Success Story: Leah

Leah, Age 26, Height 5ft 10in

Start Weight	11st 7lbs
Current Weight	10st
Goal Weight	9st 13lbs
Weight Lost	1st 7lbs
Working to Rate of Loss	2lbs per week

Dieting History

Slimfast, Atkins and eating the bare minimum!

Have you lost weight before and regained the weight?

I was a lucky girl – never been more than a size 10 until the age of fifteen when I developed womanly curves…even then, there was no need to even think about a diet!!

That all changed when I was at University College doing an HND course in Health and Beauty.

"There was so much pressure to be thin and most of the girls on my course were on diets and/or had some sort of eating disorder."

I remember one girl saying “I’d rather be Billy no mates than be fat” after we had a go at her for snapping at us when we’d expressed concern toward her for her weight loss!

(She had dropped from a size 10 to about 6 - if that)… Needless to say, the “skinny” bug hit me too and so at size 12 I did a Slimfast diet. (BIG MISTAKE)

The diet worked and I kept on losing the weight until I was so weak that I became ill and fainted on a train in London.

"This scared me as it made me realise that anything could have happened and there was more to life."

I decided to give up the diet, but the problem was that I then put on a lot of weight over the next couple of years and became a 14/16.

I had changed careers to IT and the every day pressure to be skinny was no longer so extreme!

"But because I still had that voice nagging me to be skinny in my head, I then had further problems when I found out what size I had increased to."

Size 16 isn’t bad at all, but when there is such a pressure from the media and still a little voice inside your head saying that “to be thin is to be successful”, and, for the best part of your life you have been below a size 12, it can play on your mind.

I decided to try the Atkins diet, which I stuck to for a month and went down to a skinny size 10, but by this time, my eating was out of control and my weight went straight back on when I finished it.

I also found that my kidneys hurt and I was constantly lethargic – this still affects me now and I’m convinced it is a side effect of the diet (as you are only supposed to follow the bit that I followed for 2 weeks maximum and I did it for twice that time – drinking hardly any water - water is a MUST on that diet!

After the Atkins episode, I struggled for about three years – weight staying more or less the same (size 14), but I did some extreme things to try and maintain it – intense exercise, eating the bare minimum, then, when finally starting to lose weight, I’d binge and it would pile back on again.

I became tired, paranoid and my moods would swing like anything.

Last year I relaxed a bit as I’d moved in with my boyfriend and he loves me for me, so weight didn’t seem so important any more!

But it was this year that I decided to sort out my dietary habits for better health…

How being overweight has affected you…

As above, there was a long period of time when I totally let my weight rule how I felt inside.

"When I had lost a bit of weight I was more confident in all ways – felt prettier and felt like people would perceive me better – like I was a winner."

When I put on weight, I let myself and the whole world down – a “total loser.” In fact, I really hurt my boyfriend and my emotions were all over the place!

Everything was blown out of proportion in my head as just losing/ gaining 2lbs could determine my whole day when I was really bad!

Looking back it was madness – such a waste of time.

The funny thing is, that, to a lot of people, it wouldn’t matter how I am – I’m not that important in most people’s lives – they wouldn’t have dedicated the whole day to caring about what I looked like / was doing – probably couldn’t care less.

They have more important things in their lives to spend their time on!

I realised that a fair few months ago now and wanted to focus on being healthy and dedicating time to friends and family – things that matter instead of being so selfish. Recently those thoughts were reinforced.

Motivation to Diet

Our wedding next year!

Although my eating has been ok for a while now, the types of foods consumed weren’t great and I was only just in the healthy range of my BMI.

"When in Feb this year, my boyfriend proposed, I realised there was so much in life to enjoy and I wanted to sort my weight / health out once and for all."

Also, my feelings were reinforced further when I went to a funeral for a guy who was in my year at school the other day.

He had his whole life ahead of him, but it was cut short. He hadn’t been selfish though. He’d achieved so many things with his life already – hadn’t wasted it.

I want to get on with mine; enjoy the important things now, as you don’t know what’s around the corner.

Discovering Weight Loss Resources

Google search engine!

How Weight Loss Resources Helps

The site enables you to do a “memory dump” of all the things you’ve eaten in a day and it works EVERYTHING out for you!

"Inputting all your food and seeing all the nutritional charts, how many calories you’ve eaten and what foods you’ve managed to eat without having to give it much thought on a daily basis makes it fun and in no way a chore!"

When you look at the date you’ve entered, it really wisens you to what you are doing to your body!

I did an HND in Health and Beauty – concentrating largely on diet and exercise.

There are still soo many things that I just hadn’t realised about dietary habits and exercise.

There is no better motivation than actually recording daily intakes, exercise etc and seeing the changes, achieving results whilst learning about what you are doing in preparation to maintain a good, healthy balanced diet once you’ve reached your goal!!

The Best of Weight Loss Resources

Because I’ve got a busy lifestyle, I tend only to use the food and exercise databases – but it’s great that you can do that and lose weight if you stick to the plan.

At the end of each month, I usually look back at the weight loss charts and calorie charts to see how much progress I’ve made as it gives you a buzz and is really motivating!

If you’re feeling down, the members forum is excellent too.

You can just post whatever you’re feeling and there will be loads of support – people going through similar, or people who have done similar and gotten through it!

Leah's Dieting Tips

Just be realistic. Stick to what the plan says and you can’t go wrong.

If you do have a slip-up, it really isn’t the end of everything – just do some exercise or be careful for a couple of days and you’ll be back on track in no time!!