Loz - Interview 33

Age at interview: 14

Brief Outline: Loz has asthma and finds that the extra weight she carries has made her condition worse. She sees a dietician who told her she is overweight and needs to change what she eats and do more exercise. Loz is attending a health kick programme run in her local area. Ethnic background: White British.

Background: See 'brief outline'.

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In the last two years Loz has put on weight because she began eating the wrong kind of food containing lots of fat and sugar. Six months ago she started seeing a dietician because she was found to be overweight and she is happy with the help, advice and information the dietitian is giving her. Loz said that the dietitian wants her to change one thing at a time after an appointment. So the deal is that every three months – she has to be prepared to give up one of those foods that makes her overweight.

 

Loz’s dietician also advised her to go to a local health kick programme devised to help young people to get fit and healthy. The health kick is a twelve weeks programme started by a local GP and Loz has already being attending for the last eight weeks. She goes there once a week and uses the gym and take part in discussions groups about nutrition and how to lose weight. She finds the talks ‘boring’ because she thinks they are like a school lesson. At school she has recently join the Karate group.

 

Since joining the health kick programme Loz has began to change the things she eats. Now she uses sweetener instead of sugar; eats fruit at breakfast and she has changed to low fat products. Loz has come to realise that it is important to eat different things because of the vitamins and minerals your body needs. Of all the things she has had to give up she misses chocolate and ice cream but replaced the latter with ice lollies.

 

Loz finds herself ‘too fat’ and said that it is wrong for someone her age to be size eighteen. She wants to be able to fit into smaller size clothes and said it would be good to fit into nice tops in a smaller size like eight or ten or even fourteen. At present she wears big tops and big jeans. Loz would like to be skinny like her friends.

 

Loz has asthma and said that the condition is made worse by the extra weight she carries. Also she gets achy legs, especially when going up and down the stairs. One of the issues for her to lose weight is to be healthier. Loz said that her grandmother has being very supportive by changing and supervising what she eats and answering all her questions.

Loz sees a dietitian every four months.

And does she give you diet sheets?

 

Loz' Yeah.

 

Yeah.

 

Loz' Like with a pie chart on it like for show which foods I should have instead of junk, like fats and sugars and all that.

 

Loz’s nan' She’s trying to get her to change one thing at a time each time we go, so she’s gotta make one change.

 

And how often does she go along?

 

Loz' [Sighs].

 

Loz’s nan' Roughly about once every three months at the minute.

 

Okay.

 

Loz' once every four months.

 

And is it easy to make those changes that she asks you to do?

 

Loz' Yeah.

 

Yeah? Oh well that’s good. What makes it easy do you think?

 

Loz' My Nan stopping me.

 

Said don’t go in the shops.