Michelle Thorn says the change came when she took up a 10-minute-a day routine
A mum who lost six stone after trying diets for years says her success was due to 10 minutes meditation every day. Size 22 Michelle Thorn, 48, weighed 16 stone thanks to a diet of cheese on toast, fizzy drinks and four takeaways a week.
She tried to lose weight for years but couldn’t stick to a diet. But change came when she was signed off work for three months in 2024 when she had a breakdown following the death of her father, Malcom.
It prompted her to try meditation and journaling for five to ten minutes a day, and she says the mental reset changed her relationship with food. She said: “Meditation changed everything. It helped calm my mind and reset my nervous system. Once my mind was calm and peaceful, my body began feeling lighter and craved less junk.
“I wanted to eat better, and I wanted to be healthier.”
Michelle, who tried Mounjaro for 2 months on the lowest dose of 2.5 mg, is now 9st and a size ten. The managing editor, from Cambridgeshire, said: “I’ve tried to lose weight for years, but the weight loss only happened once I sorted my mental health out.
“15 years ago I used to be a size eight, but my ADHD caused me to dopamine snack, so I quickly went up to size 22. Meditation changed everything. It helped calm my mind and reset my nervous system. I could not have lost the weight without meditation.”
Michelle said she began to gain weight in 2013 after her daughter’s dad left. Things got worse when she took on caring responsibilities for her dad, who had dementia but died from vasculitis of the kidneys.
“I’d been living in survival mode for years,” she said. “Everything just caught up with me. My body stopped functioning and my brain just shut down.”
Her health deteriorated so badly she feared she had dementia, which she says was caused by early menopause and further worsened by ADHD. Michelle said: “I was driving to houses I’d lived in years before because I’d forgotten where I lived.”
While caring for her father during his final days in hospital, Michelle watched him use meditation to cope with intense pain. After his death and following her own breakdown, she decided to give meditation, journaling and manifesting a chance, in July, 2023.
“I started with five or 10 minutes a day of meditation,” said the mum-of-one. “Gradually my mind became quieter. I started seeing the beauty in everything again – the birds singing, the flowers, people smiling. It felt like I’d had an awakening.”
Michelle also started journaling everyday. “I have a journal that asks me questions like ‘what have you done today to be kind to yourself’ and ‘what has made you smile today’,” she said.
“The positive happy healthy mindset allowed my nervous system to come out of survival mode, then my body then started to follow.”
As her mental health improved, Michelle says her relationship with food also changed. Previously ordering up to four takeaways a week, she began cooking at home and eating more protein and healthier meals.
“I still have my treats, but now it is a 75 calorie ice lolly instead of a big bar of chocolate,” she said. She also used the lowest dose of the weight-loss drug Mounjaro for two months, in April 2025, which helped her lose two stone before continuing her weight-loss journey through changes to her diet and lifestyle.
The transformation has stretched far beyond the scales. Michelle has come off antidepressants for the first time in 13 years, says work is thriving, her finances have improved and her daughter has returned to school, where she is preparing for her GCSEs.
“I can’t explain it,” Michelle said. “Everything I manifested, a better job, a nice home, my daughter back in school I got.”