Alison Braun, Second Biggest Loser, has great diet plans

Alison Braun, who stood second in ‘The Biggest Loser’, says I still wants to lose more weight and has huge plans for the future.

The 34-year-old aged-care worker said the growth in her mental strength over the last few months while competing in the weight-loss reality show had been as amazing as her physical transformation.

“The weight loss is fabulous, but the other bonus is that along the way I realised how disciplined, determined, focused and driven I could be.

“When I first started, I thought I’d only last a couple of weeks, because there were so many strong, young competitors in the house. I didn’t think I could do the challenges, but as I got through each one, I said ‘Wow, I can do it’.

“I learnt so much about myself. I can’t believe I did all that training – my mental strength amazed me. I never missed a day. I’d never pushed myself before, but in the house I pushed until I thought: ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t possibly do anymore’.

“I had really bad knees and at one point I had to tape them three times a day – I got blisters and the skin ripped off. And I ended up with tissue injuries after one of the challenges. So I had to work through a lot of pain.

Mrs Braun began the show at a weight of 121.7kg and lost 55.2kg over the last few months (a weight loss of 45.36 per cent) to reach 66.6kg and win the $25,000 prize money for second place, which she will spend on a family holiday.

“I want to finish the whole thing off a good note and I promised my family a holiday, so we’re off to Queensland to visit all the fun parks after I’m finished in Sydney,” she said.

A career change might be on the cards for the Therapy Co-ordinator, who said she loved her job but wanted to try something different such as motivational speaking.

“Doing the show was like an escape from reality for three months. Being away from your normal environment makes you re-evaluate things. I had such a positive experience, such an amazing time, I’d love to help other people, especially mums,” she said.

"My best advice to others who want to lose weight is to just make the decision to do it, and to realise you deserve to spend that time on yourself."

Mrs Braun said her fitness goal was to compete in triathlons because she enjoyed training so much and wanted to lose more weight to reach her goal of 60kg.

“Right now I’m focusing on maintaining everything I’ve lost. I can guarantee I’ll never go back to the weight I was. No item of food can taste as good as I feel now. It’s not that hard – watch what you put in your mouth and exercise.

“Before I lost the weight, I just existed. I hadn’t been living. There are all these things I want to do that I wouldn’t have tried before. When you're overweight, you're not living fully.
“I want to live. I want to be able to chuck a backpack on and head across Europe. I want to travel everywhere.

"Now I’m on top of the world. It’s been a completely life-changing, amazing journey.

"I've always had a positive personality, but I was always sitting on the sidelines. Now I feel as if I've been released from prison. I feel blessed.