Weight Watchers introduced Frank to Hungry Girl, Hungry Girl introduced Samantha to tofu noodles. And then, one fateful day in Boynton, Samantha introduced herself to Hungry Girl. (Ray Graham/The Palm Beach Post)

Yogurt changed my life. Really.

To be specific, it was my craving for Tasti D-Lite’s peanut-butter shake that led me to my date with destiny.

How could this be, you wonder? How could an impromptu trip to a frozen yogurt shop end with me landing a dream job to move across the country and write for millions of other women just like me?

Here’s my story

I have struggled with weight my entire life, yo-yoing back and forth, from 105 to 135. This might not seem like much, but 30 extra pounds is a lot for my 5-foot frame to carry.

When I got engaged in January 2009 and set my wedding date for July 2010, I decided that I was going to get my weight under control once and for all.

I joined Weight Watchers and discovered a kindred soul on the Weight Watchers website: Hungry Girl.

Hungry Girl sounded like me.

She gives great food tips, offers recipes, makes up tons of new words, and her writing style has more pop than a bag of Popchips, one of Hungry Girl’s favorite guilt-free snacks.

Hungry Girl turns what could have been a boring mention about a study that shows a link between yoga and good eating habits into, “Good news, Bendy! That downward dog pose could be keeping you from mindlessly munching throughout the day.” And she always has fun talking about the most frightening foods out there, like “When the phrase ‘a hot mess’ was coined, someone may have been looking at the nutritional info for chicken carbonara. It’s hard to get much worse than a plate of chicken ‘n pasta made with eggs, cheese, bacon, and cream. YIKES.”

Lisa Lillien

Hungry Girl connects to the rest of us Hungry Girls.

I ended up spending hours that night poking around Hungry Girl’s own site- hungry-girl.com – salivating over recipes with fun names such as “De-Pudged Pigs in a Blanket” and “Hint of Mint Yogurty Cucumber Dip.”

An obsession deepens

Hungry Girl set me – a novice cook – off on a culinary adventure.

After reading for the 10th time on her website about how Tofu Shirataki noodles would revolutionize my life, I found myself driving to Publix and venturing into the tofu section for the first time . Sure enough, the noodles were there, just like she promised, with Hungry Girl’s official cartoon character stamped on it: “Hungry Girl Approved.”

I was hooked, obsessed, whatever you want to call it, and quickly subscribed to her daily e-mails.

Every morning, I eagerly opened Hungry Girl’s tips for guilt-free supermarket finds, nutrition news and recipe swaps for deadly fast-food/restaurant favorites.

I showed my husband her site and told him how much I’d love to work there. Not only am I her long-lost food twin (we both have crazy sushi cravings and a penchant for frozen meals), but we both have obsessive personalities and look quite similar – she also lost 30 pounds and happens to a brunette who’s about my height and weight.

Sigh. A job with Hungry Girl. Sounds like an impossible dream.

One thing that was definitely do-able, though: My weight loss.

By February 2010, I was down 30 pounds and had reached my goal weight – thanks to Weight Watchers and Hungry Girl.

The wedding came and went, and my husband and I began thinking about moving back to California, where we’re both from, to be closer to our families.

Around that time, The Palm Beach Post moved all of its South County reporters to an office in the Quantum Corporate Park in Boynton Beach – across from a Tasti D-Lite shop.

The chain serves low-calorie frozen dessert treats – a place that would definitely meet with Hungry Girl’s approval. Just like Hungry Girl, I’m crazy about peanut butter, so I tested every peanut butter option they had. My favorite: the peanut butter shake, which works great as a meal replacement at 230 calories.

My meeting with destiny

In November, I went into Tasti D-Lite for my usual peanut butter shake, when I spotted a woman sitting at a table with an older couple.

I did a double take. It was Hungry Girl!

But wait a minute. Why on earth would she be in Boynton Beach sitting in Tasti D-Lite with an older couple? I almost left the store without saying anything, but I finally decided to be as hungry in pursuing my dream as I was in pursuing my weight loss.

“Hi,” I said. “This might sound totally random, but are you Hungry Girl?”

The woman’s face lit up. “Yes!” she said, as she held up her famously bedazzled iPhone, which is covered in jewels that spell her name.

Turns out Hungry Girl – Lisa Lillien – was visiting her parents, who live west of Boynton Beach (of course, I should have known).

I realized this was my chance to say something, to let her know that I’m dying to work for her. And that’s exactly what I did.

I pulled out my iPhone and showed her the latest e-mail I had received from her that morning and told her about my adventures with Tofu Shirataki noodles. I told her that I eat, sleep and eat again everything Hungry Girl, so I couldn’t imagine a more perfect place for me to work.

My enthusiasm was infectious, and I left there exchanging contact information with her.

That night I sent her an e-mail reminding her who I was and how much I wanted to work for her.

One month later, I was flying out to L.A. for an interview.

One writing assignment later, and I had landed my dream job. This is my last story for The Palm Beach Post. By the time you read it, I’ll be California- and Hungry Girl-bound.

Moral of this story: Opportunities are out there every day, flying by us, often without our notice. It’s up to us whether we take a giant bite at them.

Hungry Girl

She didn’t believe the stats on what was supposed to be a low-fat treat at her local bakery in the San Fernando Valley, just north of Los Angeles. So, being her obsessive self, she took the treat to a lab, where she had it tested. Turns out the bakery fudged the facts: ‘Low fat’ was really lots of fat.

In the kitchen, Hungry Girl often calls herself a ‘mad scientist’ because she plays around with food, trying to come up with ‘guilt-free’ versions of things like fettuccine Alfredo, onion rings and apple pie.

In 2004, she began sending out e-mails to about 100 subscribers, all family and friends, sharing her nutrition/health tips and recipes. Today, she has about 1,000,000 subscribers and more than 260,000 Facebook fans.

Lillien has written four bestselling cookbooks. Her second debuted in the No. 1 spot on the New York Times Best Sellers and remained on the list for 44 weeks.

Her publisher, St. Martin’s Press, has agreed to pay an advance of more than $10 million for her next eight books, according to The New York Times.

Lillien also reaches millions more with her weekly columns on weightwatchers.com (where I first found her) and Yahoo!, and she often appears on TV’s Rachael Ray and Extra.

She has developed advertising relationships with some of her favorite brands, including Fiber One and The Laughing Cow. Her advertising policy is simple, but serious: She won’t give something a good review unless she really likes it, and if she doesn’t like it, the product can’t advertise on her site. Everything must be ‘Hungry Girl approved.’

On Saturday, the ‘Hungry Girl’ television show is set to premiere on the Cooking Channel.