When Reena Daba, 25, lost her father to a sudden death at the age of 56, she could've easily fallen into a cycle of mourning and self-deprecation. However, the beauty clinic owner did something different; she used her father's sudden and unexpected death to inspire her into losing weight and dropping more than six stone.
Reena was a size 18 at the time of her father's death and say's that her weight had ballooned to 14st 13lbs. She described how the family had an unhealthy lifestyle, with them regularly gorging on fast food meals from restaurants such as Burger King, McDonald's and KFC.
Now, however, the businesswoman weighs 8st 5lbs and has transformed her lifestyle by eating cleanly throughout the week as well as hitting the gym every day. She says that her dad's death was the wake-up call she needed in order to change her life.
"My father used to work in restaurants and after his shifts, he would bring back food as well as takeaways, whenever he was sick of constantly eating the food at the restaurant - this was late at night, about 3am," she said.
"This would sometimes include Burger King, McDonald's and KFC; also, both of my parents are quite overweight.
"All of our family eat out all the time, it is a very social thing; as a child it was hard to control yourself when given so many choices of food.
"When my dad passed away at a young age of 56 from a heart attack, I decided to make my heart healthy, so I started doing a lot of cardio and the weight loss just came with that."
Reena has gone from being a size 18 to being a size 10, and says that she felt 'sluggish' and lacked confidence in her appearance before her transformation.
"People say 'Wow, you look great!' and they say I look amazing which makes me feel great.
"I feel sexy and I love getting compliments but most of all, I feel healthy and strong. I eat clean most of the time, five days a week, eating; chicken, broccoli, tuna, turkey, asparagus and sweet potatoes.
"While I eat what I want during the weekend; my food tends to be quite healthy now as I hate greasy food now."
It's not just her diet that Reena has changed, she has also adopted a new exercise regime.
"I go to the gym every day with maybe one or two days relaxing with yoga or something light such as; stretching classes or body balance," she said. "I also used to have a boyfriend who was a personal trainer and he used to encourage me to go to the gym."
"I had a lot of friends I met while I was at the gym, who I aspire to be like and that helped me get into shape.
"With my new lifestyle; jogging, fitness classes, weightlifting and walking my dog, I feel more confident in myself and now I find it easier to move."
Reena says that he focuses predominately on her legs, with her now having a pretty perky derriere.
"I do a lot of leg days as I like the look of strong glutes and legs," she said.
''Toning these were my main focus most days. I did a variety of different squats, hip thrusts, variety of different lunges, deadlifts and Romanian dead lifts as well as a lot of plyos [jump training] exercises."
Despite now being an example of health, Reena admits that she initially struggled with staying consistent with her training.
"I would take weeks off and see the weight pile on again, which is when I kicked into gear, but this slowed down the process," Reena said.
"My advice for anyone who wants to lose weight is to just keep going - even if you don't see a change, other people will notice more than you and never stop.
"It is a lifestyle change, not a quick fix."
Well done to Reena for using a tragedy to transform her life for the better, it takes a serious amount of mental strength to do so.
