• Former weight: 267 pounds

• Current weight: 130 pounds

Family (ENLARGE)

Before

Family (ENLARGE)

After

• Pounds lost: 137

• Height: 4 feet, 11 inches

• How long she's kept it off: One year

• Personal life: Ash works as a sales associate for Tate's Furniture Store. She and her husband of 14 years, William, have two children, a daughter, Mercedes, 14, and a son, Trey, 7. The family and their toy poodle, Bentley, live in Columbus.

• Turning point: "At most stores, the biggest size they sell is a 24. I was already in a 24, and I wasn't going to have clothes specially made," Ash says. "I didn't do anything with my kids. I was afraid I wouldn't fit in the seats." So she decided it was time to make a change.

• Diet plan: "I started the Atkins Diet, and I modified it to work for me," she says. "It was a lifestyle change — it wasn't a diet for me." For breakfast, she started by having eggs and turkey bacon; now she usually has a protein shake. Lunch is a salad or baked chicken, and dinner is always baked chicken or fish with a salad and vegetables.

• Exercise routine: Ash walks three miles five times a week and lifts weights four times a week.

• Biggest challenge: Ash says getting started was her biggest challenge because it took trying a few diets to find something that worked for her. "As soon as I started the low-carb — that's what worked. I read a lot of books and did a lot of research," she says. "You have to figure out if you're a carb or calorie person, and I'm definitely a carb person." Curbing dessert after dinner was also a challenge. "I had to find something to change that, so after dinner, instead of getting dessert, I would say, let's go walking or ride our bikes or even just go out and ride and look at houses — just something instead of getting sweets."

• Munchie antidote: She reaches for a protein bar when she has the munchies. She finds slightly freezing it can help satisfy her sweet tooth.

• Secret to success: "I used to eat in bed," she says. "[Now] I refuse to have any food in my room, and I don't eat after 7 o'clock."

• How life has changed: "Before, I wouldn't work in public; I cleaned houses," she says. But now Ash works in sales and loves being out and about doing things with her family. "I think I have way more energy, and shopping for clothes is almost like a hobby — I enjoy it so much. My son was looking at an old picture of me and he said, 'You looked like a big dinosaur, but now you look like a beautiful mommy.'" Because she made a lifestyle change with an eating plan that fits her body, it has worked and she's been able to maintain it. "The most wonderful thing of all about my story besides losing the weight is, my wonderful husband of 14 years never, ever told me to lose weight or said I was fat," she says. "He will tell you today I was fine the way I was, and that makes it even better — that I did it for me."

• Dining tips: When dining out, Ash asks the waiter not to bring bread to the table. And she plans ahead what she is going to eat before she gets there.

— Michelle C. Brooks,

for the Journal-Constitution