The dental hygienist began saving for a tummy tuck but feared she wouldn’t be able to afford the US$14,000 to $18,000 procedure ‘for a decade’.
She was overjoyed when in March, she learned she had won one after entering a competition on Instagram, where she is a member of the online weight loss community.
Amanda, of Toronto, Canada, underwent the surgery on May 22 and had 5kg of saggy skin removed.
Though her stomach remains is slightly swollen following the op, she said she now feels beautiful when she looks in the mirror.
‘Before, I was addicted to food. I always had a big belly and I never felt womanly or attractive,’ super slimmer Amanda, who now weighs 70kg, says.
‘It held me back from a lot of things - I was wanting to swim with my kids or do activities in the park but I couldn’t. I was devastated, embarrassed and I felt shamed.
‘My ‘ah ha’ moment was one day when I was in my bedroom at my peak, when the number on the scale was 150kg.
‘I was trying to put on some socks and my hips and knees were hurting, and I was huffing and puffing and struggling.
‘I looked up and saw my five-year-old daughter with her big brown eyes looking at me and I was like, ‘This is who my kids aspire to be like'. I asked them to go downstairs and cried my eyes out.
‘I decided in that moment I had had enough. I was waking up every single day and I felt like death was knocking on the door - it was the impending doom of death.’
But while gastric bypass surgery helped her halve her size, she was left with excess skin that hung halfway down her thighs.
‘My face showed that I had lost a lot of weight but I still felt 150kg. I didn’t feel beautiful,’ the mum recalls.
‘I felt like a monster. I felt disfigured I had put in hours and hours of work, like a year of extreme, hard work, and I still had to hide my body still with shame.
‘Then in March I found out I had won this contest for a tummy tuck. I felt nervous going leading up to it but on the day I was ready.
‘I’m still swollen now but I can’t believe what the surgeon has done to my body. I went out shopping and got sexy underwear for the first time in my adult life. It’s a different life.
‘My energy has skyrocketed and I look in the mirror and I feel beautiful.’
Before her transformation, Amanda, who is married to 35-year-old Mario Daurte, a self-employed contractor, would drink full fat fizzy drinks, gorge on sugary cereal for breakfast and takeout lunch.
She would cook dinner for her six-year-old son Sergio and five-year-old twins Noah and Sophia, but after they went to sleep, she would order pizza for herself.
Amanda had the surgery in January 2017 and went on to lose 36kg in the four months that followed.
She had to stick to a strict diet because the procedure leaves patients with a walnut-sized stomach pouch, meaning they physically cannot eat much food.
Now she eats eggs for breakfast and opts for vegetable and protein-heavy meals for lunch and dinner.
The inspirational Instagrammer, who documents her journey on social media, said she can now wear pretty dresses with confidence.
She adds: ‘It has changed my life completely. My daughter wants to be like me now.'
