Gertrude lost 94 pounds

Update 2017: Gertrude is still going strong. It’s been more than 2 years since we featured her and she’s kept the weight off.

Weight Loss Transformation of the Day: Gertrude lost 94 pounds.  This UK author and mother of 2 got a wake up call in the form of a friend’s brutal honesty and decided that it was time to lose the weight and change her lifestyle for good.  Now she is helping others to do the same. Here is what she shared with us about her journey…

Hello, my name is Gertrude Nyirenda and I’m 36 years old. I am married and I am mother to two wonderful boys. My weight loss journey started on June 8, 2013. I had been invited to a barbecue where a friend’s brutal honesty made me realise just how unhappy I had been. She merely pointed out what I had known all along. I was obese weighing in at 17 stone (238 pounds) and I needed to lose the weight.

For seventeen years, I had battled with trying to lose weight, only to put it on again. I embarked on a journey involving lifestyle change. I came up with what I call the ABCs of weight loss. By committing to my new lifestyle change, I managed to lose 91 pounds. My start weight was 238 lbs and my current weight is now 144 lbs, it took me 1 year to lose the weight and have managed to maintain my weight for 9 months now. My height is 5’4″.

My ABC plan is very good and helpful to anyone who would like to embark on a weight loss Journey. Every battle we encounter starts in the mind and if you can win it in your mind you are half way there. No one can change a made up mind. I have written a book entitled ‘Weight Loss Wars’. It chronicles my journey, or rather (my weight loss wars), I suffered from anorexia and bulimia in my late teens, and then being obese most of my adult life. Finally to experience a sweet and total victory of reaching a healthy goal weight the healthy way. My website is www.weightlosswars.co.uk and my book is also available on Amazon.

My eating habits before I started my Weight Loss Wars journey consisted of: I would often skip breakfast as this would justify my reasons for eating more throughout the day. My excuse being that since I skipped breakfast, I can have an extra slice of cake. I ate out most of the time as I found cooking my own meals too strenuous, so I would often eat things like pizza, fish & chips and steak bake. I never really cared about what I ate. I had a bottle of coke every day and never drank water at all. Looking back now, I never even gave myself a chance to feel hungry because I was always eating or snacking on crisps and cakes. M&M chocolate peanuts were my favorite.

How I changed my eating habits: Now my meals are structured and I never miss breakfast. I usually have a bowl of bran flakes with a banana slices and 150mls of semi skimmed milk, with a cup of tea (no sugar) with 50mls of semi skimmed milk. I only snack on fruit. Lunch is usually a salad or a sandwich and a pot of muller light yoghurt. For dinner I have vegetables and whatever meat the rest of my family are having. For example, I will have a home cooked curry but with vegetables or steak with vegetables Throughout the day, I drink water. I drink 4 bottles of the 500mls small bottles taking sips thought the day. In a nut shell, I eat healthy 6 days a week and I have one day when I treat myself sensibly.

For exercise: when I started my journey I was 17 stone, I had a very bad back (sciatica) so I could only walk, I used to walk for four miles, 5 days a week, then when I hit a plateau, I increased my walking distance to 5 miles, 5 days a week. It used to take me 2 hours to walk that distance but now it only takes me 1 hour 15 mins. I absolutely love going out for my daily walks.

FB page: Weightlosswars