Melissa loses 3 stone 4 lbs!
It may be easy to maintain a healthy weight as an active teenager who plays sport and is still living under the gaze of health-conscious parents. But what happens when you move away from home, drop the college sports and are left to your own devices for the first time?
Well if you're like Melissa you'll delight in the new freedom and relax both the food and exercise habits you developed while growing up. In her case she loved having pals around for take aways and a pig-out on junk food…great for the social life not so good for her waistline!
“I got into the habit of staying in at the weekend and overindulging in chocolates, pizza, garlic bread, potato wedges and sweets. This was causing the weight to pile on. I also felt unfit most of the time and when I went to the gym, I’d only run for five minutes on the treadmill when I’d start feeling chest pain.” Experiencing chest pain after gentle exercise should be a wake up call for anyone but for a girl in her early twenties it is catastrophic.
“My lifestyle was taking its toll and I was putting on more and more weight so I decided that I needed to take action.”
Like every fun-loving young woman Melissa wanted to wear the latest styles and buy clothes that flattered her figure. As she gained weight Melissa lost confidence in her appearance but losing the weight with the Light Choices plan helped her to overcome those insecurities.
“I was getting really anxious about not being able to fit into size 12 jeans anymore. I was just about squeezing myself into a size 14 and all my clothes were so tight. I saw some pictures of me beside my boyfriend and I looked huge compared to him.” Now she has dropped over 3 stone and can fit into a slender size 8 dress!
She describes her favourite aspects of the online programme. “I enjoyed the plan as it was easy to follow and I could change my meals to what I wanted to eat providing it was in my calorie allowance. The support boards were particularly helpful. I was encouraged and spurred on by other dieters and I felt that I could talk to like minded people.”
She also tells us exactly what changes she has made to her food pattern since registering for the plan. “Before I joined I didn’t monitor what I would eat. I never calorie counted and I didn’t care if I ate take aways every day of the week. Now I always monitor my food intake, I opt for the healthy options and ensure that I have three main meals per day and my afternoon snack which are within the calorie allowance allocated to me.”
Melissa is ecstatic about her weight loss; she has achieved her goal and intends to always stick to it! “I am confident that I can maintain it as I will not let myself put on so much weight again. It’s a lifestyle change and now I prefer to go for the healthier option.”
Melissa's top 5 weight loss tips
1. Stay active - I go to the gym and run outside when its nice and sunny. I also sign up to charity races to keep myself motivated. This year I did a 5k and I'm planning to do another 5k in July, a 10k and half marathon by the end of the year.
2. Choose your food well so that you don't get hungry. By eating bulkier foods they fill you up more quickly and you don't feel deprived.
3. If you want a treat there a lot of options that don't require you going low calorie or low fat. Just eat treats in small portions. I'd rather eat half of a full fat muffin than one low fat one. The taste is simply not the same. The best thing is to share the other half.
4. Only eat when you are hungry. Drink a lot of herbal teas, water etc... and you might find that you weren't hungry after all.
5. Just imagine what you are trying to achieve and ask yourself whether that extra food is worth sabotaging your weight loss goals for. I used to think of that special dress that I want to fit into and slim into it. Its an amazing feeling when you put the dress on and it fits like a glove.
