Before: 240
After: 150
Program used: Dr. Phil's


Linda James, 34, a stay-at-home mom from Bridgeville, Penn., remembers the first time she tried a diet. “I was in high school and an older boy said I would be pretty if I lost weight,” she says. Linda went on a crash diet and lost 40 lbs., but once she started indulging in her favorite sweets, cookies and ice cream, the weight quickly piled back on.

By the time the 5-foot-8-inch Linda was 25, she was tipping the scales at 225 lbs. “I went in for a physical and my chart read ‘25-year-old obese woman,’” she recalls. “I was so shocked that I went on another deprivation diet and lost about 30 lbs., but I just couldn’t keep it off.”

After giving birth to her first son, Aaron, the following year, Linda felt doomed to be obese. “I told myself that I was meant to be fat,” she says. Resigned to a life of overeating, she continued to pack on the pounds, reaching her highest weight, 270 lbs., while pregnant with her second son, Matthew, in 2000.

With two young boys to feed, Linda opted for foods that were fast and fattening. “We ate lots of tacos and pasta, and it was never one serving — more like three platefuls,” says Linda. “I would eat prepackaged food, like a whole box of broccoli-and-cheese-flavored rice, for lunch.” Once the boys went to bed, Linda and her husband, Simon, 34, who is in charge of technical ministries at South Hills Bible Chapel, would pig out on cookies and ice cream in front of the TV.

But when Linda gave birth to her youngest, Joshua, in July 2002, she decided it was finally time to slim down. “At 240 lbs., I couldn’t run around with my boys,” she says. “I was jealous of my friends who could play with their kids and make memories.” Simon, who was overweight as well, felt the same frustration. “We would always put off active outings with the kids, hoping they would forget,” he says.

Linda confided in her friend, Laura Lopez, who had recently lost a lot of weight. “I was so upset that I couldn’t do the same thing,” she says. “Laura looked beautiful, and I felt ugly and hopeless.” As the women talked, Linda was inspired: “I promised to try one last diet — I had to do something drastic if I wanted to see my boys grow older.”

Seeing the Light

That night, she turned on the TV and caught Dr. Phil’s weight-loss special. Drawn to his command to “quit making excuses,” she decided to give his common-sense diet a try. “His program has seven keys, and for me, the idea of ‘intentional exercise’ really clicked,” says Linda. “The idea is, you make exercise something you do every day, like brushing your teeth.” So Linda started a walking routine, even though it was tough at first. “I couldn’t go a mile before I felt out of breath,” she says. She lost weight immediately, which was a huge motivator. Getting Simon on board also helped. “We’d do an exercise DVD together or go for a long walk,” she says.

Junk Food, Begone!

Dr. Phil’s program also required Linda to turn her home into a “failproof environment.” That meant purging her cabinets of junk food and replacing it with healthy stuff. “That was traumatic — it took weeks before I felt ready to give up my chips and cookies,” admits Linda. “But one day I just forced myself to dump it all.”

Dr. Phil’s plan also insists that you trash your fat clothes as you lose. “I gave stuff to friends or to Goodwill,” says Linda. “But I kept one pair of size-22 jeans just so I could track how far I’d come.” Ditching her old clothes forced Linda to stay on track: “If my pants started getting tight again, I didn’t have the option to go up a size.”

On Dr. Phil’s online message boards, Linda found friends who shared advice and recipes. One even offered Linda the chance to share her story. “She had been on Dr. Phil’s show, and she passed my success story along to a producer,” says Linda.

So, in March 2004, after reaching her goal weight of 150 lbs., Linda appeared on Dr. Phil’s show and thanked him for changing her life. “It gave me a chance to inspire others the way he had inspired me,” she says. “I knew if women could see that this plan had worked for me, they’d realize they could do it, too.”

These days, when she’s not busy inspiring others to lose, Linda focuses her efforts on keeping her family fit. “Linda made a change, and now we’re all healthier,” says Simon, who has lost nearly 40 lbs. “Now Linda and I are tired because we play so much as a family, not because we’re overweight.” And it’s brought them closer together as a couple, too.

“Before, we wanted to spend time together, but we had no energy,” he says. “Now we ride bikes, play tennis, go swimming — I didn’t think it was possible, but our marriage gets better every day.” Linda agrees: “We’ve always had a strong bond, but now that I feel more confident about myself, I am finally able to realize that Simon really is going to be there for me forever. Now I know that we can make any challenge — even getting healthy — so much more fun just by tackling it together.”

Next page: A peek at Linda's typical daily menu