Mum cuts her NINE sugars in a cuppa habit – and loses five stones
NOW she admits it was ‘insane’, but Melissa Tolan regularly used to have NINE SUGARS in her cups of tea.
And it wasn’t unusual for her to gorge on entire packets of biscuits, McDonald’s breakfasts and enormous bowls of pasta.
But ditching her junk food addiction and sweet-toothed ways – and dancing round the living room with her four-year-old son Hudson – has helped her lose an incredible five stone in less than a year.
Melissa, 22, from Shaw, started piling on the pounds after giving birth to Hudson in 2014.
And soon she crept up to a size 20 and weighed 16-and-a-half stone.
Unhappy and unhealthy, she tried several fad diets including meal replacement plans, but Melissa finally reached breaking point after watching the BBC Three programme Obesity: The Post-Mortem.
The documentary followed a specialist pathology team as they conducted a post-mortem on the body of a 17-stone woman in a bid to reveal just how dangerous too much fat is to our vital organs.
It shocked Melissa so much that she threw herself into learning about exercise and nutrition, throwing out all of the fatty snacks and junk food from her house in the process.
In just two months, Melissa – an accounts assistant for a housing association – lost a stone.
And that gave her the motivation to continue transforming her lifestyle.
Now Melissa works out six days a week and weighs a healthy 11-anda-half stone.
And she says never felt better.
She said: “Watching the programme on obesity really shook me to my core.
“It was physically seeing the reality of what I could be doing to my organs that kicked me into action.
“I started off slow at first – instead of eating a whole packet of biscuits I’d just have one or two and I swapped out my insane nine sugars in a she’s cup of tea for a couple of sweeteners instead.
“But once I started seeing the results I was hooked. I educated myself about fitness and started working out more.
“Taking control of my health and fitness has given me a new lease of life,” said Melissa.