Winning the weight battle

Jasmin Sciascia is fighting fit, can't keep still and is shedding the kilos.
About a month after receiving life-saving stomach surgery in Seoul, the bubbly 26-year-old says her life has completely turned around.
In four weeks, her weight has dropped by 21kg from her pre-operative 212kg.
The South Korean surgeon who oversaw the operation said Ms Sciascia could lose another 80-100kg within a year.
Ms Sciascia and Lynda Hall, another morbidly obese woman from Wellington, received all-expenses-paid trips to Seoul for the surgery when they could not get the operations done in their respective health board areas.
Without surgery, Ms Sciascia was given about five years to live.
While the Koreans "were lovely, and we were all treated like royalty" Ms Sciascia said it wasn't all plain sailing.
The operation went well but she suffered a reaction to the general anaesthetic.
"For the first four days afterward I was vomiting non-stop. I was in pain, felt rotten and just hated it."
But now the operation's a distant memory, and Jasmin's loving life.
"I lost 22kg in four weeks. The weight's just falling off me.
"I lost probably 15kg because I was sick immediately after surgery. My stomach couldn't tolerate any food at all, even the plain, bland stuff they were giving me."
Now she can eat whatever she likes, but keeping away from carbohydrates and concentrating on protein. Plus, she is eating nowhere near the quantity of food she used to consume. "I just don't feel hungry," she said.
Her current dietary regime starts with half a cup of milk at breakfast or half an egg on half a slice of Vogel's bread. Lunch is usually half a slice of bread with a little bit of chicken on it and dinner is either chicken or fish with a "little wee serving" of vegetables.
"Five mouthfuls is about all I can eat. My food bill is now about $20 a week, and that includes buying some really expensive cuts of meat," Ms Sciascia said.
Yet despite this change in her diet, Ms Sciascia said she was a bundle of energy.
"I'm up at six in the morning as opposed to nine, and I go to Splash Centre every day. I just can't sit still. My energy levels are amazing."
She's now able to do physical things she could never do before.
"If we go fishing at the North Mole, I can scramble down on the rocks. Before I used to stand at the top and watch everyone else. There's not much I can't do now."
Ms Sciascia is having to plan her meals well in advance because her consumption is minuscule now. But in spite of the massive shift in her diet, she feels fine. The keyhole surgery involved cutting away more than 80 per cent of her stomach, and that's the main reason for her changed eating habits. The hospital and surgeon in South Korea keep in touch with her to monitor her progress and so far "everything's fine".
Before she left for Seoul in late February she said she was "a little bit naughty" and took in a few more meals than she should have.
"I arrived there weighing 212kg and now I'm at 191kg. The surgeon said I'd probably lose 120kg all up, dropping between 80 and 100kg in the first year without trying, and then I could lose more if I tried. I've got so much energy now I feel like getting out there. I just can't sit still."