The Insider.com

Real Housewives of New Jersey star Lauren Manzo has chronicled her struggle with her weight on the last several seasons of the Bravo reality hit, and now she's dishing on her 30-pound weight loss following lap band surgery.

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Lauren got the lap band back in September of last year, and she says it's the "best thing she's ever done" and that she's "the happiest [she's] ever been in [her] entire life."

The 24-year-old daughter of outspoken Housewives matriarch Caroline Manzo explains where she was at before surgery: "I hit a really terrible point in my life, where I hated everything, everyone, I hated myself." She discloses that she was in the hospital twice in one summer with anxiety and high blood pressure, and decided enough was enough.

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Lauren, whose father Albert had the lap band procedure in 2008, says, "I just had a mental breakdown one day, and my parents were like, listen. This was the second time they had brought it up to me. I was like, you know what, I'll go see the doctor. And I instantly felt better because I knew that there was a way out."

She says that she's suffered cyber bullying via Twitter due to her weight, and says to those who think she took the easy way out, "People don't understand that I can go and get a bag of potato chips and a Frostee, or, you know, a milkshake, and I could eat the entire bag of potato chips and drink the entire milkshake. The lap band doesn't stop [you] from [eating] unhealthy foods."

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Lauren, who hopes to lose another 30-35 pounds, actually went back this spring and had her lap band loosened, and now eats a healthy diet of protein and vegetables, and works out for two hours every weekday with a trainer. She says that one surprising downfall of all her weight loss is that her designer shoes no longer fit, but one plus side is that she can trade in her previously flowy wardrobe for more fitted clothes.

Lauren defended her mother Caroline, who has made strong references to Lauren's weight on RHONJ. She says of those who disagree with how her mother speaks to her, "What they don't understand [is] that if my mom weren't as blunt with me as she has been, that I wouldn't be where I am right now. I'd probably be 100 pounds heavier and I wouldn't be as strong as I am today. What they don't see is that she tells me that I'm beautiful all the time, she tells me she loves me all the time."

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Lauren also teases what is to come on this season of RHONJ, and it sounds like more of the same. She dishes, "I think there's gonna be a lot more drama, a lot more of me getting angry when I watch it every Sunday, and a lot of someone's lies. Someone just lies a lot, and I think it's gross." (One can only guess that she's talking about Teresa Giudice, as a very public battle has been brewing this season between Teresa and Caroline.)

Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Sunday nights on Bravo. You can also check out Lauren on the cover of US Weekly, on stands tomorrow.