Jody’s egg-citing new job
SACKED WEIGHT WATCHERS COACH BECOMES ALDI ‘EASTER EGG TASTING OFFICER’
A FORMER TV weight-loss guru who once said he had been sacked by Weight Watchers has found a new role as an “Easter egg tasting officer”.
Jody Bunting, who used to run Weight Watchers’ Stretton classes, said he was sacked and apologised in December 2019 after a “mental health incident” that saw him attack a male nurse.
But the 43-year-old dad of one – a self-proclaimed “holistic lifestyle coach” - has now taken up his new tasting role with Aldi.
It comes decades after Jody, born in Burton and who grew up in Hatton, shot to fame on the Lose it With Jody feature on The Big Breakfast in the 90s. Having appeared on the Channel 4 show, he lost more than half his body weight, having once tipped the scales at 31st.
Talking of his friends’ reaction to his new role, Jody said: “They, and my slimming clients, were horrified at first, as they know I love chocolate a little too much.
“But they all volunteered to be my chief Easter egg tasting assistants. In my opinion, Aldi’s Dairyfine chocolate is the most delicious-tasting chocolate in the world, so the chief egg tasting role felt like the perfect job for me.
“I’ll be rating each egg based on its appearance, sweetness and creaminess; I can’t wait to try all the different products available this year.
“I used to weigh 31st, so with my love for and experience with food, I am the best man for the job.”
Jody beat more than 300 applicants to land the Aldi role, along with two “specially selected” people.
Each officer receives free Aldi Easter eggs in exchange for providing feedback. Review videos across Aldi’s social media channels will also help inform the firm’s chocolate buying team when planning for the their 2022 Easter eggs.
Judges found Jody’s application video “charismatic and “engaging” and he showed “an obvious passion for chocolate”.
Julie Ashfield, managing director of buying at Aldi UK, said: “We worked hard to ensure this year’s Easter egg selection was its most innovative yet, but ultimately, it’s the opinion of our customers that we value most.
“We’re delighted to have recruited Jody as one of our chief tasting officers, to help share his thoughts. His passion for chocolate definitely came across in the video, so he was an obvious choice.
“I’m sure our buying teams will find his reviews helpful. Hopefully others find the feedback useful , too.”
Easter has become a key date for Aldi and last year they sold more than seven million Easter eggs. This year it includes the blonde chocolate “specially-selected exquisite beehive egg” with honeycomb pieces, as well as the brand’s “giant dragon egg”.
Jody said drinking four bottles of an “artificially-flavoured wine” left him in a “state of confusion” for two weeks. A “flurry of complaints” were made about his subsequent conduct, he said, including making “childish jokes” and walking around the room “wearing other people’s shoes” at a dieting meeting in Derby in September. After that meeting, according to Jody, he was taken to Royal Derby Hospital, where he was arrested and cautioned for assaulting a male nurse.
He admitted himself to A&E the following day, this time with what he described as “pains caused by a dangerously high blood-sugar level”.
Jody says he then upset hospital staff with an online video about “how he was feeling” and “how he did not know what was wrong with him” – made while locked in a toilet.
He claims to have cured his Type-2 diabetes in 2015 through fitness and dieting, but drinking the wine triggered diabetic symptoms.
After a week on medication to balance out his blood sugar, he says he was “back to his usual self”. and felt came from and make sure this will not happen again. I have also started nutritional therapy to ensure I am always at optimal health.
“The bizarre things I was talking about in the online video I made that Sunday morning were not true; I was just saying what I was thinking at the time I was ill. I would please like to thank all of you for making my year working at WW such an outstanding success.
“Also thanks to the whole WW team for their kind support, and training me to become a world-class weight-loss coach.
“Special thanks to my mentor and personal coach, Diane, who I’ll always remember, after all the cheer and laughter we discovered together.
“My workshop team volunteers have been really exceptional and I really could not have done it without you all.
“I’ll miss so much the fun and achievements we shared.
“I still adore and highly recommend In a statement at the time, Jody the WW holistic programs, said: “I would like to say how very products and brand, so please use sorry I am for upsetting any of you, all the tools available to assist you, and assure you this was never my believe in yourself and you will get intention. The illness I had, to your ‘happy weight’ goal. the last time most of you “My mission in life for the last 25 saw me, in the last years - to help people lose weight week of September, and get healthier - will continue has now been with my new community fitness given a working classes and one to one lifestyle diagnosis of depersonalisation/ coaching, as I still remember how hard it was to eat better, be active derealisation and change my lifestyle back when I disorder weighed 31 stone in 2001. (DPDR), which “For anyone who would like to may have been keep in touch with me, please join brought on by a my free emailing list at Jodybunting. high blood sugar com. level. “My sincerest apologies again, “I would like to apologise thank you to everyone, and I do wish for my behaviour and, although I you all the best for the future.” don’t want to simply blame ill A spokesman for Weight Watchers health, please believe me the person said they were legally unable to many of you witnessed in person/ comment on a confidential matter online that week was not the real relating to an ex-employee. me. It was someone I have never Derbyshire Police and Royal seen before and someone I never Derby Hospital were asked for a want to see again. statement about Jody’s alleged arrest
“I am soon to start therapy to try to and caution, but did not provide understand where the things I said one.
Jody’s passion for chocolate definitely came across in the video, so he was an obvious choice.