Despite losing an amazing 42kg, and for the first time in her life, sporting a beautifully-toned, size-10 physique, 31-year-old Kelly Moroney can’t help feeling like a fat person in a slim person’s body.
“I still don’t believe it,” she said. “I’m in better shape than I was when I was a teenager and yet I still go shopping and pick up large clothes that I am convinced I won’t be able to squeeze into. Then I try them on and invariably they are too big!”
Having just returned from her regular 6km morning jog , this busy mother of three spoke to The Biggest Loser Club about her new lease on life, just managing to schedule in the interview between gym sessions. It’s a demanding fitness timetable she keeps these days but only nine months ago Kelly could barely walk up the road without huffing and puffing and, almost comically, was bumping into furniture because of her ballooning body size.
“At one stage, over a period of six months, I put on 20kg and I was knocking over things as I went because I didn’t have an awareness of how big I had suddenly become. It got to a stage where it was hard for me to go to a restaurant and squeeze through tables, and that was embarrassing.”
But it wasn’t always like this for Kelly.
Stress and weight gain
As a teenager, Kelly watched her weight and managed to stay relatively slim. But a diet of junk food and lack of exercise soon helped pile on the kilos, although in her early 20s Kelly maintains her weight was still manageable. Even after her first pregnancy she managed to lose the baby fat relatively quickly but, Kelly said, it was her second pregnancy followed by a series of personal problems that pushed her towards the road to obesity.
"I had one family crisis after another within a four-year period," she said. "My brother had two serious accidents leaving him with an acquired brain injury and in a wheelchair, my parents divorced, we found out our middle child had autism, and I fell pregnant just six weeks after giving birth. On top of that I was diagnosed with depression."
Over this time Kelly said she developed bad habits including eating junk food, buying lots of takeaway meals and not exercising. “I knew what I was doing to my body was bad but I just didn’t have the energy to deal with it. I was suffering from depression and was an emotional eater so it was a vicious cycle.”
Click to enlarge photos
Kelly before
Kelly before
Kelly after
Kelly after
Kelly after
The Biggest Loser Club comes to the rescue
When things started looking up on the home front earlier this year, Kelly decided it was time to make some necessary changes to her lifestyle. She knew she couldn’t go on treating her body with distain so she joined The Biggest Loser Club and has been an advocate of the program ever since.
Kelly started slowly, aiming to do a mere 30 minute walk, three times a week but, even so, she said she felt she was going to die from exertion. However, after a couple of months she was able to increase her exercise regime to include a one-hour walk, six times a week, and also joined the gym.
Faithfully following The Biggest Loser Club’s menu plans, diary, exercise programs and forums, Kelly embraced her new lifestyle.
“The forums were a lifesaver enabling me to meet like-minded people,” she said. “We encourage each other and I’ve made some nice friends. I would say using the forums was a major reason for my success.”
Kelly also enjoyed following the menu plan and now uses it, and the accompanying recipes, as a guide. Despite having reached her goal weight, the diary is proving invaluable and she intends to refer to it indefinitely.
“The diary is great for tracking what you eat,” she explained. “Without it, I tend to underestimate my calorie intake and end up over-eating.”
10 km marathons ... who would have thought?
Seeing Kelly now, it’s hard to imagine that she has ever looked any other way. In nine months, she has lost an average of just over 1kg each week and has consistently increased her lean muscle mass thanks to a broad-ranging exercise program.
Kelly has no intention of slowing down on the fitness front, despite being happy with her current weight of 65kg. Just a couple of weeks ago, she entered a 5km fun-run and enjoyed it so much she is now training for a 10km run in December. But her enthusiasm doesn’t end there. Next year, Kelly intends to complete her Certificate IV in fitness and become a personal trainer.
“Now my challenge will be to maintain my weight and that’s where The Biggest Loser Club will be helpful. I expect to stay with the program for at least two years and keep in touch with my friends from the forum to stay motivated.”
Kelly’s tops three tips for losing weight with The Biggest Loser Club:
- Find like-minded people through the forums to encourage and be encouraged by
- Find an exercise buddy
- Use the diary otherwise you won’t be aware of what you are consuming.