She lost 165 lbs. It took her 18 months

Julie Van Rosendaal, 34
She lost 165 lbs. It took her 18 months

At age 7, Julie Van Rosendaal started a cupcake company. At 12, she won a chili competition. After college she launched a low-fat cookie business and wrote a bestselling cookbook, One Smart Cookie. But while she knew how to prepare healthy meals, she seldom followed her own advice.

Topping out at 330 lbs., Van Rosendaal, a Vancouver food writer whose husband works with her in the cookbook publishing business, made a ritual of punishing herself with strict diets. “My whole life, I started a new diet on Jan. 1,” she says. “I also started a new diet every Monday morning, or after my birthday, or after Christmas. They never worked.”

At a New Year’s Eve party in 1997, Van Rosendaal caught a glimpse of herself in a full-length bathroom mirror. Mortified, she locked herself in for an hour. The next day, she vowed to lose the weight. The difference this time: She’d do it on her own terms. “I realized that instead of finding a new diet to try, I would have to figure out what worked for me,” she says.

Moderation became her mantra. “I’d have pizza for dinner, but only one piece,” she says. “I didn’t eliminate any foods from my diet. I started eating more fruits, vegetables, whole grains and lean meats.”

In her first month, she lost 10 lbs. A year and a half later, she had gone from a size 28 to a 10. “I didn’t know what it was like being thin,” she says, now 165 lbs. stretched over a 5’11” frame. When she flies, she no longer needs a seat-belt extender: “I get a secret thrill every time I go on planes.”

How She Did It: Eating in Moderation
Van Rosendaal added more lean meat and whole grains to her diet and allowed herself the occasional pizza slice. She also joined a gym, varying her workouts between weights, running and spin classes.