Gail Strangways, 54, is living her best life…
AFTER 9st 5lbs Size 8-10
BEFORE 13st 6.5lbs Size 16
Growing up, I was always bigger than the other girls at school. My weight fluctuated a lot after puberty and, while nobody really made negative comments, I was very aware of how I looked in the mirror. Throughout my twenties, I dabbled in fad diets, but to my increasing frustration, nothing worked.
The pounds really started to pile on after my second pregnancy at 33. Between meals, I would snack all the time. I would buy a pack of four chocolate muffins and eat them all at once. My real weakness though was cheese, especially blue cheese. I also loved grazing on cured meats, crisps and dips. In one sitting, I could get through a whole tub of Taramasalata, which was 1,000 calories a pot, and I could quite easily crunch my way through a tube of Pringles. For dinner, I tended to eat whatever the kids were eating: pizza, chicken nuggets or pasta.
It was only when my husband and I got divorced that I knew something had to change. “I just feel rubbish,” I told my friend one evening, on the verge of tears. She suggested I try running to cope with the stress, so I decided to give it a go. I couldn’t even make it around a football field to start with, but gradually, I built it up, joining a running club, and eventually even doing the London marathon.
Around that time, I met my second husband, and I was feeling much more confident in myself. But soon enough, the old eating habits crept back in. I was enjoying life as a new couple: snuggling on the sofa with a bottle of wine and getting stuck into an Indian at weekends. When my other half proposed, I wasn’t the dress size I wanted to be. So, five months before the wedding, I joined Slimming World and successfully lost a stone. The big day was amazing, and I felt great in my dress. We then went on honeymoon to Majorca. But when we got back, without the wedding as motivation, I stopped going to the groups. I went back to eating crisps and smothering everything in creamy sauces.
Then one day in 2019, my mum made a comment that left me mortified… “You look like your brother,” she said. I looked in the mirror and I couldn’t believe how round my face had become. I was 13st, the biggest I had been. I didn’t want to go back to Slimming World because I was worried about what the group would think. “You won’t be judged,” my friend said. With her encouragement, I stepped through the doors once again – and it was a game changer. I lost two stone over nine months, and I maintained my weight until the pandemic hit. Like many people, I was so bored at home. I would pass the time, eating comfort food and watching Netflix.
