Super slimmer: “Fad diets failed – but lockdown transformed my life”
When the pandemic hit, care worker Cheryl Smith knew she finally had to quit yo-yo diets and tackle her obesity. Now she’s happier and healthier than ever!
When Cheryl Smith looks back at the amount of diets she has been on over the years, she is horrified at what she has put her body through.
The self-confessed yo-yo dieter has tried every fad going – from just eating baby food to one risky diet that saw her living on just one bowl of low-calorie cereal each day.
However, when lockdown hit last March, she says “something clicked”, and she has now not only lost 7st healthily, but completely transformed her mindset and lifestyle.
WORRIED
Cheryl, 25, who lives with her fiancé Connor, 25, in Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, says, “I work in a care home and the last year has been incredibly stressful. When I heard on the news last March that overweight people were hit harder by Covid, I was worried.
“At 5ft 1, I weighed 15st 7lbs, which meant I was obese. I was terrified that I would get ill so knew I had to take action and not just try another fad diet.”
At her heaviest Cheryl was 17st 9lbs and a size 26. Now she’s down to just over 11st and a size 10 to 12 on top and size 8 on the bottom. Most importantly, she feels healthy, and her relationship with food has drastically improved.
She explains, “When I was
14, I was always buying crisps and chocolate on the way home from school, and would wash them down with fizzy drinks. I was soon 13st, much bigger than my friends, but I pretended I wasn’t bothered. If I was stressed about anything like exams, I’d just binge eat.”
When Cheryl went to college aged 16, she took drastic steps to lose weight.
She admits, “I was doing a performing-arts course and all the girls were lovely and slim. I decided to lose some weight and only ate baby rusks for weeks at a time. The weight came off but I looked terrible, had no energy and didn’t sleep properly. Hungry and in need of a boost, I’d then just eat lots of sweets.”
After leaving college at 18, Cheryl lived with her boyfriend Connor, who she’d met at school.
She says, “We would order Chinese takeaways so often, they recognised my voice as soon as I phoned in my order. We once had Chinese every single night for two weeks!
It was such a bad habit.”
The takeaway binges meant Cheryl grew to 17st 9lbs and a size 26.
UNABLE TO STOP
She says, “I couldn’t stop eating. It wasn’t just takeaways, it was bar after bar of chocolate and huge bags of crisps. Breakfast was half a loaf of bread with peanut butter. And I’d eat lunch out, ordering a burger and chips, halloumi fries and garlic bread with cheese on the side.
“I worked in a takeaway selling pizzas and kebabs, so I’d have one every night after work. I knew I was making myself ill, I had heart palpitations and would get breathless doing simple tasks. But I couldn’t stop.”
Cheryl would make efforts to slim, but they would always be “quick-fix” diets.
Then, in 2017, she and Connor moved into their own house and, worried about her health, she stopped drinking fizzy drinks and cut out having sugar in her tea and coffee.
She says, “By making that small change, I lost 2st in a just over year and felt much better for it.”
But it was in March last year that she really shook up her whole lifestyle.
She says, “I had such concerns that I was going to catch Covid and become very ill. For the first time, I seriously started thinking about the future and was upset by how badly I had been treating my body.
“So, I started researching online about how to lose weight – I looked for a way to do it sensibly so it’d stay off for good.
INSPIRATION
“I found a menu plan and started having seeded toast with poached eggs or avocado for breakfast. Lunch was vegetable soup and a wholemeal roll, or an omelette or a jacket potato. And for dinner I’d have a vegetable stir fry or chilli con carne made
with lean mince. I taught myself to cook by watching videos on YouTube – there was so much inspiration on there.
“In the first month I lost 7lbs, but I didn’t deprive myself. I absolutely love pizza, so
I just researched a healthier alternative and made one using a brown pitta bread as the base. And if I wanted a burger, I’d wrap it in a lettuce leaf instead of a bun and would have a big salad on the side instead of chips. I really didn’t feel like I was missing out on anything.
“The biggest change I made was my portion sizes – before,
I’d have double helpings.
I found that using a smaller plate helped, and I began weighing out things like the amount of cheese I was adding to dishes, rather than mindlessly grating half a block on. And I added in exercise, too – I always cycle the two miles to work and we’ve even installed a home gym.
“Within a year, I’d lost 5st and I now weigh 11st. I feel like a different person.
MINDSET
“Friends ask what plan I’ve followed but I tell them it’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle change.
I not only look and feel differently physically, but mentally too. I have so much more energy.
“I want other women to know that fad diets aren’t the answer – the only way to lose weight and keep it off is to change your mindset and not go seeking a quick fix, but find a way that helps you change in small steps.
“It’s so worth it – I’m now the happiest I’ve ever been.”
‘I had heart palpitations and would get breathless’