TV picture editor Margaret Morrison is no stranger to successful slimming.
Margaret lost weight with Scottish Slimmers and managed to reach her Target weight... then found herself back to square one and weighing more than 22 stone.
‘I managed to maintain my weight loss for a couple of years,’ says Margaret, originally from Lewis. ‘But gradually the weight crept back on. A lot of things changed in my life in quick succession - I changed jobs, moved to a different city and found it difficult to maintain the routine that worked for me before.'
‘I kept meaning to do something about it but never did. I knew to lose the weight again it was going to be a long job and I never seemed to have the time to do anything about it. I knew I could do it once I’d made up my mind to go for it – it was just a question of when.’
With six weeks off before starting her new job, Margaret had the time to focus on getting back to her healthy ways and decided the time was right.
‘When you are very overweight, you have to be in the right mindset to start and then to succeed,’ explains Margaret, ‘having lost a lot of weight once before, I knew just how big of a job I had in front of me.'
‘It's one thing to know you need to lose weight but when you need to lose as much weight as I did, it's quite another thing. My friends and colleagues have been incredibly supportive and now - 11stone 7lbs lighter - I’m quite literally half the woman I was!’
‘Physically I’m so much better off, I can’t believe I waited this long to feel this good,’ she laughs. 'I live in a top floor flat and now dash up the stairs with heavy shopping bags, whereas before it was a real struggle. I walk everywhere now and my joints are no longer painful.’
After years of struggling to find nice clothes in a size 28, Margaret is enjoying clothes shopping for the first time in years and it’s hard to imagine this glamorous journalist looking any other way.
‘Don’t get me wrong, I was the life and soul of the party, always the last woman standing, that was me but it’s all the little things that make a difference. Not needing to take painkillers if I was going shopping or going to a concert; not needing the extender belt on an aircraft – the list is endless.'
‘Now I am in control of my life. I eat much better, I still count my Checks and usually save my indulgences for the weekend. I am thoroughly lacking in self-discipline but if I can do it anyone can do it!’