• Former weight: 220 pounds
• Current weight: 140 pounds
• Pounds lost: 80 pounds
• Height: 5 feet 4 inches
• How long she's kept it off: "I began my weight loss journey early March 2008 and reached my current weight in September 2008," says Sabatier.
• Personal life: "I am a statistician at CDC and live in the Candler Park neighborhood," she says. "I live with my husband, Manning, and our second-grade son, Luc, and our giant killer cat, Sphinx."
• Turning point: "I believe I had an early mid-life crisis," she says. "I began to think that I would die early in life because of health problems associated with obesity and would miss out on watching my son grow up. Before I lost weight, I was insulin resistant as a result of having polycystic ovary syndrome." PCOS, a hormonal disorder, is a leading cause of infertility and weight gain. (For more information: www.pcosupport.org.)
• Diet plan: "I definitely had portion distortion," she says. Breakfast is egg substitute with cheddar. Snacks are plain yogurt sweetened with stevia. Lunch is a Boca burger on an English muffin. Dinner includes steamed vegetables with lean protein and dessert is a glass of wine.
• Exercise routine: "I run 4 days a week right now. I run 5 miles three times a week and on Saturday mornings I run 10 miles," she says.
• Biggest challenge: "My biggest challenge during my journey was to avoid alcohol. My love of beer and wine is one of the things that helped me gain weight to begin with," she says.
• How life has changed: "And the thing I am most glad about? I didn't get a perfect body with my weight loss," she says. "You don't get to be 220 pounds without some skin stretching out, not to mention pregnancy and childbirth. There are parts of my body I won't mention but you can imagine that look like they belong on an 80-year-old woman because they inflated and are now deflated. But I don't care — this isn't about my appearance. This is about how strong, healthy and vital I am — and I am so glad I feel that way."
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