Funny girl Magda Szubanski has lost a staggering 26 kilograms in a
year. As Wendy Squires discovers, the much-loved star of Kath & Kim is now shrinking at the rate of a kilogram a week, and she has gained
a whole new, more positive perspective on life.
The Weekly and Jenny Craig give you the chance to meet Magda Szubanski backstage at Guys and Dolls! Click here to enter
The mercury is hitting 43°C and Melbourne is in meltdown. Air-conditioners labouring at full blast have exhausted the power grid and much of
the city’s famous shopping stretch of Chapel Street is without electricity. Finding a cafe cool enough to sit in means walking several blocks through
the oppressive haze, something Magda Szubanski admits she would have found near-impossible only a year ago, when she weighed 121 kilograms.
"Imagine if I was still carrying all that extra fat in this weather!" she says, her cherubic face breaking into a broad smile at the thought. "It would be unbearable. My muscles used to be like these big guy [tent] ropes holding up this massive amount of weight. It was terrible."
Barely recognisable from the last time she sat down to talk with The Weekly, only four-and-a-half months ago, after joining weight-loss company Jenny Craig, today, Magda is 16 kilos lighter and a whole lot happier as she takes a seat in
the city’s famous Caffé e Cucina, where handsome Italian waiters hover ready to flirt with the attractive blonde in their midst. Cheekbones that weren’t noticeable just weeks ago have suddenly appeared, along with a jawline that gives her pretty face more definition. Her shorts are now so big they’re almost falling off and her shirt is so loose she could practically fit in another person. Her hair, her skin, her eyes are all glowing with good health.
She is a new person and she knows it.
"I feel unbelievable," the 47-year-old exclaims, "and I'm so proud of myself. My mum is really proud, too, although she told me last night that I’m not allowed to get up myself about it."
The truth is that Magda has every right to be both proud and up herself. In the past year, the comedian, actress and writer has lost a massive 26 kilos, literally saving her own life in the process. Yet it's joining Jenny Craig 16 weeks ago that Magda credits as the real key to her phenomenal success. Since following their plan, Magda has passed the halfway mark to her goal weight of 85 kilos, her weight when she first hit our TV screens as Pixie-Anne Wheatley on Fast Forward in the late 1980s.
"It's the small things I’m noticing, such as going upstairs," she explains. "I don't even have to think about it now — I just do it. When I get to the top I think, 'My God, I've just walked up stairs!', whereas before
I would stand at the bottom as if they were Mt Everest and go, 'Oh, my God — how am I going to do this?' "
Your say: Have you lost weight recently? Tell us your experience and send your message to Magda below...
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