Global Courant
A mom of four who said she’d tried more than 10 extreme diets in a span of 10 years has lost 84 pounds — after both surgery and starting a regular hula hoop routine.
Laura Johnson, 42, said she’s tried every “fad diet” in her decade-long battle to shed excess baby weight, as the British news service SWNS reported.
During that time, she said she’d tried Slimming World, SlimFast, Weight Watchers, juicing, and counting calories — to no avail.
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Johnson, a police dispatcher from Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England, weighed herself every day in an effort to lose weight, but said “nothing worked” for her.
Despite her best efforts, she tipped the scales at 224 pounds, SWNS noted.
Laura Johnson, a mother of four, is shown today keeping slim by using her weighted hula hoop, which she purchased online. (SWNS)
Then a friend recommended that she look into gastric sleeve surgery.
She underwent the procedure in the summer of 2022.
In more than a year, she lost 70 pounds not only from the surgery, but also with the help of a weighted hula hoop, which she says uses for 15 minutes every day.
“It got to the point where I didn’t want to leave the house. I felt so big and I knew it wasn’t me.”
Johnson — who now weighs about 150 pounds and slips into a slim size 10 — said, “I was so busy being a mom and shift worker. I didn’t have time to focus on dieting and getting healthy.”
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She added, “It got to the point where I didn’t want to leave the house. I felt so big and I knew it wasn’t me,” as SWNS reported.
She said the surgery she underwent was “tough” but overall said it was “great” for her.
Laura Johnson, pictured on the left before she turned her life around — and on the right, pictured today at a much leaner 150 pounds or so. (SWNS)
She said she’s active now and she loves hula hoops.
“I got a weighed copy online from Amazon and I’m obsessed.”
The weight of the baby fell off easily
Johnson first became a mother in her early 20s, in 2001, she said — and found that the baby’s weight easily “fell off her.”
She said the same thing happened when she had her second child in 2003 and her third in 2009.
Then she said, “I had my fourth baby at age 32 in 2013 — and there was something else. I couldn’t move the extra weight no matter what I did.”
Among the things she tried were classes and aqua aerobics, she said.
In the portrait on the left, Laura Johnson is shown before her gastric sleeve surgery and her daily hula hoop routine – and on the right, as she looks today. “I feel lighter in my head and feel free,” she said of her life now. (SWNS)
But “it was so hard to commit to anything long term because of my job and having four kids.”
She also quit smoking in October 2011, she said — noting that her sweet tooth “went crazy” at the time as she reached for cakes and other sweets.
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Despite making sure her kids eat healthy, home-cooked meals, she said she herself often relied on processed snacks and ready meals.
What made her change, she told SWNS, was an invitation to a girls’ weekend away with her friends — which she declined, saying all she wanted to do was “stay home and hide.”
Laura Johnson today. “Life is so much more fun now,” she said. “I’m trying things with the kids that I wouldn’t have done before.” (SWNS)
She added, “I knew my weight was controlling my life. I’m usually the life and soul of a party” — so something had to change,” she said.
After she had the gastric sleeve surgery, she lost nearly 30 pounds and said she has continued to lose weight ever since.
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She said starting exercise — which includes her daily round of hula hoops plus long walks and runs — has made all the difference.
“I feel lighter in my head and feel free,” she said.
“I no longer overeat and I trust myself to make healthy choices… I still treat myself now and then, but I just don’t binge.”
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She also said, as SWNS reported, “Life is so much more fun now. I’m trying things with the kids that I wouldn’t have before.”
She added, “I’ve got my life back and I’m dancing on tables like I used to.”
Maureen Mackey is editor-in-chief of lifestyle for Fox News Digital.
