The woman you see in these pictures had always been a little overweight - even during her school years - but in as she left school and went into work she found that the number on the scale started creeping up dramatically. She particularly found that she struggled with her breasts, and decided to have breast reduction surgery to reduce the pain she was in every day. It backfired. She no longer recognized her body shape in the mirror, and so gave up on her appearance, gaining more weight than ever before.
Eventually, she says that something 'just snapped' within her, and she decided to stop eating so much poor-quality food, and start doing regular exercise. To her delight, she found that her body was very responsive to it. From a peak weight of 255 pounds, she's now down to 144 - and she looks incredible for it.