It’s amazing how quickly your life can change. In just six years, I went from having a high-powered corporate job to being a stay-at-home mum to four children under seven – and in that time I’d also gone from a size 12 to a size 18.I’m not complaining. There was a time when I was told I might never have children due to medical issues. But after marrying in 1998, I had my eldest daughter in 2002 when I was 30. Then, after struggling to conceive again, my husband and I had twins in 2007, followed by our little miracle son just 17 months later.Suddenly I had three babies in nappies and cots. It was chaos, joyful chaos, but chaos nonetheless. Survival mode kicked in. I gave up my career to raise the children and somewhere along the line, I stopped looking after myself. I’d gone from being together, with a career as an account director at an IT company, to a cheerful at-home dinner lady, providing meals around the clock.I lived on biscuits, far too much rosé and endless frothy coffees and, when I ate out, I was queen of the bread basket. I wore big, loose dresses and didn’t really think about my weight because I was just trying to get everyone through the day. Self-care had completely gone out of the window.Then in May 2022, I was approaching 50. My youngest was 15 and I knew I needed to take myself in hand. Soon afterwards, I underwent a hysterectomy, and then, devastatingly, my mother died aged 74. Mum had always put herself at the bottom of the pile, too. She cared for everybody around her but never really looked after herself. She’d spent years medicating her high blood pressure and cholesterol without changing her lifestyle.Watching her decline made something click for me. I didn’t want my children to go through what we’d been through with Mum. I wanted to be there for them and my future grandchildren. And I realised that nobody was going to prioritise my health if I didn’t. I gave up my career to raise the children and somewhere along the line, I stopped looking after myself, writes Elisabeth Whiteley. Pictured before her weight lossNot long afterwards, I bumped into an old friend who looked unbelievable. It wasn’t just that she had lost weight, she looked younger. Her skin glowed and she had energy. I said, ‘Lucy, what’s happened to you?’ and she told me that she had discovered the Human Being Diet (HBD). ‘It’s quite radical and full-on,’ she said, ‘but it’s game-changing.’Curious, I bought the book about the diet created by British nutritionist Petronella Ravenshear. I put it on a shelf until after Christmas because I wasn’t ready but, in January 2023, I started the first stage of the diet – the Reset.The first 48 hours of the diet, which is designed to shed fat and stabilise hormones, involves eating only vegetables. Then comes a strictly controlled two weeks of protein, vegetables and limited fruit, with no sugar, carbohydrates, fats or oils. What was I going to eat? The idea of living on bagged salad and prawns sounded deeply depressing.The thing is, I love food. My family have sent me on cookery courses because they know it’s my happy place. I adore flavour and texture and creating dishes which make people feel looked after. So, I knew that if I was going to stick to this plan, I would need to cook and eat delicious food. So I started experimenting with the ingredients I was allowed: vegetables and protein.Six of my friends in south-west London, where I live, were doing the Reset with me and I invited everyone round for lunch. I made a spicy, steaming broth with pork meatballs and herbs. My friends said, ‘This feels like contraband. Are we really allowed this?’ They ate every scrap and then asked for the recipe.Instead of texting everyone individually, I set up an Instagram account with just six followers – my friends at that lunch. At the time, I had no idea where it would lead.The weight loss came quickly. In those first 16 days, I lost 15lb. Because of my hysterectomy, I had gone through surgical menopause, which can make weight loss difficult, so the results were astonishing. By the end of the ten weeks, I’d lost two and a half stone and dropped from a size 18 to a 12/14 – perfect on my curvy 5ft 8in frame.My posture changed, my confidence changed and even my skin changed. I had more energy and was more interested in life. I had my fire back. I found that the HBD really helped to stabilise my moods. After having my twins, my hips had hurt, now they didn’t and I could play sports again. It was an exciting summer. I still had wobbly bits, but I swapped my heavy, tight, slimming swimming costume for a bikini.Everyone was amazed by my transformation. ‘Wow, Mum, you look really hot,’ my children said.What mattered more was that I felt like myself again. Being a mother was the hardest job I’d ever done and I had disappeared slightly. I also became quite an anxious person, always worrying about my children. I found that the HBD really helped to stabilise my moods.Having lost the weight, I came off the diet for the summer. But to my amazement, unlike with other diets, the weight didn’t go back on. I had integrated so many new habits – a five-hour fast between meals and black coffee instead of lattes – that they had become automatic. Meanwhile, my Instagram following had started to grow and Petronella contacted me after seeing my HBD recipes online. We did our first Instagram Live together and got on like a house on fire. We quickly realised that we shared the same philosophy: that people need food which feels comforting and achievable.Then life threw me another curveball. In spring 2024, I was diagnosed with a brain tumour. It was an incidental finding after a sinus scan. One minute I was making spaghetti bolognese for the children, the next I was being told there was a large tumour behind my eye which was causing swelling on my brain. Thankfully, it was benign, but I have never been more frightened in my life. By the end of the ten weeks, I’d lost two and a half stone and dropped from a size 18 to a 12/14 – perfect on my curvy 5ft 8in frameFive days after the tumour was discovered, I underwent surgery on June 7. I was terrified but, throughout it all, I kept thinking how grateful I was that I had prioritised my health when I had.Two years on, my scans are clear and I feel incredibly fortunate. The experience changed my perspective completely – I realised that life isn’t a dress rehearsal and none of us knows what’s coming.So, when Petronella asked if I would help to create recipes for the HBD Club – an online space for people who are following the programme – I jumped at the chance.Then publisher HarperCollins began discussing the possibility of an HBD cookbook. I felt passionately that the hardest part is the Reset and, if we wanted people to embrace it as an annual tradition, we needed to make it something that they looked forward to rather than feared. So Petronella and I created The HBD Reset Cookbook: The Ultimate 16-Day Bible For Health And Perfect Weight. I wanted familiar flavours, comforting dishes, recipes inspired by my family and things you could easily batch cook on a Sunday or throw together after a long day. And the thought of going through the rest of my life not being able to have risotto, burgers or a chicken caesar salad was awful.I had to find new ways to use ingredients in a different way to maximise flavour. When portion sizes are smaller, you need that. If you go to a Michelin-star restaurant, you are served tiny portions, but you come away feeling satisfied because the food is delicious. So I use pulses to thicken soups instead of cream, which creates a similar velvety texture, infuse herbs into dishes and make delicious homemade stock for wonderful broths.My children and their friends became my taste testers. Even our neighbours got involved – lining up in my kitchen to eat what I had been making that day and giving me feedback.This journey has transformed my life in ways I could never have imagined. Not only did it give me my health back and get me through a brain tumour, but it has also given me a new career. I’ve travelled, I’ve made wonderful new friends, written a further two recipe books and rediscovered parts of myself which had been buried beneath years of caring for everyone else.I’m still the same woman, but I’m sharper and more focused. I rarely eat bread anymore and don’t miss it – it makes me feel tired. I still enjoy a glass of rosé in the garden with friends and the diet encourages everyone to have one or two ‘treat meals’ a week, when anything goes, so I never feel deprived.If the HBD can help a greedy person like me to transform their life, it can work for anyone. ...AND NOW YOU CAN TRY THEM TOOThese are some of my favourite recipes – all created to fit into the HBD diet’s most stringent Reset phase, with no sugar, starchy carbs or added fat, but plenty of delicious real food and flavours.BREAKFAST Halloumi, strawberry & mint plate SERVES 2100g cucumber, peeled and chopped80g rocket20g red onion, sliced3-4 mint leaves, torn120g halloumi, cut into slices of approx. 2-3cm100g strawberries, hulled and sliced1. Combine the rocket, cucumber, red onion and strawberries.2. Warm a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and add the halloumi. Once the milky liquid from the cheese evaporates, the outsides will start to caramelise. Turn the halloumi regularly until it is golden on all sides. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.3. Pile the cheese and torn mint leaves on to the strawberry salad.LUNCHAsian ramenSERVES 2400ml fresh chicken or vegetable stock200ml boiling water3 cloves of garlic, peeled, whole1 stick of lemongrass, bashed1 lime leaf1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled, whole1 small Thai chilli, whole (optional)150g shiitake mushrooms, quartered1 carrot, in fine strips1 head of baby pak choi, roughly choppedSaltFresh coriander to serve1. Put stock and boiling water into a saucepan. Add the garlic, lemongrass, lime leaf, ginger and chilli. Bring to a very gentle boil, simmer for 2-3 minutes before removing from heat.2. Leave for 10-15 minutes to infuse before straining.3. Return infused stock to saucepan and add the carrot, mushrooms and a pinch of sea salt. Simmer for 2-3 minutes before adding pak choi, simmer for 1-2 minutes.4. Taste and season. Serve with coriander.DINNERMoroccan lamb with squash and spinachSERVES 2260g lamb neck, cut into 2-3cm pieces300ml fresh chicken or vegetable stock3 cloves of garlic, sliced40g onion, finely chopped20g/4tsp tomato puree1 tsp ras el Hanout spices½ tsp cumin160g butternut squash, washed and cut into 2-3cm pieces40g baby spinachSalt & pepper1. Preheat the oven to 160°C/140°C fan/325°F/gas mark 32. Seal the lamb by frying in a dry, non-stick pan over a high heat. Cook for 4-5 minutes until all sides are slightly burnished and nicely browned. It is this caramelisation that creates the deep flavour and colour. Transfer to an ovenproof dish.3. Add the stock to briefly de-glaze the frying pan, scraping up any sticky meat juices. Add the garlic, onion, tomato puree and spices. Simmer for 1-2 minutes to combine all the flavours. Pour over the lamb, seal tightly with foil and cook in the oven for 90 minutes.4. Remove from the oven and turn up the heat to190°C/170°C fan/375°F/gas mark 5.5. Remove the foil, add the squash and return to the oven for around 25 minutes until the squash has softened.6. Finally, add the spinach and a generous grind of salt and pepper, return to the oven and cook for a further 5 minutes or until the spinach has wilted into the sauce.As told to Leah Hardy