By Christmas of 2008, Mary Elizabeth was the heaviest she’d ever been (including the two times she was pregnant). Even her “fat” clothes felt tight. And each day she battled crushing fatigue. "My husband and I own a small business, and I work so much," she says. "I used to come home too exhausted to do anything. I’d often be in bed by 8 p.m." With no time or energy to plan out healthy meals — let alone cook them — Mary Elizabeth relied on the convenience of prepared foods. Diner breakfasts of fried eggs, hash browns, and bacon would be followed by fast-food lunches. Dinner was whatever was in the freezer, often packaged lasagna or pizza. She couldn’t exercise due to severe body pain. And to top it all off, Mary Elizabeth wasn’t able to get health insurance because of preexisting medical conditions. "I couldn’t get regular medical care, but I could focus on prevention," she recalls. "And I knew the first step was to get my weight under control."

Mary Elizabeth joined SouthBeachDiet.com just after Christmas and signed up for the New Year’s Challenge a week later. She adapted easily to the South Beach Diet and immediately felt reenergized. Mary Elizabeth joined SouthBeachDiet.com just after Christmas and signed up for the New Year’s Challenge a week later. She adapted easily to the South Beach Diet and immediately felt reenergized. "By the end of Phase 1 I decided that I was going to eat this way for good. Weight loss aside, as soon as I started to feel better I was sold." Despite having never learned how to cook, Mary Elizabeth took control of the food she was eating and is now quite good at preparing healthy meals like grilled chicken with mashed cauliflower and roasted veggies. Another favorite dish is curried vegetables with dal served over brown rice. After three or four days, she stopped following the recipes and learned how to really focus on the food guidelines instead. "It’s a shame that [the South Beach Diet] is called a ‘diet,’ because that word has such a negative connotation," she says. "People view a diet as something you fall off of, but to me, the South Beach Diet is something you can fall back on. You can always rely on good, healthy foods!"

BIGGEST SURPRISE: "I’m amazed by how different my body feels. I have this great sense of well-being now. It’s like that old saying, ‘If you eat junk, you feel like junk, and if you eat whole foods you feel whole.’ Now I just feel so alive! I didn’t realize that adopting the South Beach Diet lifestyle would change me at such a fundamental level." BEST PART: "I have hope now for what I can do for my body and my future. I am confident that I can get my pain under control, lose the weight, and get stronger. My attitude now is: Whatever it is I want to do, I can do it!" FAVORITE SNACK: "Fat-free Greek yogurt with blueberries and walnuts. I’ve even started adding some cold milled flaxseed to it, and it’s just so wonderful!" FAVORITE EXERCISE: "I love to swim, and I joined a YMCA so I can hit the pool twice a week. I also make a point to walk four days a week outside. This fall I’m going to do the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Walk with my mom. Sixty miles in three days — and I know I can do it!" BEST COMPLIMENT: "Last week I walked into my kids’ school and a guy I knew asked if I’d lost weight. When I told him I had, he said: ‘It’s not that you looked bad before, but now you just look so healthy!’ I thought that was cool." BEST ADVICE: "Remember that it is a process and the South Beach Diet is not a ‘pass/fail’ program. So do your best work, learn from your mistakes, and never quit. This is a diet that totally works with your life." BIGGEST HEALTH BOOST: "Just having the ability to exercise as much as I can now is a huge deal. Before I started the South Beach Diet, I was too tired and I hurt too much to move around a lot — not anymore!" MOST EFFECTIVE STRATEGY: "Time is my biggest obstacle, so I’ve learned to do prep work on the weekends. I spend five minutes chopping up a bunch of fresh veggies and then keep them in a bag in the fridge. On weekdays I add a few handfuls of the veggies to spinach or lettuce for a healthy and tasty lunch. I also sauté mushrooms and onion and spinach and bell pepper — a bunch of flavorful stuff — and add them to eggs for a quick scramble in the morning. It’s made my life so much easier during the week." A NEW POINT OF VIEW: "This diet is so much more than a way of eating. My focus is no longer to simply lose weight. Living the South Beach Diet lifestyle and discovering how great it makes me feel has helped me to realize that my overall health is the most important thing. It’s all about how I’m going to experience a better quality of life!"