivation from family and friends helped her navigate the calorie-laden holiday season. In fact, she lost three pounds in the week between Christmas and New Year's Day. "During a visit to my mother-in-law's, where there's always lots of food, I told her straight out that I had joined Weight Watchers," says Fasthuber. "Telling her helped me not to cheat." She used the same strategy when faced with plates of holiday baking during another round of visits. "Everyone was supportive and told me to keep it up," she says. "That really kept me going."
Her advice to you:
"Don't throw out your fat pants. That way you can look at them and see how far you've come," says Fasthuber, who's downsized from a size 18 to a size 12. "I put mine back on once in a while to make sure that they still don't fit."
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