Success Story: Kate

AKA "DietMonkeyDiet" on Weight Loss Resources

Kate's weight loss of 2½ stone has made her more confident, feel healthier and have lots more energy to enjoy life.

Dieting History

I never went mad on faddy diets, though having said that I did do the Cabbage Soup Diet twice, the Zone Diet and the GI diet. Oh, and I read You Are What You Eat and rushed out to stock up on quinoa and miso soup which are still stuck in my cupboard… And the Food Doctor diet of course…. Did I say I never did faddy diets?!

Have you lost weight before and regained the weight?

More times than I can remember. It was always steadily climbing though in between. I remember losing 7lbs in a week when I did the Cabbage Soup Diet but that didn’t last of course. I also managed to get down to 12 stone 4lbs from 14 stone 5lbs with my Mum but then we both lost motivation and she moved away so that stopped before I’d reached goal. I got into a new relationship around the same time and was horrified to discover a couple of years later that I’d put on over a stone and was nearly back up to where I’d started from!

How being overweight has affected you…

Being overweight was horrible. I hated shopping for clothes and was permanently on a diet so I never bought anything as I was always about to lose weight (I wish!). When I went above size 16 jeans in some shops I just refused to buy any so I looked awful, which made me feel even worse. I ended up buying loads of shoes, handbags and jewellery in the end cos they always fit! I spent all day every day thinking how bad I looked so it obviously wasn’t very good for my self esteem. When I saw friends and family I spent the whole time trying to sit or stand in the most flattering way possible and I hated eating in front of anyone cos I felt like such a cliché! I thought they’d all be thinking “no wonder she’s fat”.

Having lost weight now, loads of people have commented on how much more confident I am, how much more energy I have and how much healthier I look. I actually miss exercise if I don’t do any for a few days! That’s not me! Now, if I have a “fat” day, I know I still look OK really, whereas before I wanted instant liposuction and to stay at home! It makes such a difference to feel good about myself again.

Motivation to Diet

A few things:

• Being able to enjoy clothes shopping again and to be able to buy clothes cos they look good, not just cos they fit and nothing else does
• Not being the fat one with my friends
• Doing something I can feel proud of for achieving
• The vague hope that my boyfriend might propose! Not so specifically but I suddenly realised that to lose the weight I wanted to would take a year and that the longer I left it the harder it’d be. Realising that if he did propose I’d suddenly have a lot to lose made me wonder what I was waiting for – I could start trying to lose weight now, for me, and put less pressure on myself if we did get married.

Discovering Weight Loss Resources

I did a search via Google to find out how many calories I’d burnt doing something as a one off. I clicked through to the site and thought I’d try the free trial. I didn’t join then cos I wasn’t serious about losing weight at the time but when I was I remembered WLR and went back. I did another free trial, used it properly this time and joined up!

How Weight Loss Resources Helps

I’ve learnt how to judge portion sizes a lot better, have lost 2 and a half stone with WLR and exercise regularly now! The best bit was seeing how exercise bought you treats – and that an hours walk doesn’t mean you can eat crisps, drink a bottle of wine and have ice cream for pudding because of it!

The focus on healthy eating on the site is brilliant – I never drank 2 litres of water a day before, for example. And you lose weight by changing a few habits, a little at a time. That works really well too. I also love how flexible it is – no plans to follow, specific meals to cook. In fact I treat myself more now than I ever used to because I know I can afford to. I just don’t go overboard any more.

Also, the message boards are FANTASTIC! There’s such a wealth of information available from the members and there’s a really friendly feel to the boards. It’s great to know you’re not the only one struggling when you are, and it’s fantastic motivation to see other people reaching their goal. It really focuses you on getting there one day yourself. I use it every day and I’d never used a message board before in my life!

The Best of Weight Loss Resources

I always use the food diary, exercise diary and history report – they’re my staples. I also probably spend up to 1-2 hours a day on the message boards. I use the weight report a bit as well and I’ve just discovered Food Plans so will probably use them a bit more now too.

Kate's Dieting Tips

• Use the food diary to plan your meals ahead for the day so you know how much leeway you have for treats, if any
  
• Use the history report to save calories for the weekend
  
• When splashing out, decide in advance how much you can afford to spend calorie wise, and then enjoy yourself! (e.g. “I can drink 4 glasses of wine and have a curry without going over calories / being able to recover it”)
  
• Set up a recipe for something so that the total calories for the recipe is 300 (or however many calories you want to make sure you save each day). Call it something like “Save calories for a Treat”. Add it into your diary every day and then go back and delete them at the end of the week so you can have a treat at the weekend / your birthday / whatever. Hope that makes sense?! Alternatively, for a 1.5lb a week loss or less, put yourself on 2lb loss calories Monday – Friday and go down to a 1.5lb loss for the weekend. You’ll suddenly have a load of spare calories!
  
• Don’t give up if you go horribly over on calories! Try and get some calories back or switch to a lower rate of loss if you need to, just for that week. Start again immediately – don’t put it off until next week.

Kate's Vital Statistics

	Before	Now
Weight	13st 7lb	11st