A locum dental receptionist who thought she “might just die” around her 40th birthday because she was almost 18 stone has lost half her body weight. Jo Stapley says she would encourage anyone who is on a weight loss journey to “just go for it”.
The 46-year-old mother of two is 5ft 3in and weighed 17 stone 10lb (112.5kg) when she was at her heaviest after developing “really bad, lazy habits”, such as getting regular takeaways and not exercising. But while Jo says she has always been “fairly confident” and “never actually felt really fat”, she tells how she could not walk up the stairs or a slope without getting out of breath.
And she says when she would bend down to tie her shoelaces it gave her “a really horrible pain” in her ribs. But After joining WW (formerly Weight Watchers) in 2016, Jo has lost 42% of her body weight, dropping from a size 22 to a size 10 and reaching 10 stone 3lb (64.9kg) – and her shoe size has even decreased from a size 6 to a size 5.
Jo, who is originally from North Yorkshire but now lives in Bracknell, Berkshire, said: “It was just the most amazing feeling, I was really gobsmacked. I was like, wow, I’ve actually done it. I just couldn’t believe it.
“I’d seen so many people over the years get to that point, and I suppose I never thought I’d ever get there. It was just amazing, it was the best feeling.”
Jo explained that she was “very fit and healthy as a young person”, practising martial arts, exercising frequently, and eating good-quality food. But after moving out of home at 18 years old to live with her then-boyfriend, Jo said “that’s when things started getting out of control” – unhealthy habits started to creep in, such as getting takeaways, buying jars of pre-made food and sauces, and not moving her body.
She later separated from her boyfriend but the “lazy habits” continued into her first marriage and, given Jo was an “emotional eater” as well, she said the weight “slowly just crept on” until she reached her heaviest point of nearly 18 stone after the birth of her two children, Jack, now 22, and Harry, 20.
“I just got into really bad, lazy habits with food, didn’t do any exercise at all; (I was) very sedentary, and just eating convenience foods,” she said. “It was quite an emotionally stressful time and, one thing I have worked out is that I’m quite an emotional eater, so if I’m upset or angry, all the different emotions, my answer to that at the time was I’d go and eat a packet of biscuits.
“I would quite happily open a packet of biscuits and I’d eat them all… (and) that was just how I coped, I suppose. I was also drinking more than I should have been, and it just spiralled out of control.”
Jo, who is now married to IT software engineer Roger, 55, explained that she “never actually felt really fat”, and it was not until she had lost weight that she thought, “oh my God, how did I let that happen?”. “I never got upset, I never got depressed, I never felt uncomfortable,” Jo continued.
“I wasn’t overly confident, but I wasn’t sat there on a night, thinking, ‘you’re lazy, you’re so out of control’. I was actually really happy and I didn’t really care at that point what size clothes I wore.”
But, after being prescribed blood pressure tablets in her mid-30s and then reaching her 40th birthday, Jo had a sudden realisation. She said she knew she needed to change her lifestyle, as she feared she “might just die because (she’s) too big”.
She said: “I just started thinking, I’ve got a real life to live and I don’t want to die early. I thought, right, I’ve got do something now because I don’t want to die.”
She addedf: “I’m very lucky, I’ve got a very healthy family… and I just thought, I might just die because I’m too big, and that’s something that I can do something about."
In August 2016, Jo joined WW and attended weekly meetings, where she would participate in group discussions and weigh-ins. Jo said the coaches were “amazing” and everyone who attended the meetings was “really encouraging” and supportive.
“You never felt judged, you never felt like you were the biggest person there,” Jo explained. “I wasn’t always the biggest person there, there were other people there who were bigger than me or smaller than me.
“I just thought I’m joining this group. I’ve never really looked back to be honest.”
Jo said one thing that helped her was setting “achievable” goals, such as losing one stone at a time, and making small adjustments to her diet and food portions by following WW’s recipes and points system, which takes a food’s specific nutritional value and turns it into a single number.
She gradually started to incorporate exercise as well and, with the support from WW, her friends and family, the weight started to drop off. Jo said: “I just kept going and kept trying and trying and trying and, it takes a long time, but it does eventually get a little bit easier.”
Nearly seven years later, Jo has lost more than seven stone and her relationship with food has “changed massively”. But she said she does not “deprive” herself and still has treats, including a glass of Prosecco and her weekly bag of Midget Gems.
“You’ve got to have something that you can make work for the rest of your life,” she added.
Jo said she feels a “massive sense of achievement”, both physically and mentally, and she will “never go back to (her) old habits”, as she is “really happy with how (she feels)”. She also no longer takes blood pressure tablets.
Jo said her weight loss journey was never about “what (she) weighed”, and she would encourage anyone who is trying to lose weight or improve their health to “go for it”, as “the feeling is so, so good”.
“Even if my story just helps one other person to start their journey on this, that would just be brilliant because I think it’s understanding that it does work and it is hard, but even if you have a really bad day, and you go off track, don’t worry about it,” she said.
“Start the next day afresh, don’t beat yourself up, don’t write the week off; don’t feel bad about it, move on from it… and just go for it.”
