When Ali Maffucci got a deal to write a cooking and healthy lifestyle book, she quit her corporate job and began working from home.

But while she was running the website and sharing healthy recipes with her readers, secretly she wasn’t practising what she preached.

As the months ticked by, she piled on the pounds. But desperate to loser weight for the book's photo shoot, she decided to try adopt a novel way to lose weight.

Miss Maffucci made one simple change to her diet that helped her drop over 11 kg (24 lbs) in just three months.

For every meal, she substituted spiralized vegetables for bread, pasta, rice and potatoes.Here, she tells the Healthista website how she went from a size 14/16 to a size 8/10 so rapidly...

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Ali Maffucci, 28, lost 11 kg (almost two stone) in three months through replacing pasta, bread and rice with spirazlied vegetables. She is pictured before (left) and after (right) her weight loss

Now, Ms Maffucci weighs 10 stone, is a size 8/10 and is working on toning instead of losing weight

After eating courgette noodles recommended by her mother, Ali Maffucci fell in love with the spiralizing tool.

Not long after, she took to the internet with her blog, Inspiralized, where she began creating and sharing recipes using spiralized vegetables.

Then in June of 2013, Ms Maffucci quit her corporate job to become a full time blogger.

However while she was running the website and sharing healthy recipes with her readers, she was far from a reflection of that herself.

Without the structure of her old job, she gained what she called her ‘blogging weight’ of 10 kg (22lbs).

WHAT IS A SPIRALIZER? The spiralizer is a razor-sharp cutting device that creates thin ribbons of fruits and vegetables. Originally a Japanese invention, it allows people to create nutritious, very low-calorie, low-carb ‘pasta’, ‘noodles’ and ‘rice’ from everyday fruit and vegetables, in less time than it takes to peel a potato. For example, it can spin a simple courgette into a generous bowl of ‘spaghetti’ in a flash. Spiralize a sweet potato and in minutes you’ll apparently get a filling portion of ‘rice’ with just half the calories and carbs of regular basmati. Nutritionists warn it is not a good idea to completely eliminate carbohydrates from the diet entirely, as they provide a range of important nutrients. However, many of us are guilty of eating too many carbs, and a spiralizer could help us cut down, said dietitian Vanessa Hattersley. She said: ‘Many of us do tend to overload our plates with pasta, rice, bread and potatoes when they are on offer. A well-balanced meal should be a quarter protein, a quarter carbohydrate and half fruit and vegetables, so the spiralizer could play a really useful role in redressing the nutritional balance in a carb-heavy diet.’ Advertisement

Being in her apartment all day with her kitchen nearby meant her constant snacking quickly led to weight gain.

‘It wasn’t necessarily that I was eating unhealthy food, it was more that I was eating a lot of healthy food.

'I was eating a half a tub of almond butter instead of a little bit with an apple slice or the whole tub of hummus,’ Ms Maffucci said.

‘I was snacking on many healthy things, but eating too many of them.’

She describes feeling constantly tired.

‘I felt like I was very lazy, even at night time.

'My fiancé would come home and I would make dinner for him, and by the time we were done I would be exhausted, and I would just lay on the couch and probably snack on more food,’ Ms Maffucci said.

Later that month, she scored a deal to write a cookbook, which meant she would have to be photographed and featured in it.

That’s when she knew she had to turn things around. The ‘blogging weight’ gain had left her at 12 stone and a size 14/16, and she needed to look fit and healthy for the book.

‘I told myself, how could I promote this healthy lifestyle if I wasn’t living it myself?’

She had until late August — about three months — to transform her lifestyle so she could look and feel fit and comfortable during the photo shoot.

She made a plan to get to 140-145 pounds (66 kg) - by consistently exercising and eating her own spiralized meals minus the snacks.

‘I said myself "I’m gonna eat healthy spiralized meals for lunch and dinner, and that kept me satisfied and kept me fueled".

'It’s such a fun way to eat, you never get bored of what you’re eating.

'It’s healthy and it makes you feel good,’ Ms Maffucci said. ‘I felt satisfied all the time.’

She said didn’t find it difficult to stick to spiralized food.

'It is delicious, after all. If you were to boil some pasta, drain it and then try to eat it, it wouldn’t really taste good; it’s sort of the same thing with spiralized food,' she said.

‘What makes the dish delicious is the sauces and the cooking and the other things you put into it.’

She said by eating food she normally would, and replacing pasta, rice, potatoes and processed food with spiralized vegetables, she didn’t have to sacrifice her taste buds in the name of health.

Ms Maffucci said she didn’t find it difficult to stick to spiralized food (her recipe for spiralized courgette with a fried egg is pictured). She said: 'It’s such a fun way to eat, you never get bored of what you’re eating'

Ms Maffucci wrote a book, Inspiralized: Inspiring Recipes to Make With Your Spiralizer, following her weight loss

‘I always tell people, you won’t notice a big change in your flavor profile but you’ll notice it in the way you feel afterwards and how full you feel, and you feel a lot lighter,’ she said.

She even mastered how to incorporate weekend indulgences into her diet.

‘I think of all of the foods that I love to eat that aren’t good for me and I literally sit and brainstorm and say how can I make this inspiralized?’ she said.

Her recipe for Blueberry Sweet Potato Waffles was one she came up with when she had a craving one hungover Sunday morning.

After sticking with the spiralized food and staying true to her exercise schedule, Ms Maffucci reached 150 pounds (68 kg) by early August, extremely close to her goal.

Now she rests at ten stone, size 8/10 and is working on toning instead of losing weight.

Compared to her old lifestyle, she said she is much happier, focused and energised.

‘After I lost the weight, I would do something as little as writing a thank you note that before I would push off because I was so exhausted.

'I would clean out my drawers at night instead of sitting on the couch and watching TV.

‘My focus during the days was so much stronger too. Without that old laziness anymore I get so much more done now.’

Visit Ms Maffucci's blog, Inspiralized, for recipes and tips.

Her book is available on Amazon.