Jodie’s vital stats
Weight before: 92kg
Weight after: 69kg
Weight lost: 23kg
Clothes size before: 16
Clothes size after: 12
Jodie had six very good reasons for losing a whopping 23kg — her partner and her five children.
Bad news spelt the end of Jodie Minter’s diet plans. “I started to lose weight in January 2005 and was going well until April, but then my father was diagnosed with cancer,” says the 33-year-old chocoholic from Gladstone in Queensland.
“We’re very close and it hit me hard, so I turned back to chocolate.
“That made me think. I have five kids — Jonathon, 16, Andrew, 14, Mathew, 12, Alicia, seven, and Selena, five — and I want to be here for them. They need their mum.”
Jodie hadn’t been happy with her weight since having her last child.
“I never really lost the weight again,” she says. “I couldn’t fit into anything in my wardrobe — just three pairs of pants and a couple of shorts. I was also very depressed … my weight was affecting my confidence. I thought that if I didn’t do something I’d go insane.”
A Big Brother fan, Jodie knew one of the show’s most famous contestants, Sara-Marie Fedele, had lost weight with Betalife, so she decided to follow her example.
She re-started her diet and exercise with a vengeance and has lost more than 23kg.
“I am proud of myself,” beams Jodie, who gets married to Wayne, 39, this week. “I’ve done fantastically. I’ve tried other methods but haven’t stuck to anything like this.”
The key was making dramatic changes to her lifestyle gradually. Jodie now walks four kilometres every day, as well as going to the gym for a kilojoule-burning circuit class and doing 75 sit-ups.
“I’m addicted now!” she smiles.
Jodie has also made changes to her food intake.
“The food I ate was terrible,” she admits. “I’d never eat breakfast and sometimes not lunch either, then I’d pig out from 3pm on. My dinner was always bigger than my partner’s.”
Now her portions are much smaller and she’s eating far more fresh fruit and veg and less bread.
“I feel great!” she says. “I went to a wedding recently and all my aunties and uncles didn’t believe it! When I’m clothes-shopping, it’s very weird picking up size 12s!”
Jodie’s top tip
“Never deprive yourself of anything. If you want something, have it … otherwise you’ll crave it more and more. I’ve not deprived myself of anything, but I do have much smaller portions. You can leave some. It’ll still be there tomorrow!”
By Annette Campbell
