A woman who used to laugh at people who exercised changed her mind when she was too heavy for her doctor's medical scales - at 23 stone - and ditched 150lbs with diet and running.
IT manager Sarah Day, 45, began really overeating in 2014 when her mum died two years after her husband had left her - soaring to 23st 2lb, wearing a size 26 and with a BMI of 49.1 - twice the maximum healthy number.
Sarah’s wake-up call came in June 2019 when, feeling low and suffering aches and pains, she booked an appointment with her GP.
“I’d been to the doctors a couple of times,” Sarah said. “I just thought it was a bit of blip.”
She added: “But I got on the scales and she couldn’t calculate my weight. They were old-fashioned scales that cut off – and I was too heavy.”
Sarah was referred to a local WW group, and now weighs 12st 8lbs. She said: “I bought a dress in a size 10 the other day, which was just the most incredible feeling.”
Sarah added: “Friends and family are blown away and people don’t recognise me in the street.
“I used to laugh at people who exercised and thought they were stupid – now I run four times a week and exercise almost daily. I’ll never go back to how I was before.”
Sarah says she first started putting on weight in her late teens.
She said: “I’d always been skinny when I was younger, so I never thought I’d put on weight. I’ve always been large – taller and bigger – since I started putting on weight aged 18.
“Before that, I was really skinny. Nothing triggered me to put on weight.”
Sarah also started to go out drinking with friends. She said: “I was a social drinker but I did drink a lot – wine, beer and shots.”
“I didn’t mind being a big girl, and I was quite happy being ‘big Sarah’.”
In 2000, aged 24, Sarah married her now late ex-husband. “I was a size 16 when I got married,” she said. “I just gradually put on the weight by eating what I liked and going out drinking.”
She added: “I ate the wrong things. I ate pizza all the time – I just ate whatever I wanted.”
The couple split in 2012 and tragically, in 2014, Sarah’s mum Nina Day, a catering business owner, died of ovarian cancer aged 68.
Sarah's ex-husband died a few months later.
She said: “I had a horrendous few years, losing my mum and my ex-husband. We were separated but it was just a really rubbish time.
“He was a very big part of my life and it was a shock to go through that all in the same year.”
Sarah said: “Since 2014, I put on a lot of weight. I didn’t really care what I was eating. I’d eat a lot of cheese. I’d eat massive portion sizes of anything I fancied, and I was still drinking a lot at weekends and on nights out.”
After the GP appointment, Sarah took action. She said: “I just came out and I cried. I knew unless I did it for myself no one was going to help me.”
Referred to WW, previously called Weight Watchers, she was offered a free 12-week membership through the NHS.
She said: “It was like-minded people all at different stages and I just thought, I can do this.”
Sarah’s initial goal was to reach 16st and wear a size 18. “I’d have loved to have been a size 12 – but it seemed so far off at that stage,” she explained.
Sarah gradually lost 4st – despite initially refusing to exercise and continuing to enjoy some dinners and nights out with friends.
She said: “I didn’t tell friends and family other than a few close ones, and my boss at work who was really brilliant. Before lockdown. I wasn’t going to exercise – it just wasn’t me.”
She was warned by friends to tone up, or risk baggy folds of loose skin. In February 2020, she joined a gym – discovering that she loved it.
She said: “It was opposite my work and I thought it was a sign. Then, within weeks, they closed them all because of Covid. It took me 45 years to go to a gym and within a month they were shut.
“I didn’t feel out of place and I was really getting into it – so I was gutted.”
In lockdown Sarah began working out on an exercise bike in her dad’s front room and going out for long walks.
When restrictions began to lift, friends joined her on 10km to 15km hikes.
She said: “It was the only way I could see them so everyone just took it in turns to walk with me.”
Giving up alcohol during the lockdown, as her dad is a non-drinker, also helped.
“I was a bit of a party animal before lockdown but it’s a bit weird by yourself,” Sarah confessed.
“I’d made the decision to stop drinking before to help get a bit more weight off, but I wouldn’t have wanted to drink alone during the pandemic.”
Returning to work, after the first lockdown in September 2020, colleagues were “astounded” by her transformation.
“I’d got to 16st but I wasn’t happy. I wanted more,” she said. “I’d got the bug for exercise.”
The summer saw Sarah enjoy personal training sessions, and going back to the gym – as well as hitting a major milestone, as she had lost 8st.
“The compliments just kept coming,” she laughed.
In the autumn, when restrictions resumed, Sarah took up running.
Soon regularly jogging five or six kilometres, four times a week, and exercising six or seven times a week in total, Sarah’s doctor was amazed when she returned for an appointment in January 2021.
She said: “I’d lost just under 11st. The nurse couldn’t believe it. I’m now a size 12 and WW says I’ve lost 10.5 stone. I’ve hit my goal weight and I feel unbelievable.”
Sarah no longer considers her eating habits a diet. “It’s a lifestyle choice – I do have my treats,” she said.
“WW has changed my life. It’s something I will live with forever and I will never, ever go back.”
She added: “I’ve just been on a walking holiday to the Lake District with friends, something I never would have done before.”
Her newfound love of running has benefitted her mental, as well as physical, health. She said: “I love clearing my head. It’s a breath of fresh air and my own thoughts.”
Friends are urging Sarah to get back on the dating scene again. “Apparently now I’m going to be able to get out there and find the man of my dreams!” she said.
“My friends have always wanted me to apply to First Dates and I’ve never had the confidence before. It might be something I’ll think about in the future now – who knows.”
Sarah said: “I smile when I look at myself when I’m cleaning my teeth now. I feel a major sense of achievement and it makes me so happy.”
