Local woman featured on front of Woman's World magazine

By: CRAIG SHULTZ - Staff Writer | Friday, August 25, 2006 9:48 PM PDT ∞

If someone had told Brandi Albright three years ago that her picture would be on the cover of a national magazine, she would have said they were crazy. After all, she weighed 239 pounds and wasn't proud of the way she looked.

But pick up a current copy of Woman's World, and that's Albright smiling from the cover next to a headline reading: "She lost 110 lbs!"

"I never pictured myself here," said Albright, 34, of Murrieta. "I thought I would be old and obese and there was nothing I could do about it."

What's she's done was featured in an issue of Woman's Day magazine, which led to the cover of Woman's World, a weekly magazine.

After her pediatrician told her she was morbidly obese, she started to diet on Aug. 29, 2003.

Having lost her mother when Albright was 20, she said she wanted to make sure would be around for her two children, now 6 and 3.

"I knew I wouldn't do anything to endanger my children," she said.

So, Albright changed her lifestyle, switching to healthy food and beginning to exercise. Out were fatty fast foods and in were whole grains and fruits.

She also began working out at Liberty Fitness, a health club for women, where she lost 25 pounds in two months. A year later, she bought a franchise on Highway 79 South.

"I opened (the gym) so everyday women ... can come and work out," Albright said. "I didn't see people like myself at LA Fitness."

Besides offering a workout, Albright helps her clients eat better. She said she lost one pound a week by eating organically grown foods and exercising and has kept her weight steady for nine months.

She not only tries to help her clients with what they eat, but with what they feed their families.

"We've become more and more lackadaisical about how we eat," Albright said. "We feed Science Diet to our dog then go to McDonald's to feed our kids."

She cited studies that assert today's youngsters have a lower life expectancy than current adults, and that obesity plays a large part in that. By preparing healthy meals ---- and eschewing fast food ---- children not only eat better, but families can get back around the dinner table to spend time together, she said.

But don't think Albright starves herself. She eats five to seven small meals a day and allows herself to splurge one day each week.

"Ninety percent of the time I do good, but I remember I'm not perfect and 10 percent, I treat myself without blowing it," she said.

Albright's life went like that of many others. She was athletic in high school, but slowly began to gain weight in her 20s. A thyroid condition affected her metabolism, and her weight ballooned, she said.

Albright isn't shy about sharing her story with anyone who will listen.

"They want to eat better, they want to feel better and talk to someone's who's been there," she said. "I get people who tell me 'You don't know what it's like,' but I keep pictures of myself (nearby) and tell them this wasn't a lifetime ago that I looked like this."

Albright encourages others to follow her weight-loss success.

"Don't give up; don't hit the ropes," she said. "You have to find what works for you and remind yourself this is for you, your future, your children's future. That's the driving force. Make it the driving force in your life."