It's hard to believe now, but just two years ago May Polirer was a size 22 and desperate to change her diet - but struggling to find something that worked.
Tesco worker May found herself huffing and puffing when just walking upstairs and admitted that she didn't like going out with mates as she felt self-conscious.
Many people who have lost weight attribute their success to joining a gym or ditching carbs.
In May's case, however, her weight-loss journey occurred after she started Veganuary - which is ongoing at the moment.
The 44-year-old decided to try out the lifestyle for a month after a chat with a colleague - and has kept it up ever since.
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May dropped an amazing nine stone and can now fit into size eight outfits and says she finds herself 'zooming about'
She says she loved treating herself to takeaway pepperoni pizzas and fried chicken but decided to ditch meat and dairy on New Year's Eve two years ago.
She has stuck to the way of eating ever since and has dropped down to just over nine stone.
Chuffed May says she has gone from huffing and puffing when just walking up stairs to “zooming around all day” in her job as a horticulture expert for Tesco.
May, of Portslade, East Sussex, said: “I was so fat that I didn’t really like going out with friends and the more I stayed in the fatter I got. It was a catch 22 situation.
“I would buy frozen pepperoni pizzas and I’d stuff them down with chocolate and a bottle of Coke. I never ate one biscuit, it was always the entire pack.
“And I loved takeaways - pepperoni pizzas with two sides and a fizzy drink. I loved pepperami, bacon and salami.”
She had chatted to her GP about her weight in the past but wasn’t deemed obese enough to qualify for a gastric band.
Instead, she was sent on an NHS healthy eating course but actually put on weight because she had to go across town to attend - and she’d end up grabbing food on the way.
Another weakness was ice cream milkshakes that she would whip up at home which contained more than 1,000 calories a time.
“I just felt sick, but I had to eat it because it was there. I’d pour washing up liquid over things so I couldn’t eat them and would have to throw them away,” she added.
May has worked in her local Tesco since 2008 and got chatting to her colleague and friend Charlotte Taylor about her vegan lifestyle two years ago.
That January she decided to make a change and went completely plant-based, ditching all meat and dairy.
Veganuary is a month-long crowdfunded challenge that aims to introduce people to a non-animal way of eating - helping animals and the environment by slashing CO2.
May also cut out bread, pasta, and sugar and the weight began to fall off.
She now weighs between nine and nine-and-a-half stone and can fit into size eight clothing.
And she says she is grateful to the month-long vegan event for turning her life around, with son Nathan, 23, super proud of her.
She added: “Plant-based for me has been life-changing. I’m more confident and I really think I will stick with it forever.
“I would tell people to do it. I feel so much more educated. If they can make Galaxy chocolate taste exactly the same without dairy, why do you need milk in it?”
