Since she joined Slimming World in January last year, Eimear Lynch has gone from weighing 13st 7.5lbs to 9st 7.5lbs; and from a size 16-18 to a size 8-10. The 29-year-old Liverpool student was delighted when her young nephew asked: ‘Auntie Eimear, has somebody popped you with a pin?’ However, her journey to weight loss wellness wasn’t quite so accidental – or as easy.
Eimear was a size 12 before enrolling on her media and cultural studies course at John Moores University. ‘My weight just crept up and up,’ she says. ‘I found myself squeezing tightly into size 16 clothes – but bordering on size 18 was the turning point. I was feeling frumpy. I couldn’t wear trendy, fitted clothes and I became really fed up with myself. “I was always a bigger girl but I didn’t realise it. At school, all my friends were conscious of what they ate, but I wasn’t, and it was the same at university where, of course, I drank more too – I was a student!’
Then Eimear started with Slimming World, and the weight began to fall away. ‘It was like I was on a mission, though the fact that you can eat everything, just in moderation, helped,’ she explains. ‘It’s ridiculous how much better I feel, in terms of health and in my confidence. Now I will have porridge for breakfast, with bananas; maybe a jacket potato with beans for lunch and for tea a steak with roasted veg or wedges or a spaghetti bolognese.’
She adds, ‘I used to use jars before, but now I will cook everything from scratch and, for instance, with anything like a cottage pie or a spag bol, I won’t add oil, I will dry-fry the minced beef and the beef will be lean. I am always prepared now so I’m not tempted to snack on rubbish because there’s nothing else or I haven’t time and I always have fruit with me – I eat lots of bananas, apples and watermelon.’
‘It’s ridiculous how much better I feel,’ Eimear smiles. ‘Healthwise, I feel so much better and it has given me such confidence. Before I hated shopping because I would look at clothes and think “well that’s nice, but it won’t look good on me,” now I can just think “oh, I like that”. Now shopping is my favourite thing to do. For the first time this summer I will be able to wear nice summer dresses – I’m planning a whole new wardrobe. I go running now and to aqua running classes – my whole body shape has changed. I feel fantastic, inside and out.’