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A mum-of-two who ballooned to 21 stone while gorging on takeaways and booze has shed almost half her bodyweight in a year after fearing she would end up bed-bound.
Carer Claire Friend, of Canterbury village Westbere, decided to ditch the junk food and alcohol last July - and in just 12 months has lost close to 10 stone.
The 44-year-old, whose BMI had risen to more than 50, opted to start shedding the weight after finding herself unable to get to her feet when she fell over in her back garden.
“I couldn’t lift myself off the ground,” Ms Friend remembered.
“Having my daughters help me get up got me thinking, 'if I don’t do something now then I’m going to be bed-bound and have them looking after me'.
“That was a bit of a wake-up call for me because I didn’t want that for them or myself.
“Something just clicked in my head and the next day I threw out everything in the house that was bad, like the crisps and jars of pre-made sauces.”
The self-confessed crisp addict would finish a sharing bag of the potato snacks after polishing off one of her twice-weekly takeaways.
Ms Friend, who is 5ft 4ins tall and cares full-time for one of her daughters, says before she went to bed she would regularly think: “Am I going to wake up? And if I don’t, who’s going to look after my daughters?’
Her parents often commented on how she would struggle to walk and be out of breath easily.
“I felt 20 years older than I was,” Ms Friend continued.
“I’ve always been big since I was a teenager. It made me withdrawn.
“I’m quite a sociable person, but if I was out for an evening with friends, I’d always be hidden in the corner not wanting to talk to anyone.”
The singleton started following the Slimming World weightloss plan immediately after her fall last summer, and began attending group meetings when they restarted the following month.
She no longer orders in meals, and instead makes her dinners from scratch.
She has also drastically cut down on her drinking, only indulging in a tipple when she meets friends.
“Getting the support and the encouragement from the rest of the Slimming World group really helped me,” she added.
“I’m not the one sitting in the corner any more. I’ve replaced my crisps addiction with a clothes addiction.
“I feel so much more confident. I feel like my life’s begun now.”
The keen dieter now weighs just under 11-and-a-half stone and is hoping to get down to 10 stone before Christmas.
Diet before and after
Before Claire Friend decided to lose weight, she would drink between up to seven Jack Daniels and Cokes every evening.
Her dinners consisted of a “huge” plate of pasta or rice served with meat and shop-bought jars of sauce, or “dishes laden with cream”.
She skipped breakfasts, and would heat up a ready meal or Pot Noodle at lunch.
But now she has grilled meat or fish, with salads or vegetables, at the end of the day and a bowl of Weetabix in the morning.
For lunch, she has tuna or lean ham salad sandwiches.
