Before: 169 lbs.
After: 124 lbs.
Program used: The G.I. Diet

Last April, Tamara Palmer got a present that would change her life. Her husband, John, came home with the full-length mirror she had always wanted. But when Tamara took a look at herself in the glass, she was shocked: “I was huge,” she says. “I couldn’t believe it.”

Over the course of eight years, the 5-foot-1 stay-at-home mom’s weight had risen from 135 lbs. to 169 lbs., thanks to three pregnancies and a love affair with fast food. Though she once enjoyed lifting weights with her husband, she had given it up after suffering a knee injury that made it difficult to hoist anything — or even walk up a flight of stairs. Now clinically obese, Tamara, 31, not only looked older than her years, but was also putting her health in jeopardy. “My husband always told me I was beautiful,” she explains. “I didn’t realize things had gotten so out of control.”

The realization couldn’t have come at a better time. Thanks to her husband John’s job as a civilian police officer with the Army, Tamara and her family had just moved to what she calls “the boondocks” — a military base in Alaska’s rural Fort Greely. They were now 110 miles away from the nearest big town, Fairbanks — and a long way from any fast-food restaurants.

Eager to shed the excess weight, Tamara listened intently when a local nurse mentioned the book The G.I. Diet, by Rick Gallop, which advocates eating high-fiber foods and lean proteins, and avoiding processed, sugary foods and simple carbs. All of the diet’s “approved” foods have a low glycemic index, or G.I., meaning they take longer to digest. According to the book’s philosophy, eating these foods keeps blood sugar steady, eliminates fat and sugar cravings, and helps promote feelings of fullness.

Tamara wasn’t the only one who wanted a change. John, 37, has type 1 diabetes and had heard that doctors often recommend low-G.I. foods to those with his condition. In January 2006, he joined his wife on her get-healthy quest.

Determined to Lose

The first thing to get a makeover was the family’s kitchen. Out went the potato chips, cookies and high-fat snacks; in came the fat-free dairy products, egg substitutes, high-fiber cereals, brown rice and whole wheat pasta. When Tamara cooked, she used Splenda instead of sugar, and light margarine spray instead of butter. Dessert was sherbet, not ice cream. “I grew to love fat-free yogurt,” says Tamara. Even their daughter Autumn, 7, began to prefer whole wheat bread and fat-free cheese.

But there were challenges. The G.I. Diet recommends at least 30 minutes of exercise a day, which proved tricky in the harsh Alaskan climate. “During the summer, it’s unbelievably hot; during the winter, it can go down to negative 60, with just four hours of daylight,” says Tamara. Still, to get fit, she strapped her younger kids — Austin, 3, and Promise, 1 — into a double stroller and took them for walks around a local park. “We covered up to three miles a day, five days a week,” she says.

Tamara started shedding up to 31?2 lbs. every week. After three months, she hit her target weight of 135 lbs., “but the weight kept coming off because of the way we ate,” she says. Within five months, she had dropped 45 lbs. and shrunk from a size 14 to a size 2. To her amazement, she now weighs in at 124 lbs. “I was 133 lbs. in 11th grade,” Tamara recalls. “Now I have three kids and I’m 9 lbs. lighter!”

John follows the diet more loosely than his wife does, but he has still lost 20 lbs. and two clothing sizes since he started. “I feel much healthier,” he says. Tamara’s example has inspired him: “I’ve never seen anyone so disciplined. She looks fantastic.”

More important, Tamara feels great. While it was once a challenge to climb a flight of stairs, she now races up them. “My self-esteem is better, and my whole attitude has changed,” Tamara notes. “When I see myself in the mirror, I can’t believe how good I look!”