A mum who tried extreme diets for a decade with no success says she's amazed after hula hooping helped her finally drop 10 stone.
Laura Johnson, 42, said she had attempted every ''faddy diet going'' during her long battle with her weight.
In a bid to shed the pounds gained during her most recent pregnancy, mum-of-four Laura tried Slimming World, SlimFast, Weight Watchers, juicing and calorie counting - all with no success.
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She said she would step on the scales every day to encourage her, but ''nothing worked'', reports Wales Online. Laura, from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, weighed in at 16st 5lbs and a dress size 20 and knew something needed to change.
In January 2022, a pal recommended she enquire about a gastric sleeve surgery and six months later, Laura had the £10k procedure. Over the course of a year, she has lost five stone and she puts much of her change down to using a weighted hula hoop for 15 minutes every day.
Laura, who now weighs 11st and wears a dress size 10, said: ''I was so busy being a mum and doing shift work. It left me no time to focus on a diet and getting healthy. But it got to the point where I didn't want to leave the house, I felt so big, and I knew that wasn't me.
''The surgery was tough, I was quite sick after it, but it's been amazing overall. It's massively changed my life for the better. I'm active now and love hula hooping. I got a weighted one online from Amazon and I'm obsessed.''
Laura first became a mum in her early twenties in 2001 and found the baby weight ''dropped off her'' easily. The same happened when she had her second child in 2003 and her third in 2009.
''I had my fourth baby at 32 in 2013 and something was different, I couldn't shift the extra weight no matter what I did,'' she said.
''I tried everything. 'I did juice diets and milkshake ones. I tried classes and aqua aerobics. It was so hard to commit to anything long-term though because of my job and having four kids.''
When Laura stopped smoking in October 2011, her sweet tooth ''went crazy'' and she found herself being tempted by cakes, sweets and crisps. Despite making sure her kids were eating healthy, home-cooked meals, the police worker would often rely on processed snacks and ready meals.
She said: ''It was when I was invited on a girl's weekend with all of my mates, and I didn't want to go, that I knew my weight was controlling my life. I'm usually the life and soul of a party and the fact I just wanted to stay at home and hide, I knew something had to drastically change. 'I started looking into weight loss surgery as my friend had done it and had amazing results.''
Laura, who is married to Scott Johnson, 35, a supermarket manager, had a consultation at Doncaster Park Hill private hospital, South Yorkshire, in March 2022. Three months later she had the keyhole surgery at the same hospital and after two days was discharged to go home.
''I felt fine after the surgery,'' she said. 'I was on a liquid diet and then moved on to eating small amounts of soft foods like egg and cottage cheese. 'The gastric sleeve surgery removed 80 per cent of my stomach so I do feel full very quickly. You can't even gulp down water or you'd be sick!''
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Laura lost two stone in the first six weeks after surgery and has continued to shed weight since. She's taken up exercising and alongside her daily hula hooping now does long walks and running with the 'Couch to 5K' app.
''Having the operation and keeping the weight off so far has improved my life so much,'' she explained. I feel lighter in my head and feel free. 'I no longer overeat and trust myself to make healthy choices. I eat like a toddler now but really enjoy it.
''I still treat myself every so often but I just don't binge. Life is so much more fun now, I try things with the kids that I wouldn't have before. I've got my life back and I'm dancing on tables again like I used to.''
