TV presenter and SWIISH co-founder Sally Obermeder has broken her silence on her dramatic weight loss – and the secret isn’t all that glamorous.
No personal trainer. No strict diet. No 5am alarm.
Sally, who co-founded the Australian wellness brand SWIISH with her sister Maha Corbett, lost 22 kilograms over 12 months – and says the number on the scales was never even the point.
She shared the full story in an Instagram video and a blog post after being flooded with questions from followers wanting to know what she had done differently.
“My aim wasn’t weight loss,” she said. “It was basically, ‘how can I get back into my body? How can I get back into feeling good again?’”
THE WAKE-UP CALL
Sally says the turning point came on Christmas Day 2020. She was out walking alone when it hit her: she had been quietly avoiding going to the park with her daughters because she knew she couldn’t keep up with them.
Instead, she’d been suggesting movies, cafes – anything that involved sitting down.
“Everybody else came first,” she said. “At the end of the day, I was depleted.”
Her energy was gone, her muscle tone had faded, and her body had become, in her own words, an afterthought. She decided something had to change.
THE APPROACH THAT ACTUALLY WORKED
Here’s where Sally’s story takes a turn. Rather than going all in – her own admission of her default setting – she did the opposite.
No new activewear. No gym membership. No extreme plan. Just a 30-minute walk every day at whatever time worked for her.
“We’re not going to be insane and go at 4am,” she said. “Whatever time suits us – we just carve out that time.”
On days she struggled to show up for herself, she’d call a friend to walk with her. Slowly, 30 minutes became 45, then 60. Within months, exercise had gone from something she forced herself to do – to something that felt like part of who she was.
WHAT SHE ATE
On the food front, Sally kept things equally simple. Protein and fibre at every meal, fresh ingredients, and a rotating set of easy meals she actually enjoyed.
Breakfast was always her weak point – too busy, too rushed, too likely to end in a poor choice on the go. She fixed it by switching to a protein shake each morning, which kept her full and took the thinking out of it entirely.
Carbs stayed. Friday night pizza stayed. Date nights with her husband Marcus stayed. What went was emotional eating. When stress hit, she’d walk or call a friend instead of reaching for food.
“I removed the emotion around food,” she said. “I let go of ‘this is good’ and ‘that is bad’ – all of it.”
THE RESULTS
Twelve months later, Sally had lost 22 kilograms. She also recorded improvements in cholesterol, bone density and muscle mass – significant markers for someone who underwent cancer treatment years earlier and had been warned about the risk of early osteoarthritis.
But she’s quick to put the weight loss in perspective.
“It’s not about the weight,” she said. “That’s just a by-product.”
What mattered most, she says, was getting back to herself – and finally stopping being last on her own list.
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