Weigh to go: TV personality Dian Thomas loses 125 pounds

Many people remember Dian Thomas for her "Roughing It Easy" books and appearances on NBC's "Today" show back in the '80s.

She inspired people to camp, cook and craft with their families. Today, the 64-year-old Thomas is inspiring for another reason: She's lost nearly 125 pounds.

Six years ago, the 5-foot-8-inch Thomas topped the scales at 326½ pounds; quite a jump from the 170 pounds she weighed when she first appeared on Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show."

Today, Thomas' weight hovers at around 200 pounds, with just 20 more to shed to her final goal. She can bike for miles at a time and is planning to bike across Iowa this summer. She walks, works out at the gym and does water aerobics.

"Now I move like I'm young again," she said. "Before, if I ever got down on the floor, I couldn't get back up,"

Instead of a quick fix, the latest celebrity diet or gastric bypass surgery, Thomas took a slow, methodical approach. It's taken six years to shed the weight, "But it stayed off. It works, and that's what I care about."

Thomas aimed for a half-pound loss per week.

"What I have learned is it is not the speed but the direction, and that it is not a diet — it's a lifestyle change."

And there's no one "magic bullet." Instead, it's a matter of consistently incorporating a number of steps that include exercise, eating right and accountability.

"It's like leading a symphony: You've got to have all the instruments playing together at the same time, or you don't get the results," Thomas said.

"It's not just the food or just the exercise, that's just one instrument. The challenge is playing all the instruments together at the same time. And, you have to keep doing it long enough to make it a habit."

Thomas' "instruments" include sticking to 1,600-1,800 calories a day, consisting of three meals and three snacks.

She eats eight fruits and vegetables a day, and the only carbohydrates she eats are complex. She also gets two tablespoons of oil a day and eight cups of water. Exercise, controlling stress and getting a full night's rest are the other keys to her success.

It's a far cry from the heady-but-hectic, food-filled lifestyle that Thomas used to lead.

In 1974, the home-economics-teacher-turned-author published a book titled "Roughing It Easy," a guide to camping and cooking outdoors. Her appearance with Johnny Carson on "The Tonight Show" helped propel the book to the New York Times Best-sellers list. Thomas became a familiar face on TV, with an eight-year stint as lifestyle editor for NBC's "Today" show, followed by six years with ABC's "Home Show," and numerous guest spots on talk shows from Merv Griffin to Sally Jessy Raphael.