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Barb lost over 18kg!

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I am currently 34 years old and live in the stunning Hunter Valley Region of NSW.

Now let me start out by saying, I’m a super private person, I normally wouldn’t do anything like this but when I truly believe in something and have seen and experienced some amazing results for myself first hand, I can’t help but get behind the cause and scream it from the rooftops. The Lady Shake is one of the products I truly believe in and cannot recommend highly enough to anyone thinking of taking the plunge!

At the time of writing this (mid-Jan 2021) I have currently lost 18.2 kg since beginning my TLS journey on 1st September 2020.

I’ve always had a rocky health history, it seems that if anyone was going to “get it” it always seemed to be me. From a very near ruptured appendix as a child that was initially diagnosed as “growing pains”, to bilateral knee surgery in my mid-teens, to a rare cancer diagnosis of bilateral ovarian dysgerminoma in my early 20s.

And if that wasn’t enough to go through, I’ve suffered for as long as I can remember from chronic aches and pains as well as chronic fatigue, all of which are currently under investigation to hopefully get a definitive diagnosis and treatment plan.

Now I’ve never been a small, slight, slim girl, I guess that’s just the luck of genetics for you & given the European background belief of my grandparents that you must eat all of what’s on your plate even if you are full & haven’t been allowed to dish the amount of food up for yourself, I guess I’ve always had a somewhat unhealthy “love” of food and what I now realise as overeating and over indulging on very regular basis.

Having gone through a very aggressive chemo regime in 2009 for my bilateral ovarian dysgerminoma, this was the first time in my life I struggled to eat for obvious reasons, and had a real aversion to food, but once I kicked cancers butt my appetite slowly retuned and hence so too did my less than ideal eating choices and habits. I think I enjoyed the food even more so after not being able to stomach it for so long.

"Dessert dinner"

Most nights it’s just me at home for dinner, as hubby works away a lot and I could never be bothered to make myself proper meals. It’s always been something quick and easy, toast, frozen meat pies, 2 min noodles, definitely not the most nutritious of diets. Along with my poor choices in foods when I did eat, I had the worst schedule of eating, being so busy and extremely time poor. I often went without eating, missing meals regularly multiple times a day and then when I had the chance to eat I was so hungry I just grabbed and ate everything and anything I could get my hands on and having a “dessert dinner” was a very frequent occurrence. Needless to say, this overtime meant I begun putting on weight, somewhat unknowingly in the beginning, until it got to such a point I knew I needed to actually do something about it.

Over time my clothes started to get tighter and tighter, pretty much all of them being way too tight to even wear hence income my “fat pants”, the only few pairs of pants which would actually half kinda fit. One day I went to put my fat jeans on and there was no way they were going to do up, it was a very depressing moment but clearly, the wake-up call I needed. That evening when I returned home I decided to do something about it hence the beginning of my TLS journey.

"I knew I needed something that would be quick and easy"

Now I haven’t really dieted before, I’ve never really had the need to, I was always happy with how I was, it’s just the way I am - or so I thought. And to be completely honest I never actually realised just how much weight I had put on until looking at my before and after photos for this article. I knew I needed something that would be quick and easy, something I’d be able to stick to with my extremely busy lifestyle while still fitting into my tight budget, so I thought some kind of shake might be the way to go.

I spent that evening when I returned home with my fat pants on feeling even tighter than ever, researching a variety of diet shake options on the market. I say every day I got extremely lucky that I decided to go with The Lady Shake as my first and only choice after several hours researching. I made my first purchase later that evening and eagerly awaited for my first parcel to arrival so I could begin my weight loss journey, with the aim of fitting back into my “normal” clothes again! And to be completely honest I just couldn’t wait for my parcel to arrive so I went into my local Woolworths and purchased a variety pack so I could begin my journey ASAP, as I didn’t want to let another day go by without taking control and beginning to make changes for the better.

Never could I have ever imagined that being on TLS would not only be a weight loss journey but a complete total and utter lifestyle change, one which I’ve never looked back from. I never actively took my health seriously, even life after cancer. TLS has completely changed my life in every way shape and form, it’s not only been a weight loss, food habit & choices change, it’s honestly been a complete health and lifestyle change, making me take a more proactive look at my health as a whole and to actively get help where necessary from doctors and specialists rather than just sweeping things under the rug and telling myself that’s just the way things are and you just have to get on with it.

"For the first time... I enjoyed going clothes shopping"

I think the biggest difference for me since losing weight apart from taking my health more seriously and really enjoying a complete lifestyle change and being able to look at food in a completely different way, would have to be exceeding the goals I’ve set along the way.

While I initially set out to fit back into my clothes again which I thought would be my end goal, I have well exceeded this much to my surprise. For the first time in for as long as I can remember I enjoyed going clothes shopping on my birthday weekend celebration earlier this month.

I was incredibly proud of myself at how far I’ve come and truly verity pleasantly surprised when I was able to fit with easy and very comfortably into size 9 jeans and size 10/S tops. In the past, I’ve consistently been a size 12 but as I was getting bigger without consciously realising it I was up to a size 14 and realistically probably even bigger as the size 14 clothes I did have were way too tight, but I was adamant they “fit”.

It’s such a nice feeling now when I go through my cupboard for something to wear and go oh these pants didn’t fit me before they were waaaaaaay too tight and now putting them on they pretty much fall straight off and I need an even smaller belt to help hold them up and keep them on.

"I didn't allow weight gain to derail me"

I think I’ve been quite lucky with not really hitting a roadblock per say on my weight loss journey so far, the closest thing for me would have been over the Christmas period when I thought I was doing quite well and making better choices than I would have in the past and I still believe I did, that when I weighed in afterwards I had put on 2.6kg in the span of just 4 days.

While I wasn’t delusional, and I did expect a bit of a weight gain, I really didn’t think it would be that much. Lucky for me I didn’t allow that weight gain to derail me, instead, I used it to help spur me on to try even harder to get back on track. With all of what my TLS journey has taught me so far, by my next weigh in the following week I had dropped those newly gained Christmas 2.6kgs and was back on track to where I wanted to be on my weight loss journey - be it a week behind with that small step back.

The road isn’t always smooth if it was everyone would do it with ease, but if you really want something you have to make it happen, work hard, stick with it, use the roadblocks and setbacks to help spur you on to reach your end goal and make it happen, get to where you want to be and use the past to help remind you not repeat the same mistakes in the future.

If someone is out there thinking about starting I would say don’t think about it just do it, TLS is not only a weight loss journey it’s a whole lifestyle change, creating new good habits which are easy to stick to. I wouldn’t even call it a diet per say, it’s about making smarter healthier choices and you honestly don’t feel like you’re missing out on anything, there are so many better food choices to make & you can still enjoy a no so healthy treat every now & then too.

There is also so much support and fantastic ideas on the TLS Facebook group 'The Lady Club' from so many amazing ladies, from those who have been through their weight loss journey with their own experiences and tips, to those just starting out. If you’re like me you can just lurk in the background taking everything on board or you can be super involved.

How you do it totally is up to you, we are all on our own journey and while our end goals might be the same or at least similar, how we all get there is very unique and that is totally fine. It’s about finding what works best for you to help you achieve your goals and if nothing else TLS can definitely be a stepping stone to your end goal whatever that may look like or be, all you need to do is take that first leap, which often can be the hardest thing to do, but we all have to start somewhere and really have the ambition to make the necessary changes along the way.