A severely overweight mum has dropped 10 dress sizes after realising shedding the pounds was key to seeing her children grow up. Claire Dewsbury from North Yorkshire saw her weight balloon to a staggering 23st 6lbs with an unhealthy diet that consisted of crisps and chocolate, frozen meals and takeaways every week, Wales Online reports.
The obese 48-year-old's weight had left her struggling to even climb the stairs without feeling breathless and she was hit with a frightening reality check when her excessive eating habits led to a diabetes diagnosis in 2018 when she was at her heaviest. It proved to be a shock to the system for the single mother of two and she became terrified that she wouldn't be around to watch her son Jack, 8 and daughter, Hannah, 20 grow up if turn her life around.
And she finally managed to change her ways - losing an impressive 12st 6lbs, which is over half her body weight, after she joined a local Slimming World group. The change has taken now her from a size 28 to a size 10/12 and she is fitter than ever before.
Instead of eating beige frozen food, she has a colourful diet filled with fruit and vegetables - but she still enjoys chocolate in moderation. Claire is also now training to become a Slimming World consultant herself so she can help others get healthier.
“I’m a different person. I’m fitter now than I was in my twenties,” said the 48-year-old. “I couldn’t even go up the stairs. I mean I did but I used to be quite breathless.”
While the mum admitted it hasn't always been easy, she credits her friends at the former Loftus and Saltburn Slimming World groups for keeping her going. On the days she was struggling she looked to her weight loss community on social media for moral support and would look at old photographs of herself and remember how fair she has come.
Claire explained: “I wasn’t going anywhere. I wouldn’t go out the house. I was embarrassed, I was ashamed. So I wasn’t going out or burning any calories because I was at home all the time.
''So it wasn’t a very good time during that part of my life." She said that for a long time she was struggling to celebrate her amazing lifestyle change and dramatic weight loss, even after winning a Slimming World award for losing over half of her body weight.
The mum said the stigma of 'having that amount to lose' plagued her, but now she feels as though it is something to celebrate. The 48-year-old is now looking to help other people in her situation after her life-changing transformation.
Claire is currently training to be a Slimming World consultant herself where she will support and coach others through their own weight-loss journey, reopening the group she initially joined in Loftus. Hoping to inspire others thinking about joining her group, she said: “It can be done. You can change your life by eating right and exercising.
''I go to the gym a lot. I tend to go on a morning for an hour or two. I just combined diet and exercise together and the results have showed.
''It makes you feel good about yourself as well. I want people to feel like I do. They can do it. It’s hard work, but it’s achievable.”
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