12 WEEKS TO SLEEK
Slim down & firm up! Easy diet tweaks and at-home exercises to get you there
‘I wanted something that would tell me “this is what you must eat; this is the exercise you must do”.’
As a working mom of two, 38-year-old Surina Neethling of Laaiplek was struggling to prioritise her own health and happiness on top of all her other responsibilities. It got to a point where she no longer recognised herself in the mirror and had lost the motivation to take control of her weight.
‘When you have two kids, your body is the last thing you think about,’ she says. ‘I didn’t want to see that person in the mirror any longer, which is sad – that’s not what you want.’ When her
husband, Hermie, asked what she wanted for her birthday last year, Surina settled on a mountain bike (her first in many years), marking the start of her fitness journey.
‘We decided that we both needed to do something; Hermie is over 40 and I’m getting there. Once you’ve passed a certain point, it gets that much harder to turn
your lifestyle around – especially if you’ve been going down the wrong road for so long,’ she explains.
Surina had been experiencing a roller coaster of emotions that caused her to gain weight: Hermie was retrenched while she was 32 weeks pregnant with her daughter. He finally found another job, but had to relocate to the West Coast.
‘When he started working in Laaiplek, I stayed in Cape Town with the children; we saw each other at weekends,’ Surina says. ‘But with a newborn and a fouryear-old, this wasn’t easy.’ She eventually moved to Laaiplek with the kids, but in the interim found herself turning to any available quick fix in the form of a pill or shake – anything that promised her the weight loss she wanted. Nothing worked. When she reached the weight she’d been when she was pregnant with her son, she decided she really needed to make a proper lifestyle change.
During her internet quest for a weight loss plan that would work, she came across Slanker met Sarie [Slimmer with Sarie].
‘I was immediately drawn to it,’ she says. Not only was the programme in her home language of Afrikaans, but the ingredients on the menu were locally available, unlike in the dozens of overseasbased plans she’d found before.
‘I wanted something that would tell me “this is what you must eat; this is the exercise you must do”.’ And that’s exactly what she found with Slanker met Sarie. Surina started early this year, and after three months of the programme, she’s already shed 13,5kg, down from 95kg to 81,5kg. ‘I’m halfway there – I still want to lose another 8kg,’ she says.
She didn’t do it just for herself. Surina’s kids, JG (6) and Sofia (4), are the driving force behind her decision to lead a healthier lifestyle. ‘We want to raise them to look after themselves and their bodies,’ she says.
Her lifestyle has changed dramatically thanks to the 12-week plan, and the effects have filtered through to her family. Hermie’s lost 5kg just by adopting some of his wife’s new eating habits. ‘He’s my cook, so he had to get on board,’ Surina says with a laugh. ‘There are no cravings because you eat a lot – I would never have thought that I’d lose weight by eating more.’ The plan provides portion sizes, which Surina says she’s incorporated into her family’s daily meals: they keep track of how much they eat and stick to eating small portions five times a day.
‘I work in the hospitality industry, so it gets busy and
I forget to eat. But I do my best to stick to the types of foods on the menu and I pack in all the snacks and lunches.’ The layout of the plan is excellent, Surina adds.
‘They provide you with recipes, but you can use your initiative and cook anything you want with the ingredients.’ While she enjoyed the ease and user-friendliness of the plan, the exercise aspect was a challenge at first.
‘It was hard for the first two weeks, but it gets better.’ On some days, she explains, when the more strenuous exercises became too difficult, she would skip the workout programme and replace it with a walk or bike ride.
‘It became a family thing for us to do as well.’ Her kids keep her on her toes too, she says. ‘When you don’t feel like doing anything after work, the kids are there to say, “Mama, we need to exercise now!”’
Surina says she can’t imagine how she’d feel about herself if she hadn’t done Slanker met Sarie.
‘People who see me every day have said, “You look so great, and younger!”. This makes you feel like yourself, and makes you love yourself again.’ After taking a four-month break, Surina will go back to the plan to achieve her goal weight. She’s still amazed at the transformation she was able to bring about, just by tweaking her diet and daily routine.
‘We’ve changed a lot, yet we haven’t changed at all!’
‘People who see me every day have said, “You look so great, and younger!”. This makes you feel like yourself, and makes you love yourself again.’ Slanker met Sarie has been such a phenomenal success for our sister publication that we have created our very own version of it, just for you, our readers. See opposite page to sign up!