Ali Vincent - Believe It, Be It: How Being the Biggest Loser Won Me Back My Life

I would like to thank and express my love to my family for always believing in me. Thanks to my mom, Bette-Sue, for being willing to put herself out there so that I could have the courage to do the same, and her husband, Richard, for balancing my mom. To my dad, John, for exemplifying that you can create what you want, and my stepmom, Peggy, for showing me that you only get better with age. To my grandparents, Florence and Cordon, for loving Amber and me and making sure we always had someone there. My aunt Judi who loved us as her own and whom I miss daily. My sister Amber, who has always been my constant and who has shown me that you can give your heart to someone else without losing yourself, and her husband, Brian, whom I love dearly. My younger sister, Holly, and her husband, Andy, for their continued and unconditional love and support. My brothers, Joey and Adam, for keeping it real and kicking my butt every chance they get. My best friend and partner, JoMarie, for showing me what it means to truly love someone. My nieces Alexandra, Alexis, Avery, Macy, and Madison and my nephew, McCoy, for inspiring me to live and love to the best of my ability.

To all my friends (you know who you are), I love you and thank you for always being there for me.

To Jillian Michaels and Bob Harper, thank you for helping me see the light that has always been inside me and showing me how to fan it into a roaring fire again. I love you both madly.

Thank you to Mark Koops, Chad Bennett, Ben Silverman, Dave Broome, JD Roth, Todd A. Nelson, and all the cast and crew of Season 5s The Biggest Loser. I am truly grateful to each and every one of you for providing me the opportunity and encouragement to create my destiny. And special thanks to the two castmates who have become a part of my life: Brittany Aberle and Mark Kruger.

I also want to thank Alison Sweeney for being able to connect with me and push me personally to do more than even I knew I was capable of. You continue to inspire me to create. I look forward to a lifetime of friendship and making a difference together, one person at a time.

To Sidney Griffin, Melissa DeLuca, Tony Wells, Carl Liebert, and the whole team from 24 Hour Fitness, I love being part of the 24 Hour family. Thank you for helping me fulfill my dream of touching the lives of people just like me. And to Janine Drake, David Jenkins, Tom Oliver, Tex Prows, andthe team from Designer Whey Protein for helping me educate and get the message out there.

A special thanks to my editor at Rodale, Julie Will, who suggested I write this book after a simple conversation. Thank you

for initiating this and putting in countless hours to make BelieveIt, Be It happen. And thank you to Andy Barzvi at ICM, who guided me through this process. Shes been excited to help me share my story from day 1. Well, we finally did it!

I would like to thank Melissa Roberson whom I fell in love with from the first day that Mom and I met her while trying on our Biggest Loser sports bras and biker shorts! I cannot think of another person in this world with whom Id rather partake in this journey. Your laughter and pure compassion has allowed me the space to dig deep, knowing that I was safe to just be me.

And last, but certainly not least, thanks to all of the fans who support and who encourage me daily to continue on this journey. Together we can change the world by loving and taking care of ourselves first. Remember: Believe It, Be It I do.

My name is Ali Vincent, and I am the Biggest Loser. I still love saying it. Sometimes Im in the shower and I think to myself, Im the first female Biggest Loser! Its something I will feel wonderful about for the rest of my life, and its an accomplishment that fuels all of my future goals.

In October 2007, when I officially joined the Season 5 cast of NBCs hit show The Biggest Loser, I weighed 234 pounds. About 6 months later, on April 15, 2008, I weighed 122 pounds. In a finale broadcast live to millions of people, I stepped onto a giant scaleand registered a total weight loss of 112 poundsand became the first woman ever to win the shows grand prize. I had lost 47.86 percent of my starting weightnearly half of me had vanished.

But honestly, before I stepped on that scale, I felt that I had already won. By shedding those pounds and by confronting the emotional issues that had led to my weight gain, I had also won a whole new life. One that felt open and full of hope, almost newly born. And I think everyone can have that feeling. I know everyone deserves to have that feeling.

Since winning the show, Ive traveled across the country, meeting with and talking to people who want to reclaim their lives. They are struggling to lose their excess weight and all the other burdens and hurts theyve been carrying around that keep them from realizing their dreams. My story is about weight loss, sure, but its also about coming back to life, emerging from a place of darkness and isolation. And I know there are others who share the very same struggles, who want so much more for themselves, and who have so much more to give to others than they can currently offer. They are the reasons why I wrote this book. Ive learned a lot on this journey that I want to share with others and that I hope will help others. I truly believe we can change the world one person at a time.

This is the story of how I changed my life, a story of personal struggle and triumph. Its the story of how I began to dream big, get healthy, and allow myself to start thinking, Why not me?

A friend once gave me the gift of a little bell with a ribbon attached to the top that said, Dream It, Be It. I packed the bell in my suitcase when my mom and I traveled to California for the final casting selection for The Biggest Loser. One day, when we were sitting in our hotel room, I took it out and started shaking it and having a little fun with my mom, saying, Believe it, be it. At the time, I was joking aroundI had never really understood the idea of having a mantra or creating an intention for your life. But the more I kept ringing that bell and saying, Believe it, be it, the more it felt right. And from that moment on, I began to think and feel that I could do it. That not only would I be selected for the show, but I could win it and become the first female Biggest Loser.

When we were selected for the show, I took the bell with me to The Biggest Loser ranch. I used to ring it and repeat my mantra every night before bed and every morning when I woke up. At the end of our season, when I was a finalist, the producers wanted to create a time capsule for the next season and plant it somewhere on campus. They asked all of us to donate something that could be included in it. My immediate thought was that I would give them my bell. But I got nervous. Oh my God, I thought, I cant give up my bell. Thats my bell. But when I really thought about it, I realized I didnt need it anymore. Because I believed it, and I had become what I wanted to be. I am it. I thought of the bell as a torch I needed to pass.

So I put my bell in the time capsule with a handwritten note advising its recipient to stay present, to stay conscious, and to always know where they were going so that they could get there and achieve their goals. And I shared the story of my bell, saying that it helped me become the first female Biggest Loser. Of course, at the time, I hadnt won anything. But I believed it would happen, and I wrote in my note that this little bell had helped me become the person I knew I could be.