Weight loss mind over matter

Sort your mind out before your body, is the advice Sharon McBain has for anyone considering losing weight.

It is a suggestion she is more than qualified to give - she has lost 82kg in 19 months - and is loving the changes it has made in her life, but warns it has not been easy.

Being able to buy clothes off the rack was a "mind altering experience" and she was delighted to be able to sit in chairs with arm rests, she said.

The 48-year-old has been large all her life, as has her family, and was 199kg with blood pressure and cholesterol problems when she started to think about losing weight. Her trigger was a breast cancer scare at Christmas 2009.

"It totally flipped me and I thought my life had to have some meaning."

At the time, she was confined to the "four walls" of her home and considered food to be her friend.

"It was there 24-7 and didn't let you down. I hardly went out, only to counselling."

With the help of her doctors and the nurses at Mornington Health Centre, she began an exercise programme and found cutting down her food portion size worked wonders.

"It freaked me out [at the start].

Scales and me were the worst thing out."

Stomach surgery was an option she took up but not without serious consideration, as there was a possibility of dying on the table.

"I was petrified."

While the surgery had been made to look easy by members of Parliament who had the operation, she said they did not explain the "nitty gritty".

"I've become best friends with the blue plastic bucket."

She has to take vitamin tablets for the rest of her life, eat no more than six or seven tablespoons of food at a time, visit a surgeon regularly, and as she becomes dehydrated quickly, has learned never to be without a drink close by.

Introducing new food to her diet was a trial-and-error process, as she was never sure it would agree with her, she said.

Cravings were dealt with by having a small serving of the food - "one spoonful of icecream instead of two plates".

She was continuing to go to exercise classes and undergo counselling, which was helping with the psychological problems that led to her eating, she said.

"I have a fantastic support network and I want to pass it forward."

Her goal weight was 100kg and her exercise goal was to be able to walk around the block of her Andersons Bay home without stopping, by the end of the month.

She was writing about her journey so others in similar situations could learn from it, and learning a lot about herself in the process.

The experience had brought her closer to her sister and she had got her parents interested in exercise, as well.

"People say I'm an inspiration but that's a bit hard to accept."