I was lucky enough to visit the US again last month, I really love the States and I am always inspired by this amazing country. One thing I’m not so inspired about, are some bad American habits! Take for example the drive through craze. I visited the beautiful city of Oklahoma, but was stunned to see so many drive-through facilities like drive through pharmacies/drug-stores and drive through banks. Seriously – a drive through pharmacy! You don’t even have to get out of your car to pick up your medicine, that’s insane. Are we really incapable of walking a few metres or are we just lazy? What’s your opinion? I’m sure you would agree that being stuck in a house and going nowhere, is such a bore. So why leave the house, only to stay in a car??? Whatever happened to getting out and walking to the pharmacy, or at the very least, getting out of your car to walk in to a pharmacy, or a bank or any shop for that matter? The term, getting out, means exactly that – “getting out”.

I wonder if Americans are simply victims of their own technology. We’ve developed so many ways to make our life easier, to which we are in fact making our lives worse off. Obesity is a serious health issue in the US and Australia is following very closely in our neighbours footsteps. I truly hope these are habits we don’t take up down under. I want to see my children grow up with a good future, not a lazy one. Australia and America are very close culturally so I want the dieters of down under to lend a hand to our American pals – if we can change some of America’s bad habits we can make Australia a healthier place too. Please join me in supporting a healthy future. Let’s draw the line between convenience and being healthy. Do you agree with me, do you agree that drive through everything is going too far? I’d love to hear your thoughts!!

I watched a story on A Current Affair about a guy named Kyle who lost 77kg in a year and now is left with a large amount of excess skin as a result. He now expects that the Australian government should foot the $40,000 bill to surgically remove his excess skin, claiming that he should be rewarded for the effort that he put in to losing all of his weight. He believes that if the Government is willing to provide funding for lap-band surgery, then his case shouldn’t be any different. While his efforts should be commended and that he has the right to be upset about the funding of lap-band surgery, I don’t believe that his surgery should be funded.

In 2000, I reached a significant milestone of my own, reaching my goal weight of 69kg, after losing 67kg in 13 months on my own and without any help from surgery, gyms, personal trainers etc. I lost my weight sensibly by creating a healthy eating plan and by walking in my backyard around my clothesline. I too was left with a massive amount of excess skin which eventually needed to be removed surgically because no exercise was going to get rid of it. It never actually entered my mind to consider having the Government fund my surgery. At the time, I reached my goal, I was left with excess skin and it was my own decisions to have it removed. No matter what the cost was to me, I considered it my own reward for actually losing my weight and providing myself with a longer life. Unfortunately our world is accepting obesity as part of our normal lives more and more and frankly I believe it is crazy. I think we need to open our eyes to the growing obesity concern and do something about it. Yes I believe that we should encourage people to lose weight and yes I believe we should commend those who succeed, but I don’t believe that our Government should be funding lap-band surgery or removal of excess skin. There are so many other millions of causes that we should be putting our taxes to for example, breast re-construction for cancer patients. If you are interested to learn more of my personal experience with removing my excess skin, refer to my book The Clothesline Diet which describes my journey in great detail. I invite you to sahre your view.

I was reading a leading story in Melbourne’s Herald Sun labelled “Heavy Cost of Obesity”. According to the statistics, Australians are heading to spend $745.6 million dollars on counselling, low-calorie foods and shakes, diet cook books, lap-band surgery and lipo-suction. That’s not even including gym fees or personal trainers. In Australia there is 62% of adults that are overweight. Gym memberships and personal training is going up, but so are the obesity figures. 

Come on Australia, what are we doing to ourselves? While we are spending a fortune on fast food, we are spending just the same, if not more to lose the calories. It goes to show that we are getting fatter quicker, than losing it and it seems we are accepting it as a normal part of life. I lost 67kg/150lbs in 13 months on my own, without spending any more than my weekly shopping budget. I’m sure that you can do the same. It all comes down to common sense and going back to basics. Think about it this way. Hundreds of years ago, we didn’t have the technology that we have today, but managed to survive on the basic food sources. Now that we have almost everything at our fingertips, we are just abusing it and taking things for granted, especially our bodies. We all need to wake up, shape up and get on with it. Natural foods, good exercise and common sense are the keys to losing weight and you can do it on your own. Let me be your example that it can be done and cost you nothing more than a healthy grocery list. Feel free to let me know your thoughts.

In this video, Karen is interviewed about her boot camp that she runs. The interview describes the involvement of how to lose weight fast, food and diets (with professional chefs), rigorous training etc....

In this article, Karen Gatt shares her tips on how to lose weight through Q & A. Includes case studies, tips and suggestions on healthy weight loss.

This articles features Karen Gatt achievement in being named an Active Australia Day ambassador due to losing half the body size, sensibly on her how. Mention of her hopes to set up a support group on how to lose weight.

Karen shares with New Idea the ordeal she went through before turning her life around by simply walking around the backyard, and changing her diet by removing what she did not need for the first time. Her story is so inspirational, she gets calls for help on how to lose weight. Before long, she started her own support group.