Aug 5, 2007

Liles is a big loser, thanks to LA Weight Loss

Center selects her to appear on its TV commercial

By Jason Sweeney / MediaNews

Jennifer Liles went on a diet and ended up on national television.

You may have seen the Los Gatos resident in weight loss television commercials that run between soap operas and episodes of Dr. Phil. Her dramatic weight loss prompted her diet center, LA Weight Loss, to put her in ads that run during daytime television.

Or maybe you have seen Liles behind the bar at Pedro's Restaurant and Cantina on N. Santa Cruz Avenue. She also works the bar at the Mexicali Grill in Santa Clara. Liles, 38, is the outgoing bartender who serves drinks and chats with her loyal customers during happy hour.

Liles is on her feet while on the job, and is always surrounded by food. After she turned 30, maintaining her figure became more difficult.

By 2005, Liles, who is 5-foot-4, weighed 191 pounds.

"In my 20s, I was in good shape," she explained. "But I've always had to watch it. I'm getting older. It was sticking around a little bit more. I kept seeing these commercials on TV and I thought, what the heck."

While visiting her parents for Thanksgiving, she decided the weight needed to come off.

"The first step is making the decision," Liles said. "I was ready to take that first step."

In November 2005, she walked into an LA Weight Loss center in Santa Clara and plopped down $600 to lose 50 pounds.

The center put her on a customized diet plan that included counseling and supplements.

"They teach you how to eat," Liles said. "They weigh you and take your blood pressure. You keep a diary and write down everything you eat."

Gone were the burgers and fries, replaced by a balanced diet that included a lot of salad, chicken and whole wheat bread. She also carried around a large jug to make sure she drank the recommended 64 ounces of water each day.

As part of her weight loss plan, Liles began an intense workout program that meant spending a lot of time in the gym.

"It's all about focusing and making the decision upstairs in your mind that you're ready to do it," she said.

By April, she had lost 60 pounds. The change was so dramatic that some of her friends worried that she was getting too thin.

"It's different for me now," she said. "People treat me differently. I'm happier. Being thin feels better than that hamburger tastes."

LA Weight Loss found Liles, with her new slim figure and her outgoing personality, to be a perfect candidate for a television commercial. Last year, the company flew her to Orange County.

"They put me up in a beautiful hotel on the beach in Newport Beach," Liles said. "I couldn't believe how they treated us. It was unbelievable."

With five fellow dieters, Liles gave an unpaid televised testimonial. It was more than a year before the ad appeared on television. Seeing herself on television at first was overwhelming, she said. But it was nice to hear from friends and customers that they had seen her in the commercials.

Liles has been asked to be in a second television commercial - this time in a bikini on a Florida beach. But since her low of 125 pounds last year, the weight has been slowly creeping back. So she is back on the workout program and closely watching everything she eats.

"I've got about seven or eight pounds I need to lose before I do the next commercial," she said.

"You get on a cycle of losing weight. It's hard when you realize you can eat a little more food. But it's hard to get to a point where you don't want to lose any more weight. It seems like you're either losing weight or you're cheating. Maintaining is probably harder than losing it. But it starts upstairs. You just have to focus."