Mother of two works hard to lose massive amount of weight after husband diagnosed terminally ill

Starting out at 324 pounds, a mother of two lost about 160 pounds after just a year with the TV program Extreme Weight Loss. The 42-year-old 911 operator felt she needed to shed all those pounds because of the inevitable and sad fact that her husband was terminally ill and their two children are still too young to be left on their own. Her weight is claimed to be because of emotional eating after experiencing a childhood tragedy that she blamed herself for.

MUNTINLUPA, PHILIPPINES (Catholic Online) - Jen Snell shared her heartbreaking story with the ABC show "Extreme Weight Loss," which features trainer-couple Chris and Heidi Powell. Starting from the feeling of rejection and neglect after her parents got divorced, Jen felt she lived a sad life as a child.

Snell was forbidden to see her father after the separation and her mother's remarriage. The most tragic experience of all was when her baby brother died at the age of 3, three days after a fall where he hit the back of his head.

Her brother's early death caused nine-year-old Jen to blame herself, as she was the one watching him when he fell. Years after, she married Dan who never saw her as fat. However, Jen knew that Dan would pass away any time because of three different auto-immune diseases - rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and Sjogren's syndrome.

"I don't know what I'll do without him. How can I not get off my butt and do something about this?" she said. Doctors gave her husband two to five years to live, prompting Jen to decide she needed to face the reality, and become healthier for Dan to depend on and prepare herself to become the sole guardian of their children Hannah, 6, and Timmy, 5, after he leaves Earth.

On the course of hard training with the program supervised by the Powells, Jenn successfully shed off the massive pounds and regained her life and strength, something she attributes to her family and God.

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