Weight Loss Challenge: JIm and Dana

The weight loss challenge continues.Jim's wife Dana is an exercise instructor. "I gave up on Jim years ago," she says. "It's hard to say you're not attracted to your husband."

Since Jim has lost weight, their relationship has improved slightly. "It has brought us a little bit closer. We're not arguing about where to go for dinner. We're not arguing about having pizza for a third night," Dana says. But, she admits, "I'm still skeptical. For 10 years he promised me he'd lose weight, and I still have doubt."

Jim knows his weight has been an obstacle in his marriage, especially in their lack of intimacy. "I was always ashamed of my body," he says.

Dana hopes that when Jim reaches his goal weight, they'll have more intimacy. But in the meantime, she says, "It's still lights off, t-shirt on."

Dana says she knows Jim can lose the weight. But, she says, "Is he going to maintain it?"

Since Jim started the challenge, she says, "He's completely different. He's not feeling deprived." He recently mentioned how much he now loves to exercise, and Dana couldn't believe it!

Because having a "circle of support" is essential to Jim's success, Dr. Phil asks Dana, "I have a hard time understanding why you are so disconnected, in my view, from him. I would think you'd be absolutely doing backflips and you just seem kind of cold and reserved about the whole thing."

"It's my skepticism," she says.

Dr. Phil understands that Dana has been through the diet roller coaster with Jim for years, but asks, "What if you decided, 'He's my husband, he's never been more focused, never had more help, never had better results, never made more of an overall, healthy balanced change than now and I'm just going to 100 percent get behind him and love him through this.'"

 Dana recognizes that she could make more of an effort to compliment her husband and encourage him, but says, "Jim needs a lot of cheering. He needs a lot of support and

comfort. He needs five 'I love yous' in the day, and I don't. And I think that because I don't need that, I don't give that."

Dr. Phil gives Dana this analogy: "When my kids were little, we'd be asleep at three in the morning, and they'd come to the edge of the bed and say, 'I'm thirsty.' I wouldn't say, 'Well I'm not, go back to bed.' Isn't that what you're doing? ... You don't want to be some ice queen."

Dr. Phil offers advice for anyone trying to support a loved one's weight loss efforts, and tells Dana, "You know what you can do and you're not doing it on purpose. You could get excited, you could be passionate, you could whistle when he walks by ..."