Super-slimmer: “I love my loose skin – it shows how far I’ve come!”
Hannah Castledine has dropped a staggering NINE dress sizes since beating her junk-food addiction – and despite some saggy skin, she’s determined to celebrate her achievement
For years, Hannah Castledine hid a guilty secret. Most days, after dropping off her daughter Isabelle at nursery, she would go to her local supermarket and buy a birthday cake that could serve 12 people – which she’d then eat by herself. Her secret binges saw 5ft 5in Hannah’s weight soar to 25st 12lb and a size 32.
As the weight piled on, her health suffered – she’d become breathless just walking from the lounge to the kitchen and she struggled to get off the sofa.
Hannah, 32, who’s a drama teacher and lives with Isabelle, now eight, in Melton Mowbray, says, “My best friend Carla used to beg me to lose weight as she was so frightened I was going to die because of the strain on my heart.
“I just said I’d rather be fat and happy than thin and miserable.
“But on my 30th birthday, I saw photos of myself in fancy dress – I dressed up as a “granny” character, and wore an apron and had rollers in my hair. It was a great day but when I saw the pictures, I was horrified. I saw a huge and unhealthy woman. A week later, I signed up to Slimming World.
TREATS
“Now, after dropping 12st,
I can look at myself in the mirror – and while I’ve got loose skin, I’m healthy. I used to hate it, but I realise that it’s a problem that many dieters have and the most important thing is that I am living an amazing life now. Plus, most importantly,
I’ll be around a lot longer for my daughter and that’s worth putting up with a bit of excess skin for. And, anyway, they say that beauty is skin deep – and I’ve got lots of it!”
Hannah says she was always bigger as a child but not overweight. Her mum made sure she ate healthily, with plenty of salads, fruit and vegetables. Crisps and chocolate were only allowed once a week for a treat. But in her teens, she started to gain weight.
She says, “When I started getting pocket money, I’d spend it all on junk food. I loved sweet things, particularly cake, chocolate and biscuits.
VICIOUS CIRCLE
“By the time I was 16, I was a size 16 and got bullied for my weight. Food became my comfort and I was stuck in a vicious circle.”
When Hannah left school, she became a holiday rep in the UK at first, and then in Tunisia. By the time she was 18 she weighed 17st.
She says, “I had absolutely no willpower. The lifestyle was incredibly unhealthy too – we were always out partying, drinking sugary cocktails. It was so busy, we only had time to snack, and I never reached for fruit, it was only ever junk.”
❛ I SHOW OFF MY BODY WITH NO FILTERS TO MY FOLLOWERS – I GET SO MUCH SUPPORT ❜
In 2011, when she met Isabelle’s dad, she was 19st and a size 22-24. She was told her pregnancy was high risk – but she put on a further 4st.
She says, “I just ate and ate. And I didn’t stop once she was born. We’d have takeaways five nights a week – always Chinese or fish and chips. I kidded myself that it was OK, and that I wasn’t that big. To my shame, I remember once I couldn’t make it to the loo in time as it took me so long to get anywhere, and I wet myself, but even that wasn’t enough to make me realise things needed to change.”
WAKE-UP CALL
She sadly split up with Isabelle’s dad in 2017, which caused her to comfort-eat more than ever.
But a year later, on her 30th birthday, everything changed. Hannah says, “I didn’t realise quite how big I was until I saw that picture. You need to have that moment when you suddenly realise and know that you don’t want to look like that any more – and that was mine. No amount of other people telling you will give you the motivation. It needs to come from yourself.”
Hannah joined Slimming World in August 2018 and, in her first week, she lost 6lb. Since then she’s lost up to 3lb a week – a steady and healthy amount. And in December last year, she reached her goal weight of 13st 11lb and now wears a size 12-14.
She says, “Once I’d started, it was surprisingly easy – I could still eat my favourite foods, such as sausages, but they had to be low-fat. The more weight I lost, I was spurred on.
HAPPIER
“Last year I started running. I now go up to four times a week and I always do 20,000 steps a day. I am healthier and happier.”
A downside of her incredible weight loss is that Hannah has been left with huge amounts of loose skin. She would like to have surgery to remove it, but can’t afford the £13,000 needed for the operation and she doesn’t qualify for it on the NHS. But Hannah has turned it into a positive.
She says, “I’ve learned to love my loose skin. It’s part of me and shows how far I’ve come and the hard work I’ve put in.
“If I was offered the operation I might have it for medical reasons because sometimes
I get sores where the skin rubs. But I’m more than happy with my appearance. I show off my body with no filters to my followers on Instagram and get so much support from other women.
“We need to show the realities of weight loss and I think I look great. I love my new body in every way and I’m not going to hide away!”