Body Image Makeovers

Anita, a 43-year-old woman from Pennsylvania, says she has been battling her weight since she was a child. "One of my earliest weight-related memories as a child was when I was playing outside and I fell on the sidewalk," she says. "The older woman that lived in the house came running outside and told me to go get my mom because I had cracked her sidewalk by the weight of myself falling on it. Ridiculous, yes, I know this, but somehow of all the things that have happened in my life, I still remember that."

No matter how much weight she loses or how many times her husband tells her she is sexy, Anita says she still feels like a "blob." "Once during an argument, which as usual came down to my poor self-esteem, he asked me how I could ever expect someone else to love me when I didn't love myself," she says. "I hear that over and over in my head."

Anita says she does not want her 13-year-old daughter to develop the same low self-esteem that she has faced herself. "I don't want her to waste her life worrying about that," Anita says. "There's too much life to live."