Courtesy of Hannah Casey

Before: 248 lbs.
After: 146 lbs.

While living on her own in college, 5’4″ Hannah Casey began gaining weight due to stress eating. “I would buy a box of extra-butter popcorn and eat all six bags in one sitting,” she says. Yo-yo diets made things worse: “I became the queen of fads and quick fixes. If I read that drinking grapefruit juice for a week would help you lose a few pounds, then I did it.” By January 2011, Hannah’s scale hit 248 pounds, and she suffered from joint pain, high blood pressure, and digestive issues.

After discovering that her size-20 pants wouldn’t close, Hannah started a blog to chronicle her weight loss and to hold herself accountable. “Knowing I had to post my weight each Monday was an incredible motivator,” she says. Then, three months in, she was diagnosed with celiac disease, which put the kibosh on gluten and most meals out. She switched from processed to whole foods prepared at home—and shed 40 pounds in four months. These days, Hannah, now 33, is busy checking things off her bucket list, including getting scuba-certified. “The tank and equipment weigh between 40 and 50 pounds,” she says. “It is incredibly humbling to realize that I used to carry twice that much extra weight on my frame on a daily basis.”

Here’s how Hannah was able to accomplish her weight-loss goals:

•   Fix your drinking problem. “Don’t waste a day’s worth of sugar or calories on something you can chug in five minutes. Swap soda or sweet tea for water or unsweetened tea.”

•   Beware of health halos. “Going gluten-free doesn’t always equal weight loss. A lot of these products are more calorically dense than their wheat counterparts. I focus instead on organic foods.”

•   Move more today than you did yesterday. “Walk 10 more steps, park one space farther away, or do one more jumping jack. You will look back in just a handful of months and be amazed at how far you’ve come!”