Katie Gooding

‘My name is Katie Gooding and I am 24 years old. I have always enjoyed cake and chocolate products since being a youngster but during the last year I have indulged unnecessarily – hiding food and binging late at night which slowly increased my weight by two stone. I tried detoxing, avoiding all sauces and carbs but found this impossible and ended up eating twice as much of the wrong things! I also tried walking and easy exercise but found myself convincing myself that I had been so good I deserved a large McDonalds as a bonus! How stupid was I?‘

Surprisingly I didn’t even realise I had put on so much weight. I looked in the mirror and saw a size 8 girl but in reality I was a size 12-14. I am 5’ 6” tall and I had terrible acne from all the sugar which sadly no medication would resolve. It wasn’t until my 24th birthday when friends took a photo of me on the beach in a sundress that I realised that I had to do something about it.’

‘I didn’t join a group as I was embarrassed about my weight and got extremely depressed. I wouldn’t even talk to people in the High Street as I hated the way I looked and avoided any outings that involved food as I couldn’t trust myself – I knew I would go for three courses and overindulge.’

I started exercising with my mum every day as well as following the eating plans and general advice. It worked. The weight started to fall off and we signed up for Race for Life which gave me the motivation to run regularly and become significantly fitter. Within four months I had lost the weight I had piled on and the added bonus was that my mum lost had 11 lbs and even my dad lost 5lbs without realising he was just eating more healthily.’

‘The next challenge was keeping the weight off so I joined. This really worked for me because I could keep an eye on what I was eating and mum and I could find loads of recipes to keep us both on track without getting bored. I love all the fitness videos and the hints and tips that are on the site really help too. It’s now two years since I lost my weight and I feel really confident that I can stay slim for ever now.’

‍

*Weight-loss results may vary