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Jessenia Herrera
Raised on dishes like stewed chicken made by her El Salvadoran mother, Jessenia Herrera wasn't an over-weight child. But in high school she discovered junk food and by the time she graduated, she was 175 lbs. Four years later Herrera, a stay-at-home mom, had reached 250. "I'd eat a large pizza and sleep with the box in my bed," she says. Finally, at 24, she was fed up. "I looked at my son and thought life is too short," says the Burke, Va., administrative assistant. After losing 29 lbs. on a string of different diets, she lost 100 more in just over a year with Jenny Craig, eating 1,700 calories per day with packaged meals and walking three miles daily. "Now I have all this energy," says the single mom, 29, who keeps fit at the gym and by playing basketball with Vincent, 9. Still eating light, Herrera keeps an old photo of herself in her wallet for inspiration. "There's no going back for me. Not ever," she says. "I will never be heavy again."
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