Patricia Dame, 70, of Roswell lost 38 pounds

Pounds lost: 38 pounds lost

Height: 5 feet 1 inch

Age: 70 years

How long she's kept it off: She started at the end of October and reached her current weight at the end of March.

Personal life: "I am a retired teacher from South Florida. I have a dog, I walk her twice a day. I also have a grown daughter," said Dame, who lives with family in Roswell.

Turning point: "They had a challenge at the gym, and I decided I was going to join it because I needed to be accountable to someone. That is when I started meal prepping. That was the turning point, the gym challenge. I started working with Kara." Kara Skalko Feinberg, her personal trainer at SFX Fitness, was in Success Stories in 2016: (https://www.myajc.com/lifestyles/health/kara-skalko-lost-103-pounds/QUCnidXogSihmxQzQZvURJ/). Dame lost her husband in January 2015. "When he passed away, because we had always cooked together, that was the issue, nothing was fun anymore. I was eating a lot of junk after he passed," she said. "… I'm trying to retrain that fat girl in my head. That fat girl that says one cookie won't hurt."

Diet plan: "I need to get up and have breakfast," Dame said. She has a waffle or bread with peanut butter, or a protein bar. Lunch is chicken soup or a grilled chicken sandwich. If she has a big lunch out with friends, she will have a lighter dinner such as steamed shrimp.

Exercise routine: "I try to make sure I'm in the gym five days a week," Dame said. She works out two days a week with Feinberg and three days a week doing cardio. "I walk my dog twice a day and I do 10,000 steps every day. If it is bad weather, I'll go to a store and walk," she said. "… Before I started going to this gym, I couldn't pull myself up without grabbing onto something. Now I can do it by myself."

Biggest challenge: "Trying to deal with doing food just for me, it is such a big challenge," Dame said. She has found ways to cope: "Go get some fun dishes, mine don't match, I have six different colors. … I do have a sweet tooth. I have York Peppermint Patties on my bar. If I need something sweet, I will eat one of those."

How life has changed: "Since I've been working with Kara, it's like it has retrained my brain," she said. "We're trying to retrain the fat girl in my brain." Recently, she went to a mall and passed cookies. "The fat girl in my head said, 'There is nothing in that case that is worth the calories,' and we kept walking. … My daughter lost her father three years ago. If I can do something to get healthier and stay healthier to not leave her any sooner, then I'm doing it. It's all about health and well-being."

Share Your Success: Have you lost weight successfully with a healthy lifestyle change? If you would like to share your story with our readers, please include your email address, a daytime phone number, and before and after photos (by mail or JPEG), and contact us at: Success Stories, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 223 Perimeter Center Parkway, Atlanta, GA, 30346-1301; or email Michelle C. Brooks, ajcsuccessstories@gmail.com.