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Claudine Dirren from Visp VS takes a break in the shade after completing her tour. The Valais woman’s pedometer counts 35,000 to 40,000 steps a day.
Myrtle MuellerOutside Reporter News
The old photos look like they are from another world. Claudine Dirren (40) was severely overweight, at times weighed 153 kilos and was 176 centimeters tall. The trained cook couldn’t find any clothes in the shops and had to order everything online at overpriced prices. “In size 60 you wear what fits and not what you like,” says Dirren. She had no feeling of satiety and also ate junk food such as fries and hamburgers. “I ate far too much of everything and kept gaining weight,” says Dirren. Movement was difficult for her then.
Today her reflection looks different. The Visperin is willowy, with a flat stomach and a wide smile. When she read reporter Luisa Ita’s weight loss story in Blick yesterday, she immediately reported: “I’ve lost 77 kilos in the past few years. I even cut myself in half.” Claudine Dirren’s recipe: “Change your diet completely and run, run, run.” She is out in the fresh air for four to five hours a day, “I take the dog out very early in the morning and walk as much as possible”. Your pedometer counts between 35,000 and 40,000 steps a day.
The former cook now works as a ski instructor
Claudine Dirren is unstoppable. “I love hiking, winter sports, I like swimming.” In addition, she does targeted strength training and even manages the demanding High Intensity Training (HIT). She no longer works as a cook, but gives skiing lessons. Now she wears size 40 and even models for a local clothing store.
The way wasn’t easy. Even as a child, Claudine Dirren struggled with excess pounds: “When I was six, my tonsils were taken out, after which I rose like a yeast cake, my mother told me.” But she never really suffered from being overweight. “Of course I was teased at times, but I was strong and was able to defend myself,” says Claudine Dirren. At 16, she already weighs 110 kilos.
Success also requires a portion of stubbornness
She becomes a cook and works in a restaurant. All that dragging goes on the intervertebral discs. “Suddenly I couldn’t move anymore, I even sat in a wheelchair for a short time,” says Dirren. After two years of torment, the Visperin bites her way back to life. “I studied social education in Bern,” she says. She married and became pregnant. “I had to vomit again and again throughout the pregnancy, and finally lost 14 kilos.” At that time she was 28 years old. What she hardly suspected at the time: Five years later she will only weigh 76 kilos.
A doctor wants to give her a gastric bypass after the birth. “He told me I would never lose weight without him. That aroused my ambition,” continues Claudine Dirren. It starts with a few steps. The walks get longer. Dirren gets on the bike. First with an electric motor, later without.
A chocolate ball a day
“From then on, instead of fries, there were potatoes in the oven. Instead of the usual four to five slices of jam in the morning, I have a huge portion of wholegrain oatmeal for breakfast, delicious with cinnamon and ginger,” she says. Then she could skip lunch. And: “I drink a lot of tea,” says Claudine Dirren. The daughter was followed by a boy in 2012. Husband and children join in. “We are all very active,” says Dirren. After she had lost over 70 kilos, she had her stomach tightened.
However, the former cook does not want to be scourged. Sometimes a pizza is definitely in it. “Every day I reward myself with a Lindor chocolate ball,” says Claudine Dirren. It’s not just exercise and healthy eating that brought the big change to the mother of two. “It’s also my stubbornness,” she admits, “there were dry spells in which you hardly lost any weight for months, despite training and dieting. Then you just have to persevere.” At some point everything becomes natural. “People are creatures of habit,” says Claudine Dirren, “I no longer have trouble maintaining the weight. I’m much fitter and I realize I’m alive!”