A SLIMMING group leader who runs a class in Melksham, helping people in the town to slim down each week, reached the finals of a competition for her own inspiring weight loss success
Like all Slimming World consultants Jen, who runs a Slimming World group in Melksham, has lost weight herself with the club and that transformation won her a place in the finals of the Consultant Slimmer of the Year 2013 competition. She was one of just 48 consultants from all across the UK and Ireland to bag a place in the finals.
Jen, 51, joined her local Slimming World group in January 2012 after struggling with her weight since having her children. She knew she had to make a change when she saw a photo taken on a family holiday in November 2011. The photo was of Jen sitting around a table in the sun, watching others enjoying themselves. She wanted to join in, having always wanting to learn to sail as it was something she’d dreamt of, but she felt far too big to fit in a wetsuit and into a sailing dinghy. She felt frumpy and miserable, with her personality suppressed by her size.
So she went along to her local Slimming World group in January 2012 and hasn’t looked back since.
“It’s nothing like diets I’ve tried before, it’s so generous,” she said. “I immediately loved the flexibility of being able to choose from hundreds of healthy foods that I could eat without having to weigh or measure my portions and I’ve never felt hungry.
“All my family enjoy the same meals – they barely even notice they’re eating healthily – and even when we eat out there’s always something I can have and stay on track because Slimming World has helped me to learn how to make the healthiest choices.”
After losing 3 stone 6 IB. and reaching her target weight in November 2012, Jen decided to train to become a Slimming World consultant herself because she wanted to help other people in the community to change their lives in the same way that she had.
She says, “Slimming World only recruits people who have lost weight with the club themselves to become consultants because it’s so important that we have empathy and a real understanding of how it feels to be overweight and to lose weight,
“I was an accounts office manager before being offered the opportunity of becoming a consultant, and it has changed my life completely. I am passionate about helping other people to achieve what I achieved as a member in class.
“The training I received and still receive from Slimming World in both nutrition and the psychology of slimming is absolutely second to none and there are great rewards for building a successful group and helping lots of members. But nothing beats the satisfaction I get from helping people to lose weight and change their lives – I truly believe I have the best job in the world.”
Jen’s weight loss put her in the running for Slimming World’s Consultant Slimmer of the Year 2013 competition, which was open to all of the club’s 3,500 consultants who have lost weight in the last 12 months. She attended the finals at the club’s head office in Derbyshire in June and was presented with a certificate and gift by Slimming World’s Managing Director Caryl Richards. Unfortunately she wasn’t the overall winner of the competition, but she now has a new lease of life, having just completed a five-day intensive sailing course. She can now tick off another dream achieved, something she felt she couldn’t have accomplished in her larger size.
The Melksham Slimming World group is held every Monday at 5.30pm and 7.30pm at Bowerhill Village Hall, Bowerhill. Everyone’s welcome and anyone who’d like to find out more can visit www.slimmingworld.com or call Jen on 01225 765675.
