State winner for the NSW 2010 Weight Watchers Healthy Life awards, Sarah Koen, will be guest speaker at this weekend’s South Tweed meeting.
“I started out walking around the block before work, now I’ve completed two marathons and am training for the Australian Ironman!” she said.
Devastated by being called a ‘whale’ on a trip to the beach, Sarah Koen picked up her Dad’s old Weight Watchers books, joined a meeting and lost 34kg.
“I’ve been slightly overweight since I was a teenager, but was always tall and quite sporty, so I thought I was able to ‘carry it off’ by wearing loose t-shirts and men’s clothes,” she said.
“I hated dressing up as I always felt fat and frumpy and bigger than all of my friends. When I went away to uni, the weight piled on – late night snacks, plenty of alcohol and massive meals.
“On the way to visit my boy-friend, who lived a few hours’ drive away, I’d stop at the service station and fill up on ice creams, meat pies and 2-for-1 chocolate bars.”
Sarah said she’d been thinking about making changes to her lifestyle for a while but, when someone called out ‘whale’ as they drove past her at the beach in her swimmers, she decided to act.
“Weight Watchers was a natural choice for me, as my Dad had successfully lost weight on the Weight Watchers program, so I dug out his old books and headed off to my local meeting,” she said.
“At that very first meeting, I signed up to help out – that way I couldn’t skip meetings, even when I was worried I’d had a bad week!
“To begin with, I tried not to focus on the ‘big picture’, it was too overwhelming. Instead, I focused on smaller, more achievable goals of 5kg, 10kg and so on. Before I had achieved one goal, I was already planning the next goal, and before I knew it, my Goal weight was in sight.”
She said she had learned so much about healthy eating and portion control and was now confident in restaurants.
“I ask lots of questions and often change menus slightly to suit my needs,” Sarah said
“The main thing I’ve learned is that you can do whatever you want to do if you set your mind to it and don’t give up! This applies to every part of your life, not just weight loss.”
Sarah has been at her goal weight for 10 years, and says maintaining it hasn’t been too difficult.
“If I ever have a bad day, I just remember how much hard work I put in to lose all my weight in the first place – I don’t want to go through that again! I love being fit and healthy and being able to buy nice clothes from normal shops! I love competing in fun runs and seeing my fitness improve. It’s enough to keep me motivated.
“Plus, now it’s an easy habit to be healthy, so there’s very little danger that I will ever be overweight again as I live and eat differently now – I am a new person, and I like the new me!”
