I’VE HAD THREE CAESAREANS
DEBRA GEARD, 49, is founder of a women’s running group, and lives in Hertfordshire with husband Tom, 47, a project manager in construction, and their three children aged 15, 14 and 12. Debra, who weighs 8st 4lb and is 5ft tall, says: Although my dress size has always been an eight or ten, in the past 18 months I’ve transformed my shape.
I’d never envisaged looking this good in my 20s, let alone now, about to turn 50 and a year into the menopause.
My secret? Exercise, weightlifting, and eating in moderation. until early last year, despite being fit, my abs were buried beneath a layer of fat and I was always suffering knee and hip injuries.
I’d always used the treadmill, cross trainer or exercise bike in the gym and was a big fan of running, having started my running club ten years ago.
My osteopath advised me to do more resistance work with weights to build lean muscle and bone density.
So I signed up to an eight-week online weight-training programme. I started lifting weights five times a week in the gym, alternating between upper and lower-body training sessions, all of which engaged my core muscles. I started eating smaller portions of chocolate or ice cream, and stuck to 1,500 calories a day using an app called MyFitnessPal to track my intake. I also switched to a diet higher in protein.
Breakfast is now porridge topped with a dollop of jam or peanut butter. lunch is tuna salad with a hard-boiled egg and a bagel, and dinner is chicken with vegetables and rice. I snack on copious amounts of berries.
At the end of eight weeks, my body was undergoing an astonishing transformation. I had muscles I’d never seen before and, to my delight, a six-pack!
Now, it’s all second nature. Still, if there’s a special event, I’ll enjoy whatever food I want, such as at a champagne picnic at Royal Ascot last month.
tom thinks my figure is fantastic and the 100 ladies in my running club have been incredibly complimentary. other friends who aren’t into fitness are less enthusiastic, telling me I’m ‘too muscly’ or have ‘lost too much weight’.
But I feel fabulous and can now deadlift 75kg — previously I could barely lift the bar!
It’s empowering being strong and having a six-pack, especially after three Caesareans. I can’t wait to show off my abs in a bikini when we go on holiday to South America this summer to celebrate my 50th.