Mum and daughter decide to lose weight

Jody Kearney knows exactly what goes through most people's minds when they look at her and her eight-year-old daughter Angel.

"That I'm a terrible mother, definitely. How could I have let this happen to my child? Myself? I guess that's what they'd be thinking."

Three months ago, Jody tipped the scales at 170 kilograms.

"I just couldn't get the motivation to do anything," Jody said.

"My habits were very nothing. I'd do nothing all day basically. A very nothing of a life I'd put it. On the computer or laying on the lounge watching TV. My daughter has followed in my path and it's not a good thing."

Although she's only in year 2 at school, Angel weighs about the same as an average adult at 69 kilograms. Jody knew the only way to turn the situation around was to lead by example.

"I've been watching life pass me by for a long time now. Angel will see kids playing with their parents as we drive past on the way to the restaurant or something and she'd say why don't we ever do that Mum - why aren't we outside playing," says Jody.

She sent a cry for help to Shaun Cardillo of NuYu Total Health. He runs a Biggest Loser style residential programme for people who want constant supervision and advice.

"For many people they might be in denial about where they're at in terms of their lifestyle and weight we believe the only way to truly help people is to remove them out of their environment and re-educate them in exercise and nutrition," says Shaun.

The NuYu Weightloss retreat encompasses fitness sessions, seminars and food preparation classes. In her first week as the only child in residence - Angel is learning about healthy eating - starting with the basics.

Jody has already been there for ten weeks - sharing a house with others on the program in the evenings and spending days in the gym. Angel needs to lose at least 20 kilograms to bring her in line with her class mates. She'll live in for the next three weeks at least to kick start her new regime. It's a gruelling schedule for a young child.

In the two and a half months Jody has been at the retreat - losing the first 20 of the 105 kilograms she plans to shed - she has had plenty of time to think.

"I would basically have been saying it wasn't such a bad thing what I was doing a couple of months ago but now I know that what I've been doing is terrible. She had no choice in it really. She can't go out and buy her meals it was me that was doing it. She doesn't make her own lunches. I do. She can't cook her own meals. It was a choice I made and it was a bad choice and now I'm ready to fix it," says Jody.

"Someone in Angel's situation - her current weight is a result of her lifestyle and learnt behaviour. Parents have to take responsibility for that because they're the only ones who can start to change things" says Shaun.

Four days in to the programme it looks like Angel's wish is within her grasp. She's already lost over two kilograms.

"I'd really like to be playing with my Mum all the time and getting fit and really playing cos I never had the chance to do that" says Angel.

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