Do you ever feel like you’ve followed every rule, tried every diet, and still ended up back where you started? Maria knows that feeling inside out. She’d had a weight problem since she was 11, tried all sorts over the years, and it was only after her second heart attack and a type 2 diabetes diagnosis that she found Slimpod, and finally something shifted. What changed wasn’t another set of rules. It was her whole relationship with food.
The one thing every diet had missed
Maria had always built exercise into her life and thought she was doing everything right. What she’d never addressed was what was going on in her mind and her thinking, and that turned out to be the missing piece.
She started at Christmas 2021, keen to crack on, and the weight began to come off almost straight away. There was no calorie counting, no daily weigh-ins, no excessive exercise. She relaxed into it, listened to Trevor every night, and let the pods to their work. Having a cousin, Kate, on the same journey made it all the lovelier, and the two of them would marvel at how something so unforced could actually be working.
Freedom from food guilt
The part Maria treasures most is that the guilt disappeared. If she fancies a bacon sandwich instead of her usual breakfast, she has it, with none of that old dread of “if you eat that, you’ll put two pounds on.” She’ll happily have the odd slice of cake or a pizza, and the weight stays off.
This is what I love to explain. When the fear and guilt around food lift, and you stop wanting the things you used to feel powerless over, eating becomes so much simpler. As Maria puts it, her body started telling her she didn’t need certain things, and she’d never had that voice in her head before. Her appetite settled, her choices changed, and food loosened its grip.
Living well with diabetes, her way
Maria is wonderfully honest about wanting to understand her type 2 diabetes rather than just be handed a rule. She did a lot of her own research and made some personal decisions along the way, including monitoring her own levels and reintroducing fruits she loves. I want to be clear that this was Maria’s own path, and diabetes is very individual, so anyone managing it should always make these choices alongside their own GP or diabetes team.
Nearly five years on
Maria had never kept weight off for longer than three months in her life. She’s now held it since 2021, and at 67, with two heart attacks behind her, a healthy lifestyle now feels like her natural norm. Best of all, she says she’s never been happier, because for the first time she feels genuinely in control of her own body.
When people ask how she’s done it, she gives them one word: Slimpod. She believes it should be far more widely known, and she’s told every nurse and doctor she sees.
Maria's tip for you
Her advice? Forget everything you’ve ever been told about diets and relax into it. Her journey felt easy because her mind was ready, and she knows it may take more time for others to let go of years of counting and rules. And her other message: listen to your body, and let go of the scales, because she hasn’t owned a pair since she started.
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