Everyone has a little health skeleton hiding in her closet. Here, five inspiring women come clean about their own bodily sins — and how they ultimately came to repent.
Back when Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) was majoring in Asian studies at Dartmouth, she was a petite size 6 and a whiz on the squash and tennis courts. Then came marriage and motherhood — she and her husband, Jonathan Gillibrand, have two sons, Theodore, born in 2003, and Henry, in 2008 — and before long, she was strolling the aisles of the plus-size department. As soon as she finished breast-feeding her youngest, she began mapping out a strategy. “I just wanted to get back to my regular self,” says Gillibrand. When an old college buddy urged her to revive her interest in sports, she bought herself a new tennis racket, started jogging, and joined a softball team. “The more physically active I got, the more I enjoyed the exercise and the more I made it a priority,” she says.
On the advice of a nutritionist, Gillibrand revamped her mealtime habits. Fruits, vegetables, and lean meats were in; carbs and fried foods were out. She and her sister, who was also on a weight-loss program, wrote down everything they ate. “We shared food journals and encouraged each other.” She also discovered her weakness — kiddie food. “It’s killer,” she groans. “Every time you make something delicious like mac and cheese, it’s hard not to take a bite.”
Before entering politics, Gillibrand worked as a high-powered defense attorney. To keep motivated as she shed weight, she emptied her closet of power suits and donated them to Dress for Success, a nonprofit that helps disadvantaged women land jobs and provides them with confidence-boosting outfits. And she promised herself that if she ever got back to her old size, she’d reward herself with new clothes.
It took almost a year and a half, but Gillibrand dropped more than 40 pounds, just in time to emerge victorious from her 2010 Senate race against Republican Joseph J. DioGuardi. Since then, her physical makeover has proved so eye-catching that it’s been noted by everyone from the media to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who famously ranked her the “hottest” member of the Senate. As flattering as the compliments are, Gillibrand thinks of her transformation not in terms of a number on the bathroom scale but of how great she feels. “I don’t frame it as ‘losing weight’; I would say, ‘focusing on my health.’ It gives you much more energy. You feel better about yourself and have a more positive outlook. When you take time to exercise every day, it refreshes you.”
