Zelda lost 20st so her boys wouldn’t lose their mum!
At 35½st Zelda Haxby worried her weight would cut her life short and leave her two sons motherless. Now she’s lost more than half her body weight to win the title of Slimming World’s Greatest Loser 2011.
Despite her increasing ill health, the York mum says it was fears for her children’s future rather than her own that spurred her into action after a short spell in hospital. She says: “I hated being away from my two boys and I realised that if I didn’t lose some weight I might leave them without their mother forever.
“At my biggest I wasn’t living, I was existing. I struggled to walk or stand for long, and I was hugely embarrassed about my weight so I didn’t leave the house unless I absolutely had to. When I did, people would laugh and shout things at me – you take a lot of stick when you’re that big.”
Zelda says she’s always been a “big girl,” she wore a size 16 at school. She says: “It wasn’t that I didn’t try to lose weight, I was always on a diet and spent a fortune on diet books and exercise videos. They’d work for a little bit but they were always so restrictive that I couldn’t keep them up, so my weight always went up and down.”
By the time she had her first son Liam, now 19, she was 19st and her weight continued to rise after having James, now 15. “Being at home with my children it was easy to snack and pick at their food. Crisps were my real weakness and I’d eat as many as 15 packets a day, even in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep. I never really realised how much weight I was putting on, but before I knew it I was a size 36 and couldn’t find anything to wear.”
After her spell in hospital, Zelda tried to lose weight alone but failed miserably. She says: “I was offered tablets and a gastric bypass, but the risks and side-effects were too terrifying to even contemplate. Then in April 2006 my friend, who was a Slimming World member, left a copy of Slimming World magazine at my house. She was getting married and knew if I didn’t lose weight I wouldn’t go. I read one of the stories and it was like I was reading about myself. I asked her to take me along.
“I was so terrified that first time. I sat outside in the car shaking, scared the scales wouldn’t be able to weigh me. But the Consultant came out to the car to introduce herself, she was so kind and friendly and reassured me that I didn’t have to get weighed in front of everyone.”
With the help of Slimming World, Zelda transformed her family’s eating habits. Out went the takeaways and endless bags of crisps and in came lots of healthy, home-cooked meals like roast dinners loaded with vegetables and pasta and rice dishes. She says: “I couldn’t believe how much you could eat and still lose weight. My sons love pasta and vegetables in a tomato sauce, it’s so easy to throw together and I always make extra for lunch the next day. Best of all, I didn’t have to give up my crisps and could still have a bag with lunch.”
Zelda was more than 12st lighter by the time of her friend’s wedding in September 2007 and now she’s lost a whopping 20st, dropping from 35st 7lbs to 15st 7lbs and from a dress size 36 to a 14-16 – and she’s still losing weight healthily. She says: “If someone had told me it would take five years to lose weight, it would have seemed too difficult and I’d never have believed I could do it. But it’s just a matter of taking every day at a time. I couldn’t have stayed committed without the support of my Consultant and other members at my Slimming World group though, as well as from other close friends and family. I don’t even have to think about it too much now. I’m not on a diet, I’ve just got a new way of eating and a new way of life. I look at photos of myself and wonder how on earth I got like that, but that was then and this is now.
“I don’t have to hide away anymore and I hope, by sharing my story, I can show people that you can lose weight and change your life even when you feel like it’s impossible. My next goal is to start swimming again. I used to really enjoy swimming years ago but when I got bigger I didn’t have the confidence to wear a costume. I know I’ll get back in the pool one day and recently I’ve found myself looking at costumes so maybe that day isn’t too far away!”
DIET BEFORE
Breakfast: White toast with butter
Mid-morning: Bacon and egg sandwiches
Lunch: Sandwiches, crisps, chocolate bars
Mid-afternoon: Crisps
Dinner: Chinese takeaway or spaghetti bolognaise made from a pre-prepared sauce with garlic bread
Snacks: Crisps and chocolate
DIET NOW
Breakfast: Weetabix or porridge with chopped banana
Lunch: Jacket potato, beans and cheese with a mixed salad of lettuce, tomato, cucumber, pepper, onion and celery
Dinner: Roast dinner with vegetables or pasta dish made with chopped vegetables, lean smoked bacon and passata
Snacks: Fat free yogurts, fresh fruit or fresh fruit salad, Alpen Light bars – ends –
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Notes to Editors
- Slimming World is the largest and most advanced slimming organisation in the UK. Margaret Miles-Bramwell (OBE, FRSA) founded the company in 1969 and there are now more than 7,300 groups held weekly nationwide via a network of nearly 3,000 Slimming World trained Consultants.
- 400,000 members attend Slimming World every week and achieve outstanding success.
- Members lose 1.3million stones every year: 25,000 stones every week, 5,000 stones every day, over 208 stones every hour, that’s 3 stone 7lbs lost every minute of every day with Slimming World.
- Slimming World pioneered referral schemes in the UK and actively supports the building of partnerships with the NHS and local authorities to develop effective strategies to manage overweight and obesity in the community. Slimming World works with university researchers and specialists in an active research programme to further knowledge of the causes and treatment of obesity.
- Slimming World’s healthy eating plan, Food OptimisingÒ, and the principles behind Slimming World’s philosophy are based on a deep understanding of the challenges faced by overweight people. Slimming World integrates practical, up-to-date dietary advice with a highly developed support system.
- Slimming World Consultants receive specific training in dietary aspects and the role of physical activity in weight control. The highly developed training focuses on facilitating behaviour change in a group environment, acknowledged by experts as being the most effective way to support long-term weight management.