Simone Harbinson is a 31-year-old from Melbourne, Australia, who's healthier than ever, but the mother of two still has a complicated relationship with her body. "I was never satisfied with my shape or weight," she says.
However, Simone's body image became the least of her issues when, after she lost the 60 pounds she gained over the course of her two pregnancies, her weight-loss journey was overshadowed by a waterfall of health scares.
The First Infection
In August 2014, Simone was diagnosed with a severe kidney infection and taken into surgery to flush out the area. Doctors noticed plaque buildup on her appendix, removed the organ to eliminate any problems, and Simone was discharged from the hospital two days later.
Two weeks later, though, Simone's doctor called and told her that further testing on the organ revealed that she'd tested positive for malignant carcinoid tumor of the appendix — a rare form of cancer that had spread before her appendix had been removed. "I just collapsed when he told me the news," Simone says. "So many emotions ran through me. I was shaking."
Although there's no good time to receive a cancer diagnosis, it was particularly terrible timing for Simone, whose father had recently undergone treatment for prostate cancer and had only recently been declared cancer-free. "To put him through the emotions of cancer again was really hard for me," she says.
Luckily, Simone's prognosis was good: She'd need another operation to remove the affected areas, which included part of her colon, but her doctors didn't think she'd need further treatment like chemotherapy. She went into surgery in November 2014 and it went off without a hitch. However, two days later, fluid had begun to leak from her bowel and Simone was rushed back into surgery. Although pain medication clouded Simone's memory of the days that followed, she underwent a second surgery. When she woke up in the ICU, she had a large incision down the center of her stomach.
After that, everything that could go wrong did: Simone contracted an infection that required her to be quarantined, a partial lung collapse left her wearing an oxygen mask, internal leakage led doctors to insert a temporary drainage pocket into her back, and a blood clot complicated her intravenous catheter.
Simone didn't walk again until December, when she was discharged just in time to celebrate her daughter's birthday. Family moved into her and her husband's home to care for Simone and help with child care. "Recovery was long and hard and often frustrating," she says, of setting small walking goals every day. "The day I reached my mailbox, I'm sure I let out a squeal of delight."
It took 12 weeks from the time Simone first went in for surgery for her to build up enough strength to return to work in the accounting office where she served as office manager.
Another Setback
Before Simone's cancer diagnosis, she hit the gym six days a week for spin class or weight lifting. She loved to hike and hang outdoors.
To offset weekend wining and dining with her friends, she stuck to a super-rigid diet on weekdays — but at least once a week she found herself eating sweets like chocolate or cake. "When I look back now, I wonder if being so strict on myself through the week triggered these binges," she says. "That relationship with food wasn't healthy."
After her surgeries though, Simone describes her eating as even more erratic. Her binges became more frequent. She'd walk every few days for fresh air, but that was the extent of her workouts. So it came as no surprise when excess weight piled on. "I just wasn't in the right mind-set to do anything," she says. "I really struggled most days to comprehend what I had been through."
A week before her 30th birthday, in December 2015, Simone broke down. "I had a vision of how I wanted look and where I wanted to be at this point in time, and it was the complete opposite," she says. "I had just mentally been trying to deal with the aftermath and enormity of what I had been through and trying to put one foot in front of the other to survive."
Feeling like she had to be strong for her family after everything they'd been through but simultaneously unable to function, Simone remembers calling her father from the floor of her bedroom — a literal call for help. "I was in a really dark, scary place," she says. He encouraged her to seek mental-health treatment, at which point Simone was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder triggered by her cancer diagnosis.
Prescribed medication that made her sleepy and feel unable to be a worthy parent or partner, Simone turned to food for comfort. She'd eat chocolate by the block, eventually topping out around 189 pounds — 35 pounds more than she weighed before her cancer diagnosis.
"I wasn't happy with myself," she says, explaining why she ultimately went off her medication, instead leaning on friends and family for emotional support. "I had my [bad] days, but the good days outweighed the bad days, and normality returned to our lives."
Back in the Hospital
In February 2016, Simone jumped into a pool and landed flat-footed at the bottom. After that, she began to experience back pain from a damaged disc that had previously gone unnoticed. For months, she explored alternative therapies for relief. "I was literally dragging my right leg beside me most days as the chronic pain was unbearable," she says.
Out of non-surgical options, Simone was scrolling through Instagram when she stumbled upon The Bod, a fitness and nutrition program designed by Australian fitness model Sophie Guidolin.
"I thought that if I got some of the weight off I would find some relief in my back," she says of her decision to purchase the program on the spot. Although the back pain prohibited her from carrying out any of the exercises prescribed in the guide, Simone immediately took on the 12-week diet plan, which is designed to balance protein, fat, and carbs to optimize fat loss. "The weight started to fall off me," she says.
Encouraged, but still in an enormous amount of pain, Simone opted into back surgery in August 2016, nine weeks after starting the diet program — but not until she'd done a major meal prep so she could come home from the hospital to a buffet of healthy food.
Still Recovering
Since modifying her diet early last summer, Simone has lost 44 pounds without a single session at the gym. (Because she's still recovering from surgery, she isn't physically able to work out the way she used to before her cancer diagnosis.)
However, Simone is still following her The Bod eating plan, eating more than ever and more regularly throughout the day — a change she credits for speeding up her metabolism.
On a typical day, she'll eat two poached eggs and two pieces of rye toast for breakfast, a high-protein chocolate pudding for a morning snack, Mexican rice for lunch, Greek yogurt with granola and fruit for an afternoon snack, and a baked sweet potato with Bolognese sauce and a kale salad for dinner, all made using recipes from The Bod plan.
Simone's weight isn't the only thing that's changed on her new diet. "It's not just a physical transformation, but the mental transformation within has been incredible," she says, adding that she's felt clear-minded, happier, and more confident since adjusting her diet. "I love my body, flaws and all … I am so proud of all that I have accomplished after everything I have been through."
"It's been a long hard couple of years," she says. "Onwards and upwards from here."
This post has been updated since publication.
