A 400 pound woman was facing a death sentence unless she took severe action to address her obesity.

Two years ago, Elena Goodall has been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and severe sleep apnoea. Though her parents feared for the worst, doctor’s told her she wouldn’t make it to 40 if she kept up her eating habits.

“In 2015, I had a checkup and my doctor asked if I knew how much I weighed. I knew I was heavy but I didn’t weigh myself, I didn’t want to know,” Goodall told Daily Mail Australia. “The scale said ‘error’ when I hopped on it because I was too heavy; I had to go on an industrial scale.”

On her Facebook page Elle’s Journey To Good Health, she documented her journey. She claimed she was shocked and dismayed because she didn’t realize the point she had come to was so bad.

She also describes herself on her page as a ‘typical ‘girly’ girl with ‘huge ambition’ whose life has just gone through ‘one of the biggest and best changes ever’. Adding she couldn’t do much and couldn’t even tie her own shoes, or sit on the ground because it was impossible for her to get up.

“I hadn’t always been this way. I used to be a competitive swimmer at a high level and quite fit. I think what happened was, I just got comfortable and it stacked on.”

The 29-year-old revealed she had no motivation at all but she had tried everything to lose weight.

She started setting herself goals: becoming fit enough to compete in Julia Creek’s Dirt n’ Dust Festival triathlon in 2016; then the Noosa Triathlon last year, and eventually the Cairns Ironman 70.3.

Elena crossed the finish line on the Cairns Esplanade on Sunday; with a time of 6 hours, 45 minutes, so she could hardly identify herself.

“My parents would be so proud,” she said. “They thought they were going to lose me. So for them to see me finish, it’s just unbelievable.”

Currently, Elena weighs about 69kg, but she is far more focused on improving herself and completing her next challenge than the reading on the scales.

“I had a lot of people, back in the beginning, who told me that I was crazy and I was not going to be able to do it,” she said. “But I used that as fuel — that really fuelled me to get me where I am today.”

Article Sources: Inspire More, The Shred Nation/Facebook, The Daily Mail, The Cairns Post Photo Credit: The Hits Video Credit: aRichest/YouTube