Alert – I lost five stone in a year and have kept it off by following five free unconventional rules: Anyone can do it and there’s NO weight-loss jabs or gym required: NAOMI HOLBROOK

Naomi Holbrook, 50, remembers creeping down the stairs of her childhood home in Devon while everyone was sleeping to raid the kitchen cupboards. ‘Mum was a brilliant home baker so there were always tins of flapjacks, sausage rolls and cheese straws that I couldn’t resist. Both my parents were big on entertaining and if they’d had a dinner party, I’d also be in the fridge before breakfast helping myself to the ‘naughty’ leftovers. By the time I was eight years old my complex relationship with food had already begun.’

A pupil at a ‘competitive girl’s school’ where everyone else was ‘slimmer and sportier’, Naomi ‘always felt like the big girl’. 

‘Food was my last thought at night and my first in the morning,’ she says. ‘I gave into crisps, chocolate, biscuits and sweets and felt like I didn’t have an “off” switch. I labelled food in my head as “good” and “bad”, and when I had foods that I deemed to be bad I would just spiral out of control and keep wanting more.’

At the age of 14, weighing nine stone, Naomi was buying SlimFast shakes and hiding them in her wardrobe. And so began a 26-year battle with her weight. She tried every conceivable diet – and sometimes more than one at a time. ‘I’d be tracking “Syns”, having a green day, counting calories and intermittently fasting all at the same time. None of it ever worked.’

By her 30s – her ‘Bridget Jones years’, as she deems them – Naomi was London-based and heading up operations for a global cosmetics brand. ‘I spent most of that decade single, in a very stressful job and drinking well over 30 units of alcohol a week [the safe limit is 14]. It was all boozy brunches with my girlfriends, an Indian takeaway for two on the way home that I’d eat myself, then a tub of Haagen-Dazs. They were fun times… until they were miserable times.’

By 39, Naomi weighed 18 stone – her heaviest weight – and, at 5ft 5ins, wore a dress size 18-20. She was pre-diabetic and had constant back pain. She was also struggling with depression, and would obsessively weigh herself three times a day.

‘It was at this point I told myself “I am not going to get to 40 and be fat and single”, she says now. ‘I never shamed anyone else, but I did shame myself.’ 

A year later, she had kept her promise to herself. Having lost five stone in 12 months, Naomi entered her 40s almost at her healthy weight. Now, ten years on, she has kept it all off – and more. While she no longer weighs herself, she is a size 10-12.

Naomi Holbrook before she lost five stone in a year. At her heaviest, aged 39, she weighed 18 stone and, at 5ft 5ins, wore a dress size 18-20. She was also pre-diabetic and had back pain

Indeed, her life was so turned around, she left the corporate world to teach others her methods and today works as the Unconventional Weight Loss Coach.

Her recipe for success is called The Smart Formula and ‘is entirely based on what worked for [her]’.

‘When I started, I was at my heaviest. I hated myself and was so jealous of friends who didn’t have problems with their weight. I lacked confidence and any belief in myself.

‘Aside from the weight loss, the greatest change is that I don’t need food or romantic relationships to feel good any more. I no longer feel embarrassed about being single or ashamed about not having children.

‘Everything in my life has got better. When you work with your body instead of fighting it, lasting results become possible without shame, restriction – or weight loss injections.’

Here, she shares the five free and easy-to-achieve steps she took to finally get the body she wanted – and maintain it.

STEP 1: ‘Turn off the TV and reduce evening drinking’

I used to survive on four to five hours of sleep. Alcohol and poor food choices were spiking my insulin levels and disrupting my ability to get proper rest. I’d also watch TV until midnight, or 2am at weekends.

Now, getting to bed is my goal. It’s the foundation of good physical, emotional and metabolic health.

I’m in bed for 10pm, up at 5.30am and I sleep solidly. In my experience, so many people try to fix their weight without solving their chronic sleep deprivation first. Sleep has a huge impact on our ghrelin and leptin hormones, which keep our appetite in check (ghrelin stimulates your desire to eat while leptin signals fullness).

For successful weight loss, I encourage limiting blue-screen time (phones, laptops etc), ideally for 90 mins before bed. On-demand channels keep you glued to the TV, chasing the dopamine hit. Too often women use a TV binge to soothe themselves but, believe me, nothing will make you feel better than a good night’s sleep.

I start my bedtime routine every morning. I get out into daylight within the first hour of waking up. It’s when our body produces the better-quality melatonin – the hormone that promotes good sleep. I’m active every single day so that I feel physically tired by the evening.

I don’t drink caffeine after 1pm because it stays in the bloodstream for nine to ten hours, spiking cortisol levels during the night. If I touch alcohol, I see an immediate detrimental impact on my sleep. During the evening, I reduce fluids, having just a little water if I need it. I also avoid processed foods, so I’m not waking at 2am with sugar-induced night sweats. I’m also a big fan of the Calm meditation app – it’s great for helping your brain switch off.

STEP 2: Break snacking habits and stop making excuses

I used to skip breakfast, thinking I was compensating for overeating the night before. If I did have it, I’d eat a pain au chocolat, guzzle a latte, and then have another pastry at my office desk. Lunch was a cheese panini, crisps and chocolate bar ‘meal deal’, plus a milky coffee.

Dinner would be a carb-heavy ready meal with a pudding and another chocolate bar. Frankly, it wasn’t unusual for me to eat four chocolate bars a day.

Meals now look very different. But there’s no weighing, no measuring, no tracking, no calorie counting. I do it all by hand – ideally three palm-sized portions of protein a day and at least five fruit and vegetables. When you have enough protein, you’ll never think about snacking.

Breakfast is eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms or homemade banana pancakes with raspberries, blueberries and natural yoghurt. Lunch will be salmon, cod or chicken with lots of pulses and veg. Not everything is made from scratch – I’m busy, so dinner might be Heck sausages with veg. Throughout the day, I’ll drink two to three litres of water with electrolytes to replace all my minerals, plus two or three espressos.

When most people think they’re hungry, they’re actually dehydrated from drinking nothing but tea and coffee all day. I no longer think about food between meals.

I used to cut food triggers out of my life, but now I face them. For me, these include meeting up with family and friends. To them, food is love, so they’ll always try to feed me. Previously, I would have eaten whatever they offered – now I either decline or take my own healthier option, such as a protein yoghurt.

You’ve also got to stop making excuses for why you can’t lose weight. One of the biggest lies is ‘I’m in menopause so I can’t do it’. Others include: ‘It’s hereditary’, ‘My metabolism is broken’, ‘I’ve always been big-boned or the chubby one’ and ‘I can’t move due to chronic illness’.

The truth is 85 per cent of weight loss results come from diet. Women need re-educating about food. I never offer meal plans; instead I educate my clients on nutrition and what their bodies need so they can make informed decisions. You can’t tell someone you have to eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner if they’re a shift worker or if they’re homeschooling four children – it doesn’t work.

Naomi now, after losing weight with her five steps, known as The Smart Formula. She helps women lose weight as the Unconventional Weight Loss Coach

STEP 3: ‘Quit the gym and get outside’

I was a sloth before I lost weight, telling myself I had a back condition so I couldn’t exercise. Also, I didn’t like the way my body felt when I moved – it was an unwelcome reminder of how big I was. On the rare occasions I did work out, it was only as a punishment for eating too much. What I needed was to find enjoyment and a compelling personal challenge, and that’s what I gave myself when I set out to climb Mont Blanc in the Alps. I decided that first, by way of training, I would ascend seven UK mountains (Cader Idris, Pen y Fan, Glyder Fawr, Pen yr Ole Wen, Crib Goch, Tryfan and Scafell Pike) in 2023. I scaled Mont Blanc over a ten-day expedition in August 2023, as a personal goal I set myself.

I now strength train and dead lift every week – as a 50-year-old woman in menopause I know how important it is for me to improve my bone health and mitigate the loss of muscle mass – and I cold-water swim all year round.

I often advise women to quit the gym because they’re paying the fees every month and never go. What they really benefit from is getting outside.

There are no workouts in my programme. For successful, sustainable weight loss, you need to find daily movement that brings you joy and fits into your life. It can be dancing in the kitchen with your kids, getting outside and walking, or doing the school run but stopping the car early and walking the last quarter of it. If you enjoy it, you’ll continue to do it.

‘Eat less, move more’ is too simplistic a view, verging on uneducated. A woman’s relationship with food is much more complex than that, especially around menopause. It’s about regulating your metabolism, hormones and sleep – in all the ways that I have done – so that your body can do what it’s actually designed to do, which is burn fat.

STEP 4: ‘Your weight is not the problem – stress is’

This is the hardest one to achieve, largely because we’re never taught how to do it. Most women feel guilty for stopping or even pausing. But we all need moments of recovery – brief pauses that can be less than ten minutes – rather than relying on food, alcohol and caffeine to make us feel better.

Back in my 20s and 30s, I didn’t just have a weight problem. Most women don’t. We have a chronic stress and burnout problem, too. The cause is typically a lack of boundaries and saying yes to everything to the detriment of your own health and wellbeing. In fact, I know I always kept myself busy in order to feel like I had some worth in the world.

Weight gain is a symptom of burnout. When we spend a long time in a state of stress, our body resorts to fight-or-flight mode, which disrupts our nervous system and drives us to soothe ourselves with poor lifestyle and food choices.

There are seven types of rest that I believe are beneficial to us and combat weight problems: physical, mental, emotional, sensory, social, spiritual and creative. Try to find moments throughout your day to pause and have some form of break that ticks one of those boxes. Stand outside and take a few minutes without digital stimulation. Stop to make a cup of tea (but don’t drink it at your desk – go outside!). Have an exercise break and spend just six minutes moving your body.

STEP 5: ‘Go out for lunch and delete the dating apps’

The fact I wasn’t capable of managing my weight made me feel like a failure in other areas of my life – and a lot of my clients have a similar mindset.

I always needed to be with people because I felt that proved I was a good friend, sister and daughter. A lot of women I see have lost themselves this way. Often, they’re trying to be the old version of themselves – the one who wore the size ten jeans or was her pre-baby weight. But that’s not who they are any more. Acknowledging that is almost like a grief process.

Many of my female clients have never taken themselves out for lunch or been away overnight on their own. When they eventually do something like this, the experience makes them more resilient. It’s important to prioritise guilt-free time alone. Try baby steps at first, such as going to a park to relax.

I’m very proud that I spent my 50th birthday alone in Florence, Italy, for four days. During my Bridget Jones years, that would have made me feel like a failure. I’d rather have sat in a cafe and talked to strangers than spent even one afternoon on my own. But now I take great pleasure in my own company, doing precisely what I want, when I want to.

Deleting all my dating apps – and believe me, I had a few – felt like another act of self-care. Every time someone ghosted me, I’d feel awful and my mental health would take a dip.

Now dating is a bit like food; I don’t need to obsess about it any more.

Likewise, several friendships have naturally fallen away. I’ve accepted that some people don’t like the new version of me. As I lost all that weight, I didn’t just reclaim my body – I found my voice, my confidence and, ironically, the courage to finally take up space. Now I’m very clear on who I am and I’m not busy trying to fit in with everybody or be the people pleaser I was.

Naomi’s group coaching programme (theunconventionalweightlosscoach.com) costs £1,197 for 12 weeks. Her book, Your Weight Is Not The Problem (£10.99), is out now.

• As told to Jade Beer