Inside Chelsea Dixon’s amazing 60kg weight loss

When the sight of a new family photo was like a ‘smack in the face’, Gympie’s Chelsea Dixon decided to embark on amazing journey to turn her life around. Here’s how she did it.

When she saw a family photo posted on Facebook, Chelsea Dixon didn’t recognise her own image.

“Gobsmacked” by how different she had become on the back of a diet of which included large meals, junk, and deep fried food, the mother of four set out on an extraordinary life-changing path which led to her losing almost half her body weight.

“I didn’t recognise who I was looking at,” Ms Dixon told the Gympie Times

“I lived in my pyjamas, only went out to pick up my kids and didn’t look in the mirror.

“It was a big smack in the face.”

Since the start of 2019 Ms Dixon has shed a staggering 60kg, dropping from 130kg to 70kg.

Although she realised she needed to make a change in January of that year, it was not until March she finally took her first steps with the Healthy Mummy challenge.

She lost 4.5kg from that first challenge, and took 3kg-4kg off in the challenges that followed.

It was an effort which made a mark on the Healthy Mummy group which put her amazing story in the national spotlight earlier this year – an astounding achievement for some who initially laughed at the idea of losing weight.

“I never thought I’d even lose 5kg,” Ms Dixon said.

“I laughed and said that would never happen.”

It did though, and as the loss continued, she kept making gains in other ways.

Ms Dixon said it was a matter of dropping 3-4kg in ongoing stages.

“I kept loving what I was feeling,” she said.

“Everything (clothes, food) became options.”

The change in lifestyle also opened up a world of new opportunities with her children Isabella, 12, Thomas, 8, Oliver, 5 and Harrison, 4.

Ms Dixon’s initial goal was to hit 85kg.

Chelsea Dixon lost 60kg through the Healthy Mummy challenge.

However, she became paranoid she would be unable to maintain it and kept going.

On hitting 70kg she realised was “getting thin and fragile”.

“It all happened really, really quickly,” she said.

The weight loss has opened up new opportunities for Ms Dixon’s lifestyle, including athletic events.

The response was worth the effort; Ms Dixon said friends and family were “proud of her and what she had achieved“.

She encouraged anyone looking to achieve the same to follow three rules: start small, keep it simple, and organise meal prepping.

A change in mindset was important, too.

“As people we think weight is a number and we’ll be happy when we get there but it doesn’t work like that,” she said.

“It might seem impossible today but it might be possible tomorrow.”