Meet Stacy
Slimmer of the Year national finalist
After
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Before
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| Name |
Stacy |
| Age |
28 |
| Height |
1.62 m |
| Was |
92.8 kg
|
| Lost |
29.7 kg
|
| Weight |
63.1 kg
|
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“I remember looking in the mirror and seeing both of us together…I was literally twice the size of my brother! I was mortified.”
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The tragic death of her father from an obesity-related condition reinforced to Stacy that she had made the right decision to regain control of her life. She has kept the weight off for almost five years.Family tragedy
Stacy knew she’d come a long way when she was exercising at the gym and her tights fell down; however her battle with weight hasn’t always been so light-hearted. At the tender age of just 15, Stacy’s mother was diagnosed with lung cancer.
Putting her own needs aside, Stacy nursed her terminally ill mother for five years, and upon her passing found the grief too much to cope with – turning to food for comfort. “After my mother died I began to eat my feelings. I would hide in my room and eat copious amounts of junk food each night.”
Mirror, mirror
After a three year battle with her weight, it was a simple shopping trip that changed Stacy’s life. "I was shopping with my brother in Melbourne and I couldn’t find anything to fit. In one particular store, I remember looking in the mirror and seeing both of us together...I was literally twice the size of my brother! I was mortified. I came home the next day and joined Weight Watchers."
The first steps
When Stacy first started on the program, she was too scared to tell anyone in case she didn’t succeed. “I ended up driving an extra 20 kilometres away to attend a weekly meeting where nobody would know me."
Her dramatic turnaround began with some simple substitutions. "I decided to stop eating all of the food that I used to comfort myself with – Maltesers, ice cream – and replace them with smaller portions of Weight Watchers Cookies and Ice Cream. I also increased my fruit and vegetable intake, which helped me feel fuller for longer."
A new life
For Stacy, her post-weight life is a far too exciting to fall back into bad habits. "I have completed a 100km bike race, won gold medals in my gym's 'Olympic Games' events in 2008, regularly hike up the tallest mountain in SA, and am now preparing for SA's City to Bay Fun Run!"
"I stopped thinking that I wasn't good enough to be treated well by others, and started by treating myself with more respect and kindness. I also began to realise that there were other ways of dealing with my grief and stress, such as talking with others, exercising and finding new hobbies to try out."
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