Why This Former Beauty Pageant Contestant Stopped Tracking Her Weight – Waistlab

Why This Former Beauty Pageant Contestant Stopped Tracking Her Weight Obsessively

Tracking your weight loss progress is crucial, no doubt. Otherwise, how else can you measure the effectiveness of your weight loss program?

However, there is a dangerous boundary surrounding weight loss tracking that once crossed can lead to something far worse — an unhealthy obsession. Instead of an enjoyable and fulfilling process, your weight loss process can become stressful, unsatisfying and counterproductive.

In today’s post, Daphanie will share about her struggle with this obsession and how she overcame it so that you can avoid this from happening.

Meet Daphanie

Daphanie is a civil servant in her early thirties.

Oh, and in case you missed the title of this blog post, she’s the former beauty pageant contestant that we’re referring to! Yes, our #WomenOfWaistlab are quite an adventurous, brave and colourful bunch 🌈

Three Months Of Hardcore Training And Dieting

Let’s backtrack to 2012. This is the year Daphanie competed in Miss Earth Singapore.

Back then, Daphanie was at the peak of her fitness level and physique. Pitting against other contestants who were younger and more petite in size, this fueled her motivation to lose weight for the pageant.

To prepare for it, she subjected herself to a strict and intensive training program that even we’re afraid of 💀! Over a period of three months, she worked out almost seven days a week, three to four hours each time. She also committed herself to a ‘no-carbs’ diet.

All that hardcore training definitely did not go waste because:

🏆 In a span of three months, she lost between 12kg to 14kg

🏆 Her body was completely toned

🏆 She eventually emerged as SECOND RUNNER UP in the pageant!

Here’s a very belated congratulations to you, Daphanie! 👏😍

The Price She Paid For Beauty

However, that success she enjoyed came at a heavy cost.

Daphanie soon realised that she had developed an unhealthy obsession with her weight loss progress. She felt incredibly stressed and pressured over the numbers on the weighing scale and measuring tape.

“I was so focused on the numbers on the scale that I immediately became unhappy when I couldn’t reach my goal. I kept pushing and stressing myself to the point where I became constantly upset.”

On top of that, she also became obsessed with working out — she would cancel any plans to meet her friends for the sake of working out, even if they’d been planned beforehand.

Redefining What It Means To Be Healthy

Fast forward 8 years later and you’ll find Daphanie with a brand new mindset and attitude towards health and weight loss.

For one, she doesn’t track the numbers on the weighing scale as frequently as she used to. Instead, she simply takes note of her water and food intake to make sure she doesn’t exceed her caloric intake for the day.

Secondly, she isn’t obsessed with working out anymore like she was back then. Although it’s challenging to find time to workout now because of her work, she still manages to do it when time allows for it. She now attends exercise classes and goes for regular runs.

Last but not least, she discovered waist training and has been doing it since 2019.

The two main reasons why she loves waist training is because:

✅ It helps to control her food portions, especially at night after 7pm (which we all know is snacking time 🍩)

✅ It gives her “nice curves” which she jokes that she doesn’t have 😂

Here’s how Daphanie makes the most out of her waist trainers:

She wears it daily to work — she first wears a body shaper before wearing the waist trainer on top of it
She wears her waist trainer for as long as 12 hours a day
She wears it for at least 5 days a week

To date, she’s lost 3kg from waist training and she’s also downsized from a size M to a size S! Now, that’s the spirit 💪

Don’t Focus Too Much On The Numbers

To the women out there who might be focusing too much on the numbers on the scale, here’s Daphanie’s advice to you:

“Forget the scales and numbers. Focus on the process; work on your diet and workout schedule.

Give yourself a timeline. Check your progress after the timeline is up and you’ll be in for a real surprise!”

Thank you for those wise words, Daphanie! While it’s completely fine to track your progress, it’s important not to overdo it to the point of obsession. Always remember that your weight loss journey should be fulfilling, satisfying, and fun, no matter how long it takes!

We hope you've enjoyed reading her story! Please check out the six other transformation stories of our #WomenOfWaistlab that we featured this month for International Women's Day below: