A woman lost an incredible eight stone after being left devastated by being told she was too big to sit near a plane's emergency exit. Karen Zasheva said she was left in tears after a holiday in 2020 when an air hostess asked her to move seats.
Karen and her husband had booked to sit on the aisle next to the aeroplane's emergency exit so they had more leg room. However shortly before take off the air hostess explained to Karen that she would not be able to sit there for "health and safety reasons".
The 66-year-old grandmother of four said: "I could not do the belt up. The steward came over she gave me this bright orange belt extender. Then she came back and she said 'You will have to come with me' and explained that to sit here you have to be able to help others off the plane in an emergency. In other words, if you are over weight you can't sit in those seats."
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Karen, from Port Talbot, said that flight was very uncomfortable and when she got to her hotel room she cried and cried. She said: "The stewardess was very kind about it but I could hear snide comments from around me, it was awful. I love sea food but on that holiday I could not walk to the restaurants I was in so much pain, I didn't want to take off my robe, I felt humiliated. The holiday was the push I needed. I knew I had to do something."
When she returned from the holiday, Karen was determined to lose weight, but due to the coronavirus pandemic there were no Slimming World groups running in person so didn't start her weight loss journey until May 2021. Now, almost two years later, Karen is more than eight stone down, and has gone from a size 28 to a size 12/14.
"When I started, I knew I had eight stone to come off in my mind I didn't think like, I just thought I need to lose as much weight as I can. As soon as I lost 10% of my bodyweight, that came pretty quickly, I felt so much better."
In terms of her diet, Karen said the actual food she eats hasn't changed that much, but the way she cooks it has. "I have always had good nutrition, but it was the way I was cooking it," she explained.
"For my breakfast now, I have two poached eggs, bacon, mushrooms, peppers and onions, all cooked in Fry Light. Before, it would be the same but cooked in oil and I would have two to three pieces of white bread with butter. Now, I don't really have bread, or if I do it is wholemeal and if I want butter I use my syns."
The Slimming World diet works on a food optimisation basis. There are free foods (such as your meats/proteins, beans, potatoes, pasta among other things), speed foods (most fruits and vegetables) then your healthy extras. A healthy extra A, is a dairy product, which must be weighed or measured to a specific amount dependent on the food. A healthy extra B, is a fibre product like cereal, bread or some cereal bars, these also have to be weighed or measured. Then there are foods that have a 'syn' value, which members are allowed up to 15, sometimes 25, dependent on their weight.
Another motivation for Karen to lose weight was so she could keep up with her young grandchildren, with the youngest being born in September 2019. She has been on the waiting list to undergo a knee replacement, as well as having problems with her spine for years. Her orthopaedic surgeon told her that she could use a walking aid to help her with the pain she was experiencing.
"The pain I was in was awful, I wanted to be able to play with my youngest granddaughter, I have always been so involved in my grandchildren's lives, and I didn't want to be using a walking aid. The pain used to be acute, and now I've lost this weight it is manageable."
Karen said she would not have been able to lose the weight if it was not for the support from her Slimming World group in Port Talbot and her consultant, Rhian Milson-Gadd. She loves the plan so much she has now become a consultant herself, and is taking over the Sketty group on a Tuesday at 6pm.
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