Lisa: 'I was the fat sister'

Lisa Pulvirenti, a 30-year-old mother of two from the south-western suburbs of Sydney, clearly remembers her “light-bulb moment” when she knew she had to lose weight.

“I was at a party for my sister’s boyfriend and it felt like everyone was looking at me and thinking ‘she’s the fat sister’,” Lisa recalls. “They weren’t, of course, but I just felt so insecure and bad that later that afternoon, I went for a two-hour walk.

“That’s when I knew I had to do something. I joined Weight Watchers in April 2004, when I was 79.4kg. The weight came on me slowly … I got married and added a few kilos, had our first child, Alyssa, now five, and added a few kilos, then had Adrian, now two, and a few more kilos crept on. I found that Weight Watchers was more about lifestyle change. My bad thing was portion size … I was eating way too much.

“I also changed my way of cooking. For instance, if I’m going to fry something, I just use a little cooking spray. And I swapped to healthier food alternatives such as grainier breads, diet drinks, low-fat cheeses and ice-creams and leaner cuts of meat.

“I bought a treadmill and it’s worked wonders. I now swim three mornings a week and play indoor netball.