Dee Hodgson, a mother of four and grandmother to eight- used to use a walker to get around and was on 20 different types of medication at the age of 53. Now she is a professional bodybuilder!
“My life was very limited and I was very dependent on people which was hard as I’m very independent. It was embarrassing for me,” she said.
Hodgson now is 250 pounds lighter and had 28 pounds of extra skin removed.
Before her transformation, Hodgson was in constant agony and suffered from fibromyalgia which can cause a great deal of pain.
Hodgson said her weight spiraled out of control after years of emotional eating. Understanding that her diet was aggravating her condition, she began her journey of only eating foods in a natural state such as fresh vegetables, eggs, and meat.
Hodgson said, “My new diet was very basic and that made it easier to stick to. I didn’t have to think because I’d limited my choices. The more choices you have, the more slip-ups you’ll have. I’ve continued with the meal planning now and will freeze batches of food so that it’s easy for myself.”
Hodgson lost 84 lbs without even working out and the weight kept falling off. After losing 100 lbs, she decided to join a local gym and discovered a passion for lifting weights.
“At first, I wasn’t dieting to lose weight, I just wanted to feel better and to help ease the symptoms of my health conditions,” Hodgson said. “But the pounds quickly fell off me and it gave me the motivation to keep going.”
She continued saying, “I started going to the gym and fell in love with working out. Then I tried my hand at bodybuilding—and absolutely loved it. Now I’ve lost 250 pounds and I feel like a completely different woman.”
Equipped with a personal trainer she dove into her training and she’ll be competing in her first body-building competition in High Mycombe, England.
Hodgson said, “I’m in the transformation class, so it’s all about the journey. They will show a ‘before’ picture before I come out on stage. It’s about showcasing the way you’ve built your body. It’s so far out of my comfort zone, I’ll be out in a tiny bikini with all my scars and loose skin on show, but I hope that it will inspire others.”
Speaking of her journey, Hodgson went on to say, “My son Will, 33, told me that he feared he would soon have to tell his children, that I had died—that’s how bad my health had got,” she recalled. “I remember about a year into my journey, I was playing tag with my eldest granddaughter, and she turned around and said: ‘Nanny, I didn’t know that you can run.’”
“And it’s moments like that, that make it all worthwhile.”
