How one woman turned the page on her weight gain

>>> the joy fit club and the induction of its newest member. her name is bethany taylor and she's 28 years old. let's take a listen to her story.

>> my name is bethany taylor and i once weighed 252 pounds. i was always an overweight child, and my weight continued to increase throughout high school and college. in graduate school a close friend of mine passed away and shortly after my father suffered a ruptured aortic aneurysm and came very close to death. between trying to finish my degree, returning to the icu every evening to visit my dad, grieving for my friend, and seeking employment i went to a very dark place and turned to food for comfort. in july of 2009 i saw a picture of myself and was shocked and disappointed by what i saw. i decided to see how much i really weighed and could not believe that my weight had skyrocketed to 252 pounds. i quickly decided that now was the time to do something about my overall health. i began making little changes in my diet and exercising more. two and a half years later i reached all of my weight loss goals. i now work out regularly and have a completely different relationship with my food. i lost the weight on my own without a trainer or a diet plan and i want people to know they can do it too. losing weight does not require a lot of money, just a lot of heart.

>> wow. what a -- i love her voice.

>> i do too.

>> and joy bauer is the leader of the joy fit club . you're in love with this lady.

>> i am in love with this lady, and you are too. it also allowed her to transform her entire look on life. she used to be a glass half empty person and she's totally a half glass full.

>> the fact that she was able to recognize it and put a finger on it and turn the page .

>> she had so many smart strategies and one that stood out for me. everyone veers off on the weekends. she practices on monday, meatless monday, all vegetarian to help her reboot. one thing she loves to have for dinner is a small amount of whole wheat noodles with lots of different vegetables and seasonings. two of mine. this is a baked potato topped with black beans and salsa. that's it. a little bit of dijon and cumin.

>> that's delicious.

>> vegetarian fricatta and vejtabvej vegetables. i'll post this on facebook so everyone can enjoy it.

>> oh, my gosh.

>> no, no, no.

>> can you believe that? look at those arms.

>> go hit her.

>> i want to make sure it's real.

>> hi, bethany .

>> bethany , you are amazing.

>> thank you.

>> no diet plan, nothing from a book or no trainer? what was -- how did you do it?

>> i just had to use the top of my head. i was underemployed at the time, so i had to use the things that were given to me. it was also attitude. have what you are, use what you have and do what you can. i used the workout dvds around the house.

>> did you cut food out? i heard about the meatless mondays. is that how you did it?

>> one thing i did was stop eating a lot of fast food .

>> tell them what your mantra is because it's so powerful.

>> pushing past pain through prayer, faith, and persistence.

>> write that down.