I am a 57-year-old mother of 2 adult children, 165 cm tall and with a weight of 90.1kgs. I am obese medically speaking, with a ‘not to mention’ Body Mass Index. I don’t exercise, but I know how critical it is for a healthy lifestyle……yet I consider myself quite health conscious and take my health and wellness seriously. I receive the Ignite invitation email, read it, and think , wow, I really would like to join this journey, since I’ve been trying for several years to shed some weight without success , but I tell myself not to be selfish, as there are more deserving people I have observed in Sanlam. The following day, I receive an email from Ignite saying there is still space for 24 people. I jump right in with a free conscience! That’s the start of my journey!

My first consultation with the Sister is very informative, however I am completely put off by the mention of counting calories. I express my refusal to count calories as I have no time to be weighing lettuce and drumsticks, with one scale at work and one at home! Hilariously, the sister debunks my myth on what it takes to know what calories one consumes and by the time I leave, I have already downloaded “MyFitnessPal” app and had a quick demo on how it works. Except for one weekend I was away on holiday, I have captured every food item every day on the App since that day, to make sure I keep within the allocation of calories for the day for me to lose 0.5 kg a week. Yes, I have exceeded on some days and was below on some, but the majority was just about the right number of calories. On some of the days where I exceeded my allocation, I would take a brisk walk (in the house 😊) using some YouTube 2-mile workouts the Sister advised me to download, to regain some calories.

At my final weigh-in, I had lost 5.3kgs, and 6.8 cm less around the waist😊), a really big achievement for me, as I have tried various eating plans and had failed to keep to it, and lost no weight. I fortunately didn’t have to change my diet much, but measuring the calories forced me to consider what kind of snacks I eat, as the App made me realise that most of the calories came from the snacks. The use of the App and managing the snacks was the game changer!
I am continuing this journey until I reach my target weight of 80kgs, after which I will configure the App to maintain the weight. I have also joined the “Sanlam Wellness – 1.5km Strut Route” at Sanlam Head Office led by a colleague. This will help IGNITE some healthy activity at least twice a week. It’s better than the ‘nothing’ I have been doing!