A Chinese takeaway fan has dropped three dress sizes and saved herself £1,820 after she started to make 'fakeaways' at home instead of ordering in.
Tanya Friel, 26, was ordering a takeaway every weekend, which left her fearing for her health and struggling to squeeze into a size 18 dress.
But a year ago, she pledged to ditch the takeaways and learnt to cook them at home herself, launching instagram account Tanya's Journey to keep herself honest.
Tanya, from Redditch, Worcestershire, started making a variety of Chinese, Indian, Thai, Pizza and Mexican fakeaways at home to satisfy her cravings.
Tanya's favourite fakeaway to make is a Chinese which only has 505 calories in per portion; a big difference to the staggering 2,242 calories in the takeaway version of her meal.
Tanya, who lives at home with her partner, said: "When I was diagnosed, I knew that I needed to lose weight but I was in that much pain with the illness that I couldn't walk or do any exercise.
"It got to the stage where I kept piling on the weight, so I joined Slimming World last September as I was determined to finally lose this weight I had put on.
"I used to have a takeaway every weekend and sometimes during the week as well so swapping them out for fakeaways has not only helped me lose weight, it's helped me save a lot of money.
"I've always loved to cook, and I use my Instagram account to share my recipes and it's given me an accountability to lose weight every week.
"My motto is 'ditch the bread' so I will always try and substitute bread out of my diet whether that's swapping burgers for lettuce or making my own egg wraps.
"I had a fear of not actually losing weight at the beginning but now I can see a difference, I feel more comfortable with sharing my before pictures and my partner, family and friends are extremely supportive.
"I used to wear baggy clothes to cover everything up but now I like to dress up and I feel a lot more confident than I did this time last year.
"I knew that I didn't have an excuse not to lose weight and now I've influenced friends and family to start to use some of my recipes!"
Calorie counts compared - Homemade vs takeaway:
- Salt and chilli chips: homemade 96, takeaway 910
- Egg fried rice: homemade 130, takeaway 365
- Honey and chilli chicken: homemade 200, takeaway 649
- Noodles: homemade 60, takeaway 147
- Curry sauce: homemade 19, takeaway 171
