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AS Lisa Riley posed for photos on the red carpet at this year’s Baftas, her heart swelled with pride and she thought: “I can’t believe I look this good.”
After shedding a whopping 12 stone, the Loose Women and former Emmerdale star has been revelling in her new body shape.
She recalls: “That night was really special. I can do that sort of thing now with my head held high.”
Lisa, who starred in award-winning Three Girls and famously played soap’s Mandy Dingle, went from a size
28 to size 12 with a gruelling exercise and diet regime over 18 months.
And now she’s revealing all her top weight loss and exercise tips as well as recipe plans in a new book, Lose Weight For Life.
She says: “I think people relate to me and now I want to help them.”
The 41-year-old finally decided to take drastic action after losing her mum Cath to cancer in
2012 when she was just 57.
Lisa lost weight while starring on Strictly, but then took things further by going to slimming boot camps, while taking up
Zumba and yoga.
And she’s since kept up the tough regime explaining: “A typical week will see me doing my home workout exercises, hitting the treadmill, doing body combat classes or 30 lengths in the pool.
“Even on a Sunday I’ll go for a brisk walk.
“I keep lifting those weights too, I never want to be that size 28 person again.” Her winning diet was just as strict. Lisa cut out carbs, ate smaller portions and once shed a stone in a week eating just
400 calories a day.
She’s still very strict about what she consumes, explaining: “I don’t do guilty pleasures these days, I’m very disciplined.
“I have a fear of ever becoming obese again now.”
Lisa also gave booze the boot, crediting the move with helping her cut down on calories.
She says: “The volume I used to drink was the problem. I had a problem with consumption!
“I’m completely teetotal now. Instead of a gin and tonic I prefer to make a sparkling San Pellegrino look like one.
One of her biggest tips to people wanting to lose weight is to do the eightday kick-start plan outlined in her book, following a strict diet and LISA’S DAILY DIET Breakfast: Lunch: Dinner: doing half an hour’s exercise, with cardio, every single day.
She says: “It works, you have got to shock your body!
“I’m not saying everyone should start by doing a 9km run, I knew when I was size 28 the shape of my body meant it was actually quite painful to work out.
“But the important thing is that you need to stop making excuses.
“I can go shops I never used to go into.
“Finally I’m happy in my own body!”
¬ÊLose Weight For Life is published tomorrow by Michael Joseph, £12.99. If you wake up and it’s cold and rainy outside and you don’t want to work out, keep repeating: “I can be bothered” and give yourself that kick up the backside you need.
2. Use bowls not plates: This really does work to reduce portion size and stop you over eating.
3. Get a plan:
4. Don’t eat after 6.30pm:
5: Write it
down: