For us, Weight Watchers has been like an awakening because before it we weren’t really living, we were merely existing

Anna Van Dyken from Perth was horrified she had let her family’s weight become a problem. She is a Healthy Life Award inspiration finalist because she helped her son, husband and herself by collectively losing 87 kilos.

I had to do something
My ten year old son was almost 80kg when he had to do a cross county run for school. He finished last and had to run the final lap on his own, huffing and puffing. When he finished he said to me ‘mum, I am so embarrassing. Please don’t ever make me do this again.’ I was heartbroken and burst into tears. I thought to myself, ‘this is my responsibility, I have to do something.’

I acted quickly
The very next day I went onto the Weight Watchers website and found where my local meeting was and signed up that very weekend. I knew a healthy lifestyle had to start with me because I’m the one who cooks and my son looks to me as an example of how he should live his life. Now, between my husband, son and I we have lost 87kg. Can you believe it!?

Then we hit hard times
We went bankrupt. We lost our house, our business and all the comforts we had come to know in life. We had to physically and emotionally adjust to a different way of living. Instead of giving up, I chose to rise above it. I decided to hold my head high and continue with the program because you cannot put a price on your health.

My husband was diagnosed
Before we started with Weight Watchers, my husband was told he had diabetes from poor health. It was another wonderful reason to change our lives because if we didn’t do something about it, it would have gotten worse. Not to mention that it runs in his side of the family so my son is at risk and I want to be able to educate him on how to live a healthy life. This means when he is an adult, I have educated him on how to live the best possible life and he has less risk of developing diabetes. Simply through eating healthily and exercise my husband now has normal blood sugar.

A complete change
My son used to hate sport and never wanted to go outside. He learnt that from me, but since we started the Weight Watchers program we have all started to get into the habit of doing a bit of daily or weekly exercise. TV time used to be our hangout, but now we’ll go for walks as a family. My son has gone from hating sport to being sports captain of his school and being on the football team.

The important part
You can’t put a price on your life or your family. For us, Weight Watchers has been like an awakening because before it we weren’t really living, we were merely existing. We awoke our bodies and now we all have so much energy, spirit and feel incredible. To live a long and healthy life is the most important thing of all and the greatest gift I can give to my family.

Discover more from Feed Me Healthy with Anna Van Dyken

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading