One woman is celebrating this weekend after undergoing a phenomenal transformation that saw her lose half her body weight.
The astounding 10 stone weight loss saw Sarah Doyle, from Chatteris, awarded Slimming World's 'Club 50' Award - specifically created this year to celebrate the company's 50th birthday and to celebrate anyone who lost 50% of their starting weight.
Sarah, whos gone from 18st 13lb to 8st 12lb, says: I had been overweight for years. Im so proud and happy to win this award. I feel like a new woman since losing weight in fact, I look so different that people who I havent seen for a while often cant believe Im the same person. For me though its the change on the inside thats been the greatest. I'm happier, healthier and much more confident now.
The 45 year old joined her local group in August 2016. "My weight impacted on so many aspects of my life," she said, "from struggling to find clothes that I like to fit, to not being able to do simple, everyday tasks without feeling tired and out of breath."
After checking the Slimming World website, Sarah decided to join her local Slimming World group at Chatteris.
"Walking through those doors was one of the hardest things Ive ever done, I was embarrassed about my size and scared that I might be the biggest person there. I needn't have worried though, everyone there was so friendly and I was so relieved when I found out my weight was confidential between me and the consultant. I'd had visions of having to tell everyone how much I weighed!"
Sarah followed the clubs Food Optimising eating plan and swapped fast food and takeaways for home cooked alternatives, finding she could still eat fish & chips and lose weight.
"People think slimming means going hungry, eating nothing but salad or obsessively counting every calorie you eat, but its not like that at all. In fact, people are always surprised at how much food I have on my plate and can't believe I'm losing weight and eating so much without ever feeling hungry!"
After dropping from a size 24/26 to a size 10, Sarah made a career out of her transformation and is now a consultant running groups in Chatteris and Worboys.
Sarahs group in Warboys meets every Monday at 5:30pm & 7:30pm at The Sports and Social Club, and the Chatteris group meets every Thursday at 5:30pm & 7:30pm The Conservative Club.
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