Sarah-Jane Clark started the online weight loss support group ‘Step by Step with Sarah-Jane’ in lockdown after she started sharing exercise and nutrition tips on social media.
She describes herself as a food addict and at one point weighed nearly 22 stone, before coming to terms with her addiction and making a decision that would change her life forever.
Sarah-Jane said: “When my GP told me I wouldn’t live to be 40 if I didn’t make a change, that was a massive wake-up call.
“That day something inside of me changed, and I started going for half-hour walks at night and stopped living on processed foods and microwave meals.”
Sarah-Jane credits her remarkable weight loss to finally acknowledging the harmful effects that her secret binge-eating was having on her body.
“I was in an emotionally abusive relationship, and whenever my partner would leave for work I would just eat, I couldn’t control it. I remember asking people if I could be addicted to food and was told that couldn’t be true, and that I just needed to get out and exercise, which made me feel worthless.”
“I got so big that I couldn’t fit in a plane seat, and once when I went to watch Swindon Town I got stuck in the turnstile. People would point and stare.”
However, the gradual changes Sarah-Jane made after speaking with her GP set her on the track to initially losing over 6 stone alongside giving birth twice, although this came with another realisation.
“I thought once I started losing weight I’d be happier, but after losing 6.5 stone I didn’t feel any happier and couldn’t understand why.
“I left my relationship and started reading self-help books and going to the gym, which petrified me at first but I fell in love with it.”
Sarah-Jane stresses that gradual weight loss is the key to sustaining healthy lifestyle choices: “Any time I tried to go on a diet it never worked as it meant a food-obsessed girl was just thinking about food all the time. It’s not sustainable to just count calories your whole life.”
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Swindon woman who lost 12 stone hopes to inspire others | Swindon Advertiser