A Nintendo Wii Helped Rene Get Her Pre-Cancer Health Back

Name: Rene Hicks

Age: 54

Height: 5'7"

Old Weight: 203.4

Current Weight: 131.6

How You Gained: I gained the weight after I had a partial lung removal due to non-smoking related lung cancer. After the surgery, I had a body breakdown and subsequent emotional disconnect from my body.

Breaking Point: I got very ill and the doctors didn't know what was wrong with me.

How Long You've Maintained Your Weight Loss: I started using the Wii program on February 15th, 2010 and I'm still losing.

How You Lost: I was always a very fit person before my lung cancer surgery, but afterwards, I just couldn't seem to maintain an exercise regimen for any length of time without getting physically and/or mentally discouraged. On a whim, I started exercising using the Nintendo Wii Fit Plus program. I used that program for one month almost every day and then switched to the Wii EA Sports Active program. I have been using that program since. I am now very muscled, toned and I have no excess body fat.

I also did abdominal exercises every day, using The Complete Book of ABS by Kurt Brungardt. I now have a defined six-pack that people 20-30 years younger than me marvel at. I also refined my eating habits by reading and following aspects of the Flat Belly Diet book by the editors of Prevention, specifically the inclusion of a "MUFA" (monounsaturated fat) with every meal and not going more than four hours without eating. I think that the inclusion of the "MUFA" completely took away my cravings for sweets.

I was wearing a size 16 jeans when I began, and now I wear a very loose size 2, which I have to use a belt to keep up. I REFUSE to wear a size 0, since "size" and "0" are ABSOLUTELY incongruent. Size 0 used to only exist for newborns, ages 0 to 6 months, and not for 54 year-old women. I will shop at the Gap for jeans, but not babyGap!

Have you defied the odds, lost weight and changed your life for the better? Submit your success story to us and help inspire others!

As a form of accountability, I videotaped, audio-recorded, photographed and kept a very detailed journal during the entire process. If I knew how to set up a blog, I would put my story up in full, so that other people, especially women of a certain age, could see how easy and fun it was to exercise using the Nintendo Wii.

I was looking for a return to health -- not concentrating on weight loss, clothing and six-pack abs. I think that's why I successfully lost the weight and have had no problem keeping it off. It's been absolutely INCREDIBLE. No one believes that I did it just working by working out with the Wii, so I'm glad I chronicled the entire process the way that I did.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it, along with my weight loss and more importantly, my return to a healthy body.