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Dateline Diet Challenge II: Dawn

Twenty-five years have passed since our five dieters graduated from Edison High in Minneapolis, and now they have more than memories in common. They're all at least 30 pounds overweight. So they volunteered to be part of the second Dateline Diet Challenge. Which diet will work best?
/ Source: Dateline NBC

Dawn's diet story
Link: Mollie Katzen information

The former student council president wanted to lose 30 pounds on a vegetarian diet. Dawn was primarily a vegetarian when she selected this diet, but right away her shopping list changed. Her new recipies are coming from Mollie Katzen, author of seven veggie cookbooks who agreed to advise Dawn by phone. And she added exercise, an hour of Pilates once a week. The first session was an eye opener, so she started walking three miles a day.

After one week, Dawn had dropped three pounds. At week two, she added a daily meal, breakfast, and folded in an hour of weight training. And then she got the results of a blood test. Her cholesterol was 220. So she made more changes. She cut down on cheese and eggs, and boosted the protein in her diet. After two weeks of slow and steady progress, Dawn was down another pound.

Although Dawn was trying to lose weight on the vegetarian diet, family members brought, of all things, meat for Easter. After her first month on the diet Dawn had lost eight pounds, two pounds a week. A week later, at the annual Mississippi River clean up, Dawn wasn't exactly the picture of motivation.  She told us scheduled exercise was a pain. Cooking was also "a bummer" and she said the diet cost too much. But Dawn persevered. Two months in, on the loading dock scale below her exercise studio, Dawn was down 14 pounds. By June, Dawn weighed 161, down 21 pounds and only nine from her goal.

We caught up with our vegetarian at sexy singles night. As a Dateline dieter, Dawn was a celebrity of sorts and the party is a breakthrough. Dawn hasn't dated in 15 years.  By mid-July she was even thinner, her lowest weight in 12 years, down 24 pounds and overall, happier that she's been taking care of herself. That was the story of Dawn's summer: 1500 calories a day, regular exercise and at peace with herself.