Hollywood newcomer KayCee Stroh learned early on to avoid the craft services table when she was on set, no matter how great the temptation. "Whenever they have pizza or anything else fattening, someone will say 'Do you want some?' And I say, 'Honey, all I have to do is smell that, and I will see it on my thighs tomorrow.'?" In the role of hip-hop music lover Martha Cox in Disney's High School Musical TV movies, the vivacious KayCee's singing and dancing seem effortless. But what she does struggle with is staying fit enough to ensure she'll remain in the spotlight. "Everyone has something they have to battle," she tells Quick & Simple. "And in our family, it's our weight."

Relying on her own common sense diet-and-exercise plan, the 5-foot-2 actress recently dropped 30 lbs., going from a size 20 to a 14. "I've seen so many people in Hollywood have a trainer and a cook, and when that goes away, then the weight's back on," says the 23-year-old former dance instructor from Salt Lake City.

A Family Affair

KayCee does admit, though, that she got lots of get-slim help from her family, and her mom, Cindy Stroh, seconds that notion. "We are extremely close, and we all look out for each other," Cindy says. "My mother, myself and my three daughters are all like best friends." From the time they were young, Cindy sent KayCee and her older sisters, Tiffany and Jami, to dance classes at the studio where she worked as a receptionist, hoping to encourage a love of movement. "I come from a family of people who are large in stature," says Cindy. "I struggled with the prejudice that comes from being even just a tiny bit overweight. I desperately did not want my children to fight that battle and feel the emotional pain that comes with it."

Mom was on the right track. By the time KayCee reached junior high, she was dancing four to five hours a day, several days a week. Still, she says, "I started noticing I had thick, strong legs, and all the other dancers had little chicken legs. I don't know if it's just my body type, but I gain muscle and bulk up really easily."

A "Different" Body

Noting KayCee's concerns, Mom worked to keep her daughter's confidence high. But no matter how much encouragement KayCee had at home, growing up surrounded by tiny dancers took an emotional toll. After high school, when KayCee began teaching dance and performing locally, says her mother, she discovered a hard truth: "Even if you're the best dancer, you have to have the right body type, the perfect size for costumes. If not, then you get left out."

KayCee's greatest challenge came in 2004 when she developed a blood clot in her left ankle following knee surgery. Sentenced to three months of bed rest, frustration and sadness set in: "I went from being a performer in complete control of her body to not being able to get off the couch." By the time she was able to start physical therapy, the vivacious performer was at her heaviest ever. "In my entire life I had never, ever broken 200 lbs.," she says, "and then I got on the scale and saw 210. My family had to put me back together for days."

Determined to Dance

Though KayCee began physical therapy, doctors told her mom she would never be able to dance as well as she had before the surgery — a nugget Cindy kept to herself. "My feeling was that the doctor did not know KayCee," she says. "I knew she could do it again."

True to her mother's prediction, KayCee proved a trouper. Shortly after the accident, her father, Bruce, lost his job of 26 years, and along with it, the medical benefits that paid for physical therapy. KayCee had no choice but to start teaching dance again — and at first, she literally did it while standing still!

As she slowly regained her ability to move, her own classes doubled as her therapy sessions. Gradually, too, KayCee began to drop pounds and get back in shape.

In early 2005, when KayCee heard about the auditions for a Disney musical being held in Salt Lake City, she knew she had to go. A size 18 at the time, she says she initially felt insecure walking into the audition, but that feeling evaporated when she not only quickly mastered the tryout routine, but started coaching the other hopefuls.

What happened next still amazes her. Director/choreographer Kenny Ortega walked up and proclaimed, "You're different and I love it. There are all these
other dancers out here and you're kicking their butts." "That was the first time I realized, 'Hey, I'm different and it's a good thing.' I stood out," says KayCee.
"Maybe there's a reason God made me different, and I'm supposed to inspire others who are healthy but not a size 2!"