Hylton - after... stronger and fitter. ANNMARIE HYLTON was so petite, they called her Tiny all the way through school and even after graduation from college.
A slip of a girl, she was a perfect size 3/4.
However, after school the pounds crept on, unnoticed at first.
"With weight, you don't realise it's there until you have actually gained a good bit of it," she says. "It wasn't until I had put on a lot that I noticed," adds the Norbrook, St. Andrew, mother of two.
In time, the image in the mirror and the way she felt in her own skin started weighing heavily on her mind. Hylton says it left her feeling unattractive and uncomfortable.
After her second child was born, she decided to pick up the gloves and knock off the extra weight. She stopped and started several times with various diets, but yo-yo dieting only left her feeling frustrated.
Then two years ago she decided that the weight had to go. Hylton hired a personal fitness trainer, and with the support of her husband and family, she battled her way through the bulge, losing between 20 and 25 pounds and reclaimed her figure. Hylton notes that she has also regained a sense of self-confidence.
How she gained the weight: Hylton gained much of it during the second of her two pregnancies. She got up to 165 pounds, a hefty amount for her five-foot frame. She lost some of the weight a year later, but ended up putting back on more than she had lost.
She admits that eating large doses of rice and peas at lunchtime, plus reaching for anything convenient (often fattening) from the fridge when she got home at nights helped to pack on the pounds.
How much she lost: She estimates 20 to 25 pounds, but adds that she judged her weight loss more on the way her clothes looked and felt. She therefore knows for sure that she went from a size 14 dress down to a size 9.
She adds that her personal trainer advised her to keep off the scale. This, she reckons, kept her from obsessing over the pounds lost and has been a key component in keeping her on the track to permanent weight loss.
How long it took: She dieted on-and-off before, but says that in the last two years she has been consistent in eating healthily. While two years may seem like a long time, Hylton says taking her time ensured that she lost the weight healthily and will keep it off permanently.
Her breakthrough moment: "One day in 1999 my daughter asked me if I was going to have another baby. I looked at my body in the mirror and it didn't even look like mine. I immediately went back to the gym, got a personal trainer and decided to make a change."
The personal trainer's most valuable advice:
1. You can work out hard four days per week, but if you don't change your lifestyle and eating habits you will see no changes. You must change your lifestyle.
2. Muscles weigh more than fat. When you go to the gym you may not lose weight because you are gaining muscle. Don't be concerned with the scale; what is important is how you feel.
Biggest challenge: Changing her diet and eating three square meals per day.
Dietary changes: Incorporating high-fibre, low-fat foods; lowering her intake of sugar and salt and cut down on carbohydrates. She completely gave up eating late in the nights and has slashed her six to seven cups of coffee a day habit to one cup.
Exercise programme: Walk 10 minutes, bicycle 10 minutes, and use a cardiovascular machine for another 10 minutes.
Overall: Thirty minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of weight training four times a week.
Since she has got stronger she has began running on the treadmill and has increased the time spent on the machine to 20 minutes.
For the future: "My goal is that by next year summer I'll be comfortable fitting into a size 7/8. I know it's going to take some hard work but I am willing to do it."
Parting shot: "I know it's (exercising consistently) difficult for a lot of women with a career and their families, but it's a lifestyle change. It has to become habit-forming.
"You have to try to eat properly and exercise because after a while your metabolism slows down. The older you get the more you lose bone density and have to be aware of staying healthy. Your body will change and if you are not careful, you will get fat. You have to keep fit so hat your lungs and heart don't fail on you. Exercise is also a stress reliever. Since I've been working out my migraines are not as severe as they used to be."
- Kinisha O'Neill
