FROM 234 POUNDS TO 120: MISS SOUTH CAROLINA’S AMAZING ACHIEVEMENT

Years before she won the Miss South Carolina pageant, Bree Boyce invented new ways to hide food and out-of-control eating from her parents.

By 17 she weighed 234 pounds. 

"I’d hide food in my closet or eat at a friend’s without my family knowing, then eat healthy at home so they thought I was watching what I ate,” she said.

One day, after working out with a trainer her parents hired to address her weight problem, Boyce drove to a Taco Bell.

“I ordered four items, ate them in the parking lot and went back for more.”

Her compulsive eating started when she was 7.

By the time she was a teenager, her doctor put her on an inhaler because of her breathing problems.

About five years ago, Boyce decided to take control of her life.

“I decided I wanted to be healthy. For so many years I had tried the fad diets. I met with a nutritionist and joined a gym and focused more on getting healthy than on my weight.”

Over three-and-a-half years she lost 114 pounds. Her dramatic weight loss allowed her to pursue her Miss America dream, which led to cover stories on People, Woman’s World and Southern magazines.

“I'd walk into Wal-Mart, past the magazines, and go, ‘whoa, that’s me!' " Boyce said. “I’m grateful for all the publicity, because it allows others to read my story. You’ve got to believe in yourself and what you can accomplish. It’s all about setting goals.”

A check of her Facebook page shows message after message of grateful fans who were motivated by her remarkable weight loss.

Boyce wrote: “I've PUSHED through and never gave up! I will never give up!”

She takes a pair of her size 18 jeans to schools to show how far she’s come.

"She was the funny kid (in the family)," her oldest sister, Tiffany Olson, told CNN.

"She had the best personality,” added Olson, who teaches violin and piano at the Las Vegas Academy of Dance and Music.

"I tried to be very outgoing and tried to compensate my weight with my personality," Boyce told CNN.

She skipped the sweets over Christmas, thanks to a machine that takes frozen ripe bananas and turns them into a the consistency of ice cream.

“That was my Christmas,” Boyce said Saturday during the Miss America delegation's night out at Buca di Beppo on East Flamingo.

She’s already determined how she'll celebrate after the Miss America pageant Jan. 14. Because of trips to Las Vegas to visit sister Tiffany in Las Vegas she’s become a fan of Popcorn Girl, the local company started two years ago by personal trainer Laurie Sabol.

“Salt and vinegar,” gushed Boyce. “When the pageant’s over, that’s my treat.”

--Norm Clarke, Vegas Confidential