Yahoo Lifestyle Real life weight loss: How I lost 50kg
This reader really did turn back time...
As a sporty teenager, Bridget Rauschenberg found it easy to keep her 180cm figure trim. But she hung with a less active crowd at uni and her social circle wasn’t the only thing that expanded.
“I was too busy to exercise,” says the 28-year-old financial consultant. Living on pizza and mayo-saturated sambos, she packed on more than 36kg.
“I hated the way I looked but I thought I’d lose weight later,” she says.
The change
In 2010, Rauschenberg ran into her ex and struggled to fake a smile.
“One reason we split was because I needed to get my life on track,” she says. "I realised I hadn’t made any progress in the four months we’d been apart.”
She took a sick day from work that Monday, sulking in bed. “I was depressed and I’d lost friends – I’d pushed them away due to my insecurity,” she says. “I chose that very moment to take control.”
The lifestyle
Six weeks of almost-daily 40-minute strength workouts later, using increasingly heavier weights, she’d dropped a pants size. She added 30-45 minute intervals on the cross trainer, ate breakfast and carried healthy snacks around, and swapped sugary drinks for water.
“I stopped craving junk food,” she says.
When the scales stuck at 86kg, Rauschenberg found support and workouts online to help. She began running and worked up to a half-marathon last year, at 71kg.
“When I saw that number on the scale, I did a happy dance,” she says. “I’ve been on a high ever since.”
Related: The total body workout
The weight loss reward
She starts most days with a workout, which gives her all-day energy. And the ex she ran into? He’s now her husband.
Rauschenberg’s weight-loss tips
Network it, baby “Social media is a great place to talk to others when you’re struggling.”
Sweeten the deal “I satisfy a dessert craving by adding vanilla or cinnamon to Greek yoghurt.”
Be a stair master “If I couldn’t get to the gym, I’d run up the stairs of my apartment building.”
