Milena – Warwick clinic
I have been overweight ever since I was a young girl. I could put it down to when my family first emigrated from South America to Canada in 1992, I was 10 years old. From then, growing up in the fast food culture, along with enjoying mom’s South American cooking the weight began to pile on. It would be easy for me to blame all the big fast food chains and say that they should all have more responsibility for young kids’ diets, and while that may be partly true, I also believe that my lack of confidence, low self esteem and zero will power, contributed massively to my bad eating habits. Despite the weight gain, I was still an active teenager, participating in sports such as volleyball and basketball. But I was kidding myself into thinking that just because I played sports I would be able to eat junk food and get away with. I also thought that my height 5’9” would help me carry the weight and make it less noticeable to others. It was a belief I carried with me all these years; denial was my best friend. Don’t get me wrong, I was secretly still depressed about not being able to buy nice clothes and fit into “normal” sizes, and I went on to try other diets. While I saw some immediate results, I would plateau and quickly become discouraged by them. Depressed and angry I would carry on eating. It wasn’t until February 2008 that I first read about SureSlim and how it had helped this woman shed all this weight and still manage to maintain it. I admit I was sceptical, but as I had nothing else to lose and the consultation was free, I decided to give it a go. I was very determined not to get signed up for anything straight away; I didn’t want to be pushed into anything I was unsure of, but Sigrun, who conducted my initial consultation was very open about the program, straight forward about what it entailed and about the cost. I told her I would go away and think about it and discuss it with my family. On a trip back home to Canada in March that year, an encounter with a doctor spurred me to do something about my weight, basically I was slowly ruining my body and I was told that if I wanted to start a family I would need to start losing the weight. We had discussed the possibility of having children soon and it occurred to me that if I wanted to do so I would need to start looking after myself. I returned from Canada determined, and on June 9th (a day before my birthday) I had my first assessment. I have not regretted one single moment since I began. My initial horror of having to cut certain foods I liked was soon diminished when the first signs of weight loss appeared. Every week when I got on their scales I would see a difference, and after the first month I had lost a stone!! I had never experienced that feeling before. Soon, everyone was noticing and saying how well I looked. My clothes began to hang off me, and I was actually happy about myself, something I had not experienced for a very long time. By December I had reached the four stone mark, but I began to fear that with Christmas I would soon pile it all back on. However, I am happy to say that none of my fears were realized, if anything it was easy to keep the diet going while having some “free diet” days and still kept losing some more weight. I have another half stone to lose in order to reach my goal. I have gone down from a size 20 to a healthy 14, and I have also lost inches off my chest, waist and hips. I need to say that without the amazing support I received from Sigrun and Jo at Sureslim Warwick, as well as the constant encouragement from family and friends, I would not have been able to achieve any of this.