I turned 40 this year. I have never been really fat, but for most of my life I have been trying to lose weight. I knew all about eating healthy and have tried various food regiments, including eating macrobiotic, vegetarian, vegan and raw.

In the past few years I also started exercising more, doing a lot of aerobics, exercise machine training and lately running. At one point I was running one hour every day, which brought on problems with my back, but never made me lose one gram of fat! I was working so hard, but to no avail. I was frustrated. I decided to give it a try. One last try.

Getting into the workout routine wasn’t so hard for me, because I had been doing so much more (time-wasting) exercising before. I also started using a diet journal app to control my food intake and portion sizes. I realized that I may have eaten far too much – even of the “good” stuff - in the past. The nutrient patterning was also a revelation for me! Finally it all made sense. When I started, I lost 3 kg in the first 2 weeks. This was unheard of! Over the past 20 years I hadn’t managed to lose ANY weight even though I was exercising more than anybody I knew! In total, I lost more than 8 kg over 12 weeks.

I could feel that I had built up muscle, but didn’t feel like my body shape had changed that much. I took those “after” photos anyway. When I compared them with the “before” photos, I got quite a (positive!) shock! You could actually see a difference after all! I am continuing to exercise following the Daily Workouts. I now really miss my workout if I cannot stick to my routine owing to work or travel commitments. I may never be “skinny”, but I am definitely stronger now!