Slim Jim loses 12 stone and halts diabetes
A MAN has transformed his health after losing 12 stone and reversing his type two diabetes.
Jim Lindley, 78, had been prediabetic for a number of years and had been putting off losing any weight until he was chatting to a friend.
In a chance turn of events while the pensioner was out, a woman overheard, turned to him and said “church hall, Tuesday night, bring money and don’t be late”.
The stranger gave Jim, from Bridgend, the motivation he needed to lose the weight he had gained while caring for his wife for a number of years.
Jim, being a curious person, turned up to the meeting not really knowing what to expect as he had never heard of Slimming World.
Weighing 28 stone and a pound at the start of his journey in 2013, it took him a year after his wife died to feel ready to lose the weight, and until lockdown 2020 to hit his target of 16 stone.
Over the years that followed, Jim followed the Slimming World plan where he lost 12 stone and one pound.
He said: “I found it quite beneficial, everyone else’s positivity was addictive, you all motivated each other.
“I was a diabetic before I started the plan, slowly but surely with my doctors I started to lower the tablets I was taking and I have now completely reversed the diabetes. It’s taken a long time to get here, but it feels tremendous.”
Jim said it wasn’t really what he was eating that led to his weight gain but how much and how it was cooked.
He no longer eats bread or has sweet treats and has really improved the way he prepares food and learnt to correctly portion his meals.
Even now he still attends the group twice a week.
He said: “I still go to group because it keeps me out of the chip shop.
“You might put on a pound here and there, but it’s about maintaining your weight because I never want to go back to what I was.”
Since his transformation Jim has donated bags full of clothes that no longer fit him and has even gone down two shoe sizes since his dramatic weight loss.
He added sometimes the hardest thing to do is to walk through the Slimming World door, but that you won’t regret it.
Jim attends Anne-Marie Lloyd’s Slimming World group at Westward Community Centre, Cefn Glas, Bridgend, on Tuesday at 5.30pm and Wednesday at 6.30pm.