An admitted tomboy who enjoyed the party lifestyle, Ms. van Kessel grew increasingly uncomfortable with the numbers on the scale as the final years and months of her 20s ticked away. Shedding a few pounds had always been a goal, but the much-needed push to do so never came along until early in 2007 while catching an episode of one of her favourite television shows.

"I did it on a whim," Ms. van Kessel recalls of sending in a full-length picture of herself to the reality television show 'X-Weighted'. "I'd seen the first season and I was a big fan. I thought it was perfect, it was the right time in my life to do it. I thought that if I could get on (the show), I could do it, I could lose the weight."

She dropped her photo into the mail in February 2007 and made her way through round after round, surviving cuts until May when she was told she had been selected as one of 13 characters from across Canada who would have their weight-loss efforts chronicled by camera crews.

Filming of the former Scugog resident began last July when those crews followed her every step -- with the exception of while she was on the job -- while she carried out her life at her Little Britain home.

They followed her everywhere. To her sister's wedding, on a blind date, to a staggette party and to the gym and even her favourite neighbourhood pub.

"They filmed parts of my everyday life," Ms. van Kessel said of her ever-present shadows. "There were good points and bad points, but it was my real life and they followed me around. I'm not normally a shy kind of girl, but at first I was very shy.

"But, after awhile, I let it all hang out, the bad and the ugly -- and it was ugly," Ms. van Kessel, now 30, continued. "But the crew just became friends, I got to know them so then it just got comfortable. At first I felt kind of dumb... but now I kind of miss not having them around."

It was a struggle to drop the pounds -- Ms. van Kessel noted she can't disclose the amount lost, as that will be revealed when her journey airs on Wednesday evening -- but she now appears happy to have closed in on her goal.

"I'm very pleased," she said of her progress. "It's amazing, at the end of the day to see how it played out. I feel like I'm a better person, I'm actually probably happier then I was before... this has absolutely changed my life.

"I wanted to start off my 30s happier, with more confidence again, and I think I'm starting off on a positive note."

Ms. van Kessel's story will first air on Wednesday, May 21, at 8 p.m. on the Slice Network. The show will be repeated again at 11 p.m. that evening, as well as at 11 a.m. on Saturday, May 24; 7 p.m. on Sunday, May 25; and again at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, May 25.