You Got This: Mum kicks $300 a week habit to lose 53kg

Cicily Goodwin, 26, has revealed how she lost 53kg, almost half her body weight, after kicking her fast-food eating binges.

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Cicily Goodwin was aware that at 128kg, she needed to make changes to her poor eating habits.

The 26-year-old said she consumed about $300 worth of takeaway food a week and often felt “disgusted” and “embarrassed” when she looked in the mirror.

Her binge-eating diet had become so out-of-control she would eat more than 3,000 calories of fatty and sugary foods a day — from soft drinks, iced coffees, takeaway and large portions of home-cooked meals like spaghetti.

“I began to eat out of impulse, not thinking it mattered because I was already fat and nothing was working so what was the point in eating healthy,” Ms Goodwin told news.com.au

“I would spend so long getting dressed and was just miserable at the person looking back at me.”

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Cicily Goodwin, 26, was eating more than $300 worth of takeaway food a week. Picture: The Healthy Mummy

Her diet comprised of soft drinks, iced coffee, fatty and sugary foods and excess portions of home-cooked meals such as pasta. Picture: The Healthy Mummy

However, that all changed four years ago when the stay-at-home mum from Nambucca Heads, NSW, overhauled her diet and lost 53kg in 18 months.

After giving birth to her second child in 2016, Ms Goodwin said seeing other mums transform their lives prompted her to want to do the same.

“In the space of my pregnancy I watched women completely transform their bodies, so as soon as I had my son I went in guns blazing ready to do it too,” she said.

She signed up to The Healthy Mummy where she focused on eating the “right amounts of foods at the right times”.

“I didn’t go to the gym, I didn’t starve my body. I made small changes slowly and aimed to lose 700 grams per week,” she said.

Four years on, and she has kept the weight off saying her new approach to food has become a way of life.

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After giving birth to her second child, she decided to put her unhealthy eating habits behind her for good and embarked on her weight loss journey. Picture: The Healthy Mummy

Ms Goodwin, who documents her journey on Instagram, said maintaining weight loss is a “whole different ball game”.

“Because the natural response to weight loss is weight gain. So I won’t deny I’ve fluctuated a few kilos,” she said.

“Trolls would say to me ‘you’ll just gain it all back again and then some in a year’.”

However, she said the amazing thing about the program is that you are not restricted to 1,200 calories.

“I ate over 2000 calories a day to lose this weight,” she explained.

Today her diet is far more controlled, with more nutritional-based foods such as fruit and superfoods smoothies for breakfast and lunch followed by a wholemeal chocolate chip muffin for a snack.

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She went on to lose a whopping 53kg in 18 months, without going to the gym, and focusing on eating the ‘right foods at the right time’. Picture: The Healthy Mummy

For dinner she opts for a protein with vegetables or salad with her favourite being beef san choy bow and for dessert she will treat herself to two rows of Lindt dark chocolate and a cup of herbal tea.

“It completely changed my way of living,” Ms Goodwin said about her weight loss journey. “I got out of her house more, out in the sunshine, go on kite adventures. I’m a more active and fun mum to my kids.”

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Cecily joined The Healthy Mummy saying she made small changes slowly and aimed to lose 700 grams per week. Picture: The Healthy Mummy

The mother-of-two said she faced several obstacles during her transformation, such as not seeing results and getting down on herself.

However, when she won a makeover competition where the prize involved getting her hair and makeup done and having new clothes picked by a stylist she said she was able to see “the beauty in myself for the first time in years”.

Since turning her life around four years ago, she said she’s never felt more free, happy, confident and beautiful. Picture: The Healthy Mummy

While the only form of activity she did during her 18-month transformation was walking, Ms Goodwin said she went on to join her local gym recently, but stopped due to coronavirus.

“After I lost the weight I also worked as a fitness trainer for six months teaching classes which was bit of a lifestyle change,” she said.

Ms Goodwin said since turning her life around she feels “happy, free, confident and beautiful”.

“For the first time in my life when I think about the things I want in life, my body is not on the list and that is such a huge thing in itself, because this is what I’ve wanted and it has driven literally my whole life.”

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