Odille's Weight Loss Journey

September 2005

Somehow, since an accident at work in 1996, and, after 2 years, operations to both Achilles tendons, my weight has reached 131 kgs and I feel constantly tired, with aching bones, chronic sinusitis, depression, and reflux/indigestion after everything I eat. My favoured exercise of walking (5-8 kms daily) was denied me due to the injury and after the operation, due to my weight gain, it was just as hard and painful as before! So I have become  fatter and fatter

I have been unemployed since June 2004 apart from a couple of small spells of casual work, but after completing a work for the dole placement at the Community Technology Centre at Pottsville, scored a volunteer position at the CTC at Uki as a Manager in July 2005.  On the way home one afternoon I called into the shops at Murwillumbah and saw a copy of Dr Atkins New Diet Revolution (2002) in the cheap bin ($4.20) at Coles.   I'd heard a lot about this diet, bad and good, but thought I could afford $4.20.

While reading it at home, I became quite excited.  A diet where I ate lots of meat and vegetables sounded great.  I've never been a fruit fan as I have very sensitive teeth and cannot bite into a piece of fruit without pain.  Yes, it would be heard to give up potatoes (why did I think I was so fat?) and to a lesser degree bread, but I decided I could bear anything for the 2 weeks Induction period so I would give it a go.

Then I was lucky enough to score a 12 month contract as the Manager of the CTC at Pottsville.  I decided to start Atkins on Saturday 10 September 2005, and started my job on the Monday.  In the first week I lost 7 kgs (15.4 lbs) and in the second week 4kgs (a total of 11 kgs or 24.2 lbs in just fourteen days).  I was on top of the world.  Naturally it became slower after that but by my birthday in May I had lost 29.6 kgs. I decided to aim for somewhere in the range of 64-67 kgs..

March 2006

On 24 March 2006 I had an accident on my way to work.  I was driving to work   and it was raining lightly. I have to go round a sharp hairpin bend, and I was only doing 45kms, and it got into a spin, did a 360 and ran off the road, became airborne, and landed 12' down in the ditch. I just sat there and said rude words under my breath until my heart rate calmed down!

All the front right hand side of the car basically collapsed in on me, but I was not trapped. However, I could not even FIND the seatbelt release to get out, and as I had dislocated my thumb it was hard to do anything. No one saw me go over, and the car was invisible from the road. So I rang trusty 000 and they had the troops there in 10 mins.

They opened my door and put the seat back, and I crawled out the back door onto a stretcher (the bank was too steep and muddy for me to walk up), they hauled me up to the road, with me making a joke that it was good thing I was not still 131 kgs!

The injury to my leg was caused by the dashboard and steering wheel coming down and bouncing off it.

The car is a write off and I hope to get the money any day now so I can get another one. Workcover is paid for my physio, and the lump on my thigh, which is 6cm long by about 2.5 wide, is finally starting to break up.  I will always have a dent there though, and it is discoloured.

November 2006

The accident and the beginning of menopause held back my weight loss for a while but it is starting to shift again now.  I had gone up to 106.9 but am down to 104.3 as of today.  I have started a challenge on one of the forums I am on, the Unofficial Australia's Biggest Lower (see Links page), and 10 of us are keeping stats and doing our all for 26 weeks, from 28 Oct, to parallel the 26 weeks the TBL2 contestants will be competing for.  I started at 106.4 last Saturday and am down 2.1 kgs so far.