A mum who didn't recognise herself in her holiday photos lost over two stone in a matter of months.
Clare Graves, from Garston, noticed her weight creeping up as she tried to juggle a busy family life with working extra hours. The mum-of-two said she was "in denial" at the time, and started to avoid going out with her friends so she didn't have to buy a bigger size in clothes.
Clare's "turning point" came after she returned home from holiday and saw the photos she'd taken with her family.
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Clare, 58, told the ECHO: “I was never really overweight when I was younger but had a busy life with a full time job and two young children to look after. As my job responsibilities increased so did my working hours.
"I’d come home in the evening from work and look in the fridge and just grab whatever I could find, which was usually a cake bar, chocolate biscuit or packet of crisps from the cupboard. I stopped exercising using the excuse that I didn’t have the time.
"I stopped going out. I actually started to say to my friends 'I don't think I'll go out' because I was in denial because nothing fitted me."
Clare said: "Before I went on holiday, I just didn't have any clothes that fit me. I just felt really awful. I wasn't looking forward to the holiday because I just felt the dread of having to work out what I was going to wear around the pool and at night.
"It was after looking at the holiday photos that I realised that I needed to do something as I’d stopped looking like me. I just looked at them and thought never again."
Clare tried to lose weight by herself but when didn't work, her dad offered to pay for her to join Slimming World for 12 weeks. After joining her local group in Garson, Clare lost 6.5lbs in the first two weeks.
She has gone on to lose 2st 5lbs in total, from 11st 6lbs to 8st 13lbs. Clare swapped snacks and convivence food for homecooked family meals and joined her local boxercise class to increase her fitness.
The mum-of-two said she can still eat the meals she enjoys by making simple swaps such as cooking roast potatoes in fry light oil spray and making sauces from scratch.
Clare said: "I started making those lifestyle changes and I started going back out with friends. You can still go out but instead of maybe having a glass of wine I would have a gin and slimline tonic.
"Those holiday photos are what keep me going. Every time I have a little bit of a wobble I go back and have a look at the photos and think 'I'm never going to go back there again.'
"I actually put photos of myself on Facebook now instead of photos of my family with me taking the photos. "
Clare has now trained to be a Slimming World consultant to help others with their weight loss and started her own group at The Joseph Lappin Centre in Old Swan this week. Clare added: "Helping other people to feel like I do and having that chance is absolutely amazing."
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