Top News

A woman lost nine stone in just over two years after a waiter mistook her for being pregnant and offered her a mocktail. Jessica Gabb, 33, would eat pastries for breakfast with tinned iced coffees every day at her biggest, snacking on biscuits at work and making “unhealthy” dinners like creamy pastas and curries.

Despite being active as a teen, Jessica noticed the pounds start to creep on when she moved away to university in 2011. But it was in 2020 when the Covid pandemic took hold and she was furloughed from work that Jessica began to rapidly gain weight - ballooning to 20st 7.5lbs.

After restrictions eased February 2023 Jessica went out to celebrate pregnant friend Lucy’s 30th birthday, with a waiter mistakenly giving her Lucy’s mocktail after he thought she was the pregnant one. Jessica joined Slimming World with sister Natalie, 39, in August 2023 and has since shed 9st and is now 11st 7.5lb - dropping from a size 26 to a size 12.

• 'I took a full-body health MOT - it uncovered a surprising issue'
• WASPI issues update as campaigners await DWP decision

With just half a stone until her goal weight, Jessica is “more confident” and has got back into fitness, training for the London Landmarks Half Marathon in April 2026. Jessica, a business development manager, from Rochester, Kent, said: “I moved back down to Kent and it was a few weeks before lockdown.

“I think it went one or two ways, people either got healthy or not healthy, and I went down the not healthy route. I was furloughed so I was baking loads and selling baked goods. My sister was on maternity leave so we’d order in wine.

“We ordered a cheese board from a local deli – I don’t know who we thought were. In February 2023 I was with my friend Lucy, it was her birthday. We went for a fancy meal and were going to the theatre afterwards.

“I popped to the loo and she ordered the drinks. She was getting a mocktail and I ordered an espresso martini. When I got back the guy put the fruity one in front of me. I was like, ‘what’s this?’

“He was like, ‘a mocktail because you’re pregnant’. I made a joke of it and we laughed but I was dying of embarrassment”.

Jessica was active as a teen, playing hockey for her local team and says even at university in Cardiff she was “getting away with it” after she would go to the gym and then out for tea with her housemate. She said: “In 2018 I started working away from there. I would leave really early to get to work and come back and eat dinner.

“I didn’t have time to go to the gym or do stuff I was just tired. Before breakfast was some sort of pastry or toast and coffee, the pre-made iced coffees in tins. Lunch would be anything I could find at the shop like a meal deal.

“I’d very rarely take my own food in. They would always have biscuits at work it was torture. Dinner would be pasta, curries or sausage and mash but it would be made in an unhealthy way."

With “zero confidence” and not liking how she looked, Jessica joined Slimming World in August 2023. She said: “It got to the point where all my friends were settling down and having kids. I had zero confidence and didn’t like the way I looked and I didn’t want to put myself out there.

“I’m quite an organised person so I find it an easy plan to follow. It’s just like calorie counting but they’ve done the hard bit for you so you don’t have to calorie count”.

Now, Jessica reaches for yoghurt with fruit or smoked salmon and scrambled egg for breakfast followed by leftovers for lunch like a salad or rice dish. Dinners are healthier versions of her favourites like sausage and mash, or chicken and rice with veg.

“It’s not really the stuff I eat it’s how I cook it,” she said. “I really have found a love for cooking and of trying to have what I used to have but a healthier version”.

She is currently in training for a half marathon and has joined a running club with brother Ben, 38, which has “bonded” the pair more.

“I’m definitely more confident. I see pictures of me before and I don’t recognise it – I feel like this is me”.

You can follow Jessica’s weight loss journey @healthyextraj on Instagram.