The Weight Watchdog!

AFTER deciding to change her life following a near-fatal accident, a woman adopted a high-energy dog to help lose 100kg.

AT age 36, Karen Kelly hit rock bottom when her weight soared to 176kg. Her excess mass made her slouch, she was depressed, reclusive, and could do little more than care for her young son, Michael, and then return to bed and sulk.

Sporting a 137cm waist and needing no belt for the largest size pants she could find, she struggled to cope with life.

“You’re never comfortable at that weight,” she says. “I had no life. No friends. I stayed in the house and had a long-term relationship that didn’t work. It didn’t seem like I had one good thing going for me.”

After narrowly avoiding what could have been a fatal car accident, Karen made a solemn promise. “I told myself that I can’t live like this anymore,” she recalls. “There has to be more to life. When I wake up, I have to pull open the curtains in my home, answer the front door, sit on the floor and play with Michael, push his stroller. I have to turn my life around.”

Having dieted unsuccessfully all her life, at age 36, she decided to get a big dog that required her to move and be active. Since 2012, nearly five years after getting a dog, her weight has dropped to 76kg.