Local woman, Elle Goodall, struggled with her weight and eating habit and maxed her weight at 184kg.

In October Goodall was diagnosed with diabetes and was told if she did not make some life changing decisions she would not see past 35.

“I tried to do it for myself, I joined the gym and cleaned out my bad food and after a month I fell back into my old patterns,” Goodall said.

“I went back to the doctor and like previous visits he mentioned surgery. I came to the realisation that this was going to help me and in November I underwent surgery. I had to do a pre-surgery diet to get the fatty fats down around my kidneys and on surgery day I weighed in at 162kg.”

Goodall said this was when she made the best decision of her life. After surgery Goodall was just over 90kg.

“After I recovered I jumped on my treadmill one afternoon and I saw a triathlon on television. I said to myself I wouldn’t mind having some sort of goal like that to strive towards,” she said.

“I met a lady called Vicki at Lake Moondarra and I told her of my goal and she said that I could do it and she could have me doing my first triathlon in a couple of weeks.”

Goodall went home and researched triathlons and decided if she was going to do it, she would do it big. She set her eyes on Noosa and the training began in January.

At the start Goodall struggled with the running section of the triathlon, and found she couldn’t run for 30 seconds. After more training she found herself running five-kilometres non-stop and competing in her first Race to Creek with the Isa Rats at Lake Moondarra.

“I completed the enticer distance of 150m swim, 10-kilometre ride and 1.3-kilometre run. It was very emotional when I crossed the finish line I burst into tears.

“After that I trained for the Julia Creek Dirt n Dust triathlon, it was very hard and when I finished I couldn’t believe that I actually done it and how far I had come. Looking back now I get very emotional but happy that I had the surgery as it was the start of change for me.”

Now Goodall is under 90-kilograms and is training for Noosa which will take place on October 30. The Noosa Triathlon is an annual Olympic-distance triathlon including a 1.5-kilometre swim, 40-kilometre ride and 10-kilometre run.

“I am real excited for Noosa and I want to thank everyone who has supported my journey to get me this far.”

You can follow Elle’s Journey To Good Health on Facebook page or donate to her Noosa journey at https://secure.fundraiseformater.org.au/registrant/FundraisingPage.aspx?registrationID=966923#.VuaMDjaflzc.facebook