Before Atkins, I binged on lots of sugary foods… I was totally addicted to sugary and starchy foods. In a typical day, I would eat maple syrup pancakes for breakfast, something like soup or tinned convenience foods with lots of bread for lunch and for evening meal, a huge plate of pasta, rice or potatoes with hardly any veg!!! In between, lots of biscuits and chocolate would also go down. My weight at it’s highest was 15st 7lbs and I was a size 20/22 in tops (liked them big to hide my bulges!) and size 18 trousers. I hated the way I looked and I used to get terrible headaches especially after lunch and awful aches and pains in my joints… I didn’t realise this was due to the strain my body was under carrying all that excess weight around!The first two days I started on the induction phase, I did feel very unwell with bad headaches and flu-like symptoms, but once these passed, my energy levels shot up and I did feel a lot better. I did get a few cravings still for about three weeks in total and during the second week, was questioning if I was cut out for this eating plan (due to sugar withdrawal) but in the first two weeks I lost just under a stone and the changes in my body shape really encouraged me to persevere and stick at it.

Within two months, I had gone down to a size 16 in bottoms and within another couple of months, a size 14…. it was quite a thing to get my head around going into a store and having to go down a size… this sort of thing had never happened to me before! Within 15 months, I had lost 5 stone.. my original goal weight was 10 stone, but, I actually went down to this due to an illness and soon realised that my body was happier at 10 st 7lbs. I’m now a size 12 in both top and bottoms and for the first time in my life this year (after sticking to my New Years resolution of exercising and getting a flatter stomach) I wore the bikini on holiday! My skin is much clearer, I no longer wheeze with asthma or have any joint pain and rarely get headaches these days. My cholesterol was checked back in 2010 for something and it was 4.8. In 2011, my doctor tested me again and found my cholesterol had gone down to 4.1. He is all for the Atkins nutritional approach and told me to keep doing what I’m doing and told me he wishes more of his patients would see sense and do what we have both done.

In May this year, the Atkins UK people invited me to go to the Primary Health Care show in Birmingham NEC to speak to health care professionals about my personal weight loss experience and it was amazing! I think between us, we managed to convince quite a few people to look into Atkins and many were absolutely amazed when they saw my before picture and then saw me in person.. a lot of people didn’t recognise me! I get so many compliments now from my customers too about how great I look now and lots of them ask me how I did it and I’ve given a few some info and the Atkins UK website address so they can get lots of info and advice.

I now make my own desserts… I have a sweet tooth so occasionally, I like to make a low carb cake or some cheesecakes and they taste delicious… love trying out new recipes.

Many people ask me, have you come off your diet now, but I simply tell them, it isn’t a diet (I’ve never been a fan of quick fix fad diets), it’s a way of life and I’ll be following it for good 🙂