Local News

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― You've surely heard the voice of KDKA Radio's traffic reporter Kathy Berggren, but because you can't see her, you probably don't know that she has lost 100 pounds in the last year.

And she did it completely on her own with no drugs, no surgery and no fad dieting.

"I have more energy, I feel better about myself," Berggren tells KDKA. "My kids think I'm a happier person all around. I do feel really good."

Before Berggren's old jeans were a size 18, but now she wears a size four.

"It's hard to look at them," Berggren said of her old jeans. "I mean, I'm excited over it, but I just can't imagine that was me at one point."

That point was only a year ago when her determination to lose weight started with a walk around a nearby school.

"The first time I walked, I came home, I was so excited," she said. "I had all this energy after I walked. I thought I'd be tired after I finished, but I wasn't, it was an adrenaline rush. I thought, 'This is really great. I can do this.'"

Now, Berggren says she walks an hour every day, even in the heat or the cold.

"I always tried diets. Everyday I'd wake up and start a diet, and every afternoon, the diet was just about done," she said. "Once I started the exercise, it gave me the motivation to stick with the diet, to keep on going."

Berggren said she created her own diet based on what she learned from other diets. She says she decided to eat only fruits, vegetables, whole grains and protein, mostly chicken and fish.

She said the plan is flexible to work with her split shift and is also affordable.

"If you go to where you get your foods or prepackaged foods or meetings, that can be expensive, and a lot of people nowadays can't afford that," said Berggren.

She also drinks five to six bottles of water a day and the key is she eats only until she's full.

"I also think too, people have to learn how to feel," said Berggren. "I had to learn how to learn what full was, not stuffed but comfortable with being full."

Berggren says she always keeps healthy snacks on hand, at home and in her briefcase at work, eating every three to four hours so she's never too hungry.

For many months, Berggren says she didn't eat any treats other than sugar-free cookies.

She says she found her craving for sweets and snacks decreased and the quick pleasure just wasn't worth the calories.

"I thought, you know, this isn't worth how I feel," Berggren said. "I feel really good and I don't want to go back to it."

In seven months, Berggren lost 90 pounds. The last ten that followed were the toughest.

"One of the things I realized this time is, it's not so much I'm on a diet and there's an end to the diet, it's a way of living from now on," said Berggren.

Also, she says she plans ahead so she has no excuses not to eat well and exercise. She prepares all her food when she returns from the grocery store so it's ready to eat or assemble. And she keeps her walking shoes in the car, going straight from work to her hour long power walk.

"You just have to make yourself a priority," Berggren added. "It took a lot for me, with having my children, husband, they were always the priority, and I thought, 'It's time to make me the priority here.' So an hour a day, I can give myself."

Berggren also says she got off high blood pressure medication only six weeks after starting her diet and exercise regimen.

She says she hopes her story will inspire other people to lose weight. She says she has a lot more confidence and has never felt so great.

(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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