EXCLUSIVE The breakfast that helped me lose four stone: Mother, 42, reveals three simple changes that saw her drop from a size 16 to a size 8

Daily Mail​

6 hours ago

A mother who used to order Deliveroo five times a week after a back injury left her in agony has revealed how she lost more than four stone by making simple changes to her routine and diet.
Allison Huff-Ritchie who grew up in New Orleans and moved to London 12 years ago, ballooned to 205 pounds (14.6 stone) after a serious back injury left her barely able to move.
When she was pregnant with her youngest child in 2022, the 42-year-old slipped and fell while getting into a bath and was later diagnosed with degenerative disc disease after being blue-lighted to hospital.
But because she had a baby on the way, doctors were not able to prescribe anything other than paracetamol, leaving Allison in severe pain all day, every day.
This impacted her ability to exercise and so she turned to fast food and alcohol for comfort and to help ease the agony, drinking a bottle of wine a week when she wasn't pregnant.
'I gave birth to my daughter, my career was in shambles, I was in complete agony, I couldn't move, I gained a lot of weight, I was in the worst mental and physical state of my life,' she said.
'I was eating total garbage, non-stop. We were eating so much junk. We were getting constant Deliveroos, four or five times a week. It was easy and fast but very expensive.'
Allison - who has two daughters aged five and three years old - believes she was suffering from postpartum depression after having her children, adding that her previous career in tech was 'in shambles'.
'In what should've been the most joyful time in my life where I had my girls and my family, it was the darkest, deepest part of my entire life,' the businesswoman said.
'I felt like I had no purpose, I didn't feel like I had a direction. I felt completely lost.'
Allison wolfed down almond croissants most mornings along followed by fried chicken sandwiches and barely ate any fruit or vegetables, along with chowing down dinner at 10pm some nights.
'We had cookies and sweets in the house all the time,' she said. 'The first step is to take it out of the house. When it's not there, it's really hard to eat it, because then you have to travel to the shop to get it.
'When it's a treat, it makes it more special. But if it's Tuesday and you eat cake and then on Wednesday you eat cake again then it's not a treat anymore - you're using food to emotionally regulate and that's not helpful.'
But after taking control of her life, Allison has gone from wearing a UK size 16 to a UK size 8 and now weighs a healthy 140 pounds, losing around 65 (4.6 stone) pounds on her weight loss journey.
She credits walking around 10,000 steps a day, starting the day by eating eggs and using infra-red light therapy.
She discovered infra-red light therapy when she visited her parents in the US.
Allison wolfed down almond croissants most mornings along with fried chicken sandwiches and barely ate any fruit or vegetables before taking control of her diet. Pictured left, before losing weight and right, after losing weight
The studio was next to their house and she decided to give it a try as she was still experiencing intense agony from her back injury.
'I put on so much weight, I was depressed and I felt terrible in all regards and there happened to be an infrared sauna near my parents' house,' she said.
'I went and within three times, my back pain was gone. I went from being in near-constant agony to being able to move again.
'I decided to bring the solution back to the UK, I ended my career in software and I thought other people deserved to live a life without pain.'
Allison decided to leave her role in tech to set up SweatLounge, an infrared light therapy studio in Chiswick in May 2023.
She built up the business using her savings and had it up and running in ten months, opening the doors to SweatLounge in March 2024.
She said: 'Once I was able to utilise this therapy to help with the pain, I was able to sleep again. When I could sleep, I made better food decisions, I wasn't eating ultra-processed foods anymore, I was going to the gym. I am fitter now than I was in my thirties.
'I'm in the best shape of my adult life, I feel the best I've ever felt. I wake up in the morning excited for the day with positive energy and wanting to make good decisions.
'I do [infrared light therapy] three to five times a week because I know if I don't, my back will hurt.'
The mother-of-two now walks most days rather than driving or taking public transport to help get her 10,000 steps in and starts the day by eating eggs.
She said that is much easier to alter your routine when you live in a metropolitan area because the infrastructure is set up to encourage walking - which is not the case for much of America.
She said: 'Walking is by far the best possible exercise you can do for your heart health and your mental health. Walking is free, it doesn't cost anything.
'One of the most beautiful things about living in a metropolitan area is that you can make slight changes to your lifestyle and all of a sudden you've walked 10,000 steps.
'This is the big problem with America. LA is one of the worst cities in the US for walkability. You have to drive everywhere, that's the culture. You drive to the gym and then you walk on the treadmill.'
Allison also goes to the gym at least three times a week and alternates her exercises between strength training, Pilates and spin and ensures she sticks to healthy portions by using Gusto - a meal subscription box service - for family dinners.
What is degenerative disc disease?
Degenerative disc disease is a condition where your spinal disks wear down.
When the discs wear away, the bones start to rub together.
According to Cleveland Clinic, the condition is common in those over the age of 40, even if they don't develop symptoms. However, around 5 per cent of adults get back pain.
Symptoms include getting neck pain and back pain that:
Comes and goes, lasting for weeks or months at a time
Radiates down your lower back and buttocks
Worsens with sitting, bending or lifting
Source: Cleveland Clinic
For lunch, she will eat low-fat protein with grains and cottage cheese and incorporate roasted vegetables into her snacks and meals. Whereas before, she would consume a lot of beige foods such as pizza or hamburgers with bacon.
But one of the biggest changes that has impacted her life is massively cutting down on her alcohol consumption.
'I had to have a really strong look at myself in regards to my relationship with alcohol,' she said. 'I like to have a glass of rose when the sun is out, who doesn't like to do that? However, because I am now tracking my sleep on my Oura ring, I can see what happens to my sleep after drinking two glasses of wine after 8pm.
'I'm sure I was over-consuming so many calories with alcohol because I was in pain and I wanted to dull the pain. [Seeing how alcohol affected] my sleep was the number one thing that changed my relationship with alcohol.'
When Allison was at her largest weight, she said she felt 'absolutely terrible' about herself and lacked self-esteem, but added that she was 'grateful' that her body was able to give her children.
'It's important not to hate the body that got you where you are today,' she added.
'A lot of people said they would die for their kids, but I wanted to live for my kids. I'm an older mum and I thought, I can't live the rest of my life like this.
'I want to be around for my grandchildren. I want to be the kind of mum that is running around with my kids. I didn't feel like I had the capability to do that and I had to have a really strong wrong with myself.'
Allison said she wished she understood how much her alcohol consumption was affecting her sleep, mood and weight.
'I wish I understood nutrition better. I wish I had understood the power of certain supplements and I recommend everybody to take a couple of supplements,' she said.
Many people have noticed Allison's weight loss which she described as 'wild' because she feels like 'the same person inside'.
'You still see things in the same way but then you see an [old] picture of yourself,' she said. 'It's so wild to go back to those pictures because I just can't believe it. You're still the same on the inside.
'People say to me "Oh s*** Allison you lost a lot of weight didn't you?" Maybe people do treat me a little differently.
'I'd be lying if I said it didn't make me feel good because it was hard work, I don't want to underestimate it.'
Allison's advice to people who are trying to lose weight is to focus on cleaning up their diet and walking more - but she warned not to do too much at once because you risk burning yourself out.
'It starts in the house, it starts with the diet. You exercise to feel good, you eat to change your body. It will take time but don't be intimidated by the path ahead of you. Just start walking.
'If you walk over 8,000 steps a day and you change your diet, you will be amazed at how much better you feel and sleep. Slowly build it into your routine, it doesn't have to be something you do at once.
'If you try to do it at once you will burn yourself out. My mum has a saying "You can't outrun the fork". When you're sleeping well, you're going to make better decisions the next day. Be kind to yourself, your body got you to where you are today, you should honour it.'