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The trip was a sort of graduation present for having lost weight together. "We really do encourage each other," says pal Robin Van Huss, a furniture store owner who has lost nearly 72 lbs. and appears in a Jenny Craig TV ad with Alley, recalling, "Before, we were both so overweight we could barely get off the couch."
Now Alley works out daily, either on her new Pilates transformer machine or an elliptical trainer (while watching American Idol) or by dancing in the living room for 45 minutes to Gwen Stefani or the Black Eyed Peas, with True and Lillie occasionally joining in. As the countdown to Oprah bikini day ticks on, she is stepping up her efforts. "I'm working on sculpting this body I opened my mouth about," she says. "I'm not touting myself as a Victoria's Secret model, but I will look good for myself."
That's not the only challenge she's prepping for. Though she has been open about putting her romantic life on hold while she was heavy, Alley has started dating – if tentatively – once again. "My kids are like, 'He likes you, Mom. Go out with him!'" she says. "I feel like a 16-year-old and they are like my parents urging me onto the dance floor."
She has been out in recent months, but all that has come of it, she says, "is that I can say I hate dating." What she's looking for is "someone who had been married, was madly in love and is a widower with children." There is a man she's interested in, but, she says, green eyes twinkling, "he doesn't know it yet."
JOSH & FERGIE: ROCKED BY SCANDAL
Did he cheat with a stripper?
Married less than a year, the couple denies an Atlanta woman’s claims that she and Josh had a fling
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