I’ve lost a fare bit of weight
Lee sheds 12st after taxi driver’s jibe
A SLIMMER lost almost half his body weight after a taxi driver joked he would be charged double because he was the size of two passengers.
As Lee Jamieson, 41, went from 25st to 13st 9lbs, his waist shrank from 50in to 34in, his hip and back pain cleared up and he is no longer borderline Type 2 diabetic.
He decided to act after he returned from a holiday in Dubai with his family in 2016.
They had been for dinner when they flagged a taxi down and the driver made the fat-shaming quip.
Lee said: “The catalyst was definitely the taxi journey. It was a sarcastic comment and he didn’t mean it, but it stuck in my head. I was mortified, but it spurred me to change my lifestyle.”
When Lee, a chartered environmental health practitioner, got home to Wolverhampton he joined Weight Watchers.
He said: “I never really thought about the health implications of carrying a load of weight. I was eating junk and convenience foods.
“For lunch, I would pop to Greggs to get a sandwich, a sausage roll or two and some crisps and a fizzy drink.
“I would have lower back pain and joint injections, which is not a particularly pleasant experience, and I was borderline Type 2 diabetic.
“I just felt constantly tired and was feeling pretty miserable.”
Before he joined Weight Watchers, Lee, who is single with no children, had tried numerous fad diets.
He said: “They didn’t really work. But my first month at Weight Watchers, I dropped three-and-ahalf stone. Then it kind of slows down, but that is normal. “It’s been a long journey, it’s not all been losses there’s been gains and periods where I stayed the same for weeks on end.
“At the Weight Watchers workshops, they would encourage me. I wouldn’t call it a diet, it’s a lifestyle, a complete lifestyle change.” Lee traded sausage rolls and takeaways for lots of fresh fish and vegetables.
He said: “No food is off limits, that’s the beauty of it.” He also has the confidence to go to the gym.
He said: “I want to start bringing in more exercise to my regime now. Before, I was too embarrassed to go to the pool or gym. I just generally feel happier in myself and a lot more confident.”