WEIGHT-LOSS PROGRAM

‘I decided to put myself FIRST’

Kara O’shea slipped into her seat on the plane and buckled up. Her daughter, Eliza, 17, sat next to her and the two shared a smile. They were starting a three-week cruise and tour of Asia – Kara couldn’t quite believe it.

“Just sitting on the plane was a moment for me – I wouldn’t have fitted into my seat a year earlier,” the Victorian mum says.

Today, Kara’s almost half the woman she used to be. She walks an average 20,000 steps a day and weighs a slim and fit 72kg.

It’s a stark contrast to just two years ago, when she tipped the scales at 115kg, after her weight began to soar due to an unhappy marriage and divorce.

“It started when I got married and became a mum. I didn’t look after me. I put myself last every time,” says Kara, 49.

“When my marriage broke up, I lost my job and my husband. Then, within a year, my stepdad had a heart attack and I lost my aunty and uncle to cancer. I was sad and that’s why I ate.”

Kara admits she had little control. “I’d eat a whole packet of Tim Tams or a whole block of chocolate. I was constantly throwing food in my mouth without being aware of it.”

Her turning point came at Christmas 2015 when she posed for a photo on Santa’s knee. “I didn’t realise I was that big – Santa was huge but he didn’t look huge next to me! I looked like a hippopotamus!” she says.

Kara used that photo to motivate herself to begin her weight-loss journey. She’d tried to lose weight many times before, but this time she was focused and determined, andd joined Jenny Craig.aig.

“I liked being accountable, weighing in each week and talking to someone about how I was going,” she says.

Now Kara knows the value of focusing on herself. “It’s about finding time for me now. I realise I am important and I deserve to look after myself,” she says. “I have lots of adventures to look forward to.”