HALF PENNY
Sandra stops munching six bags of crisps every day and drinking gallons of Coke to lose 10 stone
SANDRA Penny is half the woman she was after ditching her six-ackets-of-crisps-a-day habit to shed an incredible 10 stone – more than the weight of her 24-year-old daughter.
At her heaviest, the 50-year-old tipped the scales at more than 22st after she turned to food for comfort following the birth of her children and a battle with skin cancer.
Her doctor warned her four years ago she was at risk of diabetes and her blood pressure was so high she would have to “do something before it was too late”. But the real wake-up call came when she was unable to fasten her seat-belt on a four-hour flight to Turkey.
“I was so embarrassed, I never let on to anyone,” she said. “I couldn’t fasten the seat-belt so I just held on to it and hid it under my jumper. I would rather have been rocketed out of my seat if the plane had crashed than tell anyone.
“That’s when I knew I had to do something.”
The renal healthcare support worker, who “sneakily ate six packets of crisps a day” and “drank Coke by the gallon”, had tried various diets in the past and failed.
But two days after she returned from holiday, she joined a new Slimming World class, after a flyer had been posted through the letterbox.
Sandra, from Huntly, Aberdeenshire, has since shed just more than 10 stone – nearly two stone more than 8st 4lb daughter Beth, 24 – and dropped seven dress sizes.
She said: “When I got to nine stone, Beth said, ‘I think that’s about what I weigh’. So I got her to go on my back and I could hardly stand carrying her. When you think I’ve lost a whole person, it’s hard to believe.
“I always avoided scales and thought I was about 16st, so I got the shock of my life when I stood on the scales and I was 22st.”
The mother of two, who is 5ft 3in, now keeps a once tightfitting pair of size 26 trousers she wore that day as a reminder of how far she has come. She said: “It’s changed my life mentally as well as physically – and I’ve no intention of going back into them.
Sandra, who is hoping to lose one more stone, has also trained as a Slimming World consultant and is currently holding Zoom meetings until face-to-face classes can resume.