From Scooter to Stage: June’s Incredible Fibromyalgia & Weight Loss Transformation with Slimpod

I've got the lovely June Ward with me right now, uh, who is one of the amazing success stories in my book The Weight's Over— Take Back Control. And June is, uh, in the chapter under Become the Internal Master of Your Life. And honestly, June, you have literally You have absolutely spectacularly become the master of your own life. And yes, you've lost weight, but that's only a tiny part of the story. So, so just give us a little summary of what has actually happened, and then we'll go back to before SlimPod, and you can explain, you know, what life was like then and just take us through the story.

Yeah, well, when I joined SlimPod in 2020, I was using mobility scooter and crutches, and that was me. I was housebound. I couldn't even put my own scooter in my car, so I couldn't really go out for the day either. And then I started, obviously got interested in the SlimPod, thought that this is what you were saying, right, at the very beginning was right, it's all the mindset. Completely mindset change, having done years of dieting. And then I started reading more and more, and then Julie Emmanuel's video popped up. And not knowing who she was, didn't know who she was or anything, she actually also had fibro, but she was talking about how she managed to get her activity up, how she increased it. And I thought, wow, just to do that so simple exercise. So I actually, I've got a mini trampoline in the back garden, so it was it was early, sort of early-ish spring, like early summer. And so I went out there and started stepping on it for a minute, and that was it. And it was, it was weird.

Yeah. So, so really, I mean, before you joined, you were in a mobility scooter.

Yeah.

And, and you had fibromyalgia, uh, and was it Was it just the fibro? I'm not saying that to diminish my memory at all, but was it the fibromyalgia that was keeping— that was, you know, debilitating you in the scooter, or were there other things as well?

It was mainly fibro. I think I've had— with the fibro, I got diagnosed back in 2008, um, but I've had like bursitis on my hips and my shoulders, had injections and stuff like that on them. And actually, thinking about it, since Slimpart, and I've got mobile I haven't had any issues with needing injections. I've had issues with my shoulder, but now the ex— I now know going to the gym is actually stopping that pain coming back. So I go to the gym to stop the pain.

So, um, were you— how was your eating before you joined? Just take us back for a little snapshot. I mean, just, just to let everybody know, uh, the reason that June is in my book is because seriously, just such a transformation. It's quite extraordinary. And it's one of the— I mean, I've got lots of transformations in the book, but you are one of the standout, um, of how your, uh, mind can, um, how you can take back control. Uh, and so, you know, the wait's over, take back control is absolutely you. It is so totally you. Um, and this isn't, you know, the whole thing was, uh, what kind of just happened quite quickly. But explain where you were at before you joined.

Where was that? I'd, um, the boys were only 6 and 10 when I actually first got diagnosed with fibro, and my life with them sort of really got really restricted. I felt that I was being held back because I couldn't take them anywhere, do anything, um, and everything then became very much convenient. Everything was convenience meals. I was actually relying on my mum. I used to go to my mum's every Thursday for tea, my in-laws every Monday for tea, because I knew that way they'd be getting a decent Sunday dinner, if that makes sense. Whereas I knew in between, and I also knew that them having school dinners again was a healthy meal. So it was more of a convenient, quick thing, whatever. And some days, what even day, what day they could even manage, because our Matthew, my youngest, actually became my young carer. So he a lot of times actually preparing the meals for me because I just didn't have the energy to be able to do it. I always promised myself that I would never be the person who stayed in bed all day. But I can honestly say when the boys went to school, I went back to bed because I needed that rest in the morning. But they never saw me and I never went to— never stayed in my pajamas either. There was always a thing. I'm not going to sit in my pajamas all day and I've kept that all the way through. But the boys never really saw what I was really like during the day because obviously they was at school. And I mean, they're so involved with Scouts as well, which is— they've continued. So at least they kept— I felt happier with myself because they was able to have an outside life, whereas I'm able to give it to them because I had—

did you pile on weight at that point as well?

Absolutely. I got up to 17 stone. Wow. 17 stone 2. That's the heaviest I've been. Size 24 jeans, which I've still got. Um, I've also still got my jeans when I was a teenager, and I've not got back into them yet. But, you know, this will work. But yeah, I just, I just sat there and I just bloomed. I hadn't realized I had. It was only when I'd gone to my nephew's party and somebody took a photo of me wearing that red top, and I just looked at that photo and I thought I felt awful. I looked, I just thought, I can't believe— but even Nev said, I mean, he said it doesn't— he never saw me that big, which didn't help because I obviously was that big and I could have done with being told I was that big. But they just kept me happy and I had biscuits, biscuits, sweets. I mean, we never really had sweets as such in the house because if anybody had— if we had sweets in the house, I I would eat them, and that's been most of all my children's life. So we never really had sweets in the house for them, but biscuits, crisps, you know, pizzas, takeaway stuff was just so much easier to just grab than it was to think about preparing a meal or actually even being organised and making— I love to call them bulk bags where you put them in the freezer. You just, you put everything in a bag, you dump bag, put it in the freezer that now you just grab it out and stick it in the slow cooker and you've got a healthy slow-cooked meal. Never thought about that at all before SlimPod because it wasn't, you know, never entered it. I mean, I've done Slimming World, Weight Watchers, Rosemary Conley, the works, and never thought about doing that either.

Yeah. So you got to a point where you thought, I've got to lose this weight, and how did that all happen?

To be honest, obviously my goal when I joined SlimPod was I'm joining it to lose weight. Never went to my head about walking because that was destined, that's what I was going to be. My mum's in a scooter, I'm obviously just going to take after my mum. And I honestly, and I don't know, it was just like a switch. I know it's the SlimPod magic, and obviously it's SlimPod magic, but obviously now I know really it isn't just SlimPod, it's a little bit about myself. But the mindset just changed. It changed about the food, about the walking and the activity and increasing it slowly. And then the food seemed to just naturally just change. And I began enjoying cooking meals.

Wow. So it wasn't, it wasn't a conscious decision. It was, it was something that kind of flicked in your head and you just thought, I'm going to take back control here, or maybe not even think that way.

I remember even just saying, I've always known that it's got to be something in my head to The head's got to be in the right space to actually be able to do it. And I sort of think, well, obviously years before, my head just wasn't in the right place to keep going. And whereas now it's like, it's there. We're having the odd blip, but you know, it's there. It's good.

Amazing.

It's made such a big difference to all of our lives, not just my life really, because we know we can all go out now and go out and do things and enjoy stuff and not have to rely on being pushed about or in a mobility scooter, because you don't feel part of a family when you're in that scooter and the kids are around you and even Nev's walking with you. You're not holding hands, you're not, you're just there. So you're not, you know, I mean, yes, I used to ram the scooter onto the beach as far as I could get it before I got stuck, which the kids thought was funny, but you know, it wasn't the same. Whereas now you know, we can go off and we can do things. Probably a bit of shame it's now the boys have grown up and adults and left home, sort of, you know. It's, um, it'd have been nice to have done this when they were younger, but better late than never. And, you know, absolutely. And you're enjoying it now anyway, so, you know, children at some point, so I can annoy them.

So how exactly have you taken back control? What, what's been happening in your life ever since, because it's, because it's so exciting.

I think I found the real me. I started, I mean, I thought, I've never been a dancer, I never was a dancer, and I think a lot of it grew up from being a child going to gymnastics. I used to love gymnastics, but, and I was in a gymnastics club, but the instructor kept calling me the baby kangaroo, and I was only at primary school then, so my mum pulled me out And then because I had to rely on my parents where we lived to take us everywhere, it was strictly Brownies and Guides and Sunday school. So I had no other outside life. And secretly, I don't know, I've always enjoyed dancing and movement, music. And then I saw an advert from one of my friends about burlesque dancing, and I thought, you know what, I'd love to do that, but I'm too big. I can't do it. I can't move well and everything. And then I thought, as awful as it sounds, really awful, my friend was big and she was doing it. And it's like, well, if she can, I can. And then obviously I called one of my other neighbours, said, well, if you're going, I'll go. And it's just got better and better. I mean, honestly, to be able to jump off chairs is ridiculous.

Because you don't— because literally it's not that you— you don't just dance, you do a specific type of dancing, don't you?

Dancing, it's like, it's, I mean, obviously Trevor likes you to do chair dancing, but I think he didn't quite mean burlesque dancing.

The burlesque, the burlesque dancing, just, uh, just incredible. And, uh, and, and how much weight have you lost now?

I got, I hovered around 12 stone 4, so about between 4 and 5 stone.

And how many sizes is that?

I'm, I'm a very, between a 14 and a 16 now, so I've gone from a 24 to a 14 to a 16, and that depends on really, in fairness, on the cut of the clothes and whose makes they are, which is a little— is annoying because I'd love to be able to say, oh, I'm a 14, when, you know, it won't go. And usually the boobs are the problem.

But you're, you're happy being that size?

Absolutely.

That's your happy size?

Yeah, this is, this is it. I am so happy. I'm me. I'm being me. I'm doing what I want to do. Um, I'm loving the dancing. Obviously I'm loving going to the gym now. I mean, I never thought I'd ever go to a gym, and now I love going to the gym. I, um, started doing AquaFit, and for years it was always, the water's too cold for my fibro. And now I'm going to the AquaFit, and you step in, and every time it's like, this isn't as cold as I remember. So whether that's the fibro, whether it's my— I don't know, but my head, you know, the water isn't cold. I'd love to have a go at doing, um, sea swimming, but I'm a bit too far away from the coast. I try when we're on holiday, but you know, it's not the same. But, um, yeah, it's taking back complete control. This last year has been different having my son move back home, but again, he's moved— he's hoping to move out later this year, and I am so looking forward not to him moving out, but for me to be able to go, right, I'm, I'm off to do this, and I don't have to tell anybody. I can just go. I'm free to do whatever. I haven't got his dog to look after. I haven't, you know, because I feel it's a mother thing that you're compelled to be around the house while he— because he works at home. So it's like, you're like, I'll just be here because, you know, I'll make him a drink or he makes me a drink.

But yeah, so June, um, how has the food changed now?

Everything's— everything is, uh, 90— I'll say 90% is home cooked. Thomas is very good at ordering takeaways, so I have to pull him in a bit on that. It was quite nice to start with, I have to admit, because, you know, it was because he never, he never orders the cheap takeaways. But the— my food portions are so much smaller. I've naturally fallen into IF. Breakfast, I still call it breakfast even though I have it lunchtime because I do still enjoy breakfast. I still enjoy the crunch of the cereal, muesli, whatever it is, but that's all plant-based. I have Greek yogurt, I have fruit or whatever on it, and then that does me then until tea time. There's very much— there's very less— there's not very much snacking unless I'm having moments. But the snacking went, and it lets— when we— I think both, because obviously I have Trevor listening on the pod at night on my phone overnight but on speaker. So hubby hears it and he's like, you know, he's the one who's going like, oh, my belt's a bit tight. And I'm like, how dare you! But even when we go away, it's like we haven't eaten a whole packet of biscuits dunking it mindlessly in a cup of tea. You know, you're suddenly realizing that this packet of biscuits is lasting you 2 or 3 days. And it is, it's quite, it was, but you know, it's mind-blowing really. And even prepare down to preparing salads, I would— I have like a mini Greggs, not Greggs, Subway, where you have the lettuce in a bowl and I literally put them all in a bowl and put them in the fridge and then I pull them out and we all have it, you know, we just put on our plate what we want. Whereas I never really— I love a salad if somebody else has made one, but if I make it, it's a bit bland and You know, but everything is just so much more natural in a sense, better quality meat I'm buying, which is meaning you're not needing as much as well because you're getting fuller from it, more nutritious. And I think that's the way I've gone down. I'm looking at more nutrition than actually what's on my plate, and I have what I want.

Yeah. And has that been, has that been a conscious change, or did that just happen? You know, naturally as you were running through the program. What's happened there? How's that work?

It was natural. It was just part of the program. But having had so many surgeries and whatever over my period in SlimPod, I've started to look more down the nutrition side of it to try and to see what I can do. But I tend, I often am a bit of a bad person. If I get into looking at something, I then go down the rabbit hole and keep going and keep going, and then it just blows my mind completely and I've lost it all. So I've learned not to do that. That's the only way. And just grasp it, get it back to basics. Start, you know, not start again, but just pull myself back in, focus on the main things, the wins, the diary, the pods, and even the coaching videos, you know, watching the coaching videos again. And you keep changing them, so it surprises me sometimes. So lovely.

Listen, June, uh, it's just, it's been amazing, um, see, I mean, I've witnessed it all and, uh, I've just seen the way everything has changed.

Yeah, it's— everything's changed. It is so, so much better. I've never thought I'd be doing what I'm doing. Never thought I'd be dancing, even dancing on stage in front of a paid audience, which was a bit— ah, it's all right. We've done it a couple of times on summer shows, you know, summer fairs, just to advertise what we do. But this was actually a paid performance for prostate cancer. So that was a bit more nerve-wracking, and we opened the show as well. But I just remember when we do the first jump off the chair and our heads hit the floor— not it directly, but we're head down to the floor— the cheer and that overwhelming satisfaction and that happiness in me, I can still feel it now. And this is getting on nearly a month ago.

So do you think, with the fibromyalgia, do you think it had taken hold of your head, um, as, as much as it had kind of taken over your body? Because it's fascinating, the whole, you know, how, uh, it can become part of your identity, obviously.

Absolutely. I was at that point fibromyalgia, whereas I know with fibro you get remissions with it, and there's always this nagging thing that it's in the background, so you have to still balance your life with it. So I know what I can do. I'm lucky that The boys are adults and I've got to the point where it's like I have to look after me more than anything else. So if by me going to the gym, I'm going to the burlesque and stuff like that, it's better for me and my fibro, then I don't care about anything else. Yeah, because, you know, I need to manage my fibro. I am not going back into that scooter again. It's brand new. It's sat on my front porch. I literally got it 3, 4 months before I started SlimPod, you know, but we haven't got rid because, you know, there may be a day that I might need it. But even when I broke my ankle, I didn't go back on it. I was determined. I was walking on my foot. It was like amazing, is it? And I do miss, you know, I do miss the exercise when I'm not doing it. Yeah, I think it is.

So you don't, you, you don't have the pain now, or does it flare up occasionally?

The pain's not so bad, but the fibro head, the fogginess, um, definitely the mental bit. Words don't come out. I don't know what to put, and I just have a complete block. And I found over this last winter, this one's probably been my worst one for a while that I recognize. Um, but actually you said something in one of the coaching videos about SAD syndrome, which suddenly reminded me I'd got a SAD lamp that had been sat there and I never turned on. It was like, why? Because it helps. So yeah, sometimes I'm forgetful. I'm often, often quite forgetful. Um, I have to have everything written down, tick boxes to do things, even down to, you know, listening to the podcast to tick it off.

Yeah, I mean, I suppose that's, that's a little bit like all of us with age and all the rest of it. We get like that. Gosh, if you should see my list. Um, but it's your body really, isn't it? Your body is— obviously your body loves the exercise, which you weren't doing before.

No, and to be honest, when you first get diagnosed with fibro, they tell you to exercise and you are like going, have you tried living with fibro? Because you haven't— you're in too much pain to do it. Whereas now I know that actually the exercise Keeping doing it keeps the pain away.

So how did that start then? You were still in pain and then you just started doing some— you just started doing— your head just started telling you you've got to go and do this?

It was honestly Julie's video. Just doing it. Thought, well, if somebody said to you out of the blue, I want you to just go and step for 1 minute, don't do anything else, just do that. And you think, well, that's stupid, isn't it? Because what's that going to achieve? But then increasing it slowly by 30 seconds a day Yeah, you rest, and if you have a flare-up, back it back down again. It took a while, and I know, I know my limits now. I can only do 4 miles, and that's my limit right now. But you know, it's, it's there. But yeah, the pain, because you're only doing it gradually, you were building it up. You couldn't just jump in and go to a class straight away.

Right, 4 miles, my goodness. I don't even do 4 miles.

I do 4 miles, but that is my limit. Certainly be mine.

Thank you so much. It's, it's just been so wonderful talking to you. And June is one of our community managers now, uh, that's, you know, exactly, that's the most amazing thing of all, uh, is the, uh, is you're doing things and, and working and all the rest of it that you didn't, probably didn't even think you'd ever do.

No, no, exactly. Once, I mean, obviously my previous— I was a registered nurse and I got retired due to ill health. So I never thought— obviously I found my friend's little girl I used to look after, but she's now gone into care as well. And it's like every door, there was always a little door opening up somewhere else. And yeah, to be able to carry on doing something to help people, it don't matter, it doesn't have to be face to face. To be able to help people and help, you know, chat with them. It's, it's really good. Right, fabulous.

Wonderful talking to you. And, uh, and yeah, I don't think we've ever had— even though you, um, you're part of the whole SlimPod process now, uh, as in, you know, community management and all that, uh, we've never had an in-depth chat about all of this stuff, and it's just Uh, it's wonderful to hear it. Thank you so much, June. You've come so far. Honestly, it's just, it's so wonderful to see. Thank you.

Thank you ever so much. Thanks, Sandra.