"It was my weight holding me back, not my age"
Debbie's weight loss story
Name: Debbie Griffiths
Weight loss: 25.6 kg
Was: 80.1 kg
Now: 54.5 kg
Height: 1.59 m
Age: 41
How long it took: 38 weeks
How she did it: Group Coaching at Bellfield Community Centre in Heidelberg, Vic with Coach Kathryn Cross
Then & Now
“ As my 40th birthday approached, I began to dread becoming ‘fat and 40’. I wasn’t living the active, healthy life I really wanted to live. ”
I didn't want to be fat and 40
During my teens and twenties I was slim, but when I fell pregnant in my early thirties, I gained weight and it stuck. I kept making poor food choices and, as my 40th birthday approached, I began to dread becoming ‘fat and 40’. I wasn’t living the active, healthy life I really wanted to live. I’m a pharmacist, so I know all about the importance of preventative healthcare and I was reaching the age where chronic illnesses can develop. I knew I couldn’t do anything to alter my genetics, but I could promote positive outcomes by taking control of lifestyle factors, such as eating well and exercising.
Discovering the perfect Plan
I love to cook and taste new flavours so Weight Watchers appealed to me because it didn’t involve a set meal plan. I also knew I needed accountability and that going to a meeting every week would help me stick to the Program. I joined Weight Watchers six months before my 40th birthday. Initially, I set my goal at 63kg, which was at the upper end of my healthy weight range. I got there a month after my birthday, but kept losing weight for five more months. I was really worried about turning 40, but I realised it was my weight holding me back, not my age. Once I lost 10kg, I felt so much more energetic – I knew I’d found a lifestyle I wanted to stick to. And now I actually feel younger than I did in my thirties.
A new-found lust for life
Since losing weight I’ve been wakeboarding, rock climbing and surfing – things I never would have attempted before. I’m also running for the first time since high school and I feel happier too – my smile is so wide it reaches my eyes! You’re always told that it’s important to have a balanced diet and be a healthy weight, but until you do it day in day out, you don’t realise how much energy it gives you. I feel like I’m living the life I was supposed to live, rather than just surviving.