I halved my body weight — now my life is double the fun!
LISA LAMBERT, 21, is the 2015 Unislimmer of the Year. She lives in Gorey, Co. Wexford, with her partner, Mark and three-year-old son, MJ.
MY WEIGHT has always been a problem. I honestly think I was overweight from the moment I was born and, through a culmination of factors, I ended up weighing more than 20 stone before I was even out of my teens.
You can look for people and circumstances to blame for being fat. You can tell yourself it’s genetic, but personally I don’t buy into that.
Being big has a lot more to do with what’s on your dinner plate than what’s in your DNA.
They talk about emotional eating, and I ate most of my crisps and chocolate and chips when I was at opposite ends of the emotional scale — either when I was happy or when I was lonely.
After my mam passed away when I was just 10 years old, I was lonely a lot. I’m an only child and my daddy did his best for me and I wanted for nothing, but he had to work of course, so I probably did feel a little alone a lot of the time.
Like a lot of people who are overweight as children, I learned to deal with bullies and got used to being called names so that by the time I reached my teens, I almost accepted this was just how I would always be.
What changed that was the birth of my son, MJ, when I was 18.
He was delivered by emergency C-section 10 weeks early because my blood pressure was very high and I got pre-eclampsia.
I heard different things from different doctors about whether those problems were down to my obesity, but the stress of his early arrival and the worry for him in his first weeks of life gave me a wake-up call.
My main fear was that he would end up as I did, that I would get sick and die young and leave him without his mammy — the way I was left without mine.
When I recovered from the birth, I cut out a lot of the crap from my diet and I started moving.
We had a go-kart at home that I could fit i nto and one day I j ust got i nto i t and started pedalling. I must have looked quite hilarious going around the streets near the house in this go-kart, but it was all I could do at that stage.
AT THE weight I was — around 20 stone — I didn’t have t he confidence to go to any weight-loss class or join any groups, so it was me and my go-kart and some better nutrition at home.
Through that alone, I managed to lose four stone in a few months, but I was still very overweight for a girl my age and I still had some of the health problems that come with that.
One night in 2014, I started to get blurred vision and a headache and my arm went totally dead and I was convinced I was having a stroke.
I was so worried that I vowed on the way to the doctor that if I survived this I would make a huge and proper effort to get down to a healthy weight.
It turned out I wasn’t having a stroke. I just had very high blood pressure and it had spiked, but even that was scary.
On May 13, 2014, I went to my first Unislim meeting and by the end of that year, I had lost six stone and got down to my target weight of 9 stone, 12 and a half pounds. I am literally half the size I was.
My diet has changed hugely, of course. First of all, I actually eat breakfast now. I never, ever ate a breakfast when I was younger and bigger, and never ate a whole lot during the day, doing most of my eating in the evening and at night.
When I get up with MJ — at a bout 8.30am each morning now — I have my overnight oats which I adore. Because the oats have been soaking all night, they almost taste like a dessert when you heat them up, especially when you add in some fruit and a Müllerlight yogurt, for example.
I also have a cup of green tea at breakfast time which is good for detoxing and a healthy alternative to the coffee I used to drink.
I’m been taking a course in childcare for the last while, so my snacks and meals during the day fit into college breaks.
Sometimes I bring my homemade porridge scones with me. They’re made from porridge oats, natural yogurt, an egg and some baking powder and they’re gorgeous. There are days too, of course, when I treat myself to something like a Curly Wurly, but I’m more of a conscious eater now and I actually stop and ask myself ‘do I really want this’ before tucking in.
When I feel I’ve been overdoing it on anything for a while, I abstain for a few days. I sometimes do a carb- free day, for instance, normally if I’ve been overdoing it on the Weetabix, which is another favourite snack of mine.
When I’m going carb-free, lunch consists of my own homemade soup with some chicken and broccoli in a bowl — but on regular days, I have a wrap.
Exercise is a far bigger part of my life now than it used to be. Almost every day, I go out for a good walk. I’m not a big fan of running, but I’ve discovered if I head out for a walk as night is falling, I’ll run most of the way home because I’m one of those grown-ups who’s still afraid of the dark!
It’s been a surprise to me how much I actually enjoy getting out of breath now. There’s a great sense of being alive that comes from getting physically tired through walking and aqua aerobics, which I’ve also taken up.
But my favourite form of exercise is, of course, running around with my little son. It’s one of my great joys now to come down the slide in the playground with him. For as long as I can remember, from when I was very, very young, I was too big to get down the slide, so now, at the age of 21, I’m getting t o enjoy some of the childhood fun I missed out on.
It was absolutely brilliant when I was named this year’s Unislimmer of the Year. I always wanted to be in the Rose of Tralee when I was little, but that night, with t hat sash around me felt like something even more special.
Everything about life is better now. My energy levels are sky high, my confidence is soaring. The only thing I haven’t quite worked out yet is how to dress myself. I still walk into a shop and automatically look for the baggier clothes.
It will take a while to fully adjust to this new body and what it means. In 18 months, I halved my body weight — but already life is double the fun. ÷AS TOLD to Regina Hennelly. Visit unislim.com for more.