Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
I’m not sofat now..
Snap of obese dad taking up settee made him lose half his weight
AS couch potatoes go, Tony Howland was certainly one of the biggest…
But the 30-stone dad shed half his body weight after seeing a picture of himself barely fitting on to a two-man sofa.
Wife Karen, 41, took the embarrassing snap in a bid to shame her husband into going on a diet.
And after cutting out the junk food he used to gorge on, the 43-year-old care home manager now weighs in at a healthier 15 stone.
Tony said of the photo: “That was a moment of realisation without a shadow of a doubt.
“It was taken by my wife to show how big I had got.
“That’s why I don’t look particularly happy in the photo. I was forever breaking chairs.
“Seeing that picture, I realised my family were the most important thing to me and I wanted to see their future. I knew I couldn’t do that at 30 stone.”
Tony’s weight rose dramatically when he began eating huge takeaway meals.
He added: “Whether it was a roast dinner, a portion of chips or Mcdonald’s, it was pure volume and I wasn’t even paying any attention to what kind of food it was.
“I would easily get through five double cheeseburgers.”
Tony soon became so large that he gave up flying abroad on holiday because the seats were so uncomfortable.
So he eventually joined a No breakfast 5 cheeseburgers 6 crisp packets, cakes Fried rice, chicken balls, chilli beef, pork rolls Pizza, pack of biscuits, chocolate bar
Coke or lemonade Slimming World group near his home in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, in a bid to lose the weight.
And after two years of committed dieting and exercise he achieved his goal of going from a 58in waist to 34.
Last year, he managed to climb Mount Snowdon in North Wales with 12-year-old son Ben and boarded a plane for the first time in years. Tony said: “It was an absolutely amazing feeling to click that seatbelt and be able to sit down.
“There was a real sense of achievement.
“I started by walking to our local Tesco Express, about a half-mile round trip. Then I increased it up to a mile then further and further. The more I lost, the easier it became and the more I did it. Now I can walk 21 miles.”
Following his slimming success, Tony has set up a Facebook support group called Onwards and Downwards – The Big Guy.
He said he launched the project to help others with “the psychological journey of weight loss”.