I WAS MISTAKEN FOR MY HUSBAND'S MISTRESS!
WOMAN'S OWN|September 23, 2024
When Gemma Loveden, 38, lost l6st, a family member was convinced she was someone else...
JULIA SIDWELL
I WAS MISTAKEN FOR MY HUSBAND'S MISTRESS!

Pushing a buggy to the shops with my six kids, sweat dripped down my back. ‘It’s not even sunny and I’m boiling,’ I thought. Then a group of teenagers walked by, their eyes widening as they saw me.

‘Come on kids, nearly there,’ I said, heart racing, and hoping more than anything that they didn’t make a comment.

It was spring 2021, and at 27st 7lb and size 28, I should have been used to people’s stares, rude gestures and laughter by now. But I wasn’t – I was absolutely mortified to be so heavy.

As a kid I was always taller than my friends, but as the years passed, I became bigger too. I tried my first diet at 13 but never managed to keep the weight off.

At 17, I moved in with my partner Guy and loved cooking tasty homemade meals, but my portions were huge and I couldn’t resist getting takeaways, too.

At 18, I fell pregnant with our first child, Crystal, and craved Ribena and sugary foods, making me more than 20st by the time she arrived.

After that, I ate anything and everything. In 2011, when Crystal was five, Guy and I had Curtis. Then, between 2016 and 2020 I had four back-to-back pregnancies, adding Cassius, Clayah, Creeson and Carmelo to our brood.

EATING TOO MUCH

Each addition to the family added another stone or so to my frame. And even a few stark words from a nurse when Carmelo was six months old didn’t shock me into making a change. My obesity was contributing to my asthma and high cholesterol.

‘If you don’t lose weight, you might not make it to your 40th birthday,’ the nurse said.

I just brushed off her comments, telling myself that baby weight can be stubborn and that it would soon fall off. But now, a few months on, pushing Carmelo and Creeson in their double buggy surrounded by their siblings, I was a hot, sweaty mess, and even though I could try and tell myself that at 5ft 9in tall I was just big boned, I knew I was in denial.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 23, 2024 من WOMAN'S OWN.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.

هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة September 23, 2024 من WOMAN'S OWN.

ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.