LAURA Self was enjoying a cuddle on the sofa with her toddler son when a terrifying alert on her Apple Watch left her stunned.
It was the wake-up call the 37-year-old mum-of-two needed to finally overhaul her life.
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“It flashed up as I was just sitting there relaxing,” she says. “I was so scared.”
Laura, a care home nurse from Southampton, has battled with her weight throughout her life.
She told Fabulous: ”I don’t ever remember being a ‘normal’ size.
“I was bullied because of my weight and, when I left school, I think I was about 18st.
“Then I started my nursing career and the weight just rapidly went up from there.”
After giving birth to her daughter at 19 in July 2008, Laura saw her weight hit 21st.
She added: ”I then had my son a couple of years later, and I ended up in 2019 being about 24st, my heaviest.”
Laura, who is married to Kieran, 40, and is mum to Katelyn, 16, and Logan, eight, says she had tried numerous diets over the years but nothing worked.
Then, one fateful day, she knew she needed to take drastic action.
She said: “One day in 2016 I was just sitting on the sofa with my son, he was two at the time, and my Apple Watch alerted me.
“It told me that my resting heart rate was 140. It was terrifying.”
After speaking to her husband, Laura went to see the GP the following week – which is where the doctors suggested her doing gastric sleeve.
According to the NHS, most healthy adults have a resting heart rate of between 60 and 100 beats per minute.
Laura said: ”I knew I couldn’t carry on like this. It was also affecting how I looked after my children.
“I couldn’t get down on the floor to play with my son, I couldn’t change his bum. I was relying on my daughter to help me look after him.”
Laura visited her GP who told her the only option was gastric surgery.
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She didn’t think twice and had the NHS-funded operation in May 2018, which saw her lose six stone in three years.
But she still hadn’t shed the 12st she had planned to lose.
Then, in 2020, the Covid-19 pandemic hit – and working in a stressful job as a nurse, Laura’s unhealthy eating habits slowly started creeping back in, and her weight increased again.
After skipping breakfast, Laura would get a meal deal from the shops, a pastry and a chocolate bar for lunch – which was followed by chicken, chips and beans for dinner.
A large chunk of the calories came from all the snacking throughout the day – including crisps, chocolate, sweets and biscuits.
She said: ”It really scared me. I needed to find something that worked on my mental health, my habits, before I did anything else.”
Obesity is heavy in our family, and I wanted to break that cycle for my children
Laura Self
Laura, who was cruelly nicknamed the ‘fat nurse’ amongst her patients, realised she needed more support.
And that’s when she stumbled across the 1:1 diet (formerly known as The Cambridge Diet) on Instagram.
It was now July 2023 and she weighed 17st 8lbs.
The concept of the diet is to replace most or all of a person’s daily food intake with 35 specially formulated meal replacement products, such as shakes, soups, bars, and porridge, all of which are approximately 200 calories or under.
While the meal replacement products are low in calories, they contain all the necessary and vital nutrients.
As the body doesn’t get enough calories to meet its energy needs, it starts burning fat stores to keep functioning and induces a state of “ketosis,” or the use of fat, rather than glucose, for energy.
There is no alcohol and those on the strict diet need to drink at least three litres of water daily.
It wasn’t long until the results started showing – after the first week, Laura had already managed to slash a staggering 10 pounds.
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Mentally, it wasn’t an easy journey but Laura persevered.
Now, the mum-of-two starts her day with 1:1 meal replacement porridge with healthy fruit or a latte shake with protein powder.
For lunch, Laura opts for a nutritious chicken wrap with salad, and 1:1 pop squares, while her dinner usually consists of meat and veggies, salad, as well as jacket potato.
Laura still snacks – but now, on healthy alternatives, such as protein yoghurts, Babybel Lights and fruit.
And, as she no longer had to think about what to eat, for the first time Laura could focus on the underlying habits and reasons why she’d been turning to food all of her life.
She said: ”My mum was overweight, my nan was. Obesity is heavy in our family, and I wanted to break that cycle for my children.
”It’s no disrespect to my mum, but she never stopped us eating. I never knew what was good food, what was bad food.
”All I learnt from the likes of Slimming World is everything is sin, all the naughty things are sin – when actually food is food. It’s actually the content.”
It is hard. But you don’t need gastric surgery, you don’t need weight loss injections
Laura
Laura says the 1:1 diet shouldn’t be viewed as just a summer “quick fix”.
She said: ”You can’t go back to where you were – you’ve got to change your lifestyle.
”If you go back from eating 800 calories to 4,000, 5,000 like I was, you’re going to put it all back on.”
Eight months in, the scales were showing she had lost another six stone and she was now working out three times a week.
She said: ”It is hard. But you don’t need gastric surgery, you don’t need weight loss injections – you just need the right support to work on those habits.”
Laura’s diet before – and now
Here’s what Laura would eat before joining the 1:1 diet:
Breakfast: skipped breakfast
Lunch: meal deal from shops, a pastry and a chocolate bar
Dinner: chicken, chips and beans
Snacks: crisps, chocolate, different sweets and biscuits
What Laura eats now:
Breakfast: 1:1 meal replacement porridge with fruit or a latte shake
Lunch: chicken wrap and salad, 1:1 ‘Pop Squares’
Dinner: meat and veggies, a salad and a jacket potato
Snacks: protein yoghurt, Babybel Light, fruit
Laura says her transformation has not only changed her body but her life.
She added: ”It’s opened up so many opportunities. I’m happier in myself. I’m a better mum, just a better person.
”I wake up wanting to be alive – whereas before, I didn’t want to be here.
”When you’ve been that size, it’s those little things [that make all the difference] – like, going to a room and not having to immediately look around to see if there’s a chair with arms because you couldn’t fit in a chair with arms.
”I couldn’t fit behind the steering wheel. At work, I couldn’t lean over the patients because I would squash them.”
And, it’s not just Laura who’s shed an incredible amount of weight – her hubby Kieran has had an epic transformation as well, losing four stone.
Laura joked: ”For our ten-year anniversary, we went to the gym to celebrate.”
I don’t agree with those [weight loss] injections cause it’s just jabbing someone, and because I’m a nurse I know the side effects
Laura
Laura is proud to have achieved the results without fat jabs – but says she probably would have tried them a few years ago in desperation.
She said: ”100% I would’ve given it a go – I would’ve done anything.
”But if you haven’t got that one-to-one support to work on your mindset, it doesn’t work long-term.
”I don’t agree with those injections cause it’s just jabbing someone, and because I’m a nurse I know the side effects.”
Laura, who is planning to renew her wedding vows now she’s lost the weight, admits she’s received plenty of jaw-dropping reactions to her new look.
She recalls a colleague failing to recognise her, saying: ”Sometimes, I’m like ‘Why are they being funny towards me?’ But actually they didn’t realise it was me.”
You can follow Laura’s inspiring journey on her Instagram page.
She now supports 30 slimmers, with one follower losing 7 stone and another – a whopping 9 stone.
The six stages of the 1:1 diet
Stage 1 – Eat 3-4 Cambridge diet meal replacements daily (consuming 400-600 calories for up to 12 weeks).
Stage 2 – Eat 2 Cambridge diet meal replacements, plus protein-rich foods, skimmed milk and some vegetables (consuming 800 calories a day).
Stage 3 – Eat 2 Cambridge diet meal replacements, plus skimmed milk, breakfast and salads for lunch and dinner (consuming 1,000 calories for 2 weeks).
Stage 4 – Eat 2 Cambridge diet meal replacements, plus skimmed milk, breakfast, lunch and dinner (continue for 2 weeks).
Stage 5 – Eat 1 Cambridge diet meal replacement plus skimmed milk, breakfast, lunch, dinner and snack (continue for 2 weeks).
Stage 6 – Eat a healthy diet plus your choice of Cambridge diet products approx. 1,200 calories per day (continue indefinitely).
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