Kimberly Parker, 35, from Boise, Idaho, who is 5ft 2in, comfort ate to deal with a string of personal crises including postpartum psychosis and the breakdown of her marriage.
Over time her relationship with food worsened to the point where she was eating up to 5,000 calories a day – eating three burgers for lunch and snacking on sugar-filled candy.
After a family bereavement in October 2016, Kimberly realised she had to overhaul her lifestyle or risk not being there to see her children Lily, now 11, and Paxton, now seven, grow up.
Following a vertical sleeve gastrectomy operation, where a large part of the stomach is removed, and a subsequent procedure to remove an ‘apron’ of excess skin, Kimberly has shed nearly half her body weight, dropping to 123lb (8st 11lb).
The former size 22 (UK size 24) mother now slips into her daughter’s size 2 (UK size 4) jeans.
She said: ‘The only word that best describes it is I’m finally “free”. I’m finally who I was supposed to be the entire time.’
Ever since she was young, Kimberley admitted she would overeat in times of distress. Growing up, she was 140lb (10st), but then, as her marriage to her first husband began to break down in her early twenties, she sought solace in food.
She explained: ‘I overate to comfort my feelings of dread at the relationship ending.
‘For breakfast, I would have four scrambled eggs with four slices of toast, smothered in cinnamon and sugar. Lunch was two or three burgers and dinner was whatever takeaway I could get. I knew the eating was coming from a destructive place.’
In time, Kimberley and her ex-husband divorced and she entered a new relationship, remarrying in 2006. Having had no plans to get pregnant, she was surprised to find out she was expecting Lily in July of that same year.
She said: ‘I had no plans to have children – but suddenly here I was, carrying a baby.’
The road to motherhood was not easy for Kimberley, as she developed gestational diabetes, where your body cannot produce enough insulin to meet the extra needs in pregnancy, as well as high blood pressure.
Speaking candidly, she admitted feeling ‘resentful’ towards her body for putting her through a hard time – as well as terrified about the prospect of being a parent.
She said: ‘I started to have terrible low moods as I slowly gained weight throughout the stages, from 10lbs one month to 20lbs another.
‘I was sinking into depression and continued my terrible eating habits to comfort myself. Eventually, it spiralled out of control.’
Her mental health also deteriorating, things came to a head for Kimberly soon after she gave birth in February 2007 as, while on bed rest, she began to hallucinate that she was floating.
Panicked, she sought help from the doctor, and spent three weeks in a mental health facility in March 2007, where she was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis.
Once back home, she continued to gorge on junk food, but she tried to focus on getting better and being a mum to her beloved girl.
Feeling brighter as time went on, she even had a second baby, Paxton, who was born in July 2011. Keen to set a good example for her children, Kimberly, who was now around 198lb (14st 2lbs) – made it her mission to become healthier.
She said: ‘My kids’ presence inspired me to get into shape more, so I went for more walks, cut down on junk food and managed to lose 47 lb (3st 5lb) myself.’ But, things soon took a turn for the worse.
She continued: ‘I may have looked better, and my body may have felt better, but mentally nothing had changed. I was counting calories like a maniac and monitoring every minute of exercise I did.
‘I realised after a while that all I was doing was replacing one eating disorder with another.’
All of Kimberly’s hard work to lose the weight suddenly crumbled at Lily’s 6th birthday party in 2013, when a slice of cake she decided to treat herself to sparked a major binge.
Just like an addict, she was unable to stop her cravings for sugar and fat, gorging on all the junk food she had missed out on.
She said: ‘I managed to gain all the weight back and some extra. I was disappointed but not surprised – I knew it was going to happen, I was like an addict.’
In an effort to kick her food addiction for good, Kimberly consulted a specialist counsellor and then, in October 2016, the sudden death of one of her in-laws finally gave her the wake-up call she needed.
She said: ‘I realised life is far too short to live in misery and poor health. That one event made a light bulb go off in my head at a particularly dark time.’
Right away, Kimberly began to research weight loss methods, and came across the vertical sleeve gastrectomy – but she discovered it could cost her as much as $25,000 to have the procedure in the USA as her insurance would not cover it.
Luckily, as she scrolled Facebook in November 2016, she came across a woman who’d had the surgery with spectacular results – except for a much cheaper rate in Mexico.
After thoroughly researching the medic responsible, she was more than ready to book her flight, in a bid to reduce her 228 lb (16st 4lb) weight and size 22 physique.
By the time Kimberley jetted off to Mexico in June 2017, she had already lost 30lb (2st 2lbs) on her preoperative diet.
She said: ‘I stayed in a five-star hotel and woke up the next day after the surgery feeling surprisingly fresh. I could barely see where an incision had been made.’
The procedure – which cost about a quarter of the US price, though Kimberly does not want to reveal the exact amount – only took 45 minutes, and she arrived home three days later feeling like a new person.
Determined to succeed, Kimberly overhauled her diet, ditching fast-food and calorie-laden snacks for fruit, vegetables and fresh, home-cooked meals.
Noticing herself becoming fuller quicker, her unhealthy cravings were fast becoming a distant memory.
By October 2017, Kimberley was much smaller – but was now troubled by the 8lbs of excess skin hanging around her thighs and abdomen, which she nicknamed her ‘apron’, and longed to have surgically removed.
She said: ‘I would have to buy trousers that were much too big for my bottom or leg area just to handle the extra skin around my abdomen. I would constantly get asked if I was pregnant, it was so disheartening.’
And then she faced another huge emotional upheaval, one that would once have sent her straight back into an overeating and weight-gain spiral – her marriage came to an end. This time though, Kimberley was determined to stay on track.
She said: ‘I couldn’t let it stop me – nothing else could possibly get in the way – so despite the pain I was feeling emotionally, in November 2018, I went through with the surgery.’
The operation she had in the US, to cut away the excess skin and then remove some fat by liposuction, took ten hours in total.
Since then, Kimberly’s weight has been stable at 123 lb (8st 11lb) and she has continued to eat healthily and exercise, using the surgery she had as a ‘tool to complement her weight loss’.
She said: ‘I always loved the outdoors but, before I lost weight, I used to get winded just walking up the stairs to my house. Now I can hike five to ten miles a day.’
Remarkably, her experience has inspired her so much, she is even planning to retrain as a surgical technician in 2019.
She said: ‘I want to inspire other women and men who are struggling and show them that we can always find a solution. ‘Even when life gets hard, everyone should fight for their final goal.’
Before & After Photo Gallery
