Losing weight and keeping it off requires more than just a fad diet. As Bob and Jennifer Hamilton found, it requires a lifestyle change.

Bob and Jennifer were overweight and unhealthy at a young age and had to make a decision to save their lives.

“At 27, I already had high blood pressure and cholesterol,” Jennifer said. “I was on medication for it and nothing was working.”

Both Jennifer and her husband, Bob have a family history that includes heart disease and diabetes and once they had a child, they realized they could no longer keep their lifestyle.

“After having my daughter, Kalista, we started to realize that we were no longer just hurting ourselves,” Jennifer said.

“It's one thing when it's just you that you are abusing, but we have to set an example, What kind of example is it when I would say I had Doritos for lunch and my favorite food was Oreos, we knew that we weren't giving her a fair shot at being healthy.”

Bob, who topped out his heaviest at over 300 pounds and Jennifer, who was wearing size 22 pants, both decided to try the Atkins diet in 2004.

In the first year, Bob lost 60 pounds and Jennifer lost 40 pounds, but their bloodwork was still not reflecting a positive change.

Their next attempt was the South Beach diet, which ended up making the impact they both needed.

“It made us realize that there are some things you just cannot have,” Jennifer said.

“You have to go back to basics and the natural things - no white flours, plenty of fruits and vegetables and a good balance of things without the unnecessary sweets, starches and things you just know are not healthy.”

Jennifer said that they needed to just put things on a no list and stick to it, which was an especially difficult thing to do.

“I don't consider it a diet because it's really not,” Jennifer said. “It is an entire lifestyle change, you cannot succeed unless you make the changes and stick to it.”

Bob has now lost a total of 140 pounds and Jennifer, who is a size eight, has lost 100 pounds. The majority of their weight loss came in three years of what has so far been a five-year journey.

“Bob has reached his maximum amount of weight he can lose,” Jennifer said. “Now he is so much more into fitness and has really made amazing progress with his body, he is getting very sculpted and is in better shape than he was in high school.”

Jennifer said that the most important thing though is the example they have set for Kalista, who is now 8 years old and can read and understand the labels on her food packages.

“She will look at the labels in the store and tell me when something has too much sugar or fats,” Jennifer said. “She is still allowed to have things like sweets in moderation, but she couldn't tell you what a HoHo or a Zinger was to save her life and even more importantly, she is much more active, we all are.”

Jennifer said that Kalista would rather snack on celery or carrot sticks than chips or cookies and is involved in many healthy, extracurricular activities such as basketball, gymnastics, swimming and dance, which is a spectacular schedule for an 8-year-old, especially one with asthma.

“Just seeing how much more fit and active she is, we all are, is just amazing to us,” Jennifer said. “Once we started giving our bodies what they needed from every food group and cutting out the habits that were making us unhealthy, we just became so much happier and more active. I used to stop home and take a nap before picking her up from her activities, I never could have gone outside and played with her out in the snow, now we take three-mile walks on the canal trail once a week in the summer, her nature hunts, and we are just having a blast together.”

Jennifer said that it was also about setting boundaries and sticking to them, like not having food anywhere else but at the table at home and eating snacks around the house opened them up to behaviors that most people find themselves in, like eating a bag of chips in front of your favorite television show.

“We started using Dixie cups to portion out how many crackers she could sit and eat, that alone stopped the munching,” Jennifer said. “When you think about portion size, it is surprising how often we go well over what our bodies can digest and that is where we get into a lot of serious overeating. You have to contain yourself from having the vicious cycle of needing it, feeding it, dropping and then doing it all over again.”

As for affording healthier foods, finding healthier foods appetizing, eating healthy when eating out and all of the other issues people think of when they think of making a change for their health, Jennifer said that it can all be accomplished if people think outside the box.

“There are so many options out there,” Jennifer said. “Sure you can buy a cheeseburger for a dollar but you can also go to the store and buy a whole bag of salad for a dollar. You just have to get creative to find things you can eat. I feel like I'm at an AA meeting when I say that I haven't had a piece of cake in five years, but I have found ways to take something I want and turn it into something I can have without harming myself. I can use healthy ingredients to make something for myself that is like my own little cake but healthy. You can't be lazy though, that is key, you have to be willing to do the work to find alternatives because it's out there.”

She said that she often turns to the internet for recipes, along with doing things like getting creative with vegetables. Mashed cauliflower can replace mashed potatoes and she has even found a way to replace french fries with eggplant.

Their family and friends are helpful too, now that they know about the strict diet the Hamilton's keep, they usually make sure to include things that they can enjoy as well.

“Anywhere you go there is a healthy choice,” Jennifer said. “Every menu usually has a salad or grilled choice, sometimes you may have to bring your own bottle of dressing. If you are willing to do it, you can even go through the drive-thru and make a healthy choice.”

As for the difficulties that they have faced in this lifestyle change, Jennifer said that not only could she not have done it without her husband and vice versa, but that it all starts in your head and having the desire and willpower to make a change.

Now able to fit in her wedding dress from15 years ago, Jennifer said that showing people their before and after pictures is something they do with pride and the goal of giving other people hope and inspiration that it really can be done. Most importantly, Jennifer said that not only are she and her husband leading healthier lives but they are doing their parts as loving parents to make sure Kalista is not faced with the same challenges as they were.