'I was lashing out': Wife drops half her body weight to save her marriage

Shelby Villatoro has always been overweight, weighing 76kg when she was just 12 years old.

“My eating habits were awful as I didn’t learn about nutrition growing up, so I ate giant portions and the only vegetables I ate were canned and slathered in butter,” she said.

At 25, the media consultant from Florida, USA, was at her heaviest yet at just over 186 kg.

But it was only on her and her husband Hugo’s first wedding anniversary in January 2017 that she realised she had to do something about her size 32 frame in order to save her marriage.

The couple’s romantic trip to Seattle was marred by Shelby’s weight, which caused her pain and stopped her from joining Hugo, 27, on their planned activities.

After a day of walking, Shelby was forced to return to the hotel with swollen ankles and sore muscles, and she was brought to tears attempting to complete an uphill walk to a viewing platform and had to sit it out.

“We struggled to fit into bus seats together and the active things that I wanted to do took a toll on me. Not only was it awful for me, but I was lashing out at Hugo because of my own shame,” she said.

The trip pushed Shelby to her breaking point and when she returned home, she immediately made an appointment with her doctor to kickstart her weight loss.

She adopted a doctor-approved meal plan, but - after being in the habit of finishing her husband’s food after her own - she admitted she “felt hungry all the time and was never satisfied.”

Within two months, Shelby lost nearly 10kg by going on brisk 30 minutes walks a day, but still felt defeated by how far she had to go to reach a healthy weight. That’s when she started looking into weight loss surgery.

In January 2018, she underwent bariatric surgery and within a year had halved her initial weight.

Today, Shelby sits at about 92 kg and wears a size 16. But what she’s most happy with is the impact her weight loss and lifestyle changes have had on her relationship with Hugo.

“I am more confident and happier with myself, which has made me feel more secure in our relationship. We are truly best friends and he has (literally) loved me through thick and thin,” she said.

“The weight loss has just made everything so much better for us. Our date nights no longer focus on going out to dinner. Instead, we embrace new adventures like biking new trails, ice skating and going to theme parks to ride rollercoasters,” Shelby said.

Shelby maintains her weight with a diet of lean protein, cauliflower rice, daily protein shakes, avoiding sugar and of course, exercise.

“I try to make a conscious effort to work out at least three times a week... I used to go to bed at night having done less than 2,000 steps a day, but now I average 11,000 steps a day,” she said.

“I still struggle to notice just how much weight I’ve lost, but I feel like an entirely new person. I’m beyond thrilled with the way I look and, more importantly, the way I feel. It's like I aged backwards. I am healthier than I’ve ever been”.

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