Following a painful and debilitating spinal injury, Deborah Morandin gained nearly 40kg. But now the 35-year-old motivational trainer from Brisbane, Queensland has lost every excess kilo. Here’s how she did it.
“It was February, 2003 when I injured my lower back while I was surfing,” she explains. “It required a long rehabilitation and lots of cortisone injections. And I put on a vast amount of weight very quickly.
“I had been 100kg, but I’m 180cm tall so I always looked okay. But when I put on the extra 40kg, I looked horrendous.
“Anyway, around the time of my birthday — August, 2004 — I decided I had to lose it. The next day I bought my little dog, Bella, to go walking with, and then I talked with my GP about my options, one of which was Optifast.
“It’s a VLCD (very low calorie diet) — my favourite was their vanilla shake. Anyway, between September and December, I lost 36kgs! I’m still around 104kgs and maintaining that loss.
“I needed to lose the weight ASAP, for medical reasons, and it was basically Optifast and walking with Bella for 30 minutes every day that did it.
“My back’s fantastic and I know the weight loss has definitely helped. If I hadn’t lost the weight, I couldn’t have done the exercise I did.
“I’m now prepared to lose another 25kg, to get to my goal of 79kg … although I already feel quite incredible. You’d think I was only 25 and 75kg!”
Deborah’s vital statistics.
Weight before: 140kg.
Weight after: 104kg.
Total weight loss: 36kg.
Clothing size was: 24.
Clothing size is now: 16-18.
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