DALLAS – Starting at age eight, Carla Ferrer struggled with her weight. The problem that grew with her waist line into her 20′s.

“I was miserable, it was a Wednesday morning and I could not get out of bed,” Ferrer said. “The alarm went off, and I thought, ‘I literally just want to lay here and end it.’”

That was wake up call number one. Then her mother passed of congestive heart failure.

“Literally within seconds, her physician said, ‘That will be you in five years, Carla,’” Ferrer said.

Desperate not to go in that direction, Carla spent a month creating her own weight loss program, and that meant really understanding what would work long term.

“[I didn't want] to delude myself into thinking I could run off to some gym or some program, and that it was going to work this time, after trying them all and failing,” Ferrer said. “I thought, ‘Let’s be realistic about this – what can I do forever?”

According to Ferrer, weight loss starts in your mind, not on a plate. That’s the biggest key.

She works out 10 minutes a day and eats real food, in real portions. 135 pounds peeled off in nine months.

“I like to say it takes me less time than having a baby to lose 135 pounds,” Ferrer said. “Losing weight is easy, maintaining it isn’t.”

Now Carla is a life and health coach, traveling the world with her story and sharing her short cuts in the kitchen.

For example, a low-calorie root beer float made with diet root beer and vanilla coffee creamer. Or a pumpkin pie without the crust – it cuts the calories more than in half per slice.

But most of all, prep your food on Sunday for the week, so you make good choices, not convenient ones.

“Convenience is killing us,” Ferrer said. “Pre-packaged foods, drive through – that is not the answer, that is not nutrition.”

Now 18 years later, Carla proves you can keep the weight off, if you work for it.

And now her goal in life is to help others pick themselves back up, and realize they’re worth it.