Lost 27 Pounds Without Crazy Diets Or Ridiculously Hard Workouts

Anne Marie Russo had always loved summer. Every year, she'd spend hours by the pool and at the beach with her husband and their three children. "I always wore a two-piece," says the stay-at-home mom. "Even after three pregnancies, I could still pull it off." When Russo turned 50, though, everything changed. Suddenly, the Italian foods she used to eat without care—like chicken parm, pasta, and meatballs—were sticking to her midsection. "It was frustrating to see my middle getting thicker and to see myself creeping up in sizes," she recalls. "My husband always told me I looked great, but I felt unattractive. It was bumming me out and making me feel awful about myself." She tried to shrink her growing waist by skipping breakfast and pushing herself through three intense boot-camp classes a week, but nothing seemed to work, and it was becoming harder to run up the stairs without losing her breath. "It was like I hit a wall. No matter what I tried, I felt like my body wasn't changing.