A mum has lost six stone and become an internet sensation after posting pictures of her "naughty" meals.
Ruby Lee dropped the pounds after she was sent a picture of herself with her partner Tom Mackie, 39, and their twin boys. The 29-year-old, from High Heaton, Newcastle, was horrified by the image and decided she needed to make a change.
She started making home-cooked versions of her favourite fast food meals, including Chinese dishes and McDonald's, and posting pictures of them on her Instagram page. Ruby now has more than 29,000 followers and is being offered the chance to review meals at North East restaurants.
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Ruby, who is mum to Xander and Ezra, two, said: "It was my twins' first birthday and somebody sent me a photo. I thought that doesn't even look like me, I didn't realise I had put so much weight on. I knew I needed to lose weight but that was the cherry on the cake. I didn't even recognise myself in the photo. I thought I would have to do something about that.
"Now I have got 29,000 followers on Instagram, it just sort of blew up! I think it's because I like to make my meals look as naughty as possible. I love a takeaway and I try to make things look really nice - but they are quite healthy. It's surreal. sometimes I get lots of messages off people saying 'thank you very much for doing this'. I tear up, sometimes I can't believe I am helping this many people."
At her biggest, Ruby weighed 25 stone 12-and-a-half pounds and wore size 26-28 clothing. She said she piled on the weight without realising due to snacking all day while in the house alone with her twin boys. She said her self esteem was so low that she would avoid leaving the house with her children.
Ruby said: "Cheese is definitely my downfall, I could sat and eat a block of cheese. With crisps, I had no willpower. I would literally go through a whole family bag of crisps.
"My partner would have to force me to go out and take a walk with the kids. I was very self-conscious and I didn't really want to even take them to the park or go out. I thought I was too fat to go out. Lockdown benefitted me because I didn't have to go out because we weren't allowed to."
The mum-of-two said the photograph of her at her twin's birthday party gave her the motivation to join a Slimming World group at Paddy Freeman's Park with her nana in September 2020. She said that due to further covid-19 lockdowns her journey hasn't been easy but she has continued to lose weight at a steady pace.
Ruby started cooking all of her meals from scratch and eating snacks such as crisps and chocolate in moderation. She posted all of her dishes on her Instagram page Ruby Shrinks and the pounds started to drop off. By May 2021, she had lost three stone and by October last year she had shed five stone. Last month, she received her six stone award.
She said: "When I started Slimming World I set up an Instagram account mainly just for me to keep myself accountable. I saw others posting their weight loss and their meals. I thought I would give that a go and that has kept me going throughout the whole thing.
"My Instagram got more and more popular and people were following my weight loss journey. I felt I needed to do well not just for me but for them as well. Slimming World contacted me asking if they could post a meal I'd made and I got an influx of followers.
"Some people have lost 10 stone by eating salads. I can't live like that, that's not sustainable for my lifestyle so that's why I try and do naughty meals but healthy meals. I can live like that for the rest of my life.
"I love a burger so I try to make fakeaways like McDonald's or Burger King. I like spice so I like a lot of Mexican food - fajitas, enchiladas, chilli, those sort of meals. I put all the syns on there so everyone knows what syns they're having.
"I would say people like the easier meals as well. I tend to do a lot of one pot easy meals. I have taught myself to cook by looking at meals I enjoy and trying to covert the ingredients into Slimming World friendly ones."
Ruby now weights 19 stone 12-and-half-pounds and wears a size 18-20 clothing. Her overall aim is to lose between another five and six stone so she is a healthy weight for her height. She said she is already feeling the benefits of losing weight as she can now buy clothes without worrying whether they will fit and her
She said: "I knew I needed to do something for the kids. I was keeping them in because I was self-conscious. Now I take them to the park myself now so it's definitely helped.
"I feel a lot less self-conscious now. It's great to be able to go out and not feel like people are looking at me. I'm able to go out with my partner and have a good night. Before I would say 'We're not going out'. Now I want to go out, go to town and go to restaurants.
"I'm being asked by other restaurants to go and review their food and post it on Instagram. I will check to make sure there is something healthy on the menu. I have changed my mind set now when I go out.
"I'm able to get up and down the stairs a lot more easily and I'm not out of breath. There's a lot less strain on my body."
Ruby is determined to keep chipping away at her weight while eating the food that she enjoys. She said Tom, who works as a trainee accountant, also loves the Slimming World meals which she makes.
She said: "The main thing is I am constantly losing. I think the key is just being persistent and not giving up. You will just go backwards if you give up.
"If you just keep at it, it will come off. Even a half a pound loss each week, it will add up over a year. Even if you just have a little loss, you are losing it in the right way."
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