Dropping Pounds: Jennifer Barsamian
Jennifer Barsamian, 37, of Lynbrook, who had been overweight her entire life, began to see her opera career suffer as she was cast in frumpier roles. She turned to Weight Watchers to lose 150 pounds and recharge her singing career. Credit: Handout; Jessica Rotkiewicz
HER STORY "I was always overweight," says Jennifer Barsamian, who adds that she doesn't remember a time when weight wasn't an issue. "It wasn't junk food. It was always portion size."
Barsamian says there really wasn't a food she didn't like.
"I didn't discriminate," says Barsamian, who has maintained her weight loss for five years. "A portion size for me was whatever I could fit on my plate."
It was her career that finally convinced Barsamian, then 29, that she needed to make a change. She says she attended an opera apprenticeship program, and while there, instead of getting glamour roles, she was given dowdy roles, like the old maid or the housekeeper, that fit her weight but not her voice.
"I was never cast as the glamorous lead," says Barsamian, who had joined Weight Watchers off and on since elementary school. "It hurt my heart, then I got really angry and motivated."
In addition to changing her eating habits, she was even driven to go to the gym, a place she had avoided.
"I just put one foot in front of the other and got on the treadmill," remembers Barsamian, who lost two dress sizes that summer.
"The next three years weren't easy, but I kept going," says Barsamian. "Losing weight slow and steady was the right way for me."
DIET She starts her day with a banana with peanut butter before she works out. That is followed by a breakfast of egg whites and turkey bacon or a smoothie. Lunch is vegetables with a lean protein. Dinner is often vegetable spaghetti made with zucchini or other vegetable using a spiral slicer.
EXERCISE She exercises 30 to 60 minutes a day six days a week. This includes Zumba, hot yoga, salsa dancing and DVD workouts at home.
ADVICE "I'm more powerful than I realized," says Barsamian, who adds that her Weight Watchers leader helped her immensely. "She asked me if I knew what I wanted, 'cause if you don't know what you want, you won't get there. It is not about willpower. It is about 'want power.' "
Jennifer Barsamian
36, Lynbrook
Occupation Opera singer/voice and piano teacher
Height 5-foot-5
295 Weight Before 2005
145 Weight after March, 2014
Sarra Sounds Off, Ep. 15: LI's top basketball players On the latest episode of "Sarra Sounds Off," Newsday's Gregg Sarra and Matt Lindsay take a look top boys and girls basketball players on Long Island.
Sarra Sounds Off, Ep. 15: LI's top basketball players On the latest episode of "Sarra Sounds Off," Newsday's Gregg Sarra and Matt Lindsay take a look top boys and girls basketball players on Long Island.
