Height: Starting weight: Weight now: Weight lost: Size before: Size now:
nger for me. I picked up so many tips d recipes from other members, and if as having a bad week, they’d pick me ht up again and give me all the tivation I needed to keep going.” or years, John’s diet had consisted of b-and-go food from burger vans and eaways while working as a lorry ver. Things didn’t change when he ved to his current job as a transport nager for a skip-hire company. very day he’d eat burgers, pizza and ps, all washed down with litres of ar-loaded fizzy drinks.
When bosses bought him a special re-enforced chair for his work, he tried to laugh it off. “They told me it was so I’d be comfortable,” says John.
“But the box the chair came in advertised that it could take up to 23st so I knew why it had really been brought in.”
John hated feeling sluggish and not liking what he saw in the mirror, but most of all he hated not being able to be the kind of dad he wanted to be.
He adds: “Tegan was always asking me to go and kick a ball with her or to take her swimming, and I’d Now he goes cycling with his daughter
Picture: ALASDAIR MACLEOD FAMILY John with daughter Tegan constantly make excuses. Not because I didn’t want to – but because I didn’t have the energy. “Occasionally I’d take her swimming, but I’d drive for miles to a pool out of our local area so that no one would know me. And once
I was in the water,
I’d stay there – I didn’t want anyone to see me.
“It was horrible feeling so ashamed all the time and so guilty because I wasn’t being as active with my daughter as I’d have liked.”
These days, it’s a different story. Now a keen cyclist who will often head off for a 20-mile ride after work, John says Tegan struggles to keep up with him now.
He smiles: “She’ll moan at me and ask,
‘How far are we going today, Dad?’ It’s funny to think how different things were.
I’ll never go back to being that 22st guy. “I like this new guy – I like this new dad far too much. “Simple things like clothes shopping are a pleasure now. I’d never try anything on in a shop before – I was a 46in waist and I was too embarrassed. JOHN’S MENU BEFORE Breakfast:
Lunch: Dinner:
HIS MENU AFTER Breakfast: Lunch: Dinner: I’d buy everything online. Now I’m a 32in waist and I can go into any shop I want.”
John says joining Slimming World has truly made him enjoy food. Instead of eating high-fat, high-sugar junk that wouldn’t satisfy him, he stays fuller for longer cooking healthy meals the whole family can enjoy, such as spaghetti bolognese or a Chinese dish called Shanghai Chicken.
Instead of two rolls with sausages for breakfast, he enjoys porridge oats soaked overnight in low-fat yogurt and piled high with delicious berries.
Multiple sandwiches at lunch have been replaced with chicken salad, and instead of a large pizza at night, he’ll have grilled chicken or a salmon fillet with lots of vegetables and potatoes.
He adds: “Gayle has helped so much by cooking Slimming World recipes for the family, and I cook too at weekends whereas I’d never have done that before.
“I’d love more men to join Slimming World as I’ve done. It’s a decision you’ll never regret – and I’m the proof that it’s not just for women.”
■ To find your nearest group, visit slimmingworld.co.uk or call 0344 897 8000.
Slimming World is celebrating its 50th anniversary in 2019