Sara has been following the Lose Baby Weight healthy eating diet plans for eight months and has lost 11.1kgs. She loves the healthy eating recipes she can create for her family and how she can now find healthy alternatives for her favourite meals.
My name is Sara Chakley and I’m a 32 yr old mother of two from Melbourne.
Like most people I have struggled to get my head into a diet. I always start, then last a week, then fall off the wagon or life gets in the way and the weight piles on again.
It wasn’t until I had my daughter 2.5 years ago that I realised where I was going wrong. I thought we had a healthy diet, meat and three veg every night for dinner and pasta at least once a week but I had a sugar, carb and snacking addiction. My biggest problem was and still is snacking but I now know the difference between a snack and picking all day.
I’ve tried all the diets, including meal replacement, no carb, no sugar but I never got anywhere. I would lose some weight and then I would stop and the weight would pile on again. I always said I would never let myself go but I did.
While I was breastfeeding my daughter the weight fell off and I was at my smallest but I gave in to snacking and food cravings which was fine as I clearly needed the extra energy but when I stopped breastfeeding I never changed my eating and the weight piled back on.
My final and long term weight loss journey started on Mothers’ Day this year after I won three free PT sessions in a raffle and I have not looked back. The final straw a few days later was seeing myself in my son’s first day of kinder photo which will be a forever memory for him. I thought I was ok but unfortunately the photos stated otherwise (I’m never in photos or it’s a selfie).
I have followed Lose Baby Weight plans since August last year and loved the recipes and the community feel it has.
I started my journey at 78-79kg and I am now 8mths down and at 67.9kg with plenty of cm lost as well.
My husband and I have totally changed our way of eating, it’s not about depriving yourself it’s about finding healthy ways to have all of your favourite foods. I’m a chip nut – I love hot chips! So thanks to the website I came up with a healthy version.
I still have a bad meal every now and again as I find if I totally deprive myself that is when I fail. I started by using my Fitness Pal to keep track of my food and exercise and after a month of tracking my whole mindset of food changed and I now don’t use it unless I make a recipe I’m not sure on.
I pretty much make every thing from scratch but I spend one day a week food prepping so I have no excuse on the nights I work or have a sports activity for my son. I have tried to stick to an eating plan but it never happens so I find working day to day works for me but I also live by the saying “one bad meal will not make you over weight and if it happens, tomorrow is another day just work hard and you will get there”.
I gave myself a goal for Christmas – it was to be under 70kg, and my goal outfit was a play suit and was to be fit enough to compete in “Miss Muddy”. Well I did it all and before the end of November. Thanks to using the mantra of 80% nutrition 20% exercise and I am 100% happy. I exercise 3-4 times a week, once with a PT and 2x with a local outside fitness group and I fit anything else I can while I’m home with my children but I usually walk to kinder once a week.
My children have been my biggest motivation, as it is with all of us, but I also want to do this for myself, it’s time to put me first.
Sara Chakley
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