‘Big Carole’ loses 19st 10lb after doc’s ‘Diet or Die’ warning!

A mum who weighed nearly 30st and was warned by her doctor that she could be dead within two years has lost two-thirds of her body weight to be named Slimming World’s Woman of the Year 2011.

At her heaviest Carole Wright, 54, from Southport, was virtually housebound – only leaving her home four times in nine months – and the simplest of tasks, from putting on her own shoes to loading the washing machine, were impossible.

Now Carole is unrecognisable after losing 19st 10lbs and 27 inches from her waist and dropping 12 dress sizes, from a size 34 to a 10, in just over two years with the help of her local Slimming World group.

Always known as ‘Big Carole’, Carole weighed 11lb at birth and around 20st throughout her adult life. She says: “I was called names as a child and as an adult. Strangers in the street would make rude comments and the kids next door would shout abuse when I was hanging out the washing. I tried to lose weight on my own but within days I’d be back to eating unhealthily.”

Soon after her 50th birthday in 2007, a crippling knee injury – caused by her weight – forced Carole to quit working and she gained nearly 10st in just a few short years. She says: “I couldn’t do anything for myself anymore. I couldn’t stand to peel potatoes or go upstairs without crawling on all fours. I relied on my asthma inhaler constantly and my son Jonathan, who’s now 15, had to help around the house. All I ever did was watch television or sit on the computer. It got to the stage where I wasn’t only trapped inside the house, I was trapped in my own body too and I couldn’t see a way out.”

Between January and September 2009 Carole left the house just four times. She attended two doctor’s appointments and on one occasion was delivered a shock warning by her GP: “He said, ‘If you don’t do something about your weight, you’re going to be dead in two years.’ It was terrifying to hear but I didn’t know where to go for help.”

It was her fourth trip, to a barbecue in August 2009, that was the final straw for Carole: “I had to sit on a wall for fear of breaking one of the plastic garden chairs and felt so uncomfortable that after just two hours I begged my friends Chrissy and Avril to take me home. On the way back in the car, I confessed how desperate I felt and Chrissy asked if I fancied joining a slimming club with her.”

The friends joined their local Slimming World group in Birkdale in September 2009 and Carole weighed in at 29st 10lb. She says: “Weighing almost 30st was a huge shock and I burst into tears. That was hard, but the group was so instantly supportive – as soon as they saw my tears they all gave me hugs and words of encouragement. They gave me the confidence to give it a go. Since then they’ve become like family to me. They’ve supported me all the way through my journey.”

Carole began following Slimming World’s Food Optimising plan, swapping rounds of bread and butter with every meal, nightly bottles of red wine and crisps and chocolate for healthy home-cooked meals like lamb curry and cottage pie. She lost a stone in her first week and then a stone a month for the next year. “What I love most about Slimming World is that you don’t have to be embarrassed about loving food – it’s not a diet, it’s a way of life and I eat more now than I ever did. I don’t skip breakfast anymore, I enjoy big filling meals and snack on fruit or fat free yogurts when I’m hungry.”

After she’d lost 13st, Carole decided to try being more active. Her husband Steve bought her a bike and she took her son swimming for the first time in his life. She says: “After we left the pool Jonathan said, ‘Mum, that was the first time we’ve ever done anything together.’ It broke my heart because I realised how much I’d missed out on. Now we do loads of things together.”

Carole adds: “The last time I weighed 10st I was 10-years-old! My life is completely different from two years ago. I’ve got a job in a sandwich shop so I’m talking to customers and on my feet all day. I don’t have pain in my knees anymore and I haven’t used my inhaler for over a year. I can do all of the little things everyone else takes for granted like putting my own shoes on, painting my toe nails and walking up stairs – in fact, I run up them now!

“For the first time in my life I feel normal and it’s a great feeling. Slimming World has not only given me my life back, it’s saved my life because I know if I hadn’t lost weight I’d have been dead by now. My only regret is that I didn’t do it 35 years ago, but to make up for lost time I plan to grow old disgracefully!”

FACT FILE
Name: Carole Wright
Age: 54
Starting weight: 29st 10lb/416lb/189kg
Current weight: 10st/140lb/64kg
Weight loss: 19st 10lb/276lb/125kg
Waist before: 56in/142.2cm
Waist now: 29in/73.7cm
Height: 5ft 3in/1.6m
Joining date: 3/9/2009
Group: Birkdale group run by Pam Crossen

Diet before

Breakfast: None

Lunch: None

Dinner:: Pork or lamb chops, buttery mash with baked beans and four rounds of bread and butter

Snacks: Graze all night on two or three packets or crisps, chocolate, a Cup a Soup with bread and butter, a bottle of red wine and fried egg butties with mayo

TYPICAL DAY NOW

Breakfast: Full English breakfast with grilled lean bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms, eggs fried in low calorie cooking spray and baked beans followed by cereal and fruit or a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich on wholemeal bread

Lunch: Tuna or ham salad with a cup of homemade vegetable soup

Mid-afternoon: Fresh fruit or fat free yogurt

Dinner: Homemade curry with rice or cottage pie with lots of vegetables.

Snacks: Fresh berries stirred into fat free natural yogurt, crispbreads spread with light soft cheese and topped with sliced tomato, mixed salad and homemade dips and a vodka and slimline tonic or two at weekends.

Image downloads

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For further information or images (including food images to accompany Carole’s Slimming World ‘after’ menu) please contact the Slimming World press office on 01773 546101, 01773 546146 or 07920 799106 or email: public.relations@slimming-world.com

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 8,000 groups held weekly nationwide via a network of more than 3,000 Slimming World trained Consultants.
• 400,000 members attend Slimming World every week and achieve outstanding success.
• 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 Optimising®, 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.
• In line with NICE (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence), Slimming World members set their own realistic target weights and Slimming World recommends a healthy weight loss of 1-2lbs (0.5-1kg) a week, although people with a lot of weight to lose could see larger weight losses especially in their first weeks of slimming.
• To find out more about Slimming World visit www.slimmingworld.com or call 0844 897 8000.