A life changing experience - January 2010

Nancy McCarthy
Weight Watchers Member

A little about myself - My name is Nancy McCarthy, I have always had a weight problem, am married to Bernard and have 2 sons aged 21 and 16.

It all started when my friend Annamarie and I saw friends of ours losing weight on the Weight Watchers programme. We decided to join the Wynberg, Cape Town Tuesday evening class with Leah Abramsohn. This all took place on 3 June 2008. I had high blood pressure and was on medication - a 50mg and 5mg tablet daily. My aim was to get my blood pressure back to normal and also to lose weight drastically as I was in the morbidly obese BMI category, I was very unhappy and very uncomfortable with myself weighing in at nearly 140 kilograms. The results have been phenomenal - it has taken hard work, lots of exercise and determination. I have tried so many times to lose weight over the years, often losing, but always gaining the weight again afterwards. I must admit that only now at the age of 43 have I learnt what I should be eating and what I should be staying away from. We also started walking with the dogs and sometimes walk upto 4 hours a week, also walking from Muizenberg to Fishhoek and back. Since joining my youngest son and husband have also joined, so we are trying to keep it in the family. We eat together and from day one I decided I was not going to cook separately, I eat with them and don't cook special foods. My blood pressure is now normal and the doctor has taken me off the 50mg tablet completely and I only take the 5mg tablet every second day and there might even be a possibility that I come off the medication completely.

 

To date I have been on the programme for 86 weeks and have only missed one weigh in as we were away on holiday. The most important thing is to never miss a weigh in, face the scale no matter what and track all the time - like they say - Scribble before you nibble. From day one I have tracked each and every day and have a total of 7 booklets in my cupboard with everything written down, this is so important !!

We have a super, super class, sometime up to 47 members that queue to be weighed. Annamarie and I bring coffee, tea, hot chocolate and biscuits to class each week and the members stay for a chat. The members love it as it gives them a chance to find out more about the programme. We also bring food items to class which we have labelled and this helps the members to see how many points these items are. We now have a lucky draw each week, each member brings a fruit or health bar and a lucky member goes home with this hamper. Loads of excitement and we have such fun with Leah.

Facts about myself:

Age : 43
Height : 1.79m tall
Starting Weight : 136.6kg
Final Weight : 81.4 kg
Total loss : 55.2 kg
Time taken to reach goal : 18 months
Used to wear size : 28
Now wearing size 14/16

Last week I received my Life membership after 6 weeks of maintenance (I even lost 2 kilos on maintenance), what an achievement and it only feels like the other day we started the program. On average I lost 0.6 a week which is very good. I am also the Admin Clerk so I will continue to weigh every week.

I feel on top of the world, much healthier, more energetic and my family and friends are so proud of me, people don't recognise me anymore. I must admit having the support of all my friends around me that are now all doing the program has helped tremendously and most of all to my husband for all his support and for pushing me with the exercising (he has also lost 26 kilos in the last year) and to my friend Annamarie for travelling this road with me.

Thank you Weight Watchers for a wonderful eating plan where we don't have to feel deprived of anything and that is the nice thing about this plan - you can eat everything in moderation as long as you count your points.

Nancy McCarthy
Member
Wynberg WWSA