A weight loss coach who couldn’t break her own bad eating habits has revealed how she finally shed 6 stone without the help of jabs, and now looks half her age.
Despite helping others shed pounds for her job, Lisa Maidment, 52, from the West Midlands, spent years yo-yo dieting but couldn’t resist treating herself to several takeaways a week.
Becoming a single parent and caring for her mother Christine – who had Alzheimer’s – also took a huge toll on her mental health, and she attempted to fill that void with food.
‘I would eat my children’s sweets at nighttime and they’d go: “Where’s that gone?” and I had to replace them,’ she told the Daily Mail.
By her late 40s she tipped the scales at 16 stone, was buying size 20 clothes and felt as though she had completely lost her identity.
It was the thought of losing precious time with her two children that finally motivated her to follow the same 1:1 diet she preached to clients.
‘I am an older mum, when I am 60, they’ll be 20 and 17,’ she said. ‘I thought: “I need to be fit because if I carry on doing what I’m doing, I’m running a huge risk of having major health problems and not being there for them”. That was the big wake-up call for me.’
In July 2022, Lisa started her slimming journey and now weighs 9st 9lbs and wears a UK size 6 to 8.
A year after she reached her goal weight, she also made the decision to splash out almost £8,000 on getting a 360-degree tummy tuck, breast lift, implants and eyelift in a Lithuanian clinic and says she finally feels ‘womanly’ and ‘sexy’ again.
After the five-hour operation, Lisa’s young daughter made a comment that all mothers want to hear – ‘Mum, you have the body of a 25-year-old!’
Lisa said: ‘I was like, “Great, thanks!” I don’t want to be 25, I like the age I am, because I wouldn’t be the person I am if I hadn’t experienced everything I’ve experienced in life, and I love who I am now, inside and out.’
Now, Lisa is often stopped by old friends and told how different she looks from her former self. ‘”Oh my God”, I didn’t recognise you. You look like a completely different person,” they said. I felt quite joyous, proud and pleased,’ she added.
The counsellor started her journey by consuming four meal replacement products a day, so she could take away the temptation to eat food without restricting her body of nutrients.
After losing a whopping stone in just one month, she then added a 200-calorie meal. As Lisa watched herself drop several dress sizes, she continued to ease her way back to consuming solid food again.
‘We had holidays, and Christmas, and all sorts of things along the way, and birthdays, and I needed to learn how to manage those again and sometimes, I didn’t manage them so great, but I got straight back on it again,’ she explained.
Before, she would eat whatever she could find in her cupboards for breakfast and lunch, from biscuits to cheese and follow it up with ordering takeout, washing it all down with chocolates and sweets.
‘The trouble is, you get stuck in a spiral. A negative spiral. When you’re overweight, you feel rubbish, so to help, you have something nice to eat to feel better,’ Lisa recalled.
‘Then you get stuck in that spiral, and then you hate yourself more, because you know that what you’re doing isn’t helping the situation. In fact, it’s making it worse. But you’re stuck until you make that decision to say, enough.’
Now, she will skip the first meal of the day, have a protein-packed lunch involving eggs and an Aldi or Lidl high-protein ready meal for dinner. Snacks will include chocolate rice cakes or a singular Cadbury Freddo.
She follows the 80-20 rule, meaning that 80 per cent of her diet is made up of clean, healthy foods such as fruits and vegetables and lean meat, whereas 20 per cent of her diet is made up of more indulgent dishes.
Lisa also joined a gym to start strength training and was able to deadlift 65kg – achieving something she could only dream about doing when she was overweight.
Her newfound confidence after losing six stone also resulted in her booking a once-in-a-lifetime trip to Disney World Florida, with her children.
She said: ‘It was 34 degrees and 90 per cent humidity and I said, “Gosh, imagine if we were here and Mummy was bigger.” [My kids said] “You wouldn’t be able to walk around in this, Mummy, when you were bigger.” I absolutely wouldn’t have done. I would not have booked the holiday.’
Lisa can now partake in outdoor activities with her children and go on beach holidays – whereas she dreaded them before.
‘I did occasionally, but I didn’t enjoy it,’ she said. ‘Now I really enjoy it. I wear a bikini and just feel really confident.’
She revealed how her love life was also influenced by the major changes.
‘I started online dating, and I’ve met someone really special now, not through online dating, but as a separate aside,’ she said. ‘I would never have dated being the bigger me, because that’s not the version of me I wanted to be. I wanted to attract someone for the me that I really knew I was inside, which was the smaller me.’
Instead of approaching the wardrobe filled with dread, she now takes pride in her fashion and uses changing rooms in stores – something she actively avoided when she was six stone heavier.
However, despite having a complete transformation on the scales, Lisa still didn’t feel ‘womanly’ because of her loose skin.
She was recommended a clinic in Lithuania by her clients and decided to fly out there to have four procedures done, organising childcare for the week.
‘[After the surgery] everything fitted me. I felt really sexy again. I felt amazing,’ she said.
‘I’ve had a few negative comments saying I used the surgery to lose the last of my weight, but actually, I didn’t drop a dress size, and I didn’t lose any weight. It just made my skin fit better.
‘I do look younger now than I did before surgery. I looked old and haggard and tired. And now I just feel and look alive, and full of energy and zest for life, much more than I did five, 10 years ago.’
She was able to drive again a week after the procedure and was able to return to her normal gym routine in 12 weeks.
And people are friendlier, too. According to Lisa, she has noticed that members of the public chat to her more than when she was overweight; however, she admits that this may be because her confidence has flourished.
‘The weight traps you, in my opinion,’ she said. ‘It trapped me. [Losing it] has liberated my life. I’m not scared of upsetting people now so much.
‘I used to conform a lot. I’ve got my own mind, and I’m okay with sharing that mind now, whereas before, I used to worry about what others thought about me.
‘I overthink a lot less now, being the smaller, more confident me and I don’t need to prove myself as much now as I did before.’
