Fight for Life
Mum loses half her body weight
Jo Bowden is half the woman she was. And her year-long journey from a desperately unhappy 174kg to an 87kg fitness fanatic was a matter of life and death for the 31-year-old single mum.
“I was killing myself . . . I was eating my life away.”
Bowden’s desire to shed the weight was galvanised when her son Ashar, 6, suffered a 45-minute seizure in June last year. The terrifying incident brought home just how much she needed to be around for her son.
At her heaviest, “I would go to bed every night thinking that I was going to have a heart attack and die”.
She struggled with a food addiction from as young as she can remember. She increasingly turned to comfort eating after Ashar, who has nonverbal autism and does not speak, was hospitalised at 15 months with a serious illness.
“I started eating and eating . . . that was just how I dealt with [having] a child who wasn’t well.”
Bowden put on at least 20kg a year. Her typical diet was six pieces of peanut butter toast for breakfast followed by a pie, a tub of icecream and a block of chocolate for lunch, meat and potatoes for dinner, plus snacks of chips and biscuits during the day.
The physical toll was huge. “I couldn’t walk to the car comfortably . . . rolling over in my bed was a struggle.”
Bowden reached 174.3kg by March last year, before dramatically turning her life around. She started on a diet
plan, and lost 36kg in 12 weeks. She also started exercising, walking a 120-step climb near her home. Joining a gym, she began boxing fitness training and powerlifting. She dropped to 87kg within 12 months.
Bowden has kept the kilos off, weighing in now at 89kg but is about to lose another 4kg tomorrow in an operation to remove excess skin from her stomach.
Her diet is now plenty of fruit and vegetables, and nuts for snacks.
“I still treat myself . . . I [have] found the balance between too much and starving yourself of living.”
She plans to do nutrition and personal training courses, and help others transform their lives.
“I want to be a PT to the people who are really struggling.”
Bowden is determined not to return to her old lifestyle but her dramatic weight loss caused excess skin on her stomach and limbs.
The “4kg weight hanging off my stomach” restricts her exercise and clothes she is able to wear.
Unable to afford the excess skin removal surgery, she applied for public health funding but was unsuccessful, she said.
She fundraised through Givealittle, which raised more than $2000. Then out of the blue she received a message on her Facebook page offering $40,000 for her surgery. The donor, from her Mangawhai community, had “followed my journey”.
Bowden said the operation would be for several hours and involve two surgeons.
“They will cut out my middle piece of skin and stitch me back together.”
Bowden is trying to figure out how to repay her Samaritan.
“I want to do something special for her but I know it won’t ever be equal to what she’s done for me. She’s changed my life.”