Jane with her horse after her weight loss

Jane's Success Story

Jane, Age 66, Height 5ft 2.5in
Start Weight 10st 12lb
Current Weight 8st 13lb
Goal Weight 8st 13lb
Weight Lost 1 stone 13lb
Time Taken 6 months

Jane is known on wlr as "JaneB"

I live with my husband in the country with a productive garden, dog, my old horse and a rescue pony. I am retired now but used to teach PE, then SEN/literacy. I have two children and grandchildren.

I had no weight problems while I was working as my active job helped me burn calories to the extent I have no idea what I weighed... only that everything fitted!

My husband was diagnosed firstly with spreading cancer and then a heart condition which meant I took early retirement to support him. I’ve had two knee replacements due to osteoarthritis, during this time my exercise was limited but my food intake remained the same.

Ill health continued and I had a hysterectomy and a prolapse which again impacted on my ability to exercise, and again my food intake remained the same!

The result – I bet you’ve guessed, weight and inches gain!

"My posture was stooped as I tried to cover up my expanded chest and tummy and I actually lost ½ inch in height!"

I would sit in photo’s to hide my shape.

The final straw was a diagnosis of osteoarthritis in my lower back with a broad based bulge and spondylolisthesis; basically a ‘bad back’. This resulted in spinal injections which were successful but time based, and in the future I would need more injections then spinal fusion surgery.

Determined to avoid this I decided to lose weight.

"My friend had lost multiple stones with wlr and, although I looked at other sites, none appealed and I enrolled on wlr with fingers crossed."

The results have been brilliant!

Chart Showing Jane's Amazing Weight Loss

Total inches lost on chest, waist and hips 20.5. I am now walking tall, back to my natural height of 5’2”. I no longer bend over to hide my shape and my size 10 jeans are a good fit.

I haven’t had any more back injections, I wear a back support when mucking out and gardening and generally my osteoarthritis is less painful!

Every morning I do an hour in the stables, walk the dog and weather permitting spend an hour in the garden.

There are no street lights where I live but soon the days will be getting longer and I can go for an early morning or evening walk. Exercise is key; the more I do, the more calories I can eat or bank.

On days when we have hospital treatment I switch from moderately active to moderately sedentary and plan accordingly.

I sit with my first cuppa – with sugar! – and plan my food, tweaking the portion sizes to stay within calories aiming for lower carbs and higher fibre.

I have two mantras in life:

  1. Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, its about learning to dance in the rain
  2. There is only today, deal with the card that is face up each day, tomorrow is a whole new day

Top Tips:

  • Plan ahead, whatever the day brings, adjust and log
  • Log honestly and weigh everything
  • Drink loads of water – I use a 600ml bottle am, pm and evening refilled each time as a minimum
  • I use the recipe database for different meal ideas
  • Create your own recipes – saves loads of time when logging
  • I gave up alcohol when on painkillers and now don’t drink it at all, just tastes strange!
  • When tempted, I suck on a low cal polo which takes cravings away
  • Dark chocolate is still my treat – factored in, of course!

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* Note: The success stories published on Weight Loss Resources are written by WLR members, past and present, telling their own stories in their own words. As you will see if you read more than one or two of them, everyone's story is different and they have reached their success from a variety of starting points and lost weight at varying rates. Individual results may vary.

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