Since April last year, Diane (weightlossmama) has lost 94 pounds. She started her weight-loss journey weighing in at 302 pounds and says that she “always knew I needed to lose weight, but it was always the question of how and finding the money to do so, then an opportunity came up that allowed me to have my costs covered to join Weight Watchers, so I took it."

Success from the Start

Diane lost weight from the very first week that she started the Weight Watchers program. "I lost 3.8 pounds in the first week, and continued to lose weight pretty steadily. There was one week where lost almost 8 pounds. It was very encouraging, because the weight was dropping off me in 5-pound increments. I was doing the program with 2 friends and I was at my 10% goal way before they were," she says.

Fortunately, Diane did not suffer from any great plateaus, the most it slowed down for her was a week when she only lost .2 pounds and a couple of times when she put on a little bit of weight. "I did gain weight twice since April, once was the week before Christmas and I can pretty much put it down to eating too much cookie dough, and once during the summer. But the most I ever gained was 1.2 pounds," she says.

Working it off

Diane exercises five days a week for at least 45 minutes. She says that starting to exercise was hard, but using workout DVDs at home has really worked for her.

"I knew that the Walk Away the Pounds DVDs were simple enough for me to do as a very uncoordinated person, they weren't very dancy and they start off with walking a 1 mile distance which is about 15 minutes of exercise. When I first started, I could barely do that 15 minutes but before I knew it I was able to 30 minutes and from there the time I was able to do just kept doing up. I now do intervals of jogging also, think and do 60 minutes of exercise no problem. It feels great, and I can really tell when I don't do it," says Diane.

The changes that Diane can see in her body are amazing, "I don't ever remember being able to feel my bones before!" She has so much more energy to play with her children, she sleeps better at night, falls asleep faster, and is no longer tired at three o'clock in the afternoon.

Support to Lose

Being able to start the journey with two friends was very helpful for Diane, she had support from the word go. At home, initially there was not a lot of support. “My husband was very skeptical at first, because I was paying money to lose weight, but now he makes sure I am always able to attend my meetings. He is very supportive now. He congratulates me when I lose and is happy for me," she says.

Diane is still on a weight-loss journey, and says that she has another 65 pounds to go to reach her goal, she says, "I was surprised by how fast the weight has come off but I still have some areas that I need to work on now, I'd like not to be so jiggly!"

As a mom, Diane knows that the change she has affected in her life is very positive. "Because my two girls see me exercising all the time, they are growing up thinking that that's a normal thing to do. We are trying to figure out activities to do as a family, so is all of us getting healthy together," she says.

Huge Differences to Celebrate

When Diane runs into people that she has not seen in a while, they are shocked. "One neighbor I saw recently said, "Oh my God!" when he saw how much weight I had lost. I love getting that kind reaction," she says.

Going shopping is a very different experience for Diane these days. "I didn't go shopping for new clothes until last summer, when I had lost 65 pounds as I couldn't afford to get new clothes every time I drop the size. So I jumped a lot of sizes. Now of course I am way smaller than those clothes too," she says.

"I find that I am wearing my clothes really differently now to. Before I would wear everything really baggy, so that you couldn't see any shades and now I am wearing more fitted clothing. Losing this weight has really affected my confidence and self-esteem,” says Diane.

Diane has the following advice for those looking to start a weight loss journey. "You have to truly be ready. It's no good just saying that you're ready, you have to work through all those excuses why you aren't doing it, because we are our own worst enemies and we will make up excuse after excuse as to why we cannot do it. Then you just have to take a few small steps to make a big difference in your life," she says.