New diet helps pensioner Jim shed 12st in six years
A 76-YEAR-OLD man is no longer showing signs of Type 2 diabetes after losing almost 12st.
Jim Lindley, from Bridgend, started his weight loss six years ago. He has since been told by a diabetes nurse that he is no longer showing any signs of diabetes after losing 11st 10lb.
“I don’t take any medication for diabetes anymore. I truthfully believe that if I hadn’t lost this weight, I wouldn’t be here,” said Jim.
Jim was chatting to a friend about needing to lose weight when he was approached by a stranger who said: “Church Hall, Tuesday, 7.30pm, and bring money.”
He decided to go along and see what she was talking about and ended up joining Slimming World.
“I remember saying to the consultant that I would not eat that much food in a day but she said you must remember that you should never be hungry,” said Jim, who was 28st when he joined the lifestyle diet.
“In the first week of following the plan, I lost 9lb. The most I have lost in one week is 10lb, I couldn’t quite believe it,” he added.
Throughout his amazing weight loss, which started in 2013, Jim said he was repeatedly buying new clothes and having to give them away as he was losing so much weight.
“I have even gone down two shoe sizes. I said in class every part of my body has reduced in dimension, apart from my hat size,” Jim said.
Jim, who now weighs 16st 4lb, said he has always been a big man. Growing up in a Yorkshire mining community, he said he would eat whatever his dad ate when he came home from the pit.
Before he started his diet, his usual breakfast would consist of something quick and fast like a couple of bacon sandwiches or a fry-up, which would include full-fat sausages, bacon, mushrooms and onions fried in oil with bread slathered in butter.
Having cut out cakes when he found out he was diabetic, he didn’t eat a lot of sweet treats but admitted he still liked to snack on biscuits.
He would often skip lunch but would make up for the lost calories with a full cooked dinner, consisting of vegetables roasted in fat, fatty onion gravy and a big Yorkshire pudding.
Now, Jim explained what he eats hasn’t changed that much – but the way it is cooked has, which makes all the difference.
“I still have a cooked breakfast but without the fat on the bacon and everything is cooked in a lowcalorie cooking spray with low-fat sausages,” said Jim
He also still enjoys a cooked dinner, but once again he has swapped the fat for healthier options.
He reveals that one of his favourite new meals is a curry.
“My daughter, who lives with me, does most of the cooking and she makes beautiful curries.
“There is not much difference but there is a lot more veg.”
Jim said his success mostly came from being a “stubborn sod”, admitting that even if he wasn’t losing any weight one week, he would stick at it.
“I would say the biggest thing that helped was giving up the drink.
“I will only have one or two beers on the rare occasion now, whereas before I would drink a lot.”
Changing his diet has meant Jim is able to be a lot more active, and he now walks miles around Porthcawl most mornings.
“I do sincerely believe that if I had not gotten that weight off, I would not be here now.”
Jim retired years ago in order to care for his wife,
Mary Lindley, who had cancer.
She sadly died just a few months before they reached their 50th wedding anniversary.
“If she was alive and I had done this diet, I know there would be occasions where she would say ‘go on, have this big sandwich, it won’t hurt’,” he laughed.
Slimming World is more than just a diet for Jim, who has become an important member of his group by helping to set up the class each week.
“Everybody.is so encouraging, we are all in the same boat.”
Jim attends the Westward Slimming World Group, on Llangewydd Road, Cefn Glas in Bridgend.
The group runs each Wednesday at 7.30pm.