Margaret and Kayla

Margaret says that both her and Kayla really enjoyed their X-Weighted experience. " I feel like it was a privilege to be able to do  the show, not everyone gets a chance to do something like that," says Margaret.

Since filming finished, Margaret has started dating someone. "I'm having a lot of fun, the only problem is that he lives in Alberta so I do lots of trips back and forth," she says. "I am really happy," says Margaret, "we're talking about moving to Alberta. Kayla would come too, she would have to be with her mommy! On my recent trip away, Kayla cried when she picked me up from the airport because she'd missed me so much! Our relationship is still very close." (Despite threatening to move out on the show, Kayla is still living at home.)

Margaret has also built a house, which meant that she has had to work a lot of hours in order to make this huge achievement happen. "Some weeks I work 60 plus hours, but I always make time for myself, to do the things that I enjoy doing," she says.

Margaret is 15 pounds heavier than when her X-Weighted journey finished, but she is okay with that. "Because I had lost so much weight and got down to such a low weight, which I did because it was a challenge, but I had to work really hard at the gym to stay at that weight and since working 2 jobs I just haven't had the oomph to keep it up," she says, "I slacked off in doing that."

Kayla is working right now as a customer representative and saving up her money to go to school - ultimately she wants to be a parole officer. She says that going on the show was a very positive experience for her: "I've gained loads and loads of self esteem and confidence and am very happy with life," she says.

Doing X-Weighted together helped this mother and daughter team make positive, and permanent, changes in their lives. "Since the show my mother and I trained for and did a 10 km run in Vancouver which was terrific! And we have decided to do that every year now," says Kayla.

November 2009