Heartbreaking moment my son said: ‘I don’t want you to die,’ Mummy’
PAULA BIBBY, 45, lost 3st 5lb and transformed her health after joining WW in lockdown. Mum to Lennon, eight, Paula works for a software company and lives in Cardiff with husband Graham, 45, who works in a warehouse. She went from 20st 4lb to 16st 13lb (she’s 5ft 1in tall) and dropped from a dress size 24-26 to an 18. She says:
I wAS lying in bed with my little boy one evening in May 2020, in the first lockdown, when he asked if I was going to die. He’d heard about Covid and was worried. ‘I don’t want to make you sad, Mummy, but your tummy is very big. Is your heart oK? I don’t want you to die,’ he said.
I was horrified. But lennon was right. I did feel like I was dying. I’m asthmatic (and taking drugs for it). I was also on medication for arthritis, diagnosed after a car crash aged 28, and for a hiatus hernia. I’d been off work, too, with pleurisy and a slipped disc.
I was on crutches and the steroids prescribed for my slipped disc had made me more bloated. I could barely crawl upstairs, was struggling to breathe and in constant, excruciating pain. I knew that if I got Covid, what with my asthma and my weight, I could easily die and leave lennon without a mum.
I joined ww online the next day. I was horrified to discover how much I actually weighed.
At first I took it one meal at a time — it seemed too overwhelming, otherwise. I loved the fact I could still enjoy treats, such as our regular Friday night KFC chicken, so long as I budgeted for them.
I set myself little targets — a few pounds at a time — so it didn’t seem unachievable.
The weight dropped off steadily and I was amazed because I never felt like I was on a diet.
I’m an emotional eater and used to hoover up anything in the fridge. I adore chocolate, so I always have enough SmartPoints left for some of it each day.
I love cooking and found plenty of ways to prepare family meals and still lose weight. I bought an air fryer to bake and fry food without using lots of fat. Now I pop my roast potatoes in there instead of cooking them in lard.
A firm favourite is my Bolognese sauce, which I make with lean minced beef, celery, mushrooms and passata — amazingly it only has 1-2 SmartPoints.
At a medical check-up a year after joining ww, I was delighted to find I could come off my hernia medication. I haven’t used my asthma inhaler for months, and I am gradually reducing the number of painkillers I take for arthritis, which has improved as I’ve lost weight and become more active.
losing weight has helped me get mobile — four months after joining ww, I was walking without crutches. I’m not a gym bunny but I’ve taken up hula hooping and I use weights to tone my arms. I also enjoy clifftop walks with my family, I’ve begun swimming again and have taught lennon to swim.
A friend recently had a summer party and I bought a white dress, which looked great, and I literally danced the night away.
There’s still a way to go before I reach my target, a size 12-14. But I feel nothing can get in my way.
Now lennon tells me how beautiful and fit I am. I feel so happy and blessed. I did it all for him.