Success Story: Val

AKA "Val" on Weight Loss Resources

Weight Loss History

Basically I have no dieting history; my weight had always remained stable letting me fit into clothes around a size 10 to 12. However I was a smoker, and since stopping smoking two years ago the weight has piled on. I’ve been a vegetarian for 20yrs+.

Have you lost weight before and regained the weight?

No, this is the first time I’ve needed to lose weight. I’ve reached my target weight now and will stay with WLR to maintain this weight.

How being overweight has affected you…

Over the past years, a medical complaint which apparently has been with me from birth, made its presence felt. Cysts on the outsides of my lungs would pop allowing air to pass through into my chest cavity causing my lungs to collapse. Therefore I underwent two pluerectomies (removal of the pluera on the outside of the lung, the lung is inflated and stuck to the chest wall to prevent it from collapsing anymore) within two years of each other.

Although the smoking was not the cause of the complaint, I was told that stopping smoking would help with my health, as I would be more prone to chest infections and stuff. So two years ago I stopped. The down side was I gained lots of weight. Carrying this extra weight caused me to get out of breath more easily; not be able to walk very far, having to rely on inhalers to get up the stairs.

Motivation to Lose Weight

• To get back my original dress size
• To help my breathing and health

Discovering Weight Loss Resources

I discovered WLR as I presume many other members did by entering dieting into my search engine on the computer. The reason why I chose WLR was I used the free trial and it gave me what I was looking for.

How Weight Loss Resources Helps

Where do I start? It...

• works out the calorie content for you, due to its huge database of food items
• works out your exercise calories
• adds up everything and gives you an immediate view of you food and exercise diary
• offers you challenges ( S.U.R.F.S. was great motivation)
• has a good help team
• Best of all its members - the message boards are always full of tips, hints and encouragement
• at the minute the callanetics pledges are interesting to me on the Fitness and Exercise board. Everyone encourages each other and I’m waiting for a video to arrive so I can start toning up
• questions that are put to both members or help team are always answered promptly

The Best of Weight Loss Resources

I think I’ve covered this question above, but also in my opinion I feel that the exercise diary is one of the best tools on weight loss resources. With my breathing problems, I thought that I wouldn’t be able to exercise. That wasn’t so as just even doing 1 minute burns calories. That’s where I started at, 1 minute on a gravity walker. Now I can do 5 minutes. I know it doesn’t sound a lot, but 5 minutes six times a day is enough calories for a treat at the end of the day.

Val's Tips for Losing Weight

• Enter everything into both your food and exercise diaries
• Drink plenty of water
• Plan your food diary at the beginning of your day even if it means getting up 30 mins earlier
• You will then be able to plan your exercise diary
• Try and stick to what you have put in both your diaries
• If you do lapse you could catch up the next day or within the week of your weigh in
• Leave enough calories for a treat at the end of the day. If you don’t have enough forfeit the treat or do some more exercise

Val's Vital Statistics

	Before	Now
Weight	12st 2lb	9st 6lb