Sweet success
VICKY Day makes cakes for a living – and her husband makes biscuits – but with willpower and determination she has lost five-and-a-half stone.
The mum-of-two, from Stockport, says her weight loss has ‘given her her life back.’
Vicky, 40, said she is now able to enjoy her life with her two young daughters and husband Andrew.
At her heaviest, Vicky topped 15-and-a-half stone, wearing a dress size 20. She hated looking in mirrors and rarely had photos taken with her daughters Charlotte, six, and Emily, three. Now, having slimmed down with a healthy diet plan and fitness programme with the Stockportbased Lean Body Project, she is getting to enjoy her figure and can’t stop taking selfies with her daughters.
Vicky, who is 5ft 3ins, now weighs 10 stone and wears a size 10. She runs her successful Queen of Cakes business from her home in Reddish.
Making extra cupcakes to snack on and licking the spoon at the end of bakes saw Vicky’s weight creep up – while husband Andrew, who makes Jaffa Cakes at the McVities factory in Stockport, would regularly bring sweet treats home.
Vicky said: “I’d overbake a few cupcakes and eat them – it is hard having cakes and chocolates around you all day and licking your fingers, it’s difficult because you just don’t think what you’re eating! It’s all about changing your mindset. You can easily eat an extra 1,000 calories a day without thinking about it.”
With Vicky’s 40th birthday approaching, she finally decided she had to tackle her weight.
“I was about to turn 40, but I’d not got one picture of me with my children because I hated the way I looked, I wanted to get healthy and enjoy my kids, I felt like I couldn’t do anything with them,” she said.
“After two pregnancies I’d just got lethargic. Because I was turning 40, my sister put me into a competition and I won a month to do personal training at Lean Body PT.
“I was out of breath after two minutes, but I stuck with it, and working out with a group of all women was incredibly supportive.”
The next thing was for Vicky to tackle her bad eating habits.
Before starting her cake business Vicky had worked in the NHS and had got into the habit of starving herself all day at work and living off Diet Cokes – then binging on a big takeaway every night when she got home. Now she eats five small meals throughout the day to keep her energy stable and not feel hungry.
“I’m eating instead of starving myself all day, I’m actually eating through the day,” she said.
“Before, I wouldn’t eat anything all day, I would be absolutely starving, picking at the children’s meals, and then I’d live off a takeaway. It would be a different one every night, chips, McDonalds, Chinese, there wasn’t a limit to what I’d eat. Now I have five small meals a day – two eggs in the morning, protein shake and banana, lean turkey mince with vegetables, tuna wrap and salad, and stir fry with mincemeat and I’m never hungry.”