Why has it taken me until 50 to finally find the answer to my life long battle with weight?
I've dieted for as long back as I can remember, honestly, from the age of about 10! All the kids use to call me fatty and so mum took me to the doctors looking for the answers. I remember she took me to the doctors again when I was about 13 and guess what I was given? Tenuate Dospan ... speed!
Then I started the different diets... like most I've done them all – egg, tomato & grapefruit, vogels diet, nutralife, Weight watchers, Jenny Craig’s – and so many carrot sticks! What happened each time? I came off the plans and craved all the foods I couldn't eat and didn't have the skills or knowledge to know that I had to needed a plan to live by. When I finally reached over 100 kilos that's when I knew something had to change and I came across one of the better “diets” and incorporated walking. The kilos came off but then they started to creep on again so I started more exercise, this time at the gym and even running.
That's when I heard from my personal trainer about Real Nutrition. I remember my first appointment, I had kept my food diary for a week and Jacquie took one look at it and said – "well I'm not surprised your're hungry all the time – up until lunch time your fine and then you lose the plot – that's because your not eating enough". WHAT? Not eating ENOUGH? My body needed the fuel to burn and I wasn't giving it the right stuff it needed so my body wasn't going to let go of the fat.
I went home thinking – this seems like a lot of food to have to eat and my husband took one look at it and said – how are you going to lose weight eating all that food? It's not that there is THAT MUCH FOOD in my plan but it's the regular snacks and good-sized meals that fill and sustain me and give me so much energy. For me that is the key – I'm never hungry – what a concept in an eating plan because this not a diet. Jacquie helped me with my exercise routines and frequencies and the urges and kinds of foods I like to eat – that's the beauty of the whole thing – it's all about you and your needs/wants.
So in 12 weeks I lost 9 kilos, 8% body fat and I am the smallest I have been in 15 years, I had given up on ever being a size 12 again, resolved myself to thinking that 14 was going to be the smallest I could get to and still enjoy my life but guess what I continued losing weight and have lost a total of around 12 kilos now and in some shops I'm a 10 (love THOSE shops).
What I do now, it's just so sensible, it's just so simple and it’s just the best thing I have ever done. All those years I felt I had to barely eat – you know what I mean 1200 calories and under – no wonder I failed every time but now I truly don't get hungry – there's food going in all the time so why would I.
Jacquie thank-you for all your encouragement and skills to help me be the happiest I have been in years. My husband would like to thank you too (although maybe not for the one side effect that is costing him because unlike last year when I didn't seem to like the fashions – this year I love them) he has lost 5 kilos as well!
Life really does begin at 50, this has given me the confidence to decide to go into study next year to become a personal trainer. Of course I will be recommending to my clients that not only do you exercise but get yourself a great nutritionist – like I did! Actually, I already have to carry around Real Nutrition's cards in my wallet, because so many people have commented on my weight loss and want to know how I did it.
Kathy Westmoreland, Auckland.
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