The sheer dread of donning her bathers at a beach volleyball match and the start of The Biggest Loser Series Five triggered Jane Darmon into weight loss action. With the help of The Biggest Loser Club, she’s now an incredible 22kg lighter. Her clothes still don’t fit her but, this time, it’s because they’re all far too big!
On Australia Day 2010, Jane Darmon, her husband Buck and sons Dior, aged 6, and Dash, aged 3, were invited to a beach volleyball tournament. Horrified at the thought of being seen in her bathers, Jane sent her family to have fun in the sun while she stayed at home and cleaned the house. “There was no way I could do it,” she said. “How could I be seen with all my slim friends like that?”
Jane was thoroughly fed up with the way she looked and tired of feeling listless. “I was finding it difficult to find clothes that still fitted me and I was down to my last pair of elasticised pants. I really felt sloppy and ugly,” said the lawyer from Victoria.
Health concerns
Her weight was also affecting her health. Jane was suffering from regular headaches and her blood cholesterol level was sky high. “I realised that things had to change and change immediately. At the age of 43, I knew it would just get tougher if I waited. I felt I owed it to myself and my kids to be the healthiest, happiest person I could be,” she said.
Part of Jane’s weight problem stemmed from being at home for part of the week with her young son. “Food was available all day and I grazed and grazed. Also, I just love food and eating. If I fancied a white Tim Tam, I would have one and, before I knew it, the whole pack had gone.”
Jane had gained weight after both of her pregnancies and had used Weight Watchers to shift her post-pregnancy bulge. This time though, after attending just one meeting with Weight Watchers, she realised that she needed a change. “I wanted something fresh and inspiring and, being a long-time fan of The Biggest Loser, I chose The Biggest Loser Club.”
Losing it with the contestants
Jane timed her personal journey to coincide with the beginning of The Biggest Loser 2010, starting on 1st February.
Right away, she began to explore the tools on the site. “I loved the online diary from the word go,” she said. “It’s so easy to use and it really helped me to make wise food choices. The recipe section was invaluable in helping me to plan tasty, healthy meals and the nutrition summary helped me eat a nutritionally balanced diet.”
For breakfast, Jane chose pumpernickel or another heavy, grainy bread with feta and tomato or egg. Lunch could be a soup with another heavy bread or a wrap with turkey and lots of salad. Dinner was often a chicken and vegie stir-fry or a Moroccan tagine with lots of vegetables. While her regular snacks were apples, hard-boiled eggs or her favourite Commando Biggest Loser Club Snack Bars, which taste “just like a Snickers bar”, she said.
Click to enlarge photos
Jane before
Jane after
Jane after
Jane after
Jane after
Conscious efforts
Jane would experiment with the diary to see how much exercise she would need to do to walk off any yummy snack she had a yearning for. “For example, when I typed meat pie into the diary and discovered I would need to walk for four hours to work it off, I went off the idea fast. Instead of distractedly eating all day, I became much more conscious about what and how much I was eating. I was able to eat the foods I loved but be much more aware or how it would affect me,” she said.
Jane now exercises daily too, whether it is a brisk walk to the train station, walking while listening to her favourite tunes or working out with one of her beloved exercise DVDs.
Exercise buzz
“I actually love exercising now – it’s a bit of ‘me time’,” Jane said. “I never knew that I would be one of those people who enjoyed the post-exercising feeling, but I am looking forward to my daily hour of activity. It clears the head and makes my body hum!”
As the TV show went on and the contestants became more positive, Jane was shaping up fast. She found losing weight alongside the contestants to be a really inspiring experience. “I thought if the people on the show could lose 40-60kg, I could certainly lose 20kg,” she said.
And lose it was exactly what she did! Jane dropped a staggering 22kg from her starting weight of 84kg and is now a trim and terrific 62kg. Plus she’s lowered her cholesterol to a normal level too.
Make mini goals
Looking back, Jane found that setting mini-goals was a really effective way to gain a positive frame of mind. “It just carries you along,” Jane said, “and the more you lose, the better you will feel and look and it keeps you going. I found nothing tempted me to eat junk because the way I was feeling was better than the initial gratification of eating badly.”
Jane is such a fan of The Biggest Loser Club that even though she has been at goal weight for some time, she intends to remain a faithful Clubbie for the foreseeable future.
“I am so positive and proud of myself. I like the compliments and the energy I have now. People ask me how I did it and I say there is no quick fix. But try The Biggest Loser Club and you can do it too.”