AUGUST 2017AWW.COM.AU 83
HAIR AND MAKE-UP BY NATASHA CRAWFORD. THESE IMAGES HAVE BEEN RETOUCHED. THIS PAGE: PHOTOGRAPH SUPPLIED AND USED WITH PERMISSION
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When busy make-up artist and mother Bernadette Fisers hit the scales at
130 kilos, she knew she had to do something. Now 30 kilos lighter, she is sharing
her weight-loss secrets with other time-poor women, she tellsSue Smethurst.
PHOTOGRAPHY●KRISTINA SOLJO STYLING●BIANCA LANEB
ernadette Fisers has
always been larger
than life. In a world
of surly, stick-thin
supermodels, the
coveted Australian make-up
artist, who has worked with the
likes of Celine Dion and Whitney
Houston, naturally stood out.
It wasn’t just her big smile and
bubbly sense of humour, it was
her body, too.
In January 2016, Bernadette
tipped the scales at 130 kilos. She
was noticeably larger – sometimes
more than twice the size – of the
women she made up each day.
“I spent my day making people
look and feel fabulous about
themselves, but inside I was hating
myself,” she says. “I wouldn’t
look at myself in the mirror and
I was really angry at letting
myself get that large.”
That was then. Fast forward
18 months and, today, the 52-year-
old Melbourne mum is having the
last laugh.
Bern, as she is affectionately
known, is now the svelte model
in the spotlight after shedding awhopping 30 kilos in just 30 weeks,
following a simple diet plan she
devised herself. And the book she
penned explaining how she did it,
The Little Book Of Big Weightloss
(Penguin Books), has become an
international sensation.“I saw my doctor about six
months after I’d started losing
weight and she said, ‘Oh, my
God, Bern, whatever you’ve
been doing, keep doing it!’”
Bernadette Fisers hadn’t
always been a big girl.
Growing up in a family with
six siblings in Dandenong on
Melbourne’s outskirts didn’t
allow for luxuries such as
takeaway food.
“We had a tight budget
with a big family to feed so
Mum made everything from
scratch. We never had bought
biscuits or cakes or soft drink
or anything like that; it was
all good, fresh food, nothing
was processed.
“And we were sporty kids.
With seven of us running
around, we didn’t sit still, but
we also shared everything,”
she says, recalling how her weight
started to increase after she got her
first job with a local hairdresser and
was able to buy herself treats she
didn’t have to share with her siblings.
“Suddenly, I had money that I’d
earned myself and I could spend it»How Bernadette
lost 30 kilos
in 30 weeks
[Real life]