Our futures wont be going to waist
Last updated 13:56, Friday, 25 April 2008
As a size 12 bride Clare Edmondson felt happy and content. But it was following her marriage to John in 1998 that her weight started to become an issue.
Clare, 34, from Whitehaven, said: “I was a bit overweight when I got married but was still a size 12. Within a few years I struggled to fit into a size 16.
“After getting married I started eating comfort food and got stuck in a rut eating the same things. I was eating the same portions as John.”
When she was asked to be a bridesmaid at her friend’s wedding she really started to notice her weight gain.
Despite coming across as the happy-go-lucky friend Clare wasn’t as happy with herself as friends thought.
She said: “My friends are really thin and I tried to put my weight at the back of my mind but I really didn’t feel comfortable.”
Although she lost more than two stone for her friend’s wedding, she quickly put the weight back on.
But it was a weekend away with friends in 2006 that proved to be a turning point for Clare. A conversation about losing weight led to her making the decision to join Scottish Slimmers in Whitehaven with her friends.
Looking back on the first time she stood on the scales at the club Clare thinks facing up to the reality of her weight was the hardest part of losing weight.
“I was mortified when I realised that I was the heaviest,” said Clare, a business support manager at Sellafield. “Something just clicked inside me and I decided that I would lose weight for myself.”
At this point Clare was more than 13 stone.
She set herself the target weight of 10 stone 5lb to be achieved within a year.
She said: “Scottish Slimmers is good because you lose weight bit by bit. You don’t lose huge amounts at a time which I think is good.
“The points system means that you don’t have to deprive yourself of anything and it is easy to follow and adaptable. You can eat normally but control your portions.
“You don’t think of it as a diet but as changing the way you think about food.”
Clare’s weight loss was given an extra boost when she moved to an office where eating was banned, forcing her to only eat at mealtimes and she also started to exercise, joining a boxercise class.
She also sacrificed her favourite drink – cider – in favour of vodka and Diet Coke or gin and slimline tonic.
She said: “There are hidden calories in alcohol. I do treat myself to cider now and again.”
Clare was disheartened when her friends reached their target weight before her but they had less weight to lose and it wasn’t long before she achieved her goal in November last year.
She said: “I was delighted when I reached my target weight within a year.
“I went to the weigh-in before my friends got there because I didn’t want them to be there if I hadn’t reached it.
“I went home to tell John and he cracked open a bottle of champagne to celebrate.”
After reaching her target weight Clare continued to lose weight and is now 9 stone 11lb. She keeps a photo of herself taken before she lost weight on her fridge door to remind her of how she used to look.
She said: “Going to Scottish Slimmers has become a social event. My advice would be to go to classes with a friend for encouragement.
“You have got to stick to the plan. I want to keep my weight under 10 stone and although it would be easy to slip back into my old ways my new eating and exercise plan has become a routine part of my life.”
The lack of energy that Workington couple Louise and Paul Robinson felt after starting a family led them to rethink their lifestyle.
When the couple met in 1996 Louise was a size 18 and over the following few years she put on weight. When she reached a size 24 she decided it was time to do something about it.
Louise, 34, first attended Scottish Slimmers in Workington in 2002 and lost six stone.
On their wedding day in May 2004 she felt wonderful in a size 12 dress while Paul, 36, says he was a slim groom.
But the pressures of working full-time meant they regularly ate pie and chips and takeaways.
When Louise got pregnant she started eating for two and her weight began to climb again and despite Paul working as a landscape gardener, he also piled on the pounds.
Following the birth of Kayleigh in July 2005 Louise returned to Scottish Slimmers but it wasn’t until January 2007, when she started working full-time as a sales coordinator, that she started to take her weight loss seriously.
“Before this I hadn’t been in the right frame of mind to lose weight,” she said. “But getting back into the routine of working helped.”
At dress size 20-22 Louise was 13 stone 13lb and together Louise and Paul decided that they would stop eating ‘lazy food’.
Louise said: “We had got into the routine of eating bad food and we decided that we would lose weight together, which made it easier because I didn’t have to cook two different meals.
“I started experimenting with recipes in the Scottish Slimmers recipe books and there are lots of meals that we both enjoy.”
With Paul exercising every day at work he managed to lose four stone, taking him from 17st 12lb to 13st 12lb by September last year.
Louise’s target weight was set at 9st 12lb and she reached this in November last year, just 10 and a half months after starting to lose weight.
“I didn’t expect to lose the weight so quickly,” she said. “When I stood on the scales and realised I had reached it I started to cry.”
And six months later she is still at her target weight and enjoying wearing size 12 clothes again.
