Roly-poly rivals
Ania Knapek, 25, from Ramsgate, wanted the scales to confirm that she weighed less than her fella...
A wedding? All eyes on me..? The thought just made me cringe!
arm-in-arm, me and my boyfriend Callum, 25, were strolling around the romantically named Lake of Love in Bruges, Belgium.
‘Perfect for our anniversary,’ I smiled at Callum.
It was March 2016 – and to celebrate five years together, we’d flown out to Belgium.
Suddenly, Callum began rummaging in his jacket pocket and pulled out a box containing a diamond ring.
‘Would you be my wife?’ he asked.
I panicked. We had talked about getting married and I did want to...
But not now – I wasn’t ready.
‘Say something!’ Callum said as my mouth opened and closed in shock.
‘Yes,’ I gasped.
Don’t get me wrong, I did want to spend my life with Callum. No doubt about that. But a wedding?
That would mean a dress, all eyes on me, photos…the thought just made me cringe!
So when Callum mentioned booking a wedding venue once we’d got home... ‘No!’ I finally stopped him. ‘I have to lose weight first.’ At only 5ft 3in tall, I wore whopping size-22 clothes.
I’d no idea what I weighed... but growing up in a family who loved food, I’d always been big.
I hated it, though, felt too self-conscious to do anything active and would die rather than go near a bikini!
I had tried to lose weight, but my love of takeaways and chocolate, plus living at home – with my mum Krystyna’s big portions – had got in the way.
Now I hated the idea of being a big bride.
‘Whatever makes you happy,’ Callum told me supportively.
With wedding plans on ice, in June 2016, I went to a Slimming World group.
I discovered I weighed 18st 13lb.
I was stunned – but didn’t cry. I told the consultant that I wanted to be a size-12 and set a target weight of 11st 13lb.
At home, Mum was great. She stopped buying chocolate and cakes, and I cooked Slimming World recipes.
Instead of having a bacon sarnie for breakfast, I made oats with berries.
For lunch, I’d swap my usual cheese slice with crumbly pastry for a chicken salad or jacket potato.
And I stopped having the takeaways me and Callum used to eat for dinner and started making healthy, lowfat classics like shepherd’s pie.
In the first month, I lost a massive 1½st – amazing!
And the pounds just kept falling off me.
Mum was so excited that, every week after my weigh-in, she’d phone the family to tell them how much I’d lost. I didn’t mind, it spurred me on!
And Callum was interested in the new me, too.
One morning, after he’d
I felt like a different girl to the one posing with thighs chafing
stayed over, Callum saw me tucking into my oats.
‘They look nice,’ he said. ‘Can I try them?’
He had a mouthful and was pleasantly surprised.
And, after that, he started having whatever I’d made myself for breakfast.
Also, because I wasn’t having takeaways any more, he was eating whatever I cooked in the evening, too.
‘My clothes are feeling a bit baggy,’ he told me after a couple of months.
At 5ft 10in, he’d been quite a chunky monkey himself, weighing 17½st.
Now my diet was helping him slim down, too!
Though he didn’t come to the Slimming World group with me, he started learning some of the recipes.
Well, to be honest, just two of them really!
It became a running joke... As I tried all these amazing new meals, all he could whip up was the Slimming World steak or chicken, both served with wedges and veg. Still, at least he was trying. And, when I joined a gym, he started coming along, too.
By February last year, I’d managed to get down to about 14st, and Callum was down to about 13½st.
That’s when the real competition began...
‘I’ve always wanted to weigh less than you do!’ I told him adamantly. ‘And now I’m definitely going to do it!’ ‘No chance!’ he laughed. Determined, I started to go running with my sister, and Callum would also run by himself.
Any time I felt my willpower begin to weaken, I’d just remind myself that me and Callum were in competition.
And, by June last year, I’d reached my target of 11st 13lb – thrashing Callum, who weighed around 13st.
But I was still bigger than I wanted, so I kept dieting.
As more weight came off, I found myself looking at Callum’s proposal photos.
‘I really do wish that I wasn’t so fat in them,’ I sighed. So this March, Callum took me back to the same spot, to recreate them.
Weighing 10st 3lb, as I stood by the Lake of Love in my denim shorts I felt like a different person to the girl who’d posed there, thighs chafing, two years before! By April, I was just 9st 13lb and Callum was 11st 5lb.
So we’ve finally booked St Ethelbert’s Church for our wedding in August 2021.
In the meantime, I make the most of my 9st weight loss by buying lots of tight size-10 dresses and little tops.
Sometimes I have to pinch myself that I do now actually weigh less than Callum.
My weight loss has given me so much confidence. I even tried scuba diving on our last holiday and was proud to wear a bikini!
Callum looks great, too, after losing over 5st and going from a size XL to a S, and from a 40in waist to a 32.
We loved each other before, now we love each other more for what we’ve achieved.
Seems that our weight-loss competition really did put the ‘ healthy’ into ‘ healthy rivalry’!