Fashion and Beauty: There is no quick fix for healthy weight loss says Charlotte Ryman

Jan 21 2010 by Hilarie Stelfox, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

“I’d always battled a bit with my weight but when I had Daniel I put him first – and then Joshua came along four years later,” she explained.

Charlotte’s weakness was comfort food and stodge: “I’d think nothing of having pie and peas for my lunch and I’d be eating man-sized portions. I never really had a sweet tooth but portion sizes were definitely an issue.”

However, her weight really rocketed into the clinically obese category after her daughter Lily, six, arrived. Even today Charlotte is unwilling to reveal exactly how much she weighed.

“I got post-natal depression and I really let myself go. The weight piled on but it wasn’t until I started to feel better that I was able to join a slimming club. By that time I was at my biggest,” she said.

Charlotte went along to Dot’s class at Shepley Methodist Church and says it was looking at her wedding photographs, taken two years before, that gave her the final push.

“I was four and a half months pregnant when we got married but even so I looked awful,” she said.

“My husband Tim was really good about my weight gain. He loved me regardless and has been fantastic at supporting me.

“I’m now 12 lbs off my goal weight and when I get there I want us to renew our wedding vows. I’m going to wear a proper wedding dress for the photographs,” she added.

Because she carried around so much weight, Charlotte says she used to suffer from chronic back ache and felt “hot and sweaty” a lot of the time.

Today she goes walking or jogging three times a week and has no health problems at all.

“I feel 10 years younger,” she said.

Charlotte says that even when she achieves her goal weight she’ll still attend Weight Watchers meetings. She’s struggled too long and hard to allow herself to go back to her old ways and believes that she benefits enormously from the support of fellow slimmers.

“I get such inspiration from other members of the group. Some people think it’s a quick fix and it’s not,” she explained.

“But it is worth it. I bought my first pair of size 14 jeans from Next and I did a little dance in the changing rooms because I could never have bought anything from there before.”