Emma loses 10 stones in a year
Tragic death of cousin, then a pal, sent 38-year-old on search for ‘the new me’
A Rutherglen woman is celebrating an incredible weight loss - and she’s hoping to encourage others to follow suit.
Emma Jane Harkins, who stays at Prince’s Gate, has shed 10 stone over the past year.
The 38 year old thought she would always be overweight, but is now feeling good about herself after changing her lifestyle.
She was helped by the Cambridge diet plan, which is a very low calorie diet.
She said: “If I can manage to lose weight then anyone can.
“I’ve been overweight my whole life - I was a fat baby, a fat child and a fat teenager.
“After a while everything becomes a challenge, even things like going on the bus, because you start worrying about what people think.”
It took several different events to provoke Emma into trying to lose weight.
She recalled: “My cousin died of cancer and my friend passed away from cancer too.
“To raise money for charity I got all my hair chopped off and someone made a joke about it being a new me, and I started to think about losing weight.
“My friend had tried Cambridge years ago and I was so against it, but I decided to try it.
“I was going on holiday to Turkey and was thinking I didn’t want to go away on holiday looking like I did, so my first target was just to work towards that holiday, and then take it from there.”
Emma, who works at a stockbrokers in Glasgow, worked with a local weight loss consultant, Michael Craigen, to help shed the stones.
Since Christmas she’s started to notice more of a difference, and she’s now down to 11 stone.
She said: “When you’re that big you need to lose a lot of weight before people notice so although I started in July last year it wasn’t until after Christmas that things really changed - then it was bam, bam, bam!
“A couple of family members have actually walked by me in the street without recognising me, and one of the girls at my work came back from maternity leave and said she only recognised me by the sound of my voice.
“The most important thing is I’m a lot more comfortable in my own skin and I’m going to try different things now. I’ve been rock climbing and I’ve gone cycling - I hadn’t been on a bike for years before then. It’s made a difference.
I have been overweight my whole life. I was a fat baby, a fat child and a fat teenager.