“I felt like giving up”: How Karen transformed her health at 53 and lost 27kg

At 53, Karen felt like she had completely lost herself.

She was exhausted, overwhelmed, going through menopause and trying to manage work, bills and life as a mum to three teenage daughters following a difficult divorce.

Her weight had climbed to 120kg, but at the time, losing weight wasn’t even her biggest concern.

“I was feeling at my absolute worst, not just physically, but mentally,” Karen says.

“I was so tired of trying. I didn’t care what I ate. I didn’t care about exercise. I was just trying to get through every day.”

Just over 12 months later, Karen weighs 93kg, walks every day, lifts weights, cooks healthier meals and says she feels like a completely different woman.

She has lost an incredible 27kg.

But for Karen, the biggest transformation hasn’t been on the scales.

It has been getting herself back and loving cooking again and making healthy food from the Zing Wellbeing app.

When menopause, stress and exhaustion collided

Karen had been through an incredibly difficult few years.

“My husband and I divorced five years ago, and it’s been really hard,” she explains.

She was also raising three teenage daughters, including children with additional needs, while working and managing the financial and emotional pressures of everyday life.

Then menopause arrived.

Karen began gaining weight, her energy disappeared and looking after herself fell further and further down the priority list.

“I knew what I was eating wasn’t great. I knew I should probably exercise. But I just didn’t care,” she says.

“The last thing I thought I could do was look after myself.”

This is something many women in their 40s and 50s may recognise.

Midlife can bring an enormous combination of physical and emotional changes. Menopause may coincide with caring responsibilities, teenagers, relationship changes, work pressures, aging parents, poor sleep and financial stress.

Healthy eating and exercise can start to feel like just two more things on an already impossible to-do list.

The Facebook post that made Karen stop and think

Karen’s turning point came unexpectedly while scrolling Facebook.

She came across a post from Zing Wellbeing discussing mental wellbeing and the importance of supporting how we feel, rather than focusing solely on how we look.

Something about it stopped her.

“It really resonated with me because my mind was in such a bad place that my attitude was basically, why bother?”

Karen decided to step on the scales.

She weighed 120kg.

“I was shocked,” she says.

But instead of immediately embarking on another restrictive diet or punishing exercise regime, Karen asked herself a different question:

How can I start to feel better?

Starting small when everything felt overwhelming

Karen looked into the Zing Wellbeing app, but initially decided she wasn’t ready.

“To be honest, it felt too overwhelming,” she says.

“I thought, I can’t even be bothered getting out of bed some days. How am I going to start making all this food and exercising?”

Instead, Karen decided to start with something that felt manageable.

After reading about the connection between gut health and overall wellbeing, she decided to try the Zing Wellbeing Gut Health Formula.

She also quietly joined the Zing Wellbeing community.

“I’m not a public person, so I wasn’t posting,” she explains. “But I was reading other women’s stories and seeing the support in the group. I found so many of the women incredibly inspirational.”

Karen continued using the Gut Health Formula for around two months and, alongside being part of the supportive community, says she began noticing a change in how she felt.

“It was like the fog started lifting from my brain,” she says. “I didn’t feel like I was stuck in mud anymore.”

While everyone’s experience is different and a supplement is not a treatment for depression or other mental health conditions, Karen says this simple first step and the community around her became an important part of her personal journey.

And then something else happened.

The first 8kg changed everything

A couple of months later, Karen stepped back on the scales.

She had gone from 120kg to 112kg.

She had lost 8kg.

“I couldn’t believe it,” she says. “It gave me such a boost.”

But more importantly, Karen says she finally felt mentally ready to do more.

That was when she joined the Zing Wellbeing app.

“I realised, I can do other things now.”

Rather than attempting to change everything overnight, Karen gradually started incorporating healthier habits into her life.

She began trying recipes from the app and getting her daughters involved in making healthier choices as a family.

She started walking every day.

Then she added weights.

“I just started feeling more in control,” she says. “I had more energy, and once I started, I never really looked back.”

From 120kg to 93kg at 53

Today, just over 12 months after beginning her journey, Karen weighs 93kg.

That is a total weight loss of 27kg.

She would still like to lose approximately another 20kg, but she says she is incredibly proud of what she has already achieved.

And she refuses to judge her success solely by a number on the scales.

“I’m so happy with how far I’ve come,” she says.

“I’m so happy with how my brain feels now. I feel like a completely different woman from the woman I was over 12 months ago.”

Karen says the changes have filtered into other parts of her life too.

Her relationship with her daughters has improved.

“They’re still hard work!” she laughs. “But because I’m in such a better place mentally and feel more in control of my life and my body, I handle everything better.”

Perhaps one of the biggest changes is something that sounds incredibly simple.

Karen cares about herself again.

“I care about what I’m eating now. I care about exercising. I want to look after myself.”

Why Karen believes starting small was so important

There is a powerful lesson in Karen’s transformation.

When she was at her lowest point, being told to completely overhaul her diet, cook every meal from scratch, exercise several times a week and lose a huge amount of weight would have felt impossible.

So she didn’t start there.

She started with one manageable action.

Then another.

And another.

Eventually, those small changes became a completely different way of living.

For Karen, the combination of finding a supportive community, using Zing Wellbeing products she enjoyed, gradually improving her food choices, walking and eventually incorporating strength training helped her build momentum.

Her journey wasn’t about becoming perfect.

It was about reaching a point where looking after herself no longer felt impossible.

Karen’s message to other women struggling in midlife

Karen knows there may be another woman reading this who feels exactly as she did 12 months ago.

Overwhelmed.

Exhausted.

Unhappy with her body.

Struggling through menopause.

And wondering how on earth she is supposed to find the motivation to change.

Her advice is not to think about changing everything at once.

Start somewhere.

“I’m so grateful for the support of the women in the Zing Wellbeing group,” Karen says.

“I love the products and I’m still a huge fan of the Gut Health Formula. But the whole year has just been transformative for me.”

And for anyone wondering whether Zing Wellbeing could be worth trying, Karen has a simple message:

“If you’re wondering if it’s right for you, I can say it certainly was right for me. I wouldn’t hesitate to give it a go.”

Karen’s story is a reminder that a health transformation doesn’t always begin with motivation.

Sometimes, it begins with one tiny decision made at a time when you don’t feel motivated at all.

And that first step can lead somewhere you never imagined.

And you can join the Zing Wellbeing app and program here