MIKE BREAKS HABIT TO SHED STONES
WHEN Mike Workman was on holiday in Turkey last year, he felt like everyone was looking at him. The 33-year-old from Maesteg had always struggled with his weight, but last May he was the biggest he had ever been.
“I just felt very self-conscious, like all eyes on me, for the wrong reasons. I was struggling to walk because of the heat, I just felt generally uncomfortable with myself,” Mike explained.
He recognised that he had to do something about the anxiety he was experiencing, and decided that he would join Slimming World as soon as he got home.
In 2020, Mike lost both his grandparents within months of one another. He explained he had a very close relationship with them both, and turned to emotional eating to cope. As he works as a carer, Mike spends a lot of his time each day in his car and would pop into shops when he was out for his meals, often opting for high calorie and sugary snacks to keep him going. It was a bad habit he was desperate to break.
The first time Mike visited the Slimming World group he weighed 22 stone and 6½ lbs. When he showed up again a week later, he had dropped 8lbs, and he couldn’t believe how easy it was.
“My meals were already OK, but it was the in between that was bad,” he said.
The key to Mike’s weight loss has been preparing for those long work days where he has little time to stop. He often cooks his meal for the evening the night before so he can avoid those quick takeaway and snack options that led to him piling on the pounds.
Less than 12 months after first joining Slimming World, Mike has lost eight and a half stone, and is now at his healthy target weight of 13st 13lb. He has enjoyed his journey so much he has now decided to open his own Slimming World group in the
Afan Valley. Mike’s husband,
James, has also been doing Slimming World with him and has lost 3st 4lb.
Mike added that anyone who wants to lose weight and is considering more drastic options like weight loss surgery and weight loss injections should give it “one last go”, and join a Slimming World group.