A PAIR of Barnsley slimmers who loved to snack on chips and family-sized trifles have shed a massive 24 stones between them.
Former rugby player Steve Gilroy and Sharon Taylor are literally half the people they were since joining Slimming World groups.
Steve tipped the scales at a whopping 30 stones and Sharon weighed in at more than 18st.
Steve, 46, of Baslow Crescent, Dodworth, piled on the weight living on a diet of fatty convenience foods and developed serious health problems. But little over a year after joining the slimming class he’s down to a healthy 16st and has turned his life around.
Sharon, 57, from West Street, Royston, said she feels like a new woman after losing a life-changing ten stones having joined her local group in March last year.
Steve said: “I wasn’t sure of my proper weight to start with because the scales that I got weighed on read 29st 10lbs before saying ‘error’ but I was above 30st.
“I’ve gone from pushing a 58in waist trouser to currently being in a pair of 36in waist trousers.
“I feel absolutely unbelievably happy. I get a buzz from the comments from people. It’s mind blowing.”
A typical lunch for Steve would see him call at a supermarket and buy a family-sized trifle to eat with a big sandwich, chicken strips and sausage rolls. Then he was having biscuits with cups of tea and large bags of crisps if he was peckish on the drive home from work.
Now he sticks to smaller portions and a better diet - such as rice cakes with cottage cheese and tomatoes for lunch - topped up with plenty of fresh fruit. And he’s not been to the chippy for almost 18 months.
“I have taken it on board that it’s either live or die,” said Steve.
“I had health problems, gout, and I was taking tablets for that. I had high blood pressure and the doctor told me I was borderline diabetic and he was surprised and concerned it hadn’t got that far yet. I had sleep apnoea which is where you stop breathing at night and the snoring was getting unbearable to my wife.
“The weight was causing the problems.”
Christine Melhuish, who runsthe class, said Steve is an inspiration. “He is a really determined person,” she said. “He is a big motivator in the group and he’s a lovely chap. He has been brilliant.”
For Sharon, it is the change on the inside that’s been the greatest, as she is happier, healthier and much more confident. She has dropped nine dress sizes, going from a 28 to a trim eight or ten.
She follows an eating plan and has swapped a chippy tea for healthy meals like spaghetti bolognese. She is also more active now and regularly walks the dog and attends a dance fit class each week.
She said: “My weight impacted on so many aspects of my life from struggling to find clothes that I like to fit, to not being able to do simple tasks without feeling tired and getting out of breath.
“Before I lost my weight I hated having photos taken and whenever I saw photos of myself I knew that my smile wasn’t real - yet now I’m beaming.”
Her weight was also putting a huge strain on her health as she suffered badly with anxiety and did not like going to crowded places. She said walking through the doors to the slimming group was one of the hardest things she’s ever done as she was embarrassed about her size and scared she might be the biggest person there.
But since then she’s made many friends at the group and couldn’t have dropped the pounds without their support.
She said: “They’ve helped me with recipes and tips and if I was ever struggling they were always there to remind me why I had wanted to lose weight in the first place and how far I had come since joining.”
Shelley Dickinson, who runs the Royston group, said: “The changes we’ve seen in Sharon are amazing and I hope her success story will inspire other people in Barnsley.”
