Teresa lost 24kg

Becoming an orphan in her 30s was Teresa’s ‘wake up’ call

At 36, Teresa Strom realised that she had already lived a year longer than her mother and, having recently lost her father, the busy working wife and mum-of-two experienced a real wake-up call.

Teresa’s mother died more than twenty years ago due to complications following gastric bypass surgery; Teresa was 13 at the time, her brother was 11 and her sister was just eight years of age. Afterwards, their father was desperate for each of the kids not to get too heavy but all the family battled with their weight, including Teresa’s father who died around two years ago after a heart attack; he’d had a long history of heart disease and weight problems.

Doing the ‘life laundry’

Things started to change about two years ago. At the time, Teresa and her paramedic husband, Steve, already had one child and they wanted to add to their family. Teresa says, “My doctor told me I should lose 30kg first, though. Just being weighed at the doctor’s surgery was a bit of a trauma; the scales only went up to 120kg so he described my weight as being ‘120++.’ When I got home, I weighed myself on my own scales and was shocked to see it register at 139.9kg – not quite 140kg (believe me, that 0.1kg was important!). I discovered that I was pregnant the next month.”

During the whole of Teresa’s second pregnancy, she had high blood pressure and regularly needed to see a hospital specialist. And, after the birth of new baby daughter, Riley, Teresa weighed 127kg. The time was right to lose weight and start to get healthy; she started to eat from a smaller plate to tackle her portion sizes and saw her weight drop to 118kg. The Strom family returned to their native New Zealand for Christmas 2006 to show off the new baby and it was on their return to Australia in January 2007 that Teresa’s father died. This made her even more determined to be there for her young family and, weighing in at 112.4kg, she joined The Biggest Loser Club.

Click to enlarge photos

Teresa before

Keeping active

Teresa after

Time to start...

Teresa says, “Looking closely at what I was eating was quite a revelation. I used the online diary faithfully and looking at the red and blue lines of the ‘Energy Equation’ graph, it was obvious that I was still eating too much. In fact, the single biggest revelation for me was portion sizes – weighing and measuring foods let me learn what the ‘right’ size was for me and what was just too much. It also made me realise that a big problem for me was chocolate and sweet foods. I still eat these but have smaller portions now. And, because I ‘feed’ the desire, I find it doesn’t build uncontrollably. Afterwards, I brush my teeth and I don’t fancy any more – try this, it really works!

“I think one of the most difficult challenges for me was focussing on making the right choices most of the time. I still have the odd day where I am not as focussed as I could be, but I keep on track by being really careful the next day and I feel that things will be alright – and they are!”

Teresa also enjoyed using The Biggest Loser Club’s graphs and charting the successful and the not-so-successful times. She says, “Like everyone, I could see a couple of little plateaus and even a rise or two but most of the time, my weight was going down. The weekly weigh-ins kept the focus on each seven-day period and I found that if I ate well for seven days and exercised, the kilos did go.”

Teresa’s eating style is very different today. She says, “Before I started on the program, I used to not eat for hours and then I’d binge. Now, I make sure that I eat every three or four hours and this really helps to keep things steady in lots of ways. My mood is a little bit more ‘level’ now, too, but that’s something that you should probably ask my family! I don’t drink much alcohol, either; I know too much about how many calories it contains and how much it weakens the willpower when it comes to nibbles!”

But it’s not all about nutrition. Teresa likes to read the little catch up messages from The Biggest Loser contestants now that the cameras have stopped filming. She says, “I think Sean looks really great and I enjoyed reading about what Alison was up to a few weeks ago – she still looks fantastic.” Teresa also enjoyed the forums but having made some good ‘cyber’ friends, she was away for a few months and found that they had ‘slipped away’. So, she’s urging forum mates to have their say, keep their voice and stay in it for the long term!

It’s all in the planning

Planning is a big part of Teresa’s routine now; she makes up some meals and snacks the night before and substitutes meals to suit when she needs to. She is also an avid reader of food labels and has ditched the creamy/cheesy-type of salad dressings and pasta sauces for tomato-based varieties. 

Teresa works in the medical field (she is a phlebotomist who collects blood and pathology tests) but jokes that she might be looking for a new job since she has lost weight and has such a zest for life – perhaps she could take the role of a publicist for The Biggest Loser Club? In her day job, she sees lots of people who are about to undergo weight-loss surgery as well as many children who are having tests done to check their thyroid function (which they feel might be keeping these children heavy). Teresa says, “I think we all need to get out of the mental way of thinking that being overweight usually has a genetic and/or medical basis; most of the time, I really don’t think it does. I have been diagnosed with a sluggish thyroid function (Hoshimoto’s) and I have managed to maintain my weight – most of the time, anyway. Eating well and regularly and exercising really is the answer. We need to educate our kids, too; on what and how much to eat (breakfast and regular meals are a must). Plus, children should not ‘unlearn’ that we all need to listen to our body – eat when it tells you that you are hungry and stop when you’ve had enough, and have fun being active, too. We all have good days and bad days, but if we all keep on trucking, as individuals and as families, we will get there.”

It’s a family affair!

Along with Teresa’s husband who has lost 30kg, it seems that her brother and sister have all taken the get-healthy message on board. Teresa’s Tasmania-based brother has lost 13kg and her sister in New Zealand has dropped 18kg.

Teresa’s two girls, Morgan aged five and Riley aged two, and husband Steve have all tucked into The Biggest Loser Club menus. The girls’ favourites include the chicken nachos, beans and baked potato, the pad Thai and the fish curry.

Teresa is currently 87.5kg, “But I’m going to be 83kg soon, there’s no doubt about that!” And, when asked where she would like to be, weight and health wise, this time next year she says; “Hopefully a bit tauter and at my goal weight. And, because I am a woman, like every other, I would like fewer saggy bits (when I win the Lotto I’ll get those gravitationally challenged bits done!). Even so, my husband tells me everyday how fantastic I look and now, I feel it, too.”

Her positive attitude shows she’s much more in control now: “Even if I put on as much as 5kg, I don’t ‘kick’ myself emotionally like I used to. I know that having lost over 50kg [half of which was with The Club], it’s OK to have the occasional glitch. I allow myself to be fine with it and then, I deal with it.”

Teresa tries to go to gym and walk at least once a day for around 30 minutes to an hour. She loves her active life today and includes activities like bike riding (it used to be too painful and she used to hate it) and gym work (“there is no more huffing, puffing and waddling around”). And, to remind her of just how much less weight she carries around, she gathers her two little girls around for a while – they weigh 22kg and 18kg which is close to how much she has lost.

But, losing weight and getting fitter for Teresa isn’t just about better health. She says, “Looking at the difference in photos is a bit of a shocker. I just didn’t realise I was so big. I have had to get rid of half my clothes – the upside, or the downside, depending upon the way you look at it, is that I have to go shopping for clothes – often!”