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Once morbidly obese, Kiwi woman finds inspiration in motherhood to lose over half her body weight in one year

June 13, 2019

Jessie Matthews is an ordinary Kiwi with an extraordinary story.

Jessie Matthews is an ordinary Kiwi with an extraordinary story.

For the majority of her life she was deemed to be morbidly obese.

But the 40-year-old realised if she was to live life the way she wanted, she would need to change drastically and so she did.

From just 13 years old, doctors labelled Ms Matthews morbidly obese - although that didn’t stop her living life to the full.

“I was always really fit and active - I swam nationally for New Zealand, I played volleyball at a national level," she explained to TVNZ1's Seven Sharp. "So my weight for me was never a barrier so to speak. It was just something that came with me.”

But for 20 years she struggled with the extra weight.

“At my very biggest, I was pushing 150kg,” she says.

But when she became a mother, her mindset changed.

“I reached the point where I wanted to be the best version of myself," she said. "I didn’t want to be a mum sitting on the sideline. It’s not who I am.”

To start the process, she started exercising, then saved up for weight loss surgery.

A year on, having been a size 28, she can now say she is closer to a size 10 or 12 and living a life she never thought possible.

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