I was 113.4kg...

I was 113.4kg after Mia was born in November 2006.

Our little family was complete – it was time to finally shed ALL this excess weight & find myself again…

 

Ben loved to cook & I loved to eat!

He would lovingly prepare a scrumptious meal from one of the lovely cookbooks we had (Jamie Oliver was a favourite!) & we would demolish enough for four people!

So over the next 12 months we reduced the size of our portions & started walking – we both lost 20kg!

 

Cracking the 100kg mark was a MASSIVE milestone for me.

 

I am 99kg in this photo with Logan -
riding the dodgems at the Hay Show.
Finally in double digits…

 

This is our first family photo – it is one of my absolute favourite pictures!

I’d lost 20kg, I felt fantastic & then we moved…

We left Hay & moved to Brisbane - it was January 2008. Mia was just over 12 months old & Logan was almost 3.

I was 93kg.

I felt certain that I could continue to lose the weight but once we’d moved I became withdrawn & very, very sad.

Leaving that beautiful little town that had been my home for 4 years was one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.

Our first home together was there, we’d had both our babies there, and I had changed my life there!

Leaving filled me with sadness & a longing for the beautiful life I had had – I felt like I'd lost my safe haven…

I remember sitting in the corner of our new home crying, thinking ‘I just want to go home’

But I was home & I realised that I could continue being sad or I could choose to appreciate all that I had.

I had two beautiful babies & THE most wonderful husband…

 

 

For the next year I managed to maintain my weight at 93kg.

This was a HUGE achievement for me,

after all I didn’t have a good track record…

 I was good at losing weight but I was even better at FINDING IT!

It was January 2009 when I decided that I needed help to lose the next 20kilos.

I joined Weight Watchers, for what I was determined would be, the FINAL time!
 

 

I needed support, I needed to be accountable & I needed a program that was based on REAL food…

In June 2009 we moved again, this time heading further north to the beautiful Whitsundays.

My Weight Watchers journey certainly wasn’t all smooth sailing!

In fact by the end of my first year with Weight Watchers I had lost 5kg!

Yep, that’s right a whole big, whopping 5kilos!

Whoopty doo!

I took responsibility for it though, I knew I wasn’t committed to making the changes that needed to be made.

I showed up every week but I wasn’t ‘SHOWING UP’.

I made excuses - my heads not in the right place,

I’m tired, I’m too busy…

 

I discussed with Ben my plan to quit Weight Watchers.

I felt that I was wasting my time & our money – we were a single income family as we had chosen for me to be home with the children while they were young…

The words that came out of Ben’s mouth during that discussion changed my life!

I know that I wouldn’t be sitting here now, at my ideal weight, without him - I owe him so much…

Ben has been one of my greatest motivators on this journey.

He has loved & supported me every step of the way.

I’m sure that if I’d told him I needed to go to the moon, he’d have found a way to get me there!

But that day he said ‘if you hadn’t been going to Weight Watchers you might have gained 5kgs & then you’d be 10kg heavier than you are now. Keep going, I know you can do it.’

He made me realise that 5kgs is 5kgs!

And that progress is progress!

Not fast progress but progress all the same!

This was exactly what I needed to remind me to focus on what I HAD achieved & not what was still to be achieved…

Two things happened in 2010 that changed everything for me!

Tune in next time to find out how I lost the next 20 kilos...

Toni