Obese woman shed nearly HALF her body weight after she was abandoned by her husband

June 24, 2017  14:13

An obese teacher has revealed how she shed nearly half her body weight after she was abandoned by her husband without warning.

Jennifer Velardi, 33, from Toronto, Canada, comforted herself with food in the wake of her mother's suicide and at her heaviest tipped the scales at 237lbs (16.9st).

As her weight spiralled out of control, Jennifer's marriage broke down. It finally ended when her husband emailed from holiday to say he was never returning home. 

'It was sort of like a slap in the face to me and woke me up from the emotional coma that I was in after my mum passed,' Jennifer said. 

With the help of a healthy diet and exercise, Jennifer started to shed the pounds and now weighs 136lbs (9.7st).

Jennifer said: 'I wanted to lose weight and I was tired of waiting around for a hero to come and save the day.'

The fitness guru, who inspires others with her weight-loss journey on Instagram, explained how as a child she learned to use food as an emotional escape to cope with her mother's mental health problems. 

She said: 'My mother suffered from severe depression. It was a very difficult time.

'I worried about her all the time and kept her very close to me. I ate a lot to quiet my fears and anxieties. I slept all the time I was an empty shell. I ate all my emotions.'

In 2011, just 11 months after Jennifer's wedding, her mother took her own life, leaving her daughter 'feeling like she was broken beyond repair'.

'I began eating even more,' Jennifer said. 'I was trying to fill the emptiness that I felt inside and tried to stifle all the pain I was feeling.

'I slept all the time and didn't exercise at all. My weight reached an all-time high and I didn't even care. I let myself go for three years.'

Instead of supporting his grieving wife, Jennifer's husband began to withdraw from the relationship. 

She said: 'Our marriage was very rocky. I was going through a very emotional time. I wasn't always easy. I was depressed. As my weight continued to steadily increase from the stress, it got worse and worse between us.

When Jennifer tried to lose weight, her husband told her to stop buying 'rabbit food'.

She continued: 'When I asked him to go for a walk with me, he would laugh and tell me to go on my own.

'Even though he didn't explicitly tell me that he was turned off by my size, his behaviour made me feel very unwanted, unattractive, and unworthy. '

Her life changed when her husband went on holiday to see his family in the Dominican Republic in 2014. 

She said: 'On the day I was to pick him up at the airport, I received an email from him instead stating that he would not be returning.'

Determined to regain control of her life, Jennifer ditched junk food and fizzy drinks and began counting calories and monitoring her portion sizes. 

Slowly she increased her exercise, moving from walking to jogging and then weight training.  

In 2016, she had abdominoplasty and a brachioplasty and is scheduled for thighplasty July 2017.

Now she can do many things she 'couldn't do before'. 

Jennifer said: 'Being obese was exhausting. My hips hurt, my legs hurt, my body hurt all the time. My joints were under a lot of stress. 

'Now I am able to engage in all kinds of different physical activities. I couldn't fit into rollercoaster rides at amusement parks.'

After years of covering up in hot weather, last year Jennifer stepped out in a bikini for the first time in front of friends and family. 

This year, Jennifer will embark on a new career empowering other women to pursue their own journey to a healthy lifestyle.

She added: 'I think my mum would be really proud of the fact that I have finally taken control of my health; mind, body, and soul.

'Her greatest wish was to see me happy. I spent so many years feeling trapped, unmotivated, and unworthy. I know she would love to see how I am currently living a positive, healthy lifestyle.' 

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