After years of yo-yo weight-reduction plan, I reluctantly accepted I used to be simply ‘an even bigger lady’. Until a health care provider’s harsh remark woke me up. Now I’ve misplaced six stone with THIS easy regime. Some would possibly say it is brutal, nevertheless it works…

Walking into the cruise ship’s all-you-can-eat buffet restaurant, my gaze swept over the endless platters laden with delicious food and my stomach rumbled with anticipation.

My plate piled high and wine glass filled to the brim, I ate and drank until I was painfully full, knowing that in just a matter of hours I’d be back for more.

I wasn’t on holiday – this gorging wasn’t a one-off blow-out before returning to normal life and more restrained eating habits.

The cruise ship was my workplace, where I was employed as a nurse, and I was eating like this three times a day, plus snacking, thanks to the temptation of the boat’s restaurants and bars and the culture of excess onboard.

For someone like me who has battled with my weight my entire adult life, it was the worst work environment possible and I had ballooned to 16 stone which, at 5’6”, put me in the obese category.

Yet, it took me over a year – and gaining so much weight my nurse’s uniform stopped fitting and I began experiencing chest pains – for me to realise I needed to address my weight problems once and for all.

I’ve always been a bigger girl and, like so many women, spent years on diets, searching for the one that would work for me. Keto, cabbage… you name it, I tried it. I’d lose some weight but then regain it, and then put even more on once I relaxed and my old habits crept back in.

Aged 18, I left my home in Walsall, West Midlands to study French and Business Studies at university, and lived off fast food and booze. Greasy takeaways both soothed my hangovers and comforted me when my self–esteem hit rock bottom because of my size. I became self–conscious to the point that I stopped going out, never had a boyfriend and would look at my body in the mirror and think: ‘Why would anyone want to be with someone this big?’

I dropped out of university and returned home, several stone heavier than when I left. My mum and grandmother both told me I needed to lose weight – it was tough love on their part – but I just buried my head in the sand and bought bigger and bigger clothes, eating junk food on the sofa.

However, with time I knew they were right and, thanks to more dieting and family support, I eventually lost three stone, slimming from over 14 stone to 11 stone. I returned to university to study nursing, but decided to live at home. Working part-time to fund my studies, I didn’t have time to go out drinking, and being at home with Mum’s portion control helped with my eating habits.

Graduating at 22 years old, I weighed around 11 stone and was a size 10. I felt fit to work and that I was a good role model for my patients.

But once again, over the next few years I yo–yoed up and down the scales.

In 2018, aged 25, I moved to Australia for a year to work and gained two stone thanks to all the socialising and drinking I was doing. Once again, I was plunged into misery, shutting myself away.

I did lose 1.5 stone when I returned to the UK, but then the pandemic hit and I piled it back on over lockdown, eating my way through the boredom and loneliness so many experienced.

Around that time my twin sister Nicole, who had also struggled with her weight, lost two stone with the 1:1 Cambridge Weight Plan diet, replacing conventional food with meal replacement products. She looked fantastic but I thought I simply liked food too much to follow her lead.

In early 2021, I managed to lose two stone on the Keto diet – a low–carbohydrate, high–fat plan – and following online workouts.

But it was then that I accepted a job on a cruise ship as a nurse, setting sail that August.

I was so excited about working at sea and seeing exotic locations.

Quickly, though, I realised that temptation was everywhere. Ship life revolved around food and drink and I found myself in the buffet restaurants three times a day, drinking wine when I wasn’t working and constantly snacking. I just couldn’t resist, but couldn’t get away from it either.

My daily diet consisted of pastries for breakfast, lunch could be a lasagne with chips along with a portion of cottage pie and chocolate cake, crisps and chocolate for snacks, then sausages and mash with lemon meringue pie in the evening – all washed down with several glasses of red wine.

Eating around 4,000 calories a day, the pounds piled on and my nurse’s scrubs became too tight, so I had to order bigger tent–like ones.

I started experiencing terrible chest and back pains, and was admitted to the medical centre on board for tests – but no underlying cause was found.

Towards the end of my contract in Autumn 2022, I saw a photo of myself and was shocked. I weighed 16 stone and looked like a blob. One of the doctors even joked he couldn’t tell the difference between me and one of the grossly obese holidaymakers who came on the ship. It wasn’t kind, but it was true. I had to change.

In floods of tears, I remembered my sister’s amazing transformation, and decided to try the same approach. From the Caribbean, I had a video chat with a 1:1 consultant in the UK, determined that when I got off the ship for Christmas, I’d use the time to reset my eating habits and mindset around food.

In mid-December that year, I began having three 200–calorie meal replacement products a day.

It was challenging at first, but I stuck to the plan strictly.

Within four months, when I returned to the ship, I’d lost over a stone and carried on, adding in a daily high protein 600–calorie meal. I avoided the buffet and, as the scales went down, my energy levels and confidence went up.

In 2023, when my contract ended and I stepped off the ship for the last time, I’d lost three stone and felt like a new woman.

In November 2023, I hit my target weight of 10 stone 9lb and a size ten. Family and friends showered me with compliments and when I met up with former cruise ship colleagues, they were stunned by my transformation.

Today, I work as a nurse in an NHS hospital and also as a 1:1 consultant, to inspire other women that if I can turn my back on my old, destructive, ways they can too.

My diet now is a 1:1 porridge or shake for breakfast, chicken salad for lunch and a grilled burger in the evening, with protein yogurt and frozen mixed berries as a snack.

I no longer look in the mirror and despair of my reflection, instead I feel proud of how far I’ve come.

I feel like I’m finally a good role model for my patients in hospital, and in control of my health and my future. I’ll never set foot in a buffet restaurant ever again!

*As told to Matthew Barbour

*Follow Serena on Instagram @one2one_serena