This determined real bride-to-be shed half her body weight in time for the big day, thanks to her brand new weightloss plan from Slimming World!
“My weight problems started as a teenager,” says Lisa, 27, from Loughborough. “I moved in with my first boyfriend at a very young age and, because I was cooking for myself, on a tight budget and we were eating all the wrong things.” By the time the couple split, when Lisa was 18, she weighed an incredible 24st.
Asthma was holding her back too and, at her heaviest, she found just getting out of bed in the morning was a painful task but the worst was yet to come. “One day we went to Alton Towers to ride a new rollercoaster,” remembers Lisa. “But I was unable to connect the seat belt because my tummy was too big. I felt so humiliated.”
Fat bride?
After having her daughter and setting a date for her wedding, Lisa decided to take the bull by the horns and figure out a new wedding weightloss plan by joining her local Slimming World group.
“I didn’t want to be a ‘fat’ bride,” says Lisa. She started following Slimming World’s easy Food Optimising weightloss plan and loved that she never had to go hungry. She satisfied her appetite on filling foods like fruit, veg, pasta, rice and potatoes.
She could even enjoy her favourite meals like roast dinners and curries, too, thanks to the new healthy recipes she was given by her Slimming World Consultant – perfect for her lifestyle as a busy mum. But healthy eating was just the start. Lisa also joined the local gym and loved aqua aerobics, too.
The big day!
“When the wedding came around in August 2009, I was a size 10 and weighed 11st – 13st less than at my heaviest!” says Lisa. “I even had to have my wedding dress taken in!”
“I’m a bit ‘Katie Price’ and love my bling but I found a lot of wedding dresses were too fussy for me. Instead, I chose a simple white gown with only a little bit of bling on the bodice. It let my new figure do the talking!” And what about the dress shopping experience? “Before I would have struggled to fit into wedding dresses and would have felt embarrassed to go into a bridal boutique, but now I feel like a princess!”
The future
Now Lisa has given up her day job completely to concentrate on running her own Slimming World groups in Loughborough and Markfield, Leicestershire. “I couldn’t have done it without the support of my group, my family and my husband – who loved me no matter what.”
