Jo O’Farrell was a chronic yo-yo dieter, often turning to fast food and takeout for comfort while struggling with her weight for a decade.
The British mother, 40, could never keep the pounds off — that is, until she nearly died.
O’Farrell reported contracting sepsis in 2021 after a sinus infection went unnoticed. The “hidden killer” left her unable to move around her home and landed her in a hospital bed.
“I felt weak walking around the house, and 12 hours later I was in an ambulance going to hospital,” she said, per the Daily Mail, adding that she didn’t know what was happening to her. “My body was completely shutting down. They had to put a line in my neck to give me adrenaline.”
Her husband reportedly recognized the life-threatening symptoms and insisted she go to Southport Hospital, where she received treatment and learned how to walk again.
Medics informed her that her weight played a role in her body’s inability to fight off the simple infection.
At the time, she “wasn’t really looking after” herself — she wasn’t even leaving the house in fear of running into old friends. She would avoid people in the grocery store and wear a hat to hide her identity, “hiding from the world.”
After her terrifying near-death experience, O’Farrell recognized she needed to revamp her lifestyle. In a mere 16 months, she dropped about 150 pounds — going from 322 to 168 pounds following the Cambridge 1:1 diet, an extremely strict plan that promises significant weight loss.
Experts warn the diet may be potentially harmful, as it can be overly limiting.
“You’re putting your body into a very low-calorie deficit throughout much of the plan and entering starvation mode,” nutritionist Lauren Windas told Marie Claire UK last year.
It’s similar to keto, where dieters enter a state of ketosis and burn fat due to the lack of carbohydrates. While it can lead to quick results, Windas cautions it may not be the best path.
“It’s far from sustainable and doesn’t give you the learnings and tools to cement healthy habit changes whilst maintaining a healthy relationship with food,” she added.
But O’Farrell says she feels like she’s “been brought back from the dead.”
“I had an epiphany that, ‘I’m not going to die in here with these people.’ Something inside me gave me the courage to get better. That was a huge wake-up call,” she recalled.
Now, she can partake in the activities she’s watched others enjoy for 10 years, she says, like “going out for a meal or a coffee” and not worrying that people are staring and judging her appearance.
“I can go to the park, go on the swings with my kids,” she gushed. “I’m joining in, rather than staring from the corner. It’s like they’ve got their mum back.”