By Rebecca Drew
THIS BRITISH woman is convinced that her astonishing FOURTEEN-AND-A-HALF-STONE weight loss helped her to finally become a mum after suffering a heart-breaking EIGHT-MISCARRIAGES when she was bigger.
Cleaner and single mum, Catarina Merighi (30) from Penge, London, United Kingdom, says she was always chubbier than her friends as a child despite being an active kid. But when she was old enough to choose what she wanted to eat and go to the shops herself, her weight began to spiral out of control as she would choose to snack on crisps and chocolates.
Going into adulthood, Catarina grew to hate herself for her size and always thought that her friends and family looked better than she did. She knew the damage her unhealthy diet was doing to her but would still gorge on a box of 24 bags of crisps of an evening to comfort herself and never tried to exercise.
At 23st 10lb and a UK size 26, Catarina was also desperate to become a mum and sadly suffered eight heart-breaking miscarriages between September 2013 and June 2017. However, it wasnât until she saw a picture of herself at a friendâs barbeque that she decided to lose weight once and for all.
Catarina is now a super-svelte 9st 4lb and a UK size eight thanks to overhauling her diet to 1,300 to 1,500-calories of good carb, high protein and low saturated fat foods a day, and working out six to seven times a week.
She also realised her dream of becoming a mum, and has a one-year-old daughter, Rosabelle, something that Catarina doesnât think would have been possible without losing weight.
âI was always a chubby kid. My mum was super healthy, and we walked everywhere but I had an extremely slow metabolism so always had that puppy fat,â said Catarina.
âThen when I had the ability to go feed myself and buy my own stuff it spiralled.
âHonestly and truly, I hated myself, it wasnât just about looking like my friends and family and looking better. It was about the fact that I knew the damage I was doing to myself.
âI knew the things I wanted to do and I realised that I was restricting my life and myself just to eat a twenty-four box of crisps.
âI remember the day I decided to lose weight once and for all, I had recently been to a friendâs barbeque and of course pictures were taken. Now I had been in a long-term relationship and I had got into a rut of just eating and not going out.
âAnyway, I went out and the next morning looked at Facebook and I did not recognise the person Iâd become. I mean Iâd always been chubby from a child but this person in this picture wasnât me and I knew I had to make a change.
âLosing weight has made me a totally different person. Itâs built my confidence, made me happier and at least now I can run for the bus without feeling like Iâm having a heart attack.
âMore importantly I miscarried eight times when I was bigger and it wasnât until I lost all the weight I had my beautiful little girl, so honestly losing weight in my eyes helped me to become a mum.â
When sheâs out and about, people no longer recognise her and are surprised to see how much weight she has lost.
Finally confident in her own body, Catarina has been sharing her weight loss journey on Instagram and has set up her own personal training business to help others like her.
âNot falling off the plan was the most difficult thing about the weight loss and getting on with it when Iâve felt disheartened,â said Catarina.
âIâve had many a moment I just gave up but then I looked at who I used to be and kept going.
âMost of the time people donât recognise me and when they realise itâs me they are just shocked.
âIâve heard it all from people asking, âwhere did you go?â and saying, âKitty are you there?â
âI am finally content and happy within my own skin.
âIf someone really doesnât know where to start with weight loss, read up about different plans and think about how your body reacts to certain foods.
âIf you really need the assistance check out my page, KMweightlossandtraining on Instagram.â
For more information see www.instagram.com/kmweightlossandtraining