Health fears leads to mum losing half of bodyweight
23ST WAS TIPPING POINT FOR CHANGE
AN INSPIRATIONAL mum-oftwo has lost more than half her body weight after a health scare.
Claire Dewsbury, from Loftus, was 23st 6lbs at her heaviest in 2018 when she realised she needed to do something about her lifestyle. The 48-year-old was diagnosed as pre-diabetic and was suffering with “really bad” asthma when she decided to make the change.
As a busy single mum, Claire ate for convenience and enjoyed weekly takeaways, frozen convenience food and snacked on crisps and chocolate. Four years on, she has now lost an incredible 12st 6lbs – more than half of her body weight – and has dropped a whopping 10 dress sizes.
On the motivation for her transformation, the mum-of-two said: “My little boy was three years old and I was seriously overweight. I had really bad asthma at the time and I’d been diagnosed as being pre-diabetic.
“I knew I needed to do something for [the children], to start with, so I was around longer. Obviouslym being a single parent I was worried I wasn’t going to be there and I needed to do something about my weight to extend my life and make it better for them.”
Desperate to be around to see son Jack, eight, and daughter Hannah, 20, grow up, Claire decided to join a local Slimming World group after speaking with a neighbour who had also recently joined. She lost a stone within the first two weeks of joining the group, which she credited with giving her the motivation to carry on, saying: “You think, well I did that and I can do that again.”
Life as a busy single mum had left the Loftus woman reaching for quick meals such as frozen burgers and snacks such as crisps and chocolate on the go, but she soon found herself struggling to walk up the stairs which left her out of breath and tired.
Now she says she is fitter than ever and goes to the gym regularly, she even enjoys races with eight-year-old Jack, something she couldn’t do before her weight loss.
“I’m a different person. I’m fitter now than I was in my twenties,” said the 48-year-old.
“I couldn’t even go up stairs. I mean, I did but I used to be quite breathless.”
Although Claire’s life has changed dramatically, she still enjoys treats such as chocolate occasionally. She says she just “does it differently” now.
Claire now enjoys a “colourful” healthy diet full of vegetables, meat and fruit instead of the beige frozen food she used to eat, which has helped her drop from a size 28 to a size 10/12.
While the mum admitted it hasn’t always been easy, she credits her friends at the former Loftus and Saltburn Slimming
World groups for keeping her going.
On the days she was struggling she looked to her weight loss community on social media for moral support and would look at old photographs of herself and remember how far she has come.
Claire explained: “I wasn’t going anywhere. I wouldn’t go out the house. I was embarrassed, I was ashamed. So I wasn’t going out or burning any calories because I was at home all the time. So it wasn’t a very good time during that part of my life.” She said that for a long time she struggling to celebrate her amazing lifestyle change and dramatic weight loss, even after winning a Slimming World award for losing over half of her body weight.
The mum said the stigma of “having that amount to lose” plagued her, but now she feels as though it is something to celebrate.
The 48-year-old is now looking to help other people in her situation after her lifechanging transformation. Claire is currently training to be a Slimming World consultant herself where she will support and coach others through their own weightloss journey, re-opening the group she initially joined in Loftus.
Hoping to inspire others thinking about joining her group, she said: “It can be done. You can change your life by eating right and exercising. I go to the gym a lot. I tend to go on a morning for an hour or two.
“I just combined diet and exercise together and the results have showed. It makes you feel good about yourself as well. I want people to feel like I do. They can do it. It’s hard work, but it’s achievable.”
Claire’s first Slimming World group will be held at Luke Senior Hall in Loftus on Wednesday, November 2 at 7pm.