I saw my future and it was TERRIFYING

After a holiday wake-up call and a shock diagnosis, Jess Ponting, 38, is a whole new woman

- RACHEL TOMKINS

Denial is a funny thing. For years I couldn’t face up to reality, so I simply stopped weighing myself, ignored the size 24 label in my clothes, and put up with the constantly aching joints. But a moment of clarity did eventually come, in the form of an overweight holidaymaker in Turkey in September 2022. She was only a bit bigger than me, and I cringed, watching her struggle off her sunbed and hobble on swollen ankles to the hotel buffet. Her failed attempts to keep some semblance of dignity horrified me, because I just knew... I was staring at my future.

I'd always battled with my weight, which I blamed on a number of factors. Being a single parent for years to my daughter Alexia, 19, I'd got into the habit of eating ready meals and takeaways. As I climbed the career ladder as a nurse, my role gradually became more sedentary. I also had an unhealthy relationship with food. For example, I would fixate on certain things and eat the same food every day just so I didn't have to think about it.

Racing out to work every morning I would skip breakfast and grab a coffee instead. Every lunchtime I would eat the same meal deal, and dinner was always a carb-heavy pasta dish or a takeaway. My medical experience meant that I should have been a good role model health-wise, but the truth was, I was anything but.

By the time of my holiday in Turkey, I suffered with my knees and back. I couldn’t do simple things like bend down and clean out a cupboard without feeling out of breath and in pain. In my 20s I'd loved scuba diving, but the last time I'd tried to get a wetsuit on - back in 2019 - it had been such a struggle, there was no way I'd attempt it again.