Success for Salote

February 2011

Bringing back the past is well within reach for Salote Vaotangi, a Tongan woman who is inspiring her parish by slimming down to the weight she was almost 10 years ago.

Salote has lost 20 kilograms from her 113kg frame thanks to her participation in an adult weight loss programme through the Fonua Mo’ui Health Project. She is now aiming to lose a further 13kg which would bring her weight down to about 80kg – close to her original body size when she arrived in New Zealand from Tonga in 2002.

Salote is a member of the Manukau Tongan Parish (Lotofaleia) of the Methodist Church of New Zealand. The church received funding from the Counties Manukau District Health Board’s (CMDHB) Creating a Better Future strategy for its Fonua Mo’ui Health Project, which has delivered youth and adult weight loss programmes, and a healthy lifestyles competition in Manukau.

Salote says she had tried to lose weight before but ended up frustrated by her size.

“I don’t like seeing my clothes tight. Very hard to find a size,” she explains. “I don’t like seeing I’m too big and heaps of my sisters, they say to me ‘you’re oversized’.”

She joined the weight loss programme, which involved a 12 week healthy weight loss competition led by a Pacific Dietitian who is also a member of the parish, from October to January this year.

“It was very hard for the first few weeks but because I put on my mind that I really want to lose weight, it make it easier.”

She started doing regular physical activity and made changes to what she was eating. She ate less traditional Tongan foods, more fruit and vegetables, and smaller portion sizes. She also started regularly walking round the block in her neighbourhood.

“When I know I lost heaps of kilograms, it makes me just try to lose some more. It’s very, very helpful for me, knowing the programme. I learnt a lot about food – how to eat the right food and how to exercise.”

She says the programme also helped motivate her, meaning she has enjoyed better results than her previous attempts at dieting.

Asked how she feels now, Salote says she is very happy.

“I’m good,” she says, smiling. “I feel good and more active. I still do exercise. I eat lots of vegetables now. I can eat our islands food but maybe once a week. Like Sunday lunch. I can eat it but I make sure I work hard. The more I eat those wrong foods, the more I go for my exercise.”

And her simple lifestyle changes are also motivating others in her parish, with many people asking her how she has lost weight.

“I want to prove to them it’s possible. I work hard for lose weight but I really enjoy it and I can’t wait to go back to another programme. I do it because I know it’s good for me.”

CMDHB’s Creating a Better Future strategy promotes healthy eating, physical activity, being smokefree and the safe use of alcohol in order to prevent or delay the onset of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, chronic respiratory diseases and many cancers in our community.