‘You put on weight, you look bad, you feel bad, so you eat more for comfort. It is a vicious circle’
A man has lost more than 21 stone in just 19 months after deciding to turn his life around. Jon Parry, 53, said he was big since childhood, but his real problems began when he hit his mid-forties.
At his heaviest, Jon weighed 45 stone. But he decided to lose weight for good and joined Slimming World, noticing many health benefits as he began to shed the pounds.
Impressively, Jon lost the first 16 stone in just 72 weeks. He said he has also started going to the gym, and credits Slimming World for motivating him to battle through the hardest and most demotivating weeks.
Jon began attending a Slimming World meeting, led by Debbie in Brigg, around 18 months ago and “something just clicked” this time. “Like most dieters, I was a bit of a serial dieter,” Jon said. “You start, you stop.”
Jon said: “I have been big all my life really, since I was a child. But it was probably when I hit my 40s when a lot of men hit middle-age spread, I really spread.
“I ended up putting a lot of weight on. And, of course, it is a bit of a spiralling thing. You put on weight, you look bad, you feel bad, so you eat more for comfort. It is a vicious circle.”
But Jon, from Wrawby, near Brigg, said he had finally broken the circle, with the help of peer support. He said: “It is really positive when you have a bad week, because that is one of the worst things when you have a bad week. It can knock you back, but everyone is like, ‘No keep going!’
Jon said his diet before was “very big portions” and he used to order a takeaway twice a week. He said he ate fried foods, pastries, desserts, and chocolate.
But he has found his new, long-term diet fairly easy to stick to. He said he often eats the own-brand Slimming World meals which he finds helpful.
Jon added: “On Slimming World, you can eat as much pasta and potatoes as you want, which is good because that fills you up. As long as you don’t put crazy sauces on them.
“I eat a lot of fruit and veg, oily fish, salmon, that sort of thing. I get regular exercise and I have cut my portions down, which is important as well.”
Jon said when you start out, it can be daunting. But the trick is to just keep going, even if you find the initial weeks very hard.
He said: “Once you get used to it, it is amazing. Two or three weeks and your body adapts and realises it is not going to get the stuff it was craving. If you can just get to that sort of two-week hop, it becomes a lot easier.”
Jon added: “I have got loads more energy. I can walk miles and miles, I regularly do 15,000 steps a day now and I feel great.”