‘Clothes shopping is now my new favourite activity!’

Hazel Guy, 45, works in a children’s soft-play centre. She lives in Thornton, Kirkcaldy, and has two sons, Jack, 23, and Alfie, 15. She says, “My weight had crept up over the years, and at the beginning of 2017 my size 16 jeans were tight. I found myself snacking on the sofa every evening – sometimes I’d have two tubes of Pringles washed down with fizzy pop – and eating two or three takeaway burger meals during the week. That May, I was leaving my house one day when I bumped into a woman handing out leaflets for her Slimming World group. She was so friendly, so I nervously decided to give her group a go and set myself a target of losing 3st. A week after joining, I stepped on the scales to find I’d lost 51/ 2lbs – I was beaming! From then on I started to believe in myself and began to enjoy cooking from scratch. I swapped sugary soft drinks for water, and would have low-fat crisps when the urge to snack hit me. By the summer of 2017 I’d lost 2st and started taking up exercise – I bought a weighed hula hoop and used it when I watched TV in the evenings. As the months passed, I noticed how much energy I had at work – I never got out of breath playing with the kids at soft play. Then, 15 months after I joined Slimming World, I celebrated losing 5st – healthy eating had become a way of life and I’d found the right balance to maintain my weight long-term. I noticed a boost to my confidence. I’d never been one for clothes shopping, but hitting the shops was my new favourite activity! Instead of baggy tops and leggings, I bought size 8-10 skirts and dresses. And while nights out are on hold for now, my confidence is still flying high. For years I tried to hide my low self-esteem behind my bubbly personality. Now, the happy person you see on the outside tallies with how I feel on the inside!”