Being the person that everyone else depends on can lead to a certain kind of weariness. The Welsh actress Joanna Page, best known for her role as Stacey in the popular BBC series Gavin & Stacey, is well aware of this weariness. Four kids. A television career. A household to manage. She stopped taking care of herself at some point during all of that; it wasn’t abrupt or dramatic, but rather the gradual, cumulative process that most people go through. Here, breakfast was skipped. There at midnight, a packet of crisps. It accumulates.
The intriguing thing about Page’s description of her weight gain is how unsurprised she sounds. She wrote in the Daily Mail, “I wasn’t remotely surprised,” when an NHS BMI test revealed she was overweight. That sentence doesn’t contain any victimization. There is no external blame. Only a woman in her late forties, mostly in the solitude of a home after four children had finally gone to sleep, reflecting honestly on the decisions she had been making for years.
She paints a clear picture of her previous diet that, to be honest, anyone who has raised young children can relate to. She would find herself in the kitchen, exhausted and hungry, reaching for cheese on toast, chocolate, or a late-night coffee to get through the exhaustion after the bedtime ritual—bottles, stories, arguments about the light being left on—was finally finished. Vegetables and fruit were hardly present. There was no breakfast at all. She would become so hungry by eleven in the morning that she would consume eleven custard creams at once. Without blinking, she says it herself. Eleven.
However, the BMI reading was not the health issue that significantly changed the situation. Her insulin resistance levels were found to be poor, which is a warning sign that is uncomfortably close to type 2 diabetes. Page makes it apparent that she never desired to reduce her weight for aesthetic reasons. She declared, “I love my body,” in a Woman & Home interview. “It’s done me so well.” However, there is a difference between loving your body and ignoring what’s going on inside of it. Page appears to have recognized this difference in a way that many wellness messages manage to conflate.
The story becomes subtly intriguing after what she did. She adopted what she refers to as an additive mindset instead of completely overhauling everything at once, the traditional January approach that usually falls apart by February. Rather than taking things out, she began incorporating the positive aspects. An apple. A water glass. A good breakfast. “Rather than suddenly cutting food out and feeling miserable,” she explained, “I got into a mindset of adding the good stuff in.” It sounds almost too easy. It most likely functions because it does.
The final piece of advice, which was given with the kind of upbeat candor that has always made Page an exceptionally likeable public figure, is that she now eats three meals and three snacks a day, sleeps earlier, drinks more water, and has more sex. Once completely skipped, her morning meal is now a three-egg omelette with cheese and ham. She still enjoys chocolate and crisps, but they are no longer the focal point of her life. She seems to sense the difference.
It’s difficult to ignore how this differs from the typical celebrity health narrative, which includes the personal trainer, the six-week program, and the branded supplement. Sleep, breakfast, vegetables, and moderation seem to have been the cornerstones of Page’s metamorphosis, which included losing two dress sizes. No dramatic action. There won’t be a before-and-after photo shoot that presents the event as a victory. Just a woman who decided she wanted to be there for her four children appropriately after considering her test results.
Presenting a BBC program called Shift The Thrift, she is currently 49 years old, on the verge of turning 50, and seems to be feeling better than she has in years. When lifestyle changes are made under duress due to a health scare, it’s always unclear if the changes will last in the long run. However, her method’s consistency and lack of obsession seem more enduring than most. Incorporating positive elements instead of eliminating everything. In hindsight, it seems clear. Most worthwhile things do.
FAQs
1. What prompted Joanna Page to address her weight gain?
NHS health checks revealed she was overweight with poor insulin resistance levels.
2. How many children does Joanna Page have?
She has four children with husband James Thornton.
3. What simple rule did Joanna Page follow to improve her health?
She focused on adding nutritious food in rather than cutting things out.
4. What health risk was Joanna Page trying to avoid?
She wanted to prevent herself from becoming pre-diabetic.
5. Did Joanna Page follow a strict diet to lose weight?
No — she focused on three proper meals, better sleep, and more water.
