Over the past year, Judy Rosen has made an incredible turnaround and helped her family along the way.
The 48-year-old mother of three has always battled her weight – she was 200 pounds in her teens.
“I remember people saying, ‘Oh you have such a pretty face, if only you would lose a couple pounds.’ It was always about the weight,” she says.
As Judy got older, had three children and worked seven days a week, her weight got out of control.
Last march, she tipped the scales at 424 pounds.
“I was a walking heart attack,” she says. “I was on blood pressure medication and diabetes medication. I wasn’t a good role model. I made every excuse in the book as to why I couldn’t do something.”
Her daughter Gyllian Rosen adds, “It was junk food and no time for this. We were all caught up in that lifestyle as a family.”
Then came Judy’s big break – a job change.
It gave the 48-year-old mom time to finally look in the mirror and say enough is enough.
“It gave me the opportunity to say, ‘I have three kids and a husband. I have to make a choice here, I'm either going to live or I’m going to die.’”
That's where David Harris comes in.
Harris is a personal trainer. He's worked with professional athletes, world champions, and Olympians.
At first, training with Judy seemed like a steep challenge.
“In the 20 years I’ve been doing this I've never worked with someone trying to lose this much weight,” he says. “But when we got into it I realized she had the support system at home and with friends, and that this could happen.”
Judy adds, “He said to me, ‘You can’t change the past, you need to change your future and let your past go.’”
They got to work in the gym, made meal plans, and got everyone on board. No more fast food, no gimmicks, and no excuses.
“We needed to get healthy,” says Judy’s husband Dave. “In the past we'd go on diets, but we'd be eating diet foods and we were set up to fail.”
A year later, eating home-cooked meals, working out three days a week in the gym, and running the treadmill the family has lost more than 600 pounds together.
And the new Judy is 200 pounds lighter and loving life.
“This was the person I'd wanted to be my whole life,” she says. “I never signed up to lose 200 pounds. I wanted to get healthy and spend more time with my family and I got way more than that.”
Daughter Gyllian says, “She’s a brand new person. Anyone who's seeing this on TV will realize she is not the same person.”
“This is a second chance for me,” says Judy. “And I can’t wait for the next 40 years of my life. It’s going to be the best.”
Judy's personal journey isn’t over. She says she wants to lose another 20 pounds by year's end for a boat cruise to celebrate her sister's 50th birthday.