I keep track of my body by how my jeans fit—and how I feel.

What's wrong with extreme dieting and hard-core fitness plans is that they don't take into account the rest of your life.

My husband and I both have our bucket lists. Running a marathon was on mine.

I was never obese, but I felt 'less than' because I wasn't as thin as other actresses. I totally fell for that low-fat craze. My goal was to be X jeans size or a specific number on the scale.

Set reasonable goals; not something vague and unrealistic like "I want to be super-model skinny." I always had visions of very thin actresses in my mind when I was at the gym and it seemed so unattainable that I would quit any health regimen before it even got off the ground. But when I changed my mindset to focusing on making the healthiest choices possible for myself, it was a lot more realistic, more attainable, and then the results were visible.

One of the things I like best about 'Biggest Loser' is being around people who are trying to make the right choices. When you feel defeated about your weight and your health, like there's no hope, and you still make the choice to fight for it, to make the change happen no matter what people say or think, that's inspiring to me.

With reality TV, sometimes it's amazing chemistry and you get these gems that turn out to be everything you hoped, and the camera loves them and they just blossom on the show. And then sometimes it's not all you envision.