Half the woman she was! South Tyneside slimmer sheds more than 11 stone

Super slimmer Alison Berry was shocked into her dramatic weight loss just over a year ago when she realised she was too big to look after her own grandson.

After years of fad dieting, the 57-year-old from Canning Street in Hebburn, decided to take the plunge and join the Hebburn Slimming World group at Hedley Hall in October 2014 in the hope of losing the weight once and for all.

At her heaviest, the mum-of-three weighed in at just over 22 stone and was a size 32 to 34.

By March this year, she had lost an amazing 11st 5.5lbs and reached her target weight.

She is now half the size she used to be at just 10st 8lb and is a healthy dress size 12 to 14.

“It’s not just the weight you lose, it’s the life you gain back,” she said.
“Things that I would have hesitated to do before when I was overweight, I just do without thinking now.

“My grandson Joseph was the reason what I started on the journey.

“I was seriously ill in January 2014- my blood pressure had hit the roof and I had just given up. I didn’t care because I was so ill and was comfort eating.
“But when Joseph was born and my daughter-in-law Abby wanted to go back to work 10 months later, she asked if I could look after him.

“I was over the moon, but the reality was that I was so out of shape that I couldn’t even bend down to cut my toenails, let alone look after him.
“So Abby suggested Slimming World and the changes I’ve made were so simple that I barely noticed them.”
Before her weight loss Alison would skip breakfast, have pasties for lunch, and meals like mince and dumpings followed by a dessert, snacking on crisps and family-sized bars of chocolate throughout the day.

Now a typical day would see her have fruit for breakfast, soup for lunch, and lasagne for dinner, snacking ion melon between meals.

Earlier this month Alison’s success was recognised when she was chosen as one of just 10 women, out of 900,000 members, to make the finals of Slimming World’s Woman of the Year 2016 competition.

Although she wasn’t crowned winner at the final she said he was delighted her story was seen as inspirational.

She added: “Slimming World has completely changed my life.”