Waterford Woman Loses Nearly 100 Pounds

About this time last year, Waterford's Wendy Willis decided to act on her new year's resolution to lose weight. After a tip from one of her clients at who told her how he had lost 40 pounds, she signed up for the 12-week program offered by Weight No Longer in East Lyme. 

For much of her life, Willis had weighed about 160 pounds. At her heaviest, she tipped the scales at 220 pounds. "It just kind of creeps up on you," Willis said. "My doctor kept saying, 'Do something!'" 

Willis went to one of the weekly seminars at Weight No Longer and decided to join the program. She signed up initially for 12-weeks but opted to stick with it for longer than that. The weight came off gradually, she said, about two pounds a week but the diet was easy to follow, the food was good, and the more she learned, the more motivated she was to stick to it.

"I have learned over the past year about my eating habits. I know how to eat now," she said. "I know what food to put together and what not to put together and that’s what they teach me. It’s really not a diet. It’s a life change" 

Today, when Willis steps on the scale, she weighs in at 133 pounds but, even better than that, she said, she no longer needs to take medication to control her blood pressure or cholesterol levels.  

Family Success

Inspired by her example, Willis, 53, said her son, Jason, 27, and his girlfriend also signed up for the program. Jason, who had been working out and lost about 40 pounds through an incentive program offered by his employer, lost 85 pounds after joining the program and recently became a coach at Weight No Longer. 

Wendy's husband, Keith, 57, joined the program in July and dropped 55 pounds, even though he works out of state and can only meet with his coach twice a month. He is also now off his cholesterol medication. 

"We really don’t realize what weight can do to us," said Wendy. "We were really headed for diabetes." 

To date, 26 Weight No Longer clients have lost more than 100 pounds on the program and clients such as Willis have managed to keep that weight off for a year and counting.