Fed up of being unable to lose weight, crisp addict Joanne Allen, 52, had an idea that changed her lifestyle completely…
A family-size bag of Walkers crisps sat on the kitchen table, practically calling my name. I couldn’t resist! I tore it open and scoffed down the contents. It was my second bag in a row. Well, there goes another failed diet, I thought. Over the years I’d tried them all. I’d been to slimming clubs, I’d followed diet plans and even had fat-loss injections. But they were no match for my love of salty, savoury snacks, office nibbles and takeaways.
I’d been chubby as a kid, and by the time I was aged 18, I was 5ft and a size 18. Then, when I was in my late 30s, I met Lee, now 55. We got chatting on a dating site and I made sure I used profile photos that showed the real me – a curvy size 20. From the moment we met in person, Lee loved me for who I was, but over the years my weight crept up.
Lee was a terrible cook and so sometimes it was just easier to order in a Chinese or Indian takeaway. Soon I was 14 stone and a size 22. I had fibromyalgia and, as my weight increased, the symptoms got worse. I also had IBS and severe hip pain. I didn’t want my ailments to stop me from living my life, so Lee and I booked a Mediterranean cruise. But I did think if I could just lose a stone, I’d look better in my holiday clothes. Since diet plans had never worked, I decided to try a different approach and took a long, hard look at where I was going wrong. My downfall was crisps, so I went cold turkey on them and stocked up on fruit instead. I also started reading food labels for the salt, sugar and fat content. Banning
