"My kids actually eat when they're hungry," says Alley (with True and Lillie in her kitchen). Photo by: BRIAN DOBEN
Home Body| Kirstie Alley
Meanwhile, Alley has got other things on her newly balanced plate. She's working on two screenplays, a family radio show she wants to produce and a possible retail partnership with a company in Australia that could make her "the Italian Martha Stewart – with bigger breasts," she says.

She's not actually Italian, but never mind; she is studying the language and also seriously dreams about becoming the U.S. ambassador to Italy. On her way to a summer-long Italian vacation, she has scheduled a stop in Florida to meet with a former ambassador, "to have him educate me." As her former Veronica's Closet costar Kathy Najimy puts it, "Kirstie is the queen of how to think big."

Just not, any longer, when it comes to dress size. Now when Lillie and True come home from school, Mom sits with them at the kitchen table as they do homework ("I help, or if it's math, I don't," says Alley), and as they munch on their usual prosciutto and brie and a baguette, the actress has a piece of string cheese and fruit. "They have theirs and I have mine," she says. Then, as the day winds down, the family will take a walk or watch an hour of TV or play a game. It's in such moments that Alley experiences her greatest fulfillment. "My best quality," she says, "is that I'm a good mother."

And getting better all the time. As Alley proudly explains, gaining and then losing weight "jolted every facet of my life. Not in just looking pretty or something. It has revitalized every aspect of me."

• By Jennifer Wulff. Julie Jordan in Los Angeles