By Annette Campbell
Amanda Logan has some wonderful news for those of us struggling with excess weight.
“I’ve lost 20 kilograms … and it really was much easier than I thought,” she declares.
“Honestly, I thought I’d have to eat almost nothing and run up sand dunes or something to shift this weight.
“But I’ve just been eating a little less and moving a little more, and 12 months later there’s 20 kilos less of me!”
Amanda, a 34-year-old government relations manager from the inner Sydney suburb of Erskineville, started to gain weight when she finished university and began shift work for a Sydney radio station.
“I was often on night shift, so I’d rest through the day and work at night and any exercise I hoped to do went out the window,” she explains. “I had no idea about food and never really thought about what I was eating.
“I’d always liked cooking though, and mum brought me up on low-fat food, so I was eating quite well, quality-wise … it was the quantity getting me into trouble. And the fact I was hardly moving.”
But the primary motivating factor for Amanda was the death of her elderly grandmother a year ago.
“She reached the great age of 91, and until she was in her late 80s she’d been very active and eaten well,” says Amanda. “So I thought: ‘I want a long and active life, too’. I realised then that my weight was becoming a problem, so I went to see my GP and we agreed I’d go to a dietician for help, because I wanted to lose weight and learn about sensible nutrition at the same time.”
At Amanda’s first appointment with her dietician, she weighed-in at 102kg. Today she is a much healthier and happier 78kg. “I’m a bit richer too, because my shopping bill is much less!” she laughs.
For the first few months Amanda cut out alcohol, cheese and chocolate.
“I used to get home after work and nibble on biscuits and cheese before dinner, and then eat a good dinner as well,” Amanda says. “So I really needed to change my thought patterns regarding food, and that was where a good dietician helped. I had to learn to stop eating when I was full, and even start to question: ‘do I really need a big dinner tonight? Am I really that hungry? Would a salad be better?'”
Amanda started walking for 40 minutes every day, joined a gym and invested in a heart rate monitor. “They’re fascinating things and really helped me learn what I had to do to get my heart rate up enough to burn fat and I was quite surprised at how little effort that took.”
At first Amanda lost up to 1.5kg a week but that evened out to, sometimes, a kilo a fortnight. And now, 12 months later, she’s dropped a life-changing 20kgs.
“If I’d known 10 years ago how good losing weight would make me feel, I’d have done it much sooner,” Amanda says. “I’ve gained so much more energy, and a wonderful new life.”
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