Stats Before After Height 160cm 160cm Weight 75.1kg 53.9kg Chest 92cm 81cm Waist 86cm 60.5cm Hips 111cm 92cm Thighs 86cm 50cm Calves 40cm 35cm Arms 33cm 26.5cm

Approaching my 30th birthday, it occurred to me that for more than half my life, I had been on a diet. Ever since I can remember I’ve been on and off diets, and lost, then gained significant amounts of weight. At 16 years old I was diagnosed with anorexia. Trying to lose weight was a constant battle. I was either severely restricting calories and exercising excessively to lose weight, or over-eating and doing minimal exercise.

I didn’t know what it was like to eat or exercise ‘normally’. For a whole year before my wedding in October 2006, I worked hard to lose weight. I was not going to be a ‘fat bride’, however, I couldn’t wait to gorge after the wedding. After the wedding, I quickly put the weight back on and completely undid a year of hard work.

I was so miserable – none of my clothes fit and I felt unattractive. I avoided going out or seeing friends, as I didn’t want them to see how much weight I’d gained. I thought I’d never see the day when I could squeeze back into my tiny wedding dress.

A few months ago I had a check-up with my GP and discovered I had high cholesterol. Absolutely appalled, I realised I needed to lose weight – not only for my image, but also for my health. Something had to happen in order for me to make this a permanent change. I knew I could lose weight as I’d done it so many times before, but the real challenge for me was maintaining the weight loss and changing my attitude towards food. I wanted to form healthy habits before having children. More than anything I just wanted to be happy and put an end to my yo-yo dieting.

After discussion with my husband and the encouragement from two gym instructors, we decided that I should sign up for a 12-week nutrition and training program with Ideal Bodies Online. I needed a professional to design a program that I could follow.

At first, I was relatively negative about what I would achieve in 12 weeks. I was 75kg and my goal was to eventually reach 57kg. I thought it was unrealistic to reach my goal in 12 weeks and that I’d still have a lot of hard weeks ahead of me after the challenge had ended. However, the moment I received my nutrition and training program from Sue at Ideal Bodies Online, I made a commitment.

I faced many challenges over the 12 weeks, such as eating out or going to parties. I would phone the restaurant ahead to ask whether they could accommodate my dietary request in order to stick to my program. At parties, I’d try to inconspicuously eat my salad that I brought with me. Sometimes others would make me feel guilty for putting my exercise and diet first, but I wasn’t going to give in!

Signing up for the 12-week Challenge was the best decision I ever made. When I weighed myself at the gym for my final weigh in, I looked down and said ‘holy moly!’ I never dreamed of achieving my goal weight, let alone weighing under it. I could see muscles I’d never seen before!

I’m amazed at the change in my body. I’ve had a total transformation inside and out. I’m now eating healthy and have completely lost my desire to binge. I also stuck to my healthy eating plan, even after the challenge had ended. The fact that I didn’t plan nor want to binge at the end of all this is probably the most important change, regardless of how much weight I lost. 

For the first time in my life I feel completely satisfied with my body and I’ve reached my goal weight.

Now I feel beautiful, more confident, and I absolutely love being back in my size 8 jeans. I tried on my tiny wedding dress and it fits like a glove.

I’d like to thank Ideal Bodies Online for teaching me about training and nutrition, and for their support. Finally, I’d like to thank my husband for being by my side every day.