Pegasus Post: December 03, 2019

6
Tuesday December 3 2019
News
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz
PEGASUS POST
A better life after shedding the kilos
• By Matt Slaughter
A HUSBAND and wife of
Somerfield have inspired each
other to lose 69.7kg between
them.
In 2017, at 99.7kg Miriam
McKenzie’s doctor told her she
was pre-diabetic and she decided
to make a change.
Weighing about 115kg her
husband Chris McKenzie decided
he owed it to Miriam and their
kids Clementine and Matilda to
do the same.
They signed up to WW, the
new Weight Watchers, and a
combination of hard work and
persistence have paid off.
In less than 11 months, Miriam
has lost 37.7kg and is no longer
pre-diabetic, while Chris has lost
32kg over a slightly longer period
of time.
Miriam said the secret to
her weight loss was nothing
special.
“It was just introducing a
lot more fruit and veg into the
diet, being more mindful about
portion control, that was a
big thing for me and a lot less
snacking, said Miriam.
“And it was less takeaways.
We would have probably had
takeaways at least once a week,
whereas now definitely that’s an
occasional like hardly ever kind
of thing.”
Miriam said she started
walking about 13,000 to 15,000
steps a day with her best friend
Lucy Arnold.
“We went from me having to
constantly ask her [Lucy] to slow
down to her now having to keep
up with me,” Miriam said.
With every 5kg to 10kg Miriam
lost, she rewarded herself by
buying something nice like
charms for her Pandora bracelet
or new shoes.
Said Chris: “I was seeing the
kids grow up and thinking I
really want to be able to have the
energy, have the health to keep up
with them and of course, seeing
how well Miriam was doing it was
like just a bit of an inspiration to
follow in her footsteps.”
SLIM: Chris and Miriam McKenzie have lost 69.7kg between them.
‘I was seeing the kids grow
up and thinking I really
want to be able to have
the energy’
– Chris McKenzie
“I’m a bit of techno-geek, I just
kind of got the Weight Watchers
app and said, I will follow your
directions, Mr app sir, and it
worked, he said.
Miriam said the things that
drove her to lose the weight she
had were being able to fit into
clothes she loved and inspiring
her children.
“That was actually a big
motivator for me, was to be able
to wear nice clothes again and to
be able to just walk into any shop
and be able to fit clothes. That
really does feel amazing,’’ said
Miriam.
“Obviously, we want to be
healthy for our kids and good role
models for them.”
For others wanting to lose
weight, Miriam has some key
tips.
“It’s about just digging deep
and finding out your reasons
why you want to do it and letting
that drive you and just doing it
for yourself, eating well, moving
more and breaking it down into
those little mini goals, that was
really good for me.”
Said Chris: “She [Miriam] is
just an inspiration and she’s just
amazing.”
PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN
INSPIRATIONAL: Chris and Miriam McKenzie before their
big weight loss.
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