Dropping Lbs.: Ida Gross of Holbrook

HER STORY Shopping for clothing was a painful experience for an overweight Ida Gross. "I remember going to Macy's with my girls to buy their clothing," she says, "but having to go to Lane Bryant and other large-women stores to get my clothes."

One day, she reached her breaking point with the way she looked and felt. "It was a Wednesday, and I thought, 'This is enough,' " says Gross, whose weight hasn't fluctuated more than a few pounds in the past 35 years.

Her first thought was to attend Weight Watchers. "I went to one meeting and never went again," says Gross, who balked at the emphasis on buying food provided by Weight Watchers. "I decided that I could lose weight on my own."

And she did, using steel-hard reserve to lose 100 pounds in 10 months.

"Back then, I'd have a blueberry muffin for breakfast every day," Gross says. "I'd never do that now."

She had to learn about fat content, carbohydrates, sodium, all the information that is on labels today.

"The information just wasn't available then," Gross says, adding that she lost the weight strictly with dietary changes. "We didn't know about exercise then like we do now."

DIET She starts the morning with a protein bar or a slice of wheat-grain bread with hummus. Lunch is a salad or yogurt. Dinner is often a piece of chicken with vegetables and rice.

"I've found that a little bit of something is better than being overweight and unhappy," says Gross, whose mantra is 'everything in moderation.' "You have to learn to push the plate away."

EXERCISE "I don't do any specific exercises," says Gross, who recently underwent successful heart valve surgery for reasons unrelated to weight.

She does like walking, which she fits into her day. She never parks close to a store. "I try to park in the back of the parking lot unless it isn't safe," says Gross, who says she also always takes the stairs.

ADVICE "It is all about making choices," Gross says: If she wants to indulge at lunch, she'll eat less at dinner. "I don't walk around constantly thinking about what I eat," Gross says. "But I think about what I bring into my home. If it isn't there, you can't eat it."

Ida Gross

66, Holbrook

Occupation Worked in the fragrance industry

Height 5-foot-9

260 Weight before 1975

160 Weight by April 2012