Unhappy about my weight, I hid behind humour – till my wedding dress threatened to expose me. By Jane Carter, 65
As one of my daughters pulled my size 26 wedding dress together, the other strained to pull up the zip.
Suddenly, a horrifying image popped into my head.
My champagne and gold frock had split open, leaving me exposed in front of my wedding guests!
Turning to my girls, Emma, 34, and Amy, 32, I pleaded with tears in my eyes, ‘Just do it up, please.’
They did and, thankfully, my dress stayed intact as I married my long-term love Don. But I could barely breathe all day.
It was no secret why I was overweight.
I’d adored food all my life and was known as the fat kid at school. I was deeply unhappy about my size but dealt with it – and the bullies – by becoming the class comedian.
In my late teens, I went on my first diet and by the time I’d started nurse training, I was slim.
Only, it didn’t last and, once I started working shifts at a busy hospital, it was easier to grab a couple of doughnuts than to eat a healthy meal.
By the time I’d married my first husband and had my daughters, money was tight and the cash I had went on the kids, while I lived on chips and sugary treats.
The next few years passed by in an endless cycle of yo-yo diets and I ended up getting bigger and bigger.
By my early 40s, I tipped the scale at 20 stone, much too big for my 5ft 3in frame.
My weakness was chocolate, biscuits and crisps.
‘I don’t know how you can be with me,’ I’d say to Don.
‘I love you for you,’ he’d tell me. ‘I don’t see the outside, only the inside.’
But at 50, after suffering from breathlessness, I got a terrible shock.
I was diagnosed with diabetes.
The doctor said it meant
I was at risk of a heart
attack or stroke.
My weight wasn’t doing me any favours and I thought, I’ve got to do something.
But I didn’t.
Instead, as my medication controlled the symptoms, I ignored the problem.
It wasn’t until my wedding day, on my 56th birthday, when I struggled to fit into my dress that I thought, Enough’s enough!
Over the years, I’d dabbled with the idea of joining Slimming World.
Now, I decided to pluck up the courage to do it.
Walking through the doors, I was made to feel so welcome and, as the consultant explained the plan and the food I could still enjoy, I was astonished.
Back at home in Colchester, Essex, I swapped my sugary breakfasts for fruit and yogurt, while lunch was jacket potato with a big salad.
For dinner, I’d make a slow-cooked pot roast with a rainbow of veggies.
Over the following 18 months, I lost four stone and in the next few years, I shed five more.
I hit the scales at 9st 3lb – more than half my previous weight – and was able to fit into a size 8.
Recently, I got incredible news from the doctor. Thanks to losing weight, I’d reversed my diabetes and my arthritis had improved too.
It’s given me the confidence to wear a swimsuit for the first time in ages and I’ve taken up exhilarating cold-water sea swims with the Bluetits group.
My mental health is so much better and I’ve made new friends.
I’m so grateful for my new lease of life and it was all thanks to that wedding dress!
DIET BEFORE
Breakfast: jam or golden syrup on toast
Lunch: sandwich, crisps, chocolate bar and pastries
Dinner: stew with dumplings, veg and chips
Snacks: crisps and biscuits
DIET AFTER
Breakfast: fruit and yogurt
or porridge
Lunch: jacket potato and salad
Dinner: slow-cooked pot roast with veggies
Snacks: fruit or yogurt