Claire has her cake… and loses 11½st

A mum who bakes celebration cakes for her friends and family is celebrating winning a national slimming title after losing more than half of her body weight to be more active with her children.

Claire Alsop, 31, from Rotherham in South Yorkshire, slimmed down from 21st 9lb to a svelte 10st 1½lb after joining her local Slimming World group despite being surrounded by temptation in the form of her homemade cakes. Now she’s been named Slimming World’s Woman of the Year 2012.

The married mum-of-two says going along to the slimming club in January 2011 was a last-ditch attempt at weight loss before going to her doctor to ask for ‘something more serious’. She says: “I was having severe health problems and I wasn’t even 30. I couldn’t stand up to make my cakes for more than 10 minutes before my back ached and I’d need to sit down. I started thinking about my 40th birthday and wondering how big I’d be then, would I be 35st or even more? I thought ‘Am I going to see my kids grow up? Will I ever meet my grandkids?’ and I knew I had to do something.”

Claire had struggled with her weight all her life, but ballooned in size after having her children Noah, six, and four-year-old Ruby. She tried other diets but would end up going to bed early to try to stave off her hunger, and meal replacement plans left her obsessing over food and unable to carry on. She says: “Nothing worked for me when it came to losing weight and I just thought being bigger was how I was supposed to be. Then my friend found a Slimming World group in our village and I’d never tried Slimming World before so I thought I’d give it a go. It was my last chance before I went to the doctors to ask for something more serious.”

FACT FILE
Name: Claire Alsop
Age: 31
Weight loss: 11st 7½lb/161½lb/73kg
Weight before: 21st 9lb/303lb/137kg
Weight after: 10st 1½lb/141½lb/64kg
Dress size before 26/28
Dress size now: 10/12
Height: 5ft 7in/1.7m
Joining date: 5/01/2011
Group: Claire attends the Brinsworth Slimming World group in Rotherham, which is held every Wednesday at Brinsworth Whitehill Primary School at 5pm and 7pm and run by Joanne Fawdry.

Diet before
Breakfast: nothing
Mid-morning snack: if anything chocolate bar, biscuit or crisps
Lunch: cheese and onion sandwich on four large slices of white bread. Followed by crisps and chocolate
Mid-afternoon snack: cake or homemade cookies
Dinner: burger and chips or garlic bread with cheese
Evening snacks: Jaffa cakes, chocolates, crisps and ice cream.

Diet now
Breakfast: Ryvita with light cheese triangles and a bowl of strawberries
Mid-morning: celery sticks and a fat free yogurt
Lunch: chicken breast or gammon cooked in the slow cooker with a large crunchy salad
Mid-afternoon: a banana or some grapes
Dinner: cod fish cakes with salad or a hearty cottage pie with lots of vegetables and gravy
Evening: light chocolate mousse, peanut Hifi (high-fibre) cereal bars, Rowntree’s Fruit Pastille ice lolly or Cadbury’s Freddo bar.


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