Highlights of the Podcast:
- Background of Suzanne Wright and her issue with being underweight
- The Cambridge Diet and its impact on SuzanneThe reasons why she just couldn’t stop dieting
- How Suzanne’s new baby altered her view towards her health
- Suzanne and her progress towards getting fit and healthy
- Suzanne’s advice to people currently experiencing what she went through
Transcript:
Stephen: Hi! Welcome to the TheDVCC.com. I’m Stephen Gray. Today, I’m having a chat with Suzanne. And Suzanne I think has got quite an interesting story a lot of hopefully listeners will relate to. So hi, Suzanne!
Suzanne: Hello!
Stephen: How’s it going? Do you want to just give us a quick little overview of kind of your situation? Your age, family, number of children and that sort of thing?
Suzanne: Okay. I’m 35 and I have three children. One is 14, one is 11 and an 11 month old baby. I’m a childminder by profession. Also, I have done nursing and hairdressing. I did everything. And I’ve traveled the world with the Armed Forces.
Stephen: Great!
Suzanne: But now I live in Milton Keynes.
Stephen: Do you want to just tell everyone a little bit about kind of your diet and weight loss history?
Suzanne: Okay.
Stephen: Over the last few years, as far as you want to go back.
Suzanne: Yes. Well, there’s nothing extraordinary really. I had issues with weight in that it’s been a control issue with myself and I very much – not yoyo dieted, but I was underweight for a number of years in that I used diets such as the restricted diets where you’re on very, very low calories. I was on the Cambridge Diet for four or five years and my health suffered massively.
Stephen: Just which one is the Cambridge Diet because obviously there are loads of different sorts.
Suzanne: It’s where you have sweetened shakes and nothing else really. You’re on basically about 400 or 500 calories a day. It’s not recommended for long term usage, but pretty much, I did it for a number of years. To be honest with you, nobody actually stopped me. There was no medical intervention, there was no sort of anybody saying this isn’t good for you. All I could see was the results in the mirror. So for me, because my personal life wasn’t great for a number of years, and the one thing I could control was my weight, and the control was there with dieting. So that’s what I did for quite a number of years.
Stephen: Right. So you say for quite a few years. Were you on it for a bit and then off it? How did it work?
Suzanne: I initially did it for probably about six months. I lost a mighty amount of weight. And then I kind of went through a central period in my life and regained a little bit of weight. I was quite happy for a little while. And then obviously, because I’ve regained weight, I thought, no, I don’t like this, and I went back on it. And then I was on it for probably a good two, two-and-a-half years. I had family say to me, “You’re too thin! You look awful.” I was in and out of the hospital with various problems, one of them being gallstones, another being bladder retention and I was having to be cauterized in order to even be able to use the toilet. It just got ridiculous, but I still just wouldn’t hear it. And I think it took actually me and my partner in getting this settled in our personal lives because she sort of said, “No, this isn’t right” and to start thinking there’s got to be another way.
Stephen: Just going back, how did they affect you first? So obviously you mentioned physically they affected you. Mentally, how was it? I mean, that’s quite low calories to be going on for a long period of time.
Suzanne: Yes. I was constantly cold. Always, always cold. I would say I never slept. I was probably always in a low state of mind. But at the time, I probably didn’t realize that. Because I got so used to the feeling, I wouldn’t say it’s something that I actually picked up on, but others around me did. Even my daughter who’s 11, she said to me just a few weeks ago, “You have to, Mom!” For a child to come out with that, she obviously noticed what my state of mind was when I was like doing all of that. I mean I would say mentally, it affected me greatly. And because your body is just not getting anything, I think you can’t function properly. I was thriving on, but it wasn’t energy. It certainly wasn’t energy.
Stephen: Right. So you were more surviving rather than thriving?
Suzanne: Yes. Definitely.
Stephen: Can you explain, looking back now, your state of mind that kept you doing them? I mean you said you did it the first time. And then obviously, you put a little bit back on, and so you wanted to do it again. What kept you doing them?
Suzanne: I think the initial thing was my marriage broke down initially. To begin with, it was getting back control. So I thought maybe that would be better. So that was the initial thing.
Stephen: Right.
Suzanne: And then we kind of – because my ex-husband is in the Armed Forces, we were made homeless. And because I think I got results initially and I had control over my weight initially, when we lost our home, I had no control over that side of things. So again, I could get control over my weight again. Do you know what I mean?
Stephen: Yes, I know. I completely understand. So it was something that you can control when the other things around you…
Suzanne: Yes, yes. Totally. And I think it was always, in my head, it was always about that, and it was like if everything else in my life is awful, at least I’ve got this one thing that I can control. And it’s taken getting my life settled and getting everything going really well to be – I mean, like I say, we’ve got a young baby now, and we’ve probably been through in the last year the most awful period because she has got a medical condition and we were told that she may not live during the pregnancy. But because my state of mind is so different now, it didn’t matter.
Stephen: Right. I see.
Suzanne: I think it’s just it was so terrible back then due to the lack of food and nutrition and…
Stephen: Is it kind of only now that you can kind of see it more clearly?
Suzanne: Oh, absolutely.
Stephen: Because obviously the state you’re in now is very different from last year in the situation.
Suzanne: Yes.
Stephen: Yes. Did you then equate – because you say you’re being in control. Did you equate say a number on a scale as a number to aim for that would make you feel happy?
Suzanne: Yes.
Stephen: You equated a number on a scale as happiness, if you know what I mean?
Suzanne: Yes, yes.
Stephen: Right.
Suzanne: And the clothes size to happiness and a certain look to happiness.
Stephen: You must have reached that number if you’re on the diet for so long.
Suzanne: Yes.
Stephen: What happened when you reached that number? Did it make you happy or not in the end?
Suzanne: I thought it did, but no, it didn’t.
Stephen: Right.
Suzanne: No. I mean, I thought I was happy, but in hindsight, I wasn’t. I think it was an insecure happiness.
Stephen: I got you. It’s not a true happiness.
Suzanne: No.
Stephen: Right. How long ago was that since you did any form of dieting? Obviously, you gave birth. So obviously, you weren’t dieting last year when you were pregnant, obviously.
Suzanne: No.
Stephen: So how long ago was it since?
Suzanne: I think after I had my baby, I really took stock and it was no, there’s got to be another way. And I haven’t dieted since having her, and I would say in June of this year, so you’re talking six months from now, I really took stock and thought, no, I’m going to change my life around and do it properly. I’ve followed proper nutrition, proper health and fitness and let’s see how it’s done.
Stephen: Yes. That’s brilliant. I know plenty of people in a similar form of kind of almost yoyo type of dieting or thinking dieting is the only answer. You said that you decided to take stock. Was there a trigger of any sort? What can someone look at you and think, I’m in that same sort of situation, and what caused them to?
Suzanne: I think personally, you need to look at it as there is another way. Life is never as bad as that you need to let your own health suffer. For me, personally, I look to my baby, I thought, she needs me more than I need this.
Stephen: Right.
Suzanne: So that’s my own personal thing, but for anybody else, I would say nothing is worth letting your own health suffer.
Stephen: Right. So I guess you realized the impact, because obviously it does impact those around you, doesn’t it?
Suzanne: Yes, definitely.
Stephen: I think the best thing I heard was when you said about your daughter saying “I prefer you happy.”
Suzanne: Yes.
Stephen: I mean, that’s the best thing.
Suzanne: Yes. And I would say our home life is 110% better.
Stephen: Yes?
Suzanne: Definitely.
Stephen: That’s really good. Okay. So moving on to when obviously you’ve lost – I mean, how much weight have you lost now since effectively June?
Suzanne: I’d say probably about 17, 18 pounds.
Stephen: Right. So that’s all fat, which is a really massive amount. Can you kind of say what happened at the beginning? So obviously you started trying to eat healthier and exercising. What happened?
Suzanne: Yes. I didn’t really get any results at all. I felt benefits in that I had more energy straight away. I felt benefits in that I felt more stronger than I have done for years, and I also suffered with migraines. I’m on medication for migraines. That improved straight away due to eating properly and having proper nutrition. But I didn’t get any results within sort of fat loss or weight loss for probably half a month, really. But I was told, “Stick at it, stick at it. It will happen,” and it has.
Stephen: And so, for someone that was very used to thinking only of a scale weight, how was that in the beginning, mindset-wise?
Suzanne: Extremely frustrating. Extremely. Because like you say, I am very used to just seeing the scale weight and getting off those. I knew that I could do the Cambridge Diet, and within a week I would lose probably a stone, if I wanted to. So to retrain my mind to know it’s not the weight on the scale that you see. It’s the overall picture. It’s really hard to get your head around, but the benefits far outweigh it.
Stephen: Would that be your main advice to someone in the same situation? Because I mean, I know personally a lot of people have kind of had the same sort of history, but when they start trying to do it, effectively a healthy way, it doesn’t happen as they used to equating losing weight very quickly. So was it just a case of having a bigger vision, effectively?
Suzanne: Yes, I think so. Yes. And having a long term goal, and the overall picture as well. Yes, definitely. I mean, the benefits that I can see now are just huge, and I’m probably the healthiest and the fittest I’ve ever been, and the happiest I’ve ever been.
Stephen: That’s nice.
Suzanne: And so are my family. It’s definitely seeing the whole picture and the bigger picture.
Stephen: Right. So what are the main things that feel different about – I mean because obviously you’re still losing fat, you’re still losing weight. What feels different?
Suzanne: I’m healthy. I feel healthy. Happy. My body is toned, completely toned. I’ve got so much more energy. I sleep now, which is probably one of the big things, and it’s quality sleep. It’s not the erratic sleep that I was having. My state of mind is secure. Whereas I would say before I had paranoia all the time and paranoid about what people thought all the time, and I haven’t got that at all. I couldn’t care less now if people saw me without my top clothes. A year ago, that wouldn’t be me at all.
I think it just alters you. Your frame of mind completely alters and the overall health benefits far outweigh anything, and the benefits to my family and myself and my partner is huge, to the extent that my partner is going to be following the same pattern because he can see the results I’m getting and want to do it as well.
Stephen: So would you say then you’re kind of a role model to – well, obviously, your husband, but also then to your children as well?
Suzanne: Definitely. And I think I was very much afraid with my old way of life and my daughter following in that kind of pattern of up and down weight issues. That is a scary thought when there’s so much pressure on young children and teenaged girls anyway, and I had to sort it out before she got to an age where she was knowing about her body and about body image and things. I think I’m giving her the right body image now and the right idea about nutrition and the right idea about how to stay healthy and how to stay fit.
Stephen: Yes.
Suzanne: Totally. Certainly.
Stephen: I mean obviously you’re very busy. You’ve got children and things. How do you make time for exercise, having young children? How do you justify it almost? Because I know a lot of people feel guilty if they take time for themselves.
Suzanne: I would say you need to prioritize. Yes, you could feel guilty, but when you feel it’s setting yourself up for the future, it’s setting your children up for the future, and for me, it’s my own time that I deserve as well. And I am very busy with the children. I mean, I work from half past seven in the morning till probably about 20 past six at night. But my exercise time is my time, and it’s giving back to the family because it’s giving a healthy mom back, and you can’t put a price on that.
Stephen: Yes. I was going to say, you’ve already mentioned it, but the fact that you obviously – the positive impact that it has to everyone around you far outweighs taking an hour for yourself effectively.
Suzanne: Exactly.
Stephen: That’s amazing.
Suzanne: Exactly. And you get to the point, I certainly get to the point where I’m actually forward to the time of day where I can go and I can just do that little bit for me and get to do too.
Stephen: So what advice would you give to someone who is in what your situation was, if you know what I mean? On a cycle of dieting. I mean, all the things you’ve said are really, really super positive, but I think often, would you say that people can kind of ignore what they kind of know and kind of just…
Suzanne: Definitely, and you can hear the positives and think that doesn’t apply to me. So all I would say is there is another way. It doesn’t have to be that way, and if you can turn it around into another way, then it will, in the long run, be for the better, definitely. It may seem like getting the fast results is the good way, but it’s not. It’s detrimental to your health and it’s detrimental to everyone around you.
Stephen: That’s great.
Suzanne: I think if I could stop one person doing what I did, then that would be great.
Stephen: That’s awesome. So what are your plans with your health now and things like that? Obviously, you’re feeling loads better and a lot healthier. What kind of do you see for yourself physically in the future?
Suzanne: I want to carry on going basically the way I am and I want to basically, for myself and for my family, follow the right nutrition for the future. Certainly for my baby because she’s got brittle bones. It’s very important to me, the right nutrition for her, but also for the whole family. Keep up the fitness, keep up the active lifestyle. It’s not just the fitness and the active lifestyle. I mean, it’s affecting my whole life in that my personal life is so much more organized and together, and I think my future, I just want to keep it going that way, definitely.
Stephen: That’s awesome. Well, Suzanne, I think that’s awesome and an inspiration for so many people, I know, because I’ve met enough and I’m sure you have, that are in exactly the same position you were in. So like you say, if just one person kind of listens to it and thinks I can do it differently, then I’d say that’s being awesome.
I just want to say thank you very much for spending time with us. I think that’d be really, really helpful. Keep it going. You’re doing awesomely.
Suzanne: Thanks.
