After giving birth to her first child, Sheena Patel tried her wedding ring on to show her husband it no longer fit.

It got stuck at the knuckle.

She called the jeweller. £400 per ring to resize.

She never made that call.

18 months later, she tried them on again. They slipped straight on.

“It was very strange. They just fit. It was like magic.”

But the weight is the least interesting part of the story.

Sheena is in her mid-30s. She’s a teacher and runs her own tutoring centre, specialising in primary English, maths, and 11-plus preparation. She’s a mother of two: a son, Shay, who’s six, and a daughter aged three.

Pre-RNT: ~10kg lost

Start: 28 April 2025 - 76.1kg

Checkpoint: 20 January 2026 - 55.4kg

Sheena started with RNT at 76.1kg. By her checkpoint in January 2026, she was 55.4kg. 22.9kg lost in 9 months. Combined with the ~10kg she lost before joining, her total stands at 33kg.

 

The Decade and a Half of Starting Over: South Asian Mum, Yo-Yo Dieting, and the Cycle That Wouldn’t Break

She’d been yo-yoing for 15 years.

Growing up on an Indian diet: chapatis, rice, curries. Food was never moderate. Finish your plate. Heavy on carbs. No one talked about sustainable habits.

Every time there was a reason to start, a holiday or a wedding coming up, she’d lose some weight. It would come back. She’d start again. The cycle repeated so many times it had become its own kind of wallpaper.

“I would start a diet when there was something that motivated me short term. After the event passed, the weight just came back on and on.”

The most significant turning point came in September 2019, when Sheena gave birth to her son. The pregnancy had been difficult. Three months spent at home with migraines so severe her vision went. A C-section she hadn’t planned for. And then, in the weeks after, a feeling she couldn’t quite name.

“When I kind of looked at myself again in the mirror, it wasn’t the same. I actually hated the way I looked.”

Two Years in the Dark: Fat Loss After Pregnancy and the Weight Nobody Talks About

What followed was two years Sheena describes as a dark place.

She cried every day. She felt low, unworthy, not confident. On one hand, she had the baby boy she’d always wanted. On the other, she couldn’t reach happiness. Not for herself, and not for the people around her.

“It was really hard to pour from an empty cup.”

She wasn’t diagnosed with postnatal depression. She was embarrassed to tell anyone. And she kept telling herself she should be happy, which only made it harder to be.

“As a mum you just feel like you have to be the strong person and you have to be OK with it. I just used to say to myself, just get on with it.”

Her husband saw her cry often. She found it hard to explain what she was feeling. She just knew she didn’t feel like herself, and that every day felt like an effort.

By 2020, she knew she had to do something. She got a PT. Went to the gym at 5am before anyone else was up. Lost 3 or 4kg over six to eight months. It felt like progress, until she realised it wasn’t enough. Her PT couldn’t help with nutrition.

Then she had her second child in 2023. Then a neighbour on the train mentioned RNT. Sheena had already been following RNT closely. She’d almost joined once before, but chose a cheaper provider first. Two months. 3kg. Generic plans. A coach whose language, when she went off plan, made her feel worse rather than better.

“It wasn’t empowering. It made me feel very uncomfortable.”

She joined RNT in April 2025.

 

What the Other Places Were Missing

Sheena had tried nutrition plans before. She’d had a PT. She’d had a programme.

What she hadn’t had was mindset.

“I knew that it was more to do with nutrition and mindset. Those were the missing pieces. Without them, I was always going to revert back.”

She was also convinced, having only ever trained face to face, that a virtual programme wouldn’t work. Two kids, a business to run, a gym she could get to in two minutes. She thought she needed someone in the room with her.

She was wrong.

“I would have never have thought such a virtual approach would be effective. But actually it’s changed my thoughts on it completely. It is the most effective.”

The flexibility mattered too. No fixed appointment times. No excuses when life with two young kids got complicated. She could be at the gym at 5am and back before the household woke up.

“My coach has honestly been a gem throughout this journey. I couldn’t have done it without her. I always felt my goals were her goals.”

This review was written 8 months into Sheena’s journey, after losing 13kg.

Learning What Home Was Doing to Her: Stress Eating, Indian Food, and Finding What Actually Works

One of the most honest things Sheena discovered about herself was this: she found it easier to eat well on holiday than at home.

In Goa, in social settings, with her in-laws around and very little stress, she made good choices. She was present. She enjoyed her food. She still had dessert when she wanted it.

At home, with two young kids and the unpredictable daily load of parenting, it was harder.

“When there’s a stressor at home, sometimes I just go in for the chocolate. I’ve had enough, this is too much today.”

She’s still working on it. But she knows now that the home environment, not willpower, is the real variable. That’s a different kind of knowledge than she’s had before.

When she came back from two weeks in India, she’d already prepped her meals and frozen them. She went to the gym the morning after landing.

That’s not discipline for its own sake. That’s someone who finally understands how they work.

The Progress That Kept Coming

Eight months in, Sheena was already down 13kg. Her checkpoint was still ahead of her.

By August, the changes were visible. On her ninth wedding anniversary, she shared this photo. The difference was undeniable.

A month later, at 6:34am, she sent a photo to her coach.

“Omg omg I have never seen below 60kg. It’s not clear but 59.9kg let’s goo. This is mental. Unchartered territory. It always surprises me how it works. The programme is genius.”

By her checkpoint in January 2026, she was 55.4kg, down from 76.1kg when she started with RNT.

Combined with the weight she’d lost before joining, the total was 33kg.

She’d also stopped taking acid reflux tablets. Managed through diet.

“My confidence has increased massively. The increased energy has spiralled positively into other benefits: increased productivity at work, being braver career-wise. I am skipping to places now.”

 

The Rooms She Used to Shrink From

Sheena attends an annual conference. Three to four hundred people from around the world. Before RNT, she’d sit there and say nothing. She wouldn’t put her hand up. She wouldn’t share her ideas.

Now she’s usually the first to contribute.

“Even if my ideas weren’t agreed with, I’d still happily share them. I quite like the challenge.”

When she left her teaching job in September 2025, she did a speech in front of her colleagues. Public speaking had always been something she shied away from. She did it anyway.

Her tutoring centre has grown. She left teaching to run it full time.

“I definitely do think RNT has had a part to play with the business growing. I do feel more confident in my ability to do things.”

Her daughter is three and picks the tofu off Sheena’s plate. Her son checks her step count at the end of the day and tells her off if she hasn’t hit it. When he asks to park further from school to get more steps in, Sheena doesn’t need to think about whose idea that was.

“It has seeped into them as well. It’s changed my life in so many ways, not just the physical.”

What Almost Held Her Back

When Sheena was asked what nearly stopped her from starting, she named two things.

The financial commitment. And the fear of failure.

“Would it work for me? Would I be able to do something like this? And the answer is yes. I have.”

She’s now into her second year. She’s clear-eyed about what that means.

“The first year is important. But the real hard work actually begins in the second year. I’m not going this far to only come this far.”

The wedding rings fit now. The tutoring centre is growing. Her son does overhead press with his toy barbell in the living room.

And every day, for the first time in a long time, feels like a good one.

“I go back to that significant trigger, where I was in such a dark place. I just could not enjoy life for myself. I couldn’t make others happy. Now everything I do, whether it’s work or my kids or anything, it’s just so much more enjoyable. I’m more content with myself. And I can radiate happiness to others.”

🎧 Listen to Sheena’s full story on RNT Fitness Radio:Ep 477 | Sheena Patel: Business Owner & Mother of Two Loses 33kg (& KEEPS IT OFF)

📺 Watch Sheena’s story on YouTube:How Sheena Patel Rebuilt Her Confidence, Energy, and Lifestyle

Want results like Sheena?Book a call with our team to start your journey.